On Thursday, the Toledo City Plan Commission will be asked to violate its recently adopted municipal master plan and rezone some of Notre Dame Academy at Secor Road and Monroe Street from residential to commercial for a Kroger’s super store. In the best interest of the long-term economic vitality of Toledo, this rezoning must be denied.
Rezoning this property would further depress the investment climate of Toledo. From Ohio to California, no investor in the nation will take a chance on Toledo as long as there’s a very real prospect that the city will ignore its adopted plan and rezone acreage right across the street for a competitor.
Every new acre of commercial land diminishes the value of other properties in Toledo’s already seriously saturated commercial-land market, as evidenced by the shocking number of abandoned and decaying shopping centers across the city.
An adopted master plan provides stability, predictability, and calm in the often chaotic world of economic development. Planning discipline, if practiced by the Toledo Plan Commission and City Council, will attract investors who seek municipalities that adopt and maintain high standards.
A contemporary master plan is a promise to the citizens of Toledo of a better future. Short-sighted zone changes break that promise to the citizens, and discourage prospective investors. This proposed rezoning will only result in yet another abandoned civic eyesore right down the street.
MICHAEL JOHN YOUNG
Co-chair, San Diego Environment and Design Council, and former head of long-range planning for the Toledo Plan Commission
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Gun laws would save many lives
When gun lovers spew this kind of nonsense, I get incensed (Jan. 6, ‘‘New laws won’t reduce killing”).
How I wish there were no killings, but at this moment in our evolution, that is an unrealistic dream. And because of this reality, it takes very little common sense to understand that the murder rate would change and would go down if the weapons available were knives, machetes, and baseball bats instead of automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
I myself was in love with guns when I was a kid. I loved watching the Cartwrights, Wyatt Earp, and Annie Oakley blaze away at the bad guys.
How much common sense does it take to realize that significant gun control is our only salvation?
MARY BOYER
Malcolm Road
Abortion should not be a choice
The Jan. 8 letter titled “Government should not stop abortions” states that a woman should have the right to an abortion if she can’t take care of the child.
If she can’t take care of the child, she shouldn’t have sexual relations. You don’t get pregnant by not washing your hands, like you do with the flu or a cold. You get pregnant by making a conscious “choice” to have sexual relations that may result in a pregnancy.
Once you make that choice, you don’t have the right to murder the baby that results from that choice.
DONALD FELLER
Maumee
First Published January 11, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
