From John J. Gessner:
The following is a letter to the editor I wrote to the Aegis in response to their editorial of Wednesday April 13,2011 about the rumored construction of a new Wal Mart store in Bel Air. So far, the Aegis has refused to print my letter. I thought you might be interested to read it.
April 13, 2011
VIA FACSIMILE (410-638-1060)
The Editor
The Aegis
10 N Hays St
Bel Air, MD 21014
Dear Sir:
I completely agree with your statement in the editorial entitled, “A business decision” that appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Aegis that it is hard to blame Walmart for considering a new store on land with proper zoning for a new store. I also agree with you that, assuming Walmart does proceed with such a project, it should be allowed to build the new store at that location.
However, I was both amused and disappointed by your statement lamenting a failure of land use planning that prevented a White Marsh style shopping destination from being developed at the Walmart-BJ/s Target-Lowe’s complex in Abingdon, and if such a project had been built the potential problems associated with a Walmart at Plumtree Road and Route 924 could have been avoided.
My former partner, Frank Hertsch, and I were the land use attorneys who tried 20 years or so ago to obtain approvals for just such a White Marsh style shopping destination in Abingdon, the Windsor Mall. We argued then that allowing Windsor Mall to be constructed would provide exactly the type of project that your editorial now supports. It is important to note that at that time, our clients agreed to perform tens of millions of dollars of improvements to the Route 24 I-95 interchange at their cost and expense. Those same improvements are now being constructed 20 years later at taxpayer expense.
As I recall, one of the main opponents of the Windsor Mall project was the Aegis. What a shame that the Aegis of 20 years ago didn’t have the same insight into land use planning that the present Aegis editorial board apparently now has. You are exactly right. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Sincerely,
John J. Gessner
These land use debates seem to be conducted backwards. Zoning for this area was done about 8 years ago. If the proposed project is a conforming use the debate is over. I don’t remember any real dissent about the original zoning.
Patterson Mill school was not here 20 years ago. Population density now present was not there 20 years ago.
This Walmart will be a travesty.
Mr. Gessner,
You state that your clients were willing to perform 10’s of millions of dollars in road improvements; that your clients could have taken care of twenty years ago what the tax payers are responsible for now for road improvements at the 24/924/I-95 interchange. Your statements are erroneous. Even twenty years ago you could not have built an overpass for 10’s of millions dollars; this project requires 100’s of millions of dollars. Twenty years ago the developments along South Tollgate did not exist. You are using facts in evidence twenty years ago to make your case in 2011. It appears the Aegis did not print your correspondence because the information is moot. You sound like a bitter old man that lost a fight twenty years ago and have been unable to let go of the resentment and anger. Please move on.
The only resentment and the anger should be directed toward the people who fought the plan that Mr. Gessner’s clients proposed, and it should be felt by the local residents who were not a part of the fight but have to live with the results.
He doesn’t sound at all like a bitter old man, but rather like a person who would like the local paper to accurately report that his client’s proposal would, in fact, have been much more beneficial to the area than what is there now, which the Aegis disputed then and still fails to acknowledge today.
the reason the Aegis didn’t print the article might be because it ceased to be a decent paper the day the day the Sun bought it out.besides glessner’s article is too logical and forthright to be published in those once-respectable pages.the mall could have been built, the roads provided for, and the ensuant demise of the harford mall (and adverse impact on whitemarsh mall)would have proceded.you sir sound quite pleased with the monstrosity that is now the 24/924 corridor, happy with the attendant congestion and overdevelopment, and very satisfied with the shallow, irrelevant kitty-box-liner that the aegis has now become.
To the comment by MACG
…another perfect example of someone with absolutely NO CLUE about Harford County. We knew having people from out of the area could bring problems, but we were hoping for the “smart ones.”
If this guy had a clue, he’d know that Gessner is stating a very accurate set of facts…and yet again..another case of others moving to Harford County and then COMPLAINING because it’s crowded. How did it get that way? LOL
Those who wanted to build the Windsor Mall offered to built direct access ramps from I-95 into the mall. One major objection to the project was to protect Harford Mall from either becoming a ghost town or mall filled with low rent stores. The limited access and egress to the current Wal Mart area is certainly a factor in their considering a move to BelAir. Blame the then County Council for the current problems.
Walmart is already a done deal. It’s too late to stop the project now. By the time this came to light, this deal was done. It’s a shame that the original Windsor project did not succeed. Now we will have more empty businesses when Walmart moves and the theater also move.
I doubt the theater will move, new cinemas are almost unheard of because there is so little money to make from the endeavor. Never mind that Regal was literally the LAST new theater to be built in the county.
I betcha John Gessner is involved in the Walmart project on way or another. After all that’s what his law practice does.
Residents should learn from the lessons of 20 years ago. People thought they “won” when they stopped a mall for which planners could impose conditions and instead they were stuck with the big box nightmare. What Walmart wants Walmart gets. Instead of fighting a battle sure to be lost, people should work to make sure that the County forces Walmart to do whatever can be required within the current zoning. These requirements can include safe traffic entrances and environmental compliance.
you are so right. the original mall plan was petioned to referendum and the voters knocked it down. so instead of a mall with its own access and egress to I95 we now have the present nightmare. who won? wallymart of course. to the cynic it might look like the mall was trashed 1)to preserve the dying harford mall and 2)well, look who is the prime tenant at the site now. nuff said. just like we were told that rt 24 (remember when there wasn’t one?)was simply a bypass to belair to relieve stress on 924 (which then was originally rt 24 – remember that?) and there would be commercial contruction along its route. we were all hornswaggled. the council, all zoning nabobs – the whole of cnty govt put one over on us. then – as now – they were firmly in the grip of the contruction industry so that is why we have the congestion we have now.we were lied to two decades ago just as we are being lied to today. crooked/corrupt politics knows no time line. we build backyards right up to the roadbeds and we build roads right up to to the property lines. so is a “planning/zoning” (ha!) agency supposed to prevent this bloat? yeah right. in harford county the politically well-connected developers get what they want and the council/zoning et al just roll over and play dead. the fat cats get fatter, the people pick up the tab, and the politicians are laughing (at us) until they piss their pants. and as the seasonal backups at the festival/wallymart get worse, look to “your” county coucil and exec. proof positive that when it comes to the almighty dollar republicans aren’t a damn bit different than democrats.
small minded people in HC would like to have the conveniences of shopping, malls and entertainment, but just not anywhere near their mcmansions. the development envelope as it stands constricts commerce, traffic and imposses the current infrastructure to capacity issues that will lead to failure in the very near future as HC continues to grow and take up every precious open space within the development envelope limits. The current zoning and planning is constricted to Rte 40 to Rte24 and Rte 924 as a result traffic jams up because there is only one exit route to I95. The county should consider alternative exit routes to Rte 152 by way of Singer Road as well as expanding Rte22 towards Aberdeen.
Gessner is absolutely correct. Those of us who were in the county then remember it well. Many rumors abounded at the time, among them something about an agreement with Weis Markets, (where are they today?), and the ever present rumor that Ralph Klein didn’t want it. For years, rumors persisted that Klein stopped (and did openly lobby against) other grocery stores coming to the county. Is is true. Who knows? When you live in a growing area like Harford County you have two choices, you will get what you get, or you will get what you want. Getting what you want takes planning. Go figure. Hertsch and Gessner had this figured out twenty years ago. Pretty simple. It really is!