I haven’t felt this cheered by a headline since Biscuit Run suddenly turned from a development-to-be into a future state park. Walmart is not building on the Wilderness battlefield after all! Sound the bugles!
Development marches on, but it feels good to know that this site will not go under the bulldozers, will not be paved, will not host the buying and selling of out-of-state produce and out-of-country plastic doodads.
That’ll all be happening somewhere else along the Rt. 3 corridor, according to Walmart’s new plans. In the end, it may be a wash environmentally. (Plenty of Orange County citizens were, in fact, outspokenly in favor of a Walmart, so it seems their wishes will be honored.)
But I’m glad to see that it’s possible for the community to take notice of a piece of land and speak out loudly enough, for long enough, to turn away development there. In this case, it was history that provided the rallying cry. In another case, it might be a more ecological concern.
Interestingly, Walmart still plans to buy the site. It’ll be intriguing to keep an eye on what they do with it, if anything. State park?