News

Driscoll: Vote against Lowe's was a missed opportunity

By Chris Cassidy
STAFF WRITER
Published: December 3, 2008

SALEM — A plan to build a new Lowe's faces a murky future after city councilors rejected a zoning change Monday night to allow the home improvement chain to move into the city.

The project — a new Lowe's and a reconstructed Walmart on Highland Avenue by the Lynn line — was expected to bring between $200,000 and $350,000 in new tax revenue and add between 100 and 200 new jobs. But it also required two-thirds of the City Council to approve a zoning change that could have had implications for at least eight other large properties zoned as business parks throughout the city.

Yesterday, a disappointed Mayor Kim Driscoll wasn't exactly optimistic about the project's chances of moving forward without the zoning change.

"We have to find out if Lowe's is still interested, in this economy, in investing $40 million to $50 million in a new store," Driscoll said. "It's just unfortunate. When you have an opportunity like this, you have to grab it. We're certainly not giving up, but I think it makes it a heck of a lot harder."

It's also unclear whether Walmart will still reconstruct its store since it was sharing some of its costs with Lowe's, Driscoll said.

"Most communities would welcome projects like this with open arms," she said.

The zoning change would have essentially allowed developers to build a mixture of businesses and residences or a blend of single- and multiple-family homes on land specifically zoned for large business parks.

Critics backed the Lowe's plan but balked at the zoning change, which would have also altered the zoning for dozens of other large business parks, including nine with redevelopment potential.

The proposal lost by one vote.

"I was the swing vote. I knew it," said Councilor-at-large Steve Pinto, who announced he was still undecided shortly before the vote. "I knew the bull's-eye was right on my forehead. I spoke with the mayor (Monday). She wanted me to commit, and I couldn't. I was on the fence until the city clerk called my name, and I went with my gut."

Pinto said he rejected the zoning change because, like Ward 6 Councilor Paul Prevey, he held concerns about the potential effects it would have on the abandoned Salem Oil & Grease property, considered a prime candidate for redevelopment.

He also said he preferred a last-minute plan from Council President Michael Sosnowski to extend the so-called business highway district to include the Lowe's property, rather than pass a zoning change affecting properties across the city.

"I don't want to be the guy that shoots down a $200,000-a-year, 100-job business coming into the city," Pinto said. "It wasn't easy. In any economy to get something like this in the city is big. I just felt, to change 200 acres of land, it wasn't easy for me to digest."

Another aspect of the deal was a potential land swap between Lowe's and the city to install a water tower to alleviate water pressure issues for nearby neighbors.

The city owns a small tract of land where the Lowe's parking lot would have been. The city would have given up that land in exchange for land in the back of the building to construct the water tower, and Lowe's would have paid for delays and extra costs associated with relocating it, Driscoll said.

But with no pending land swap, the city must now decide whether to delay the water tower — a project that's been in the works since the 1960s — or install it, which would obstruct the Lowe's project if it ever got off the ground again.

"If the water tank goes in, then the (Lowe's plan) would be dead," said City Councilor Jerry Ryan of Ward 4, where the project would have been constructed.

A Lowe's spokesman declined to comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, Driscoll said the city would explore its options with Lowe's and Walmart, but with a gloomy economy and the complicated configuration of the site (including ledge and the land swap), her expectations were lowered yesterday.

"Delays are expensive in this business," Driscoll said. "We'll see where it heads. I am hopeful we can salvage something together, but this is a lost opportunity not just for tax dollars but for jobs."

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salem news.com.