Fleet Farm Road: Dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria

Oh my goodness.

I've been listening to the hysterical scaremongering going on tonight over the proposed little road that would go behind Mills Fleet Farm in Brooklyn Park.

We've heard that building this road is going to:

- Decrease local property values 23% (further than has already occurred in recent years)
- Massive exhaust to the point neighbors wouldn't be able to enjoy their decks
- The loss of "wild life" - "we've spotted deer..." (Deer in a busy commercial area is good?)
- The noise will force people to abandon their homes
- We won't buy another house in Brooklyn Park
- It will cause our credit to suffer and damage us forever.
- This will damage us, it will "wipe us out".
- The quality of life will be destroyed.
- The water run off will flood our basements.
- The homes will be uninhabitable.
- Building roads can cause the loss of ozone and cause the destruction of the Earth

All that from building a half mile bypass road behind Fleet Farm.

With the building of the new Highway 81/Highway 169 "Devils triangle" bridges, southbound traffic has been using the Fleet Farm parking lot to get through instead of going through all the long highway lights and construction. The city, along with MNDOT and Fleet Farm, have proposed building a road where a road has been slated to go for years. I've seen maps with a road going here for at least ten years. It's not a suddenly proposed road.

I'm hearing one guy saying "we moved here without there being a road there". Well, so? What's the point? Conditions change and it's a big, open field.

I've got no problem with putting up some bushes or trees for screening, but this road is needed. Desperately. My guess is that every one of these people has used the Fleet Farm - private property - to cut through. Their alternative is driving out to W. Broadway, going to Brooklyn Blvd, and turning back up Jolly Lane. There's no way they've been doing that.

In essence, this is the biggest "NIMBY" effort we've seen in years. The road needs to be built, property values aren't going to go down because of any road (it's not going IN your yards), and the Earth really will not burn to a crisp because of a simple road.

Property values have gone down already. Homes are not selling. But people, this isn't because some road may be built, it's because of the stupid laws Democrats created making loans too easy.

The solution these people seem to want is to building the road down the middle aisle inside the store.

One of the most bizarre ideas was Councilmember Jeanette Meyer suggesting that all the eastern exits from Fleet Farm being closed, forcing all customers to enter and exit onto 85th Ave. She tried to defend her proposal by saying Menards "only has access to Hwy 81". Huh? Menards has one entrance on 81, and TWO on 79th Ave. She doesn't even know her own district.

The Fleet Farm representative, a person who knows his business, said that Meyer's proposal would "close the store". She didn't seem concerned and didn't believe him. Apparently now she's also a traffic engineer and marketing professional.

The fact is, the property behind Fleet Farm is zoned Business. This means there would be a road there anyway at some point. The city council has turned down several "down zoning" attempts for homes and churches.

A townhome development was proposed in 2005 with the exact same road alignment. No one objected then. Why? Because it's likely a couple of people decided this time to stir up neighbors with a lot of exaggerated non-sense like I've listed.

The fact is, Fleet Farm is willing to pay $125,000 for the safety of their employees and customers. I, for one, applaud them for it. So should you.

In the end, the council voted it down 4-3 (Crema, Lunde, Gates, Trepanier). With this vote they have decided that Fleet Farm employees and customers are not valued, their safety is not important, and that the false arguments used to scare people were valid. Leadership requires doing the right thing in the face of illogical opposition. Sadly four of our council members failed in their leadership roles tonight. If someone (more) should be hurt in the FF parking lot these people will be held partially responsible.