Merion Village Association members delayed voting to support a Starbucks proposed for the southeast corner of Front Street and Greenlawn Avenue. Instead, they put the recommendation in the hands of member Ken Fultz, who will discuss the matter further with Starbucks representatives….
The article in This Week News by the Columbus Dispatch goes on to say…
Despite their concerns over traffic, an informal show of hands indicated that about half of the MVA members at the meeting would approve the plan, as long as Starbucks pays for a “Welcome to Merion Village” sign for the corner.
I would have to label this as blatant pandering. If traffic is an issue because of location, then define it as such and help solve the problem. Personally, I’d be unlikely to visit this Starbucks location because I’d play hell trying to get in and out of there.
Wouldn’t it be nicer walk to a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks or otherwise, somewhere in the neighborhood? There is available retail space on Thurman, High Street, Parsons as well as vacant land for sale along 4th. Starbucks, however, is attracted to the traffic counts at Greenlawn.
A sign demarcating Merion Village isn’t going to solve a traffic problem and neighborhoods are not defined by a sign in someone else’s front yard.
1 response so far ↓
Bob Leighty // 18 November, 2007 at 11:07 am
We have had several meetings with the developers, including one at our November Merion Village Association general meeting, which triggered the newspaper article. 99% of the discussion at the meeting was about traffic flow, for both vehicles and pedestrians, and to a lesser extent parking. The only reason we held off voting that night was that the developer’s lawyer couldn’t answer all of the questions that neighborhood residents had about traffic flow, so we asked our zoning chair, our most experienced person in this area, to work with the developer and the City to make sure that we have the best design possible. Our delay in voting had NOTHING to do with the sign question. The sign idea was indeed mentioned, but it was a very small part of the discussion. The article’s headline implied that the sign would be a deal-breaker, and that simply isn’t true. The issue here is, this is already a congested spot, especially in the morning rush, and we want to make sure that we work out the best solution possible if this new Starbucks is indeed going to be built.
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