A poorly-advised plan to locate a new strip mall development, anchored by a second city supermarket on property owned by Little Falls a mile and a half from its Downtown center, has drawn the ire of a local community group and the assistance of Empire State Future in fighting the project. The city council recently voted unanimously to approve a zoning change to allow the sprawl development, although local merchants objected, citing the lack of a current master plan that addresses future growth projections and the damaging effect the new store would have on Downtown.
Executive Director Peter Fleischer spoke recently to a gathering of Main Street 1st, a group formed to challenge the new development on the grounds it would do great harm to the existing Downtown mercantile establishments in the only city in Herkimer County (Little Falls has a population of less than 5,000 people). He said the plan was a classic example of sprawl without growth that could easily replicate the history of dozens of similar projects in Upstate New York cities - places where new strip malls were approved as community saviors, only to fail themselves in 10 years after first draining the vitality out of previously existing commercial centers.
Main Street 1st plans further efforts at educating municipal officials and organizing community support for their vision of an improved downtown using whatever funds would have been appropriated to pay for city or Industrial Development Agency outlays to attract and build the new development. They maintain that existing "Big M" supermarkets in both Little Falls and nearby Dodgeville will almost certainly close due to the impact of a new chain store entering the market.
For coverage of the issue and the meeting in the Mohawk Valley Express go to: http://www.mohawkvalley.com/MOVX110509/pageflip.html
