Building the project as proposed would establish a key precedent that would make it harder to contain height on other block fronts along the strip if the municipality goes ahead with its own project. How could they then turn around and say it’s only good if they are the ones proposing it? … And the resulting asymmetry at the centre of the town, with the mall across, will read as a town without a coherent vision, mismanaged, and so this branding would carry, not to its advantage. 

This in turn could bring about speculation along the strip with land assembly and ‘block busting’ activities that would jeopardize the livelihood of traditional, long-established local, small business. This is no anodyne threat: it’s been seen before all over of North America.  We ended up with a patchwork of successful parcels (the ‘haves’) and others that didn’t make it (the parking lots) with defunct business. Typical case study, I am sure you could find some in Australia. 

Michel Caron