BERKS REDEVELOPMENT AS RUN AMUCK IN THIS COUNTY!

I’m not really sure what they’ve done in your area. Let me tell you what they’re doing here in Fleetwood. This hard working small business and large factory community is being turned upside down. The Fleetwood Borough along with Berks Redevelopment Authority have devised a plan, but I don’t think it was carefully thought out. First the Borough really wants to develop the old Garden State Tannery spot which sits right behind Main Street, that’s perfectly understandable. But instead of utilizing that space to it’s once pristine potential, they are going to slap a strip mall in there. Please, this is not what we need. There’s a strip mall right down the road that hasn’t been filled to capacity yet. There’s also commercial space for lease right on Main Street which 2 businesses already flopped in.
They also never did anything for 5 years or more about the property that sits next to Homer’s Bar. It was gutted by fire a long time ago and sat there as an eyesore in the middle of Main Street. The building finally has had siding and “for sale” signs put on it just last week. That’s why nobody can understand how they can BLIGHT Fleetwood Pizza to create a walkway to the strip mall. I am the wife of the owner of Fleetwood Pizza. I think this is the most ridiculous idea yet. They even want to create a walkway where our thriving business stands before they even have anything built to walk to, hah!
Remember the “Road to Nowhere”? Get ready Berks county will have a “Walkway to Nowhere” because that land behind Main Street could take a very long time to develop, it will even go through more hands till it does. Of all the things that don’t make sense to me about this whole plan, putting us first on the list for demolishing is just plain stupid! I think the line “build it and they will come” is something they are seeing through rose colored glasses and they need to take them off and see what’s really here. We don’t have a river running through our town or a college sitting in it. We have a train and it goes through here approximately 12-14 times a day. The plan will be directing traffic into this hassle and all just so it has to pass this new strip mall of empty stores. I think developing this area is a good idea but this plan doesn’t make any sense to anyone except those who created it, voted on it and are developing it. They don’t even have all the funding for this plan and they lost any chance for more government funding because they sold that GST property to a private developer. They have UP TO 900,000.00 of a projected 3.2 million dollars. That means Fleetwood is going to pay out in higher taxes. If you don’t want to pay for a “Developer’s Folly” call Fleetwood Borough Hall and let them know, attend the meeting held the second Monday of every month. Our slogan is “Say No Way To Walkway”. Please help us to fight this battle we can stop this from happening if we all band together. Save Fleetwood Pizza from Eminent Domain Abuse! Thank you very much.
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