Re: [Winona] 363 Days

[Bob Sebo]

Gerry and Dean and everyone...   I'm not really emotionally involved in the WalMart debate...the only time I have ever been in a WalMart has been in Antigo, Wisconsin...because it is the only grocery store within an hour's drive of where my family has been vacationing the last couple of summers...it is a nice store.   Walmart opponents were, I think, appropriately rebuffed by council last night because they didn't use the right arguments.  They derided WalMart, when that word was nowhere to be found in the plat being considered.   Why didnt "Winona First" argue against the development pattern, lot size and division, lack of design standards, run-off absorption zones...whatever...something that council and staff would actually have listened to?   Councilmembers and staff are doing their jobs.  There is no smoke filled room where decisions are being made (since City Hall is smoke free they would have to burn toast).  But I am curious why no one has addressed my concerns about the Riverbend retail development...it sounds like Menards and WalMart and 9 little boxes with businesses along a frontage road...how charming...it sounds like Crossing Meadows Drive without the Sam's Club and Papa Murphy's and the other small businesses...Why are there no design standards in place?  Will there be sidewalks in this area?  Can we make it be more like Winona than Onalaska?   I think the simple answer is that its been so long since we've had a "Daddy Warbucks" come to town that we forgot some of the questions to ask up front.   Bob Sebo Winona