It is a rare occasion when the County Planning Board staff (or any planning board staff) expresses “continued concerns that redevelopment of the Lancaster Stockyards site may be much less intense than that which the site could accommodate.”
Under different circumstances, the site would be prime for commercial rather than office / industrial use given its access to highways and the Amtrak Station. A much smaller convention center as originally conceived would have worked well at this location and butressed three nearby hotels, two of which now face questionable futures.
Nevertheless, given the plethora of regional shopping centers under review or being proposed, developer Tim Harrison is coming to our community’s rescue by providing tax rateables and jobs without further undermining the tenuous viability of commerce at Park City and Red Rose Commons.
If too much competition generates vacancies at Park City, we will again be faced with a blighted “down town.” As for Red Rose Commons, it must now replace two major tenants which were among the first to succumb, not so much to competition, but to difficult times.
