Letter to the Editor: Moon Needs to Consider Self-Contained Neighborhoods

For years, the Moon Township Board of Supervisors have ignored the ideas and recommendations of forward thinking residents in favor of stale decisions that have perpetuated a business-as-usual agenda.

Instead of advancing the goals of the community into the 21^st century of sustainable development, our representatives sit in a bath of old and worn out ideas. The suburban life was designed to remove homeowners from daily life through miles of cul-de-sacs and housing plans with calming names, such as Whispering Woods and McCormick Farm. What has happened since their origination is a return to cities, which offer walkable and self-contained neighborhoods providing consumer services without having to get in a car every time one needs a quart of milk.  

Currently in Pittsburgh, Reizenstein Middle School is now being demolished and replaced with a mixed-use development incorporating housing, retail and commercial spaces situated right across from Bakery Square that once housed the old Nabisco cookie factory. Bakery Square contains retail, commercial and hotel space. Down the block one finds Trader Joe's grocery store, Club One and more. Also, one finds the Internet corporation Google occupying several floors of commercial space.  

This is what the 21^st century looks like. Mixed-use development is sustainable. It attracts world-class businesses because this is what their employees are looking for. The youth of today want sustainable and pedestrian communities. They desire their conveniences within viewing distance. Many professional young people are not purchasing cars, and as we have read auto sales are down over the past five months. One concern that auto dealers fear is that young people don’t want cars, or the debt payment that accompanies such a purchase.

Many are swamped with college debt and resist accumulating more. This brings me back to Moon Township and the outdated vision our officials have for the community. Currently, we are standing in our own past with the expansion of sub-divisions as we build out phase 1 into phase 3 and so on.  As the Wal-Mart property stands idle, there remains the possibility that the traffic concerns will continue to stall the development of their superstore. What if the property ends up “for-sale”? What then? Are our officials ready for it? Or, will we, once again, see our supervisors acting in a panic as another potential buyer presents another big box project smack dab in the center of our township.

No doubt, such a big box sketch plan will not be a high end store, but something from the opposite end of the retail spectum. This is why our officials need to be ready and move ahead of another mistake. Mixed use development, which incorporates green space, retail, flex space, commercial, and residential would be most desirable for the Wal-Mart site. If Moon Township officials are sincere about the vision for Moon Township, a vision that a great many of the residents helped create when the comprehensive plan was revised some years ago, then they need to rezone the Wal-Mart property into mixed-use and include it into the overlay district immediately. Any delay could result in a missed opportunity—again!  

Jerry Pearl