To the editor:

Wednesday’s “Scary figure” editorial was laughable, implying retailers and businesses choose a community based on whether or not they like its planning process. One would think population, location, income and education level carry a bit more weight. Best Buys were already close in Topeka and Olathe, but the above factors drove them to build here, planning process or no.

As many communities have seen, rampant development can have a net negative effect if new property tax dollars are more than offset by the loss of established businesses’ property taxes (not to mention blight from shuttered shopping districts, and reduction in surrounding property values). Or when a factory is enticed by property tax abatements (favored on these editorial pages), there is no tax relief for the community as a whole. Or if a development includes a new school or fire station, drawing residents from areas where this infrastructure is long since paid for and adding construction and future maintenance costs for the city to bear.

This is precisely why we need a strong, pro-community planning process. Wal-Mart is fighting for a second location not because it wants to. It knows there are more dollars to be vacuumed from Lawrence, and therefore its business model dictates that it has to build a second store. The planning process is an opportunity for Lawrence to channel this desire of businesses and developers to exploit a market in a way that benefits the entire community.

David Unekis,

Lawrence