Advice for the city council

Do you really think after all the discussion about Lowe's this past year that we're going to be fooled by your editorial attempts to support Lowe's (and you don't see this as a conflict of interest?) and that the registered voters of Westlake really, really wanted Lowe's and were so disappointed by the city council's vote in January?

What we're now going to witness is the unlimited funds a big box concern will spend in marketing dollars to try to spin the lie of this huge pent up need that Westlake Village residents have for Lowe's and the upscale restaurants. I'm so tired of this group telling me that El Torito is an upscale restaurant. And they think putting a fountain in the shopping complex will suddenly make the massive amount of pavement-- the size of Catalina Island--and its oversized shopping cart mazes disappear?

What the city council should be doing right now is listening to the community and coming up with a plan that satisfies both the generation of tax revenue and the needs and desires of the residents.

Westlake Village deserves something much better than a national big box chain partnering up with a slick marketing group that thinks they can trick us into believing there is only a choice between their retail space and an office complex. Prepare yourselves again for their argument that it's either their plan or the office complex. That's simply not true.

This is the last prime piece of real estate left in Westlake and because it's such a precious jewel, why should we allow Lowe's to force feed this to us? This parcel deserves the best anyone has to offer the residents of Westlake. You really want another big box and a couple of franchise restaurants with plastic menus? J.L. Edwards Westlake Village