Lowe's rebuttal

We feel compelled to clear up some misconceptions in the letter written by Kris CarrawayBowman regarding the Lowe's big box store.

Are you aware that if the initiative passes, the city will lose complete control of the development? The city will have no say in regulating hours. Lowe's can arbitrarily tear out the oak trees, erect any type of signage they want, dictate the number of parking spaces, open and close any time they wish, rent to any type of tenants or override any of the hundreds of items of control that the city staff can impose on other developments.

This "end run" by Lowe's is after the city council and staff spent hundreds of hours studying this proposal and ultimately deciding that this project was not in the best interest of the city. Lowe's, with their millions of dollars, will bombard us with a slick advertising campaign that will undoubtedly be extremely slanted in their presentation.

One example is the brochure that was sent out that depicts a town center with "upscale restaurants" in the foreground. What it does not show in their beautiful rendering is the 200,000-squarefoot Lowe's in the background portrayed as being minuscule. Quite misleading.

Carraway-Bowman writes about "another non-revenue producing office complex rising up in our city." The truth is that the office tenants and their employees will shop and dine in Westlake, producing sales taxes. Property taxes will also be generated, business travelers will rent rooms in the hotels (producing room taxes) and many other financial benefits will accrue to the city.

Carraway-Bowman's statement about traffic being generated did not mention the additional 1 million car trips per year from Lowe's customers that will not occur if offices are built. The weekends will produce thousands of extra car trips into our city, spewing toxins into our air, which would not happen with offices.

Tremendous noise pollution will come when the huge semis unload the inventory at 6 a.m. seven days a week. Day laborers will congregate every day, looking for work when the contractors also arrive at 6 a.m. Lowe's had not offered any solution to this enormous problem other than saying the manager of the store will handle it.

It is a bad deal for the city, and to degrade our quality of life for the money is pure greed.

Don't allow Lowe's to take control of Westlake Village. Ray and Carol Kirschbaum Westlake Village