Town Center marketing is an 'illusion'

Read the fine print. If Measure Z passes, Lowe's would win the right to require our council to change the zoning to suit Lowe's financial needs and change the currently permitted development from an upscale hybrid office/retail to a "90 percent Lowe's" retail center.

There will be no multi-tenant, multi-use development even remotely resembling the Westlake Promenade, the Trillium or the Valencia Town Center, all of which are real upscale, multi-tenant Town Centers. The concept of a Lowe's "Town Center" is a pure marketing illusion. You only need to drive eight minutes to the Home Deport center to see what kind of "upscale" businesses will chose to locate in the parking lot of a hardware megastore.

The fine print states that if Z passes, we must accept everything Lowe's decides except for egregious violations of city standards and practices. Lowe's will become a self-governing island in the middle of our community.

As long as Lowe's "substantially conforms with" the provisions in Measure Z which Lowe's drafted, all we can do is ask them to please consider a change. Very subjective. The Lowe's legal team will argue that their ideas are best for our community when we all know they will be in Lowe's best interest.

Lowe's will not be required to comply with council or voter requests. We will have lost our governing and monitoring power. After Lowe's has built what they want, it will be impossible to have them knock it down and/or change it.

To read Measure Z and our city attorney's description of it, visit www.wlv.org. Also visit www.SaveWestlakeVillage.com or www.wlvunited.com. It could affect the rest of your life here in Westlake Village. Measure Z will start the urbanization of Westlake Village. If you love our village ambiance, please vote no on Z. Robert F. Azzarello Westlake Village