Local Ohio Businesses Win Victory at the Polls

While many were disappointed by this week's election results, the local businesses of Hudson, Ohio, were very happy with the way at least one vote turned out. Residents of historic Hudson made crystal clear their support of local merchants and voted down Issue 25 -- which sought to change local zoning laws to increase the allowable square footage of retail stores -- by a resounding margin of two to one, according to Liz Murphy of the Learned Owl Bookshop in Hudson.

Issue 25 was placed on the November 2 ballot by developers of a proposed $60 million strip mall, the "Promenade of Hudson," as reported by The Plain Dealer in September. The development would have included a number of national chain stores. However, Learned Owl, along with two local Hudson groups, Smart Growth Hudson and Hudson Tomorrow, argued that the Promenade would have drastically affected the economic vitality of a new downtown development set to open in October, as well as set a precedent by attracting strip malls to Hudson.

The groups felt that a planned development of a 350,000-square-foot strip mall was at odds with the recently opened First & Main, a transformation and expansion of the city's historic, 200-year-old downtown district, some two miles north of the proposed site of the Promenade. First & Main, which added almost 200,000-square-feet to the downtown area, is "designed to look like a community built over time," as reported by The Plain Dealer, "with different architectural features, varying sizes and shapes of windows and doorframes, seven types of brick and three shades of mortar." Moreover, First Street was extended northward and paved with "oversize 1930s-era bricks," the article noted.

To make their case known, the groups took out ads in local newspapers, and there were numerous newspaper articles about their efforts. In addition, on September 22, The Learned Owl held an event at Hudson's new American Legion Hall featuring Stacy Mitchell, author of Home Town Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores ... And Why It Matters (Institute for Local Self-Reliance).

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