The Gateway proposal by the Victoria Airport Authority looks like it’s going to be a strip mall with lots of parking.
This is land that will never be able to be farmed again. These types of developments have a very good value in the short term but decrease in value rapidly over time.
I believe this project will negatively impact existing Sidney businesses in the short term by taking customers away. It will also induce traffic on not only Stirling Way but throughout the region as customers make their way to the site by automobile.
In the long term, it will also negatively impact the Town of Sidney because as the customers are lured away from the traditional downtown, businesses property values will fall. Another long term cost will be the opportunity lost to do something more valuable with that land. Imagine, in the future, some sort of passenger/ cargo terminal for railway or pod type transportation system.
Eric Diller, Sidney