Marion plan will hurt businesses, homes

The Seventh Avenue Association has been waiting for the city of Marion to acknowledge the enormous negative impact on more than 85 businesses and 50 houses that Concept D and the roundabout plan will have on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. The mayor, city council, MEDCO and the Chamber of Commerce were aware of this well before the final vote in November 2009. They have been asked repeatedly to provide this information.

Thanks to Iowalive.net workers, who have taken the information provided by numerous businesses and the Seventh Avenue Association, applied their algorithms and published the results, at no cost, on a Marion link on website: http://iowalive.net

The posted economic impact is devastating. The majority of businesses will have no recourse other than to close and await the buyout offer for the land from a developer, who will not be interested in their family-owned business.

There always will be some operators who will feel this is an opportunity to move to other locations. Retail businesses have no such opportunity. They rely on the traffic generated by Seventh Avenue.

Snooks Bouska

Marion