I wish there was a way to make the Edmond Planning Commission stop granting new business construction with these little strip malls everywhere. There are so many empty spaces in town that Edmond will have the look of a ghost town soon. Is anyone else concerned with the granting of some much building permits when there are some many empty spaces?

I'm not a fan of the strip malls. Not enough parking, congested streets, traffic flow not well planned out, stop lights off timing, and they just aren't attractive. They are bland. Also, they have to go in and put new sidewalks around and they don't plan that very well either. They had to do this around my friend's house since she is by a new business and they didn't install a drain! They pulled the ground up, planted a sidewalk and guess what...flooding. Everytime it rains her house floods. You know what they said? Sorry.

I've been saying for awhile that I wish they city would give a tax incentive or something for people to use existing space rather than move into new buildings. I guess some would say that's not very fair to those in the construction business, but I think it encourages empty space and we will end up with a lot more run-down buildings because of it...

Maybe the "existing" spaces do not fit their business needs so that is why they construct new spaces. It seems that maybe they can demolish these buildings and start new and fresh. I live in Dallas (former OKC resident) and we constantly "demolish" and bulldoze under utilized space. Dallas is always reinventing itself and is not afraid to build and start fresh. Something Edmond and the OKC Metro can take a lesson from.

Maybe the "existing" spaces do not fit their business needs so that is why they construct new spaces.

Exactly why I said they should consider tax incentives - Edmond seems in some areas to really "look pretty" as far as streetscaping and such, but to me this kind of undoes that when they let buildings sit empty and fall apart - I am not saying its the cities job to fill them - I'm just saying maybe there are ways they can help encourage their use or remodeling to fit a businesses needs.

Exactly why I said they should consider tax incentives - Edmond seems in some areas to really "look pretty" as far as streetscaping and such, but to me this kind of undoes that when they let buildings sit empty and fall apart - I am not saying its the cities job to fill them - I'm just saying maybe there are ways they can help encourage their use or remodeling to fit a businesses needs.

I think Edmond does a fantastic job of replacing the old with the new. Two current examples are the building next to Sonic close to 2nd and Bryant and the new shopping area that used to be an old Walmart at 30th and Broadway. Now if only we could talk the bank in the Old Navy/Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot to give their building a facelift...