Home Depot
abandons Exit 10

By KRISTA GROMALSKI

MILFORD — Home Depot has withdrawn its application to the Milford Township Planning Commission for the construction of a store on a 43-acre site, near the intersection of Route 6 and Exit 10 on Interstate 84. Supervisor Don Quick said Home Depot sent a “two-line” letter of withdrawal to the township.

Last fall, the company acquired a 90-day extension from the planning commission, good until March 24, to file its application with township supervisors.

Bill Kiger, leader of the Milford Alliance to Defeat Sprawl at Exit 10 (MADSET), an opposition group to Home Depot’s proposal to construct a store at the Milford Township site, said he is “pleased” by the company’s decision.

MADSET members publicly protested Home Depot’s application in the parking lot of the township municipal building prior to a September meeting of the planning commission where Home Depot representatives were present. At that time Kiger said his group, which he estimated at 400 members, was “not stopping.”

During a MADSET gathering on March 19 in Milford, Kiger said, “The planning commission fought through…” on stopping the development at Exit 10.

The company reportedly still plans to develop somewhere in Pike County, and it is possible that Home Depot may submit an application for construction on an alternate site in an already developed area of Westfall Township, Kiger said.

As for MADSET, Kiger said the group will “continue to pursue green space alternatives and solutions” for the area near Exit 10.

During a March 19 meeting, the Milford Township Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to its zoning ordinances that may prevent future development such as the one proposed by Home Depot.

The “big box” amendment will “preclude any single building over 60,000 square feet,” Quick said, and will serve “to obstruct interest in that sort of development.” The facility proposed by Home Depot was approximately 120,000 feet, he said.

The zoning changes came to the township’s elected supervisors, Quick said, from the planning board, which is comprised of volunteer members. “This indicates to the supervisors how they wish the community to be developed,” he said.