The Conservation Edge and the Industrial Park
An industrial park at the Berea conservation edge will be decided on the ridge and the road, not the jobs.
An industrial park proposed at the conservation edge in Berea will be decided on the ridge line and the road, not the jobs it brings. The community will accept an industrial park that hides the ridge and reject one that does not, and the jobs argument will not overcome the ridge argument in a town that has built its identity on the forest.
We site the buildings below the ridge and the access off the road that already carries the traffic, because the ridge and the road are the two variables the community will not trade. The jobs are the benefit, and the ridge is the cost, and the cost is the one the hearing will weigh.
The conservation easement is the tool. A park that places the ridge in a conservation easement earns the trust the jobs alone cannot buy, and the easement is the condition the community will impose if the sponsor does not offer it. We offer it first.
A project that reaches the hearing without the staff on its side will leave with conditions that erase the pro forma.
A commercial use proposed at the agricultural edge will be decided on the frontage and the buffer, not the use.