The critics also include Marcia Fudge, mayor of Warrensville Heights. She is not adamant about holding to the 1997 plan. Rather, she wants to make sure that if that plan is scrapped, then retail square footage would be distributed equally among the four communities. Warrensville Heights permits stores at the site. She has seen Jacobs' plans showing four big-box stores, comprising 130,000 square feet or so each, in Warrensville Heights.
Orange allows no big-box stores but allows restaurants.
Beachwood would permit 120,000 square feet of stores. But the agreement doesn't let Beachwood build houses at Chagrin Highlands, a long-held goal that could resurface should Cleveland throw out the 1997 agreement. Merle Gorden, mayor of Beachwood, said he wasn't taking sides. According to Polensek, Jacobs representatives explained to him how they were unable to sign Penske, a truck leasing company, to an office site in Warrensville Heights. That instigated the legislation.