Dear Stoughton Alderpersons & Mayor Olson:

As citizens, merchants and retail or apartment building owners, we are NOT in favor of the Stoughton City Council granting further approvals of the Kettle Park West (KPW) project to construct a new mall in a cornfield west of the city. (The project would include a 153,000 sq. ft. WalMart SuperCenter and another 87,000 sq. ft. of other new stores.)

Our community should focus on redeveloping our Downtown and present retail businesses.

We call upon alders:

1. To pass a MORATORIUM ON ALL FURTHER KPW APPROVALS at the 3-25-14 council meeting.

2. To conduct an Economic and Fiscal Impact Study of the proposed SuperCenter and mall BEFORE proceeding any further with the KPW project and discuss the findings of the study with the community. We need to know what the impact will be on our present business BEFORE we create a new mall.

3. To create a city policy for Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) Districts in "undeveloped" areas. The city already has a good policy for "redevelopment/downtown" areas but not for "undeveloped" areas. For the city to plan to borrow $4.6 million and then give $5.1 million of taxpayer money to a developer and WalMart (one of the richest companies in the world) without a city policy setting rigorous standards is poor management. Our city should NOT be giving millions of dollars in subsides - harming hundreds of present retailers in Stoughton, Oregon, Evansville, Edgerton, and McFarland.