This page of this site was for the City Council Campaign for May 10, 2008. The portion of the site is still posted for possible future endeavors - which totally depends on your support.

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Elect John Gorena for Lewisville City Council Place 1

 

Weekly list of Questions from the Star Community Newspapers
(Also see all the Candidates Answers link at the bottom of this page.)

Week 2:  Retail Revitalization (each Question 100 words Max). 

QUESTION 1.  Pick a corner in your city or town that you’d like to see redone or revitalized. What needs to be fixed?
ANSWER:  I would like to see older retail centers with a large amount of empty lease space to be redeveloped. With the new changes coming to I35, we have an opportunity to give a facelift to Lewisville along I35. Depending on the final path of the highway improvement, the Lakeland plaza area at I35 and business Hwy 121 may be a good candidate for some help to bring new business to the area and add more tenants.

QUESTION 2: Tell what strategies you will offer to the council to improve sections of your city or town. How will you attempt to keep your residents pleased with the results?
ANSWER:  We should start with ideas that other cities have used to redevelop a similar area. Since these areas are privately owned, there will have to be a private-public partnership formed with the owners to help revitalize or redevelop an area. Analyze “high impact” options to implement first to impress citizens and get them on board and notice results. Newer trends in the design of shopping centers could be incorporated to bring more people to the area.

QUESTION 3:  Which is more important to your area: bringing in new development or fixing up already existing development? Why?
ANSWER:  Both are important but we should give more attention to existing retail areas. With so many empty retail buildings in Lewisville, I think constructing new buildings will only create more empty retail buildings. If these buildings do not get tenants, then the owner may go out of business which may lead to dilapidated properties. I do not think we should inhibit investors who want to build in Lewisville either. If they want to build, then we should encourage them to do so while we work to improve older areas. Fixing up properties will bring new development.

QUESTION 4:  How do you rate the current state of your city or town, in terms of retail revitalization? How much work do you think needs to be done?
ANSWER:  Lewisville is getting closer to a point where most of the city is built up. While we still do have some room to build up new areas, we should start focusing on redeveloping older areas. Historic Downtown area was a good start for revitalization. Lewisville has a great location in the metroplex and the city is a great place to invest.


JOHN GORENA, Candidate for Lewisville City Council Place 1

 

Click Here to see all the candidates - PDF version