The Matrix Development Group must have been displeased recently when another “group” of nearly 200 residents showed up in Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania to protest plans for a 185 acre office-hotel-retail complex containing nearly one million square feet of sprawl. The anti-big box protesters, called Residents Against Matrix (RAM), marched along Big Oak Road, and announced to the media that the group intends to file a lawsuit against the project. The group claims that a development agreement signed by the township supervisors is illegal. “The lawsuit is based on the fact that zoning on the property has not been properly aligned to fit this project,” said the group’s attorney Robert Sugarman. “A court should find that to be true, and find the agreement invalid.” RAM member Gary Cruzan told the local newspaper: “People aren’t going to take these dumb ideas anymore. This is the last piece of open space we have in this township. How many home improvement stores do we need? We don’t need the blight, additional traffic gridlock of 30,000 more cars a day here, trash and crime. The market is saturated.” The land was supposed to be used for an industrial — office complex, but the developer couldn’t find tenants. The Matrix Group took over the project from the original developer, and signed an agreement with the township supervisors for the changed development. But area residents say the new agreement is illegal.
“If you are a good neighbor, ” Cruzan told Matrix, ” as you say you are, then get rtid of the retail portion of this project.” RAM members carried signs on their march that read “Block the Box” and “Matrix Makes Us Mad.” To find out more about this citizen effort, go to www.bucksram.org
