Report on the Sighting of an Unidentified Animal
at the Arundel Mills Mall construction area
ARUNDEL MILLS
The Mills Corporation, a Big-Board traded (NYSE:MLS), international development company, specializes in building large, extravagant retail and entertainment shopping centers. A number of their past achievements have included Katy Mills (Texas), Ontario Mills (Canada), and Franklin Mills (Pennsylvania). Soon to be included in this impressive array of mega-malls is Arundel Mills. This partially completed shopping complex is located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland at the intersection of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (I-295) and Route 100. With its grand opening scheduled for late November, 2000, the 400-plus acre Arundel Mills site is still a work in progress. The mostly finished central mall buildings are surrounded by a huge, perimeter of excavated soil and rubble (see Figure 1). State politicians and businessmen have high expectations that the mall's 1.4 million square feet of leased space will boost commerce and add millions of dollars in sales tax revenue to State and Local coffers(1).
On the other hand, there are other less optimistic voices that have deemed Arundel Mills just another example of backroom politics and unbridled greed. An article in Chesapeake(2), the online newsletter of the Sierra Club's Maryland Chapter, largely regards the new mega-mall as serious "mega-sprawl." They assert that from the 250 million dollar project's ground breaking (July 15, 1999) through to its completion, "Arundel Mills will fill 62,155 square feet of wetlands; it will destroy 3,200 linear feet of Piney Run, a nearby waterway, and there will be 490 acres of impervious surfaces." Hundreds of acres of forest have already been removed during the excavation.
However, not only living things and ecology were disturbed by the mall's construction. During an initial inspection of the land, just prior to excavation, several pre-Civil War grave sites were found. Mall developers had the remains relocated to another cemetery.(3)
THE INCIDENT AT ARUNDEL MILLS
Date: Monday, July 31, 2000
Time: 12:30 AM
Location: Arundel Mills construction area; New Ridge Road & Clark Road; Anne Arundel County; Hanover, Maryland.
Elevation: 132'
Weather Conditions (Monday, July 31, 2000, 12:30 AM): Mostly cloudy skies; Temp.: 73F;
1. Arundel Mills Mall website: http://www.millscorp.com/arundel/
2. http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/md/newsletter/SepOct99/welcome.html
3. Arundel Mills Developers find Graves on site ( http://jrnl.net/news/00/May/jrn64230500.html )
Go To Page 2
Back to Introduction