The towns of the Oxford Hills would do well to think twice before rolling out the red carpet for the proposed Home Depot store.

True, the development will provide tax money for the town of Oxford and there is the possibility of additional jobs (assuming the existing store less than 20 miles away doesn’t close), and these are mighty compelling reasons for getting out the rose petals. However, before we release the white doves, we might do well to look at some of the costs, alternatives and caveats.

First is the loss of open land.

Granted, the store is to be built on what was once a drive-in theater that has been gone so long few people remember what that funny little building in the field was for. On the other hand, would a string of “big box” stores and traffic lights and the accompanying traffic along the main access road enhance the desirability of the Oxford Hills as a location to visit or live?

There is no doubt that the area is poised for growth. One need only look at the renaissance of the Lewiston-Auburn area. But it may be precisely the relative lack of big boxes and their acres of parking lots that will make the area attractive to professionals – and their money. Promoting an area as a residential community is more than just selling someone a place to live. If it wasn’t, we would all be living in small trailers or apartments as the most cost effective method of protecting ourselves from the weather.

Rather, it is, like all marketing, selling someone their aspirations. Just as people choose different clothing or cars to express themselves so too do they decide on a type of home or a location as the manifestation of who they are or how they wish to be seen. How attractive will the area be if Route 26 becomes another Center Street or Forest Avenue?

A second, less obvious cost is what to do with the building if or when Home Depot decides to abandon it. Only a mile up the road is the Ames store, vacant since that company went bankrupt several years ago. More chilling still is the ghost of the Wal-Mart that was left next to the existing Home Depot in Auburn when that company decided to build an even larger store across the street.

The simple truth is that these large, empty boxes are not easily converted to other uses and may sit as unoccupied eyesores until people begin to forget why they were built in the first place (remember the drive-in?). This problem does have a fairly simple, albeit somewhat radical, solution. An ordinance requiring those entities wishing to construct a building that exceeds a certain square footage would be required to place enough money in escrow (or provide some other assurance) to remove the building and restore the site should the building be unoccupied for a specified length of time. A similar approach is used in the mining industry and has proved effective in assuring corporate responsibility in rural areas.

Perhaps a better approach would be to look toward developing existing buildings and maintaining those elements that make the Oxford Hills so desirable. There is a small-town feel to the area that is attractive to young families, but a Main Street of shuttered businesses would make a poor setting for the annual Christmas parade.

It is not my intent to preach gloom and doom or come off as some sort of developmental Luddite. There is nothing wrong with growth per se and, in fact, it should be welcomed. But, the form and direction that growth will take should be planned and directed by those affected, not dictated by organizations with monetary interests in the results.

Yes, it’s true that unemployment in the region is too high and opportunities too few. This is a problem that needs a solution, but it should be one that’s tailored to the area’s unique character, not an out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all, ready-made remedy. Those who would push for building a new store when there are two similar stores only 20 miles away and empty space throughout the area merely have a solution in search of a problem.

Terrence L. Magee is a former human services professional in Lewiston and a small business entrepreneur. He lives in South Paris.