Suburban Sprawl

As I drive up McKnight road, I see a lot of empty spaces. Across from Ross Park Mall is an old Chi Chi's, Sam's Club, Ford car dealership, Damon's and Don Parmesian. These stores all closed and have been sitting vacant for quite some time. A little further up is the closed Famous Dave's BBQ.

Further up the road is a sign for new commercial development at McKnight and Duncan. Up in Wexford a huge new shopping center is currently being built. Rather than building all this new development from scratch, what can we do to reuse the land that has already been developed on?

I am not suggesting that we build the WalMart across from Ross Park Mall. That would have been a traffic nightmare. However, this land already has the utilities available that these new developments do not. They are an eyesore that we drive past every day that we should be rebuilding on rather than adding to the sprawl we already have.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think part of the problem is that every township does their own planning. McCandless where I live would never give up their developments (and the tax revenue) at McKnight and Duncan even though a better location might be the car dealership in Ross in conjunction with the existing shopping center next to it. A better location in McCandless might be the area around Trader Horn and Showcase Cinema, anyway.

Is there some master plan for McKnight Road that I just don't know about or is it really just every Township for themselves?