Minden Walgreens Controversy

For the past 6 months Craig and Mona Farley have been seriously considering the possibility of allowing an out of town developer put a Walgreens on their property. "We had entertained alot of different commercial offers. But this is the frst time we had somebody say to us.... what would you take," said Farley. Mona says the developer promised to move their home, and relocate it to the lot of their choice. And that if the Farleys agreed to the deal, they would also have a say in what the architecture of the new business would look like. "It was a conversation for... for a lack of a better word...a possibilities," said Farley. But there's one problem, Mona's home sits in the heart of Minden's Historic District.
 
And once rumors of the new Walgreens started getting around town neighbors like Jackie Lewis were up in arms. "We were really upset! When we moved here three years ago... It never occurred to me that someone could come in and try to develop our historic district," said Lewis. Jackie immediately went to work doing research, starting an on line petition and rallying neighbors to form C.A.R.R., the Citizens Against Residential Rezoning. Tuesday night he group even called a town hall meeting at the Civic Center. "We really want to take action now and stop this from even being a possibility in the future," said Lewis. But Mona says she and her husband are still just thinking about the offer and nothing is set in stone. "The brokers kind of threw some numbers at us, but we never settled on anything..."We're just not ready to commit to anything." And at this point the decision of what to do with the house on Homer Road is strictly up to the Farleys. Meantime C.A.R.R. members hope to enlist the help of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That group could possibly help keep the Farley's property from being re-zoned in the future.