In addition to that giant mall expansion we've been going on and on about, there's a smaller Pyramid Companies proposal we haven't touched on much: The Destiny Research and Development Park. The proposal was for land north and south of Seventh North Street, and included taking 27 businesses and two homes by eminent domain.

We've mentioned more than once that we think developers should be required to buy land if they want to build, rather than asking the government to take the land and give it to them at a heavy discount.

Notice the past tense, though, in the first paragraph. That's because yesterday, Pyramid dropped the eminent domain proposal.

Some of the land owners – who have become known as the Salina 29 – are happy to keep their homes and businesses and to let Pyramid do whatever they want on public land regarding the R&D park.

I tend to agree with John Sposato, who owns a rest stop/travel center that would have been taken by eminent domain under the previous proposal. Sposato says that Pyramid should be required to submit a new application and proposal for public scrutiny.

And he's right. In order to build the R&D park using only publicly owned land, Pyramid is going to have to make some major revisions to its proposal, and since the public had input on the first proposal, the public should be allowed to have input on the new one. The county shouldn't just get to decide that the revisions are acceptable without talking to the people who are going to be affected by the development.

Contact Onondaga County Executive Nick Pirro and the County Legislature to voice your opinion.