Home Depot has unexpectedly shelved plans to build one of its big-box stores in Berlin.
With stunned opponents looking on during an Environmental Court hearing yesterday, representatives of the company told a judge that Home Depot will be withdrawing its application to build on the site of a former strip mall on the Barre-Montpelier Road.
Eric Gilbertson of Montpelier is president of the 150-member Citizens for Community and Local Prosperity, which opposed the project. He called the move a surprise but not a shock.
He says Home Depot and Wal-Mart have both recently backed off expansion in other communities, too, because of the economy.