For one, Lakeside is in Sterling Heights and Partridge Creek is in Clinton Township. Clinton Township just saw dollar signs, and probably didn't care about the effect of their neighboring community. There might be a little more regionalism nowadays following the Great Recession, but clearly not as much back then.

I think there was a fair amount of skepticism about this, even back then. But, Taubman wanted to do it, and even though the mall concept was showing signs of cracking, he was still the leader in the industry and got what he wanted. Since the Great Recession hadn't yet happened, nor had the major shift to online and big box shopping, I guess there weren't people lining up to talk him out of it.