I'm all for participatory government but its pretty clear that the authors of your "public service announcement" are showing their ignorance of the review process and are in desperate need of a bit of strategic help. The meeting tonight is in front of the Design Review Board, a body charged with giving an advisory opinion to the Zoning Board of Review regarding the look and feel of the development. Get on to the Town web site and look at the Design Review Guidelines!! Approaching the DRB with some sort of message that Target is "not a good idea for our Town" is counter-productive at best. You are wasting your breath in front of this body unless you can contribute in some way towards the goal of how the store / signage / landscaping/ etc can be made to harmonize with Portsmouth's community character (whatever that is!!). I can tell you, this Board is very professional and takes their work very seriously, but they are there for one purpose only and cannot (indeed should not) respond to misdirected outrage from the public.
Target will be applying to the Zoning Board of Review at some later date for a Special Use Permit. That is where the rubber hits the road. Again, get on the Town web site and look at the Zoning Ordinance under Special Use Permits. Come on people, inform yourselves!! Read the ordinance. It is completely ineffective and unproductive to rage about whether the Town needs a Target or how "sprawl is bad for our town." In deliberating whether to grant a Special Use Permit, the ZBR has very specific findings of fact that they must determine. READ THE ORDINANCE! If a good case can be made in opposition to one or more of the findings , then you are getting somewhere. An amorphous, scatter-gun argument about sprawl-busting and community character is not going to get very far. Just ask the Middletown First'ers about that one! At the very least, attend the right meetings!
Be advised, the property in question has been zoned commercial since the inception of zoning in Portsmouth, there has been a "for lease, will build to suit" sign on it for at least a decade, retail is a permitted use (with a Special Use Permit because of their size), my guess is the property is big enough for Target's plans with very few (if any) variances, legally there would be trouble with the current owners "investment backed expectations" if the Special Use Permit was denied, and I'm not so sure that this kind of development is all that bad for Portsmouth given that Mr. Factmangler and his crowd have pretty well screwed up Town finances and the tax situation for quite some time to come.
Both of these boards are staffed by citizen volunteers. Don't waste their time by approaching them with irrelevant argument. Attend Design Review Board meetings if you have something to say about the look of the Target, attend ZBR meeting if you are in opposition and can make a reasoned argument based on the guidelines set out in the Zoning Ordinance. Please, please step up to the plate, but please make it relevant.