Columbia, Maryland, may at last get a town center

For years, one of the biggest disappointments of Columbia, Maryland, has been that rather than erect a real town center, the Rouse Company built an enclosed shopping mall in the heart of its 1960s “new town.” Now, however, there’s serious talk about giving the 100,000-population community a more dynamic, mixed-use urban core. Howard County recently solicited proposals from firms interested in organizing a charrette and producing a master plan for the center of the unincorporated 14,000-acre community. Proposals are due July 6, and the charrette is to take place in September. County Executive James N. Robey budgeted up to $250,000 for the charrette and master plan, with the hope of having a plan by year’s end. The proposal is an outgrowth of varied factors: months of consultation that new urban adviser Seth Harry had been doing with the Columbia Association; the desire of the mall owner for more development; and a realization by government leaders such as County Councilman Ken Ulman that a lively urban center could be desirable. General Growth Properties (GGP), which owns shopping malls nationwide, acquired the Rouse Company last year. GGP recently hired Mahan Rykiel Associates of Baltimore to devise its own plan for establishing a mix of businesses, housing, parking, and open space on 52 acres now used partly as parking for the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an open-air performance venue. Although the Baltimore Sun reported that GGP’s concept of “parallel curbside parking, restaurants and retail outlets could create a Main Street-type of atmosphere,” the privately produced plan may have less abundant street connections and a less thorough integration of uses than many new urbanists would prefer. The county charrette, with its open public process, may be crucial to getting a plan that handles vehicles, pedestrians, and uses in a way that maximizes urban potential. u