Vacated Village Center a Concern
Wilde Lake Chief Plays Down Slaying

By Mary Otto and Susan DeFord
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 17, 2008

The shooting death near Wilde Lake Village Center last week heightened concern about the future of Columbia's oldest village, despite efforts by police to reassure residents.

"You live in a safe community," said Howard County Police Chief William J. McMahon told a crowded community meeting Monday. He acknowledged that the April 9 killing of Bryan Antoine Adams Jr., 20, makes residents feel vulnerable even as other changes are taking place.

"You live in the oldest village center," McMahon said. "I know an incident like this causes concern."

Over the weekend, police arrested Antajuan L. Wilson, 19, and charged him with killing Adams, a 2005 Wilde Lake High School graduate. The suspect had just moved to Columbia from Georgia, according to investigators.

"It appears he was very new to the area," McMahon said. Police have found no evidence so far that Adams and Wilson knew each other, or that the crime was related to drug or gang activity, the chief said.

The shooting was the first homicide of the year in Howard. Last year, five homicides occurred in the county, including a double slaying in the Wilde Lake neighborhood of Running Brook.

During the Monday meeting at Slayton House, McMahon was asked whether the village center, which lost its anchoring tenant, a Giant supermarket, more than a year ago, and the gourmet grocery Produce Galore last month, is becoming a magnet for crime.

"There is no way to speculate," McMahon said, "but I don't think so."

County Council member Mary Kay Sigaty (D-West Columbia) also has discounted connections between last week's shooting and the declining fortunes of the village center.

"I suspect plenty of people see it as a causal relationship," she said. "This is a lot to deal with."

Kimco Realty, which owns Wilde Lake Village, has presented a plan to the village board to rebuild the center as a mixed-use development that would include 500 apartments, retail businesses and underground parking. Company officials, who were scheduled to discuss the plan with merchants late Tuesday, have not responded to calls for comment about the plan.

The fate of the village center has spurred greater interest in the usually sleepy village elections, with eight candidates vying April 26 for five seats on Wilde Lake's board.

"I think 500 units dramatically changes the village center. It becomes an apartment complex," said Vincent Marando, chairman of the five-member board and a candidate for reelection. "It's not in my way of thinking mixed use."

But Richard Madzel, another board member running for reelection to the one-year seat, applauded Kimco's idea to add housing, especially if it's affordable for middle-income wage earners such as teachers and firefighters.

Regardless, village board candidate Bill Santos says safety is a factor in redevelopment.

"With storefronts that are empty, and there's not the foot traffic there, people may not feel as safe," Santos said. "Something needs to be done."

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D) is promising legislative changes to county zoning laws targeted at helping revitalize Wilde Lake and another older village, Oakland Mills.

"There's certainly an urgency, a desire to make some progress," Ulman said. "I know the status quo is not the answer. Having boarded up storefronts wasn't part of the deal."

He said his administration is interested in public-private partnerships to redevelop and revitalize older parts of the county.

On Monday, at the entrance to the village center, a small makeshift shrine, decorated with flowers, photographs and candles, paid tribute to last week's victim. A midmorning quiet hung over the Bagel Bin coffee shop. As a lone customer lingered at a table, manager Paul Park looked out the window, toward the budding tulips in the courtyard.

Sales have been in steep decline for more than a year, Park said. And then there was last week's "terrible incident."

"It worries me a lot," he said.