Big Crowd Hears Plan To Remake Columbia

Town-Center Retail Called Key Element

Most of the 500 people who came stayed the entire three hours Monday night and appeared to listen closely as representatives for General Growth Properties revealed how the company wants to remake downtown Columbia. They asked Gregory F. Hamm, the company's regional vice president and general manager for Columbia, not to move so quickly through the PowerPoint show and requested that company consultants to speak into the microphone.

At the end, many in attendance still had questions.

"Honestly, it was awesome on one hand and overwhelming on the other hand," Wilde Lake resident Joan Spicknall said. "I don't want to dampen the spirit of what GGP would like to do, but I need to be better informed."

What the company and its consultants unveiled Monday night was the first phase of shops, offices and a 300-room hotel and conference center that would adjoin public spaces, in an effort to knit together pieces of the Town Center that lie at the heart of developer James W. Rouse's pioneering planned community.

There's an open-air marketplace near the Mall in Columbia and pedestrian walkways leading to a refurbished Merriweather Post Pavilion and Lake Kittamaqundi. The plan emphasizes ecological sensitivity, calling for stream and woodland restoration and "green" building practices. There also would be new cultural attractions, such as a children's theater and a library.

"I like the connectivity," said Suzanne Waller, elected last week to serve as Town Center's representative to the Columbia Council.

"I was surprised by their looking at Symphony Woods in new ways," she said.

Financing for the project, which could start in 2010, was not discussed publicly. It's possible that the county, Columbia Association and even downtown's private landowners will form partnerships with Chicago-based General Growth.

The company wants its 30-year plan to include up to 5,500 residential units, a number that stirred opposition when it was included in earlier proposals.

Hamm said the best thing the company could do to create a vibrant downtown is "make sure that every piece of Town Center has some residential component."

County Council member Jennifer Terrasa (D-Southeast County) said she thought the company's approach of first establishing public spaces and cultural features was better than saying, "We're going to have density, and the rest will follow."

But she said the number of residential units "sounds like too much to me. I'll have to hear more about how they will do it."