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Big Crowd Hears Plan To Remake Columbia
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The approach is actually the new standard operating procedure: clustering retail, offices and residential development together, said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington.
"Strip retail is retail for the last century," McMahon said. "Town centers are retail for this century."
Sound economics explain why more than 200 mixed-use town centers are being developed across the country, he said.
"People stay longer, they spend more money and more time in places that attract their attention," he said. "There's nothing people like more than watching other people."
General Growth consultants did homework for more than two years before displaying their ideas for refashioning the 1960s planned community. During Monday's meeting, they quoted Rouse, mentioned details of his original plans and cited county task force reports on Merriweather and affordable housing.
The effort actually began not long after the firm purchased the Rouse Co. in 2004 and faced persistent inquiries about its long-term plans for Columbia, said urban design consultant Joanne Beskind Elkin.
"You see how hard it is to answer that question?" she said.
General Growth officials will conduct more than a dozen community meetings to discuss details of its plans in May. The firm wants to submit a plan to county officials for approval in June.
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