Council Tilts in Favor of Renovating Mount Hebron High

"This one makes sense to me," Sigaty said.

Details Sought From General Growth

Harper's Choice resident Bernard Jennings says there's something missing in General Growth Properties' plans for downtown Columbia: as many as 5,500 new housing units that the company wants to build over the next 30 years in Town Center. Jennings questioned the proposal at a Monday night community forum in the Harper's Choice Village Center.

"We want to know about that in detail," he told company representatives, who brought their PowerPoint show and color renderings to Kahler Hall recently. "There are a lot of people in the community ready to go to war on this if it is not explained suitably."

It's coming soon, replied Barbara Nicklas, the company's vice president of marketing for master planned communities. "The development team is still working through a lot of this," she said.

Company efforts will first focus on new shops and offices, as well as amenities such as landscaped walkways, a market square near The Mall in Columbia and a renovated Merriweather Post Pavilion. The company also wants a change in Town Center zoning to permit significantly higher density in the core of the 1960s planned community developed by James Rouse.

The zoning request could go to county officials this summer. Nicklas promised that beforehand, "there will be enough time for the community to hear it and provide feedback to it."

The two dozen attendees at Kahler Hall debated whether a large increase of people downtown would mean more traffic congestion, tighter parking and more crime. But Cynthia Lynn, who lives near Harper's Choice, said she was hopeful.

"We're not the little Columbia we used to be," she said. "You can't just live in the past. We have to grow."

The Search for a Horse Park Site

Howard County should continue efforts to find a suitable location for a state horse park, according to members of a task force reporting to the County Council.

"We do have properties that would be suitable if we can gain the agreement of the owners," said Michael D. Erskine, a Mount Airy equine veterinarian who led the task force. "It's worth pursuing."

The task force is recommending that another panel be created to negotiate with land owners for a park that could host competitive events, and include an indoor arena and trails. The panel said possible sites include Benson Branch Park, West Friendship Park, the Belmont estate in Elkridge owned by Howard Community College's educational foundation, a private landowner whom Erskine declined to identify and the University of Maryland research farm west of Ellicott City. The university has said that a horse park would conflict with its agricultural research.

Erskine said some private landowners have approached members of the task force about locating a horse park on their property.

"We believe it would be good for Howard County and good for the state," he said.