Columbia's Next Step Splits Town
Some Want More Housing; Others Seek Office, Retail

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 9, 2003

Four decades after visionary developer James W. Rouse set out to build the perfect community on what was then Howard County farmland, Columbia's 96,000 residents are embroiled in a debate about the future of living in the suburbs.

At issue: How does the planned community complete Rouse's vision for a vibrant city center before the remaining land is developed?

Howard Research and Development Corp., a subsidiary of the Rouse Co., wants to construct 1,600 housing units in Columbia's Town Center neighborhood. But some community activists are arguing that the land should be used for office buildings and retail shops -- the downtown that was part of the concept they bought into decades ago.

"This is really a fight for the heart of Columbia, so it would make sense that it is going to be contentious," said Joshua Feldmark, a member of the Columbia Council. "It is getting people out there to take a stand on their future."

Urban planners, who vow to watch the debate closely, say the controversy signals the growing evidence that many people are becoming weary of such trappings of traditional suburban life as traffic, sprawl and enclosed malls.

Instead, many suburbanites -- even in Howard County, where sprawl has doubled the population in the past two decades -- are yearning for a more urbanized look that would make cars and big-box retail stores less needed.

"These places are known to planners, designers and architects and idealists who want to think about how we can create better places to live and work and a more sane lifestyle," said Mary Corbin Sies, an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland.

Though Columbia was viewed as an early pioneer in the concept of "new urbanism," where people could walk to work and shopping areas, some residents say they have watched with jealousy as other suburban planned communities, such as Reston or the Kentlands neighborhood of Gaithersburg, have developed more pedestrian-friendly urban centers.
Reston's town center, put in place a quarter century after the first houses sprang up, features restaurants, retail shops and tall office buildings along a main street and public square. The upscale Fairfax County community of 56,000 residents has become a model for other suburban developments.

In Prince George's County, Baltimore developer David S. Cordish is hoping to imitate Reston on a smaller scale when his Boulevard at Capital Centre, a collection of 50 national retailers and restaurants along a street open to cars and pedestrians, opens this year on the site of the former sports arena in Landover.

Steven Bodzin, communications director of the Congress for the New Urbanism in San Francisco, said many suburban dwellers who leave cities because of poor schools still hope to live near dense, city-like environments.

"There is a huge demand out there for the walkable, dense, downtown kind of living, and there is almost no supply," Bodzin said.

Columbia was marketed as a cutting-edge suburb when it was conceived in the early 1960s, but many urban planners now say Town Center -- which is built around a 1.3 million-square-foot mall and its expansive parking lot -- is no longer the best layout for a neighborhood.

"I think there are definitely lessons to be learned in Columbia, and those lessons are already being applied elsewhere," said Seth Harry, an architect and urban planner who used to work for Rouse, who is deceased. "I think the fundamental vision for Columbia was based on a different model than what we consider to be a rational mixed-use downtown today."

Although they are sparring over what form it should take, both the Rouse Co. and opponents of its plan agree that more development is needed to complete Rouse's vision for central Columbia.

The company is proposing building some of the housing units on part of the Merriweather Post Pavilion parking lot. The company also wants to enclose the outdoor concert pavilion.
Although some residents favor no new development at all, Rouse officials say that the added housing, along with a new movie theater and restaurants at the Mall in Columbia, will help create the bustling core that cities and suburbs are increasingly trying to achieve. More than 1,000 apartments, condominiums and townhouses have been added to Town Center in recent years. The Town Center Village Association has embraced the plans for new housing.

But other residents who long ago bought into Columbia, where household income averages $91,000, claim that the Rouse Co. is not doing enough to create a pedestrian-friendly environment in central Columbia. They say the publicly held Rouse Co. hopes to profit from the booming housing market instead of using the land for more commercial and retail development.

"I can see where it would be to their benefit to move as much residential as they can, but I do not believe it is in the best interest of people living in Columbia in 10, 20 or 30 years," said Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D-Howard).

Dennis Miller, a Rouse Co. vice president in charge of the project, declined to comment until after the Howard County Zoning Board takes up the issue next month. But David Tripp, a Rouse Co. spokesman who has lived in Columbia since 1969, said the company's critics need to be patient.

"I think there is a feeling to support some of the commercial things you would like to see go downtown, but it would first help to have a greater population density," Tripp said. "We are going to be here developing stuff in Columbia for 20 years."

When construction of Columbia began in 1966, its architects set out to build a series of nine villages and a Town Center on 14,000 acres. The community was slated to become the center of the Washington-Baltimore corridor, offering an array of entertainment and cultural activities around the mall and the man-made lake.

"The heart of the city will be the home of art and music schools, theaters, museums and galleries," a Rouse Co. brochure from 1966 said. "By day, one edge of the lake will be a park with restaurants, coffee shops, carousels and entertainment; by night, it will be transformed into a gay and playful wonderland for people of every age."

Mary Pivar, 69, said that type of downtown will never sprout if much of the remaining land is used for housing. "Town Center was not designed to be built like the other villages. Town Center was always to be the commercial hub," said Pivar, who moved to Columbia 28 years ago.

Bob Tennenbaum, who was the chief architect of Columbia, said ultimately the Rouse Co. and residents will need to agree to a variety of uses for the remaining land. That is exactly what Perri Simonson, 37, wants to see happen.

"I need more of a city feel," said Simonson, who recently bought a $360,000 townhouse next to the mall. "When I found out this theater is coming in, I was doing cartwheels."

© 2003 The Washington Post Company