Open Thread on Monday’s Meeting on Downtown Columbia

OK, it is time to write your own comments. Use the comments section on this post to write about what you thought of Monday’s meeting on the plan for downtown Columbia. The comments tool on blogs can be easy tools to get your voice heard and discuss with others in the community issues that you think need to be addressed and to collectively brainstorm solutions. I will be writing several posts over the rest of the week about the plan for downtown Columbia, but first I want to hear what you thought. I would prefer that you use the comments section so we can have a good discussion as a community, but if you have something you want to email me directly you can at howardcountyblog@gmail.com.

Important Meeting Today

The Department of Planning and Zoning will be presenting the plan to change downtown Columbia today at 7pm at the Spear Center (formerly known as the Rouse Building). After the presentation of the plan there will be an opportunity for the community to express their thoughts on the plan. This meeting will probably be the best opportunity for the community to fix the plan before it starts moving towards being approval. I highly encourage you to come to this meeting and speak about what you think needs to be fixed before the plan moves forward.

Here are some blog posts about some of the concerns I have heard people in the community raising. If you share these concerns make sure you speak up about them at the meeting and please speak up about other concerns you have.

The Proposed Road Grid System

The Effect of the Road System on the Lake Front and the Grass Amphitheater

The Mall to Merriweather Promenade

Two posts about Mixed Income Housing: One and Two

Why community planning matters.

Focus Group Open Thread

If you attended today’s Focus Group meeting, please use the comments section on this post to share your thoughts on what happened. If you were unable to attend today’s Focus Group meeting, please use the comments section to share your thoughts on the Draft Design Guidelines Parts One and Two and Street Hierarchy Diagram, Street Types Diagram, the Draft Urban Design Plan, and the Draft Implementing Strategies.

The county Department of Planning and Zoning will be presenting the plan this Monday, February 27th at 7pm at the Spear Center (former Rouse Building) at the Lakefront. My question is: Is the plan ready to be moved forward as seems to be the intentions of the Department of Planning and Zoning? I have yet to see any change to the plan reflecting either public comment during or after the charrette or based on the comments of members of the focus group. I have now attended everyone of the charrette and Focus Group meetings and frankly the plan doesn't reflect what the community said during the charrette and after repeated constructive efforts by members of the focus group to address problems in the plan I have not seen any changes. I wish at this point everything had been fixed and I could go back to my normal busy life, but it hasn't been and I think our best bet left to fix this is to have as big a crowd show up to the February 27th presentation and to show our elected officials through our numbers that we want the plan fixed before it is approved. There seems to be a real potential that there will be push to have the plan approved before key details are known or fixes made. The documents the Department of Planning and Zoning have been presenting to the focus group are replete with reference to important studies being done after approval.

Focus Group Meeting Wednesday

Wednesday, February 22nd from 3pm to 5:30pm at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center will be the last scheduled Focus Group meeting before the Monday, February 27th Department of Planning and Zoning presentation of the proposed plan for downtown Columbia. Here is the agenda for the Focus Group meeting and the Draft Implementation Strategies that will be discussed at the meeting. If you don't need to be a work I highly encourage you to come out to the meeting. At the last two meetings they have allowed some of the audience to raise concerns about the plan.

Downtown Driving Experience

What will the driving experience in downtown Columbia be like if the proposed street system is approved?

According to the Department of Planning and Zoning here is the proposed number of lanes for each of the downtown streets:



Here are the Department of Planning and Zoning’s street diagrams of the proposed streets:



The first thing that jumps out at me is that most of the streets will be one lane each way streets with parallel parking. Having driven in many cities with streets with one lane each way and parallel parking I know that such roads jam up as people pull in and out of spots and they can not handle very much volume. Generally these types of streets only work when they are alternated in a grid of four lane of more roads that are used to move traffic, while the one lane each way streets with parallel parking are used for parking and not as traffic through streets.

OK, let’s look at the planned through streets in the plan:




The only added two lane each way street is the Hickory Ridge Road extension through the Crescent. In fact, the six lane Little Patuxent Parkway is cut down to a two lane each way street with parallel parking.

As I mentioned before even if people wanted to use the new one lane each way with parallel parking streets as alternates to the reduced capacity Little Patuxent Parkway as through streets they couldn’t. The new one lane each way streets (with the exception of Corporate Boulevard) aren’t through streets. In order, to cut through downtown on them you have to zigzag through town. Who would take these streets and how long would it take? Are we creating a recipe for gridlock downtown? This is not a grid that would achieve the theory of traffic dispersion that the traffic consultant presented at the charrette.

New Guest Bloggers

When I started this blog my goal was to have full coverage of Howard County issues. As you can tell I have been pretty focused on the redevelopment of downtown Columbia. I am pleased that in the next couple days we will have two new guest bloggers joining us. Dawn grew up in Howard County and lives in Elkridge. Demos lives in Ellicott City. I am excited that both of them will be able to broaden the range of issues discussed on Howard County Blog.

High School Reunion

When I set up this blog, I viewed it as a potential public forum where present and past residents of Howard County who care about the county can follow what is going on in the county and as a community discuss what is going on and make a difference in our community. I include past residents on this because I know from conversations with friends I grew up in the county with that many of them had wanted a way to follow what was going on in the county when they went away to college, but felt at the time there was no easy way to other than the occassional conversation with parents, siblings, or friends where some Howard County issue would come up. It is my hope that in the future blogs like this one will provide a forum for Howard Countians to keep in touch with each other and the issues we face as a county. I have decided that as a public services I will post info about high school reunions for Howard County high schools here. Our first one is Oakland Mills High School Class of 1996. If you or someone you know is a member of that class, then they should send the following info to Dan Ragan:

1. Name
2. Email
3. Address
4. Phone info
5. If you wish to help in planning the reunion
6. Recommendations/requests for location/event
7. If you don’t have emails for others, but you have their contact info, please include it

If you know of any other Howard County high school graduating classes who would like info about their reunions posted please email me the info and I will post it.

Downtown Columbia Plans Open Thread

I plan on writing more on the plans for downtown Columbia this weekend, but in the meantime I want to link to some of the aspects of the plan that I have previously discussed on this blog. Please use the comments section to discuss what you think and to let me know what other aspects of the plan you would like me to explore further. I have a couple posts I am in the middle of writing, but it would be useful to hear what you think I should be focusing in on. You can also email me your thoughts.

The County's Proposed Plan

The Proposed Road Grid System

The Effect of the Road System on the Lake Front and the Grass Amphitheater

The Mall to Merriweather Promenade

Two Posts About Affordable Housing: One and Two

Why community planning matters.

Martin Luther King Day thoughts on the impact of community planning and whether new developments are contributing or undermining his dream and Rouses vision.

Remember we can still fix this plan if we speak up now and one good oportunity to do so is the County Department of Planning and Zoning presentation of the plan on February 27th at 7pm at the Spear Center (i.e. former Rouse Building) on the Lakefront. After the presentation there will be an opportunity for the community to speak out.

Liz Bobo Has a New Website

Delegate Liz Bobo, who represents parts of Howard County, including downtown Columbia, in Maryland House of Delegates has created a website to help keep her constituents informed about the redevelopment of downtown Columbia.

Focus Group Open Thread

If you attended today’s Focus Group meeting, please use the comments section on this post to share your thoughts on what happened.

If you were unable to attend today’s Focus Group meeting, please use the comments section to share your thoughts on the Draft Design Guidelines Parts One and Two and Street Hierarchy Diagram, Street Types Diagram, and the Draft Urban Design Plan.

Wednesday's Focus Group Meeting

The Department of Planning and Zoning has been holding focus group meetings on aspects of the plan for downtown Columbia with a group of people they selected that includes some of the stakeholders affected by the plan. While these focus group members have raised many excellent concerns I have not seen many changes made to the plan yet to reflect their concerns.

The next Focus Group meeting is this Wednesday the 15th from 3pm to 5:30pm at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center. These meetings are open to the public and at least at the last meeting they opened up the meeting so members of the public raise issues. Though unfortunately these meetings are during the work day, I highly recommend all who can attend to go to these meeting. The Department of Planning and Zoning has now posted the agenda for Wednesday's meeting and the second part of the draft design guidelines that will be discussed as well as the Street Hierarchy Diagram and the Street Types Diagram that will be discussed at the Focus Group meeting. You can check out the first part of the draft design guidelines here.

Let me know what you think.

Reminder about the February 27th Hearing on the Downtown Columbia Plan

The Department of Planning and Zoning is planning on holding a hearing on the current proposed plan for Downtown Columbia on Monday, February 27th at 7pm at the Spear Center (former Rouse Building) on the Lake Front. This has the potential of being an excellent opportunity for the community to express their thoughts on the plan. I highly encourage everyone to come to it. Tell your friends and neighbors and bring them with you. For information on the proposed plan here are some links to my past posts:

The Proposed Plan

The Proposed Road Grid System

The Effect of the Road System on the Lake Front and the Grass Amphitheater

The Mall to Merriweather Promenade

If we speak up now we can still fix the current plan.

Parking

The current proposed plan for downtown Columbia has buildings built on all of the existing parking.



Will they build enough parking garage spaces to replace the existing parking and handle the increase in cars resulting from the new buildings? The parking plan for the recently approved 22 story building raises grave concerns that enough parking will be built. The 22 story building will only have 1.5 parking spaces per residential unit and about have of these spaces will be tandem parking spaces where cars park behind each other blocking each other in. Most households particularly in upper income units without ready access to a Metro have one car per driver. The condos in the 22 story building are planned to be a half million to over a million dollars per unit. In this cost range it is likely that it will take two incomes to afford these units resulting in two drivers. Plus I have a hard time seeing people who pay a half million to over a million dollars for a condo putting up with tandem parking spaces. In addition, where will guests of residents park? If a resident has family over for Thanksgiving or friends over for a party, where will they park? If residents have family visiting from out of town, where will they park?

If the county is approving parking plans like this one for the 22 story building it significantly undermines trust that they will make sure the rest of the plan will have enough parking. And even if they build enough garage spaces will the garages be paid parking? And if the parking around the mall is paid won’t people go shop at Arundel Mills instead? And if people shop at Arundel Mills instead what will that do to the economic vitality of downtown Columbia?

He didn't just say that

According the The Sun, MD Lt. Governor and Republican Senate Candidate Michael Steele equated researchers working on life saving embryonic stem cell research to Nazi doctors who did medical experimentation on Holocaust victims. My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s before he died. It is one of the most miserable things to see a once bright person go through, robbed of what makes them who they are. Stem cell research holds real possibility to save people from the misery of Alzheimer’s as well as numerous other deadly diseases. How can one claim to value life without caring for the living and their ability to live life? My undergrad thesis advisor was a survivor of Nazi medical experimentation and what was done to him was nothing like the life saving research stem cell researchers are working on. Michael Steele's comments are so out of touch with the reality of stem cell research it is hard for me to grasp the warped mindset that can produce it. It is born out of an extremism that values the abstraction of life without valuing the living.

Big Developments to Our South

I know this isn't Howard County related, but I find it an interesting development that I wanted to throw it out for discussion.

James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, announced this week he plans to run for the Senate as a Democrat in Virginia against Sen. George Allen (R). I am hearing this is just the latest example of former staunch Republicans particularly in the national security field becoming Democrats. In fact, the list of veterans, including Iraq War veterans, running as Democrats against Republican incumbents is now over 50. On James Webb's decision to run, as a former Secretary of the Navy he seems well positioned to do well in the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area.

What do you think? Will James Webb make this a competitive race?

Widening Route 29

The Flier fills in more details on the widening of northbound Rt. 29 from the Howard County-Montgomery County border to Rt. 175 that I first mentioned in the last Focus Group round-up.

February 27th Hearing on Downtown Columbia Plan

The Department of Planning and Zoning is planning on holding a hearing on the current proposed plan for Downtown Columbia on Monday, February 27th at 7pm at the Spear Center (former Rouse Building) on the Lake Front. This has the potential of being an excellent opportunity for the community to express their thoughts on the plan. I highly encourage everyone to come to it. Tell your friends and neighbors and bring them with you. For information on the proposed plan here are some links to my past posts:

The Proposed Plan

The Proposed Road Grid System

The Effect of the Road System on the Lake Front and the Grass Amphitheater

The Mall to Merriweather Promenade

If we speak up now we can still fix the current plan.

Preserving Green Space, Revitalizing Columbia’s Village Centers, and Absorbing Population Pressures

As I have written in previous posts I think over the next thirty years our county will face significant population pressures. Our location between Baltimore and DC, our excellent school system, and our proximity to the soon to be expanded Fort Meade will only increase these pressures.



I mentioned in a previous post, one way to absorb this population pressure and preserve green space is to be creative in revitalizing Columbia’s village centers. Last week the Columbia Flier published my letter to the editor on how this could be done:

The concept of the mall or the big box strip has always been that people like to shop where they can do all their errands in one place. Thus the more draws to an area the more likely people will shop there and eat in the restaurants there. In recent years I have heard much debate about the "death" of the village center concept. As a result the Owen Brown and Oakland Mills village centers have been downsized and turned into strip shopping centers.

Instead of downsizing the village centers for them to survive, they need two things: 1) better signage and 2) to be upsized for our modern scale of retail. If we were to integrate the modern scale of retail into our village centers by stacking big box stores like Borders and Best Buy on top of grocery stores we could add economic draws to the village centers, make the shopping experience more pleasant and absorb the population pressures that face the county without destroying existing green space.

If we could stack big box stores on top of our grocery stores, then the land taken up by big box stores could be used to build a new village of Columbia, allowing developers to get more bang for their buck off that land and allowing the county to steer new development into this space rather than existing green space. This is not a new concept, but has been used very successfully in Seattle.

With the plans to replace the Safeway in King’s Contrivance with a Harris Teeter, my own village of King’s Contrivance might represent a great opportunity to start this.

Steering Development

We face immense population pressures here in Howard County and I think a good place to steer growth is downtown Columbia, but it needs to be done in a way that will create a livable, economically sustainable community that reflects Howard County’s values of being mixed income, preservation of green space, and planning before we build so we have the infrastructure to meet the communities needs. The current plan does not yet do that. We can get the current plan fixed before it is approved if we let the county officials know where the problems are and what solutions would fix these problems. For a discussion on some of these issues please check out the earlier posts on this blog, some of them linked to in the post right below this post.

Howard County’s Future

The question before us is do we want a proliferation of isolated pockets of subdivisions as developers fill in green space or do we want to follow the tradition of Howard County of planning long term to create livable communities with the infrastructure to sustain them. We are not, nor do we want to be Montgomery County or Northern Virginia where they let subdivisions pop up without a plan creating suburbs without community and transportation gridlock. If we do downtown Columbia right and are creative with the redevelopment of the village centers we can absorb additional population pressures while preserving green space and avoiding the sprawl and crawl of Montgomery County and Northern Virginia. If we do downtown Columbia wrong we will create a blight at the heart of Howard County costing tax payer dollars and draining our economic vitality. Together we can direct Howard County’s future towards the diverse, economically sustainable community with a high quality of life we have been developing, but to do so we must speak up now and let our elected officials and the staff in the Department of Planning and Zoning know the problems in the current plan and how they can be fixed.

Here is a link to my previous post on the current plan.

Here is a link to my previous post on the proposed road network.

Here is a link to my previous post on the effect of the road network on the Lakefront.

Here is a link to my previous post on the impact of development decisions on creating a diverse community.

Here is a link to two of my previous posts on Mixed Income Housing: Post #1 and Post #2.

Last Wednesday's Focus Group

Here is a quick rundown of some of the interesting things that came up at Wednesday’s Focus Group meeting on Downtown Columbia (Note: Please feel free to add anything I missed in the comments section):

• Mark DeLuca, Traffic Chief in the Department of Public Works, gave a very informative run through of the current major intersections in downtown Columbia and the challenges each will have moving forward.
• The state has a new mark up plan for South Entrance Road to make it more utilized. I will try to post it as soon as I find an online version. If anyone knows where a link to it is please email me.
• Mark DeLuca mentioned that it is common place in Montgomery County for drivers to have to wait through multiple light cycles at traffic lights, but that we don’t want that in Howard County because that would adversely effect our community’s quality of life.
• They are putting a cross walk and pedestrian signals at the Little Patuxent Parkway/Harpers Farm Road intersection.
• I asked Mark DeLuca about the zigzag problems with the proposed grid plan that I blogged about before. He said that if that would be the final version that would be a problem, but that the street layout was still an early sketch. I hope to see this fixed in future sketched. Mark DeLuca also said that part of the problem is working around existing structure. This is something I completely agree with. Given the current structures like the Mall and new buildings that will not be changed anytime in the near future as well as the topography and the lake there is not very much room to create a real functioning grid. At some point we have to make a determination if a grid can be created on the terrain we have that will achieve what they say they want it to achieve.
• Parking concerns were raised and there was widespread sentiment expressed by both members of the focus group and the audience that the current structured garages are full and concern about the implications of this situation moving forward.
• Dick Talkin raised the issue of grid networks working around Camden Yards, but it seems to me that what works about Camden Yards is the easy exit onto highways after events to quickly move traffic out of the area.
• George Miller from the State Highway Administration said that a 3rd northbound lane is in the concept planning stage for Rt. 29 from the Little Patuxent River to Rt. 175, but construction has not been funded yet.
• A new Focus Group meeting was added for Wednesday, February 22nd from 3pm to 5:30pm, in addition the already planned Focus Group meeting on Wednesday, February 15th from 3pm to 5:30pm.
• The proposed plan will be presented to the public on February 27th at 7pm at the Spear Center (former Rouse Building) at the Lake Front. It is my understanding that there will be an opportunity for the public to give feedback at that time. I highly encourage everyone to come to this meeting and let the county know what you think of the current plan.

Focus Group Open Thread

The Focus Group on Downtown Columbia met Wednesday. I will post on it tomorrow, but in the meantime those who were there can use this as an open thread to post there thoughts. If you weren’t there you can find the first part of the Urban Design Guidelines -- that was one of the items discussed at the meeting -- here and you can also share your thoughts on them in the comments section.