Planning begins for Wilde Lake Village Center redevelopment
Baltimore Sun
Howard County's newly adopted process for redeveloping Columbia's village centers has begun for Wilde Lake, the town's most distressed commercial hub.
Geoffrey Glazer, vice president for development of Kimco Realty, the firm that owns the Wilde Lake center and five others, gave village board members a letter Monday night officially starting the clock on what could be a months-long process of determining what to do with the half-empty center.
"We spend two years putting legislation together to start the process. This official letter puts the village board on notice to set up a time period to start a concept plan workshop," Glazer told four board members and about a dozen spectators. He suggested a meeting perhaps in early December, though the board later discussed scheduling the session in late November.
Glazer studiously avoided revealing any of his own ideas about what should be done to fix the center, which lost its Giant supermarket three years ago. That 23,000-square-foot building remains empty, along with a string of additional storefronts that have since closed.
His original proposal to demolish the center and replace it with 500 apartments and 50,000 square feet of convenience retail stores prompted strong community resistance before the new redevelopment process was adopted by the county council Sept. 1. The two sides became deadlocked, with Glazer insisting that the center is not economically viable and residents insisting on a replacement supermarket and no major residential development.
The law created a process for considering whether large-scale residential uses should be allowed at any of the town's eight village centers controlled by special New Town zoning created for Columbia in the mid 1960's.
The new law calls for a preliminary meeting to discuss concepts during the minimum 60-day period between the start of the process and the first public unveiling of the developer's proposal — all before any plan is submitted to the county. That interim also gives village residents time to create their own plan or list of priorities, which Wilde Lake officials are actively working on. The county council members, sitting as the county zoning board, have final say over what changes would eventually be allowed.
Glazer said he would bring planners, architects and engineers to the concept meeting, but said his team would propose nothing. His experts could explain, however, what is good or bad about various ideas, he said.
"I think the entire community will want to be at that meeting," said board member William Santos. Village Board members, Columbia Association officials and county planners should participate, Santos suggested.
"Most of the time, we'll be there to listen. As I heard loud and clear, we'll be listening," Glazer said. He added that his team will be "open-minded" and he hopes residents will adopt that attitude as well.
Once he's heard all the concept ideas, he said, he would return to the board one or two months later with a proposal.
But board members have already created a laundry list of stores they'd like in the renewed center — a list remarkably similar to what existed at the center a decade or more ago.
Their draft proposal minimizes the idea of building more retail, limits building heights to no more than four stories, and calls for "affordable food shopping, household provisions, service providers and specialty retailers, restaurants, eateries and places for entertainment and socializing." The board suggested a coffee shop, hardware store, movie theater, a cheese shop and a deli among other ideas. A pub, perhaps like the former JK's Pub that once existed in the center, was also mentioned.
In addition, their preliminary plan calls for preserving "signature and historical aspects" of the current center, including the current central open space inside the two "arms" of the commercial buildings, the current fountain, Slayton House, the community center where Monday night's meeting occurred, and the current Interfaith building, shared by several congregations.
"I think to a large extent, that is what people want -- what was originally there," said board chairwoman Nancy Alexander. She said the board's ideas would be circulated for public comment and revised before the concept meeting.
Despite Glazer's repeated insistence that he wants to hear residents' ideas before proposing any of his own, several residents in the audience asked for specifics.
"We simply can't live in a generic suburbia. Keep the concept of the village center," urged Joyce Baer, a longtime resident.
Lisa Mikkelson, a former board member, peppered Glazer with specific questions about the environmental aspects of redevelopment, including environmentally rated new structures and storm water standards. Construction, with its noise and debris, she worried, could hurt residents property values.
"I feel like all too often environmental concerns are an afterthought," she said.
Glazer said since there is no plan yet, he couldn't comment.
"We have thoughts about it. We're not blind to it," he said.
After Glazer left, the board moved into an informal work session to refine its own ideas, aided by senior county planner William Mackey.
