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Welcome to the inaugural edition of CONNECTIONS, GGP’s e-newsletter designed to provide information, ideas and communications about downtown Columbia and its future. In each edition, we hope to stimulate conversation about the redevelopment of our community as well as provide facts, give updates and announce events and more.
We hope you find it interesting and informative. Please feel free to let us know what you think by emailing us at info@columbiatowncenter.info.
Pat Kennedy served as the first and longest-running president of the Columba Association (1972-1998). Without a predecessor or a similar role anywhere in the country to use as a model, Pat relied on his pragmatism and belief in doing whatever necessary to improve the quality of life for Columbians, which included listening to all the different ideas of residents and incorporating them into the function of the Association. The Columbia Association is not a government but rather a corporation whose mission is to deliver services to residents – so those services evolve as the needs of its residents change. He believes that Columbia needs to change.
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| James Rouse on Columbia |
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| “We must hold fast to the realization that our cities are for people and unless they work well for people they are not working well at all.” |
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From Greg Hamm
The following are excepts from a letter included in the October 1, 2008 General Plan Amendment submission.
Upon arriving here and meeting the many fine people who call Columbia home, one learns immediately that few places have such a deep sense of their past, or such a determined focus on their future. This has been very evident as Columbia has prepared over the last four years for the re-invention of its downtown.
It’s easy to see why people love Howard County and Columbia. There’s a lot to love. But an honest observer sees there’s need for some change. Downtown Columbia has ceased to be the center of commercial activity for the region. Though a highly successful mall thrives downtown, office buildings which surround it have vacancy rates higher than local or regional averages; once bustling open spaces are now virtually empty; neighboring village centers are in need of revitalization; the lack of modern erosion and sediment control techniques have taken their toll; walking throughout the downtown is a challenge; and the goal of diversity is not completed with young people choosing to leave, or not come to Columbia. Against this backdrop of reality is the future.
Columbia’s central location between Baltimore and Washington and its appealing amenities, now as ever, make growth here inevitable. Though at a slower pace than preceding decades, the County’s population through 2040 is projected to grow by approximately 50,000 people. How and where the County and Columbia choose to grow are the critical questions.
Providing for about 20 percent of the County’s future population growth in a revived downtown, the submission is perhaps the best opportunity the County and Columbia will see for comprehensively planned and community-driven growth. After what may be the most extensive community conversation ever held about a redevelopment, with an extraordinary number of attentive and engaged citizens, a clear direction has taken shape.
Some of the most renowned and respected experts in the world have been engaged to study the community’s heritage, hear its collective voice and bring forth a vision worthy of both. Their charge has been to consider the unique history of Columbia, the values we commonly hold and the demands of the modern marketplace; then design a restored, resurgent downtown where the land is respected, the environment conserved and more generations of people from all walks of life will grow and succeed. Four principles have emerged from the process that guide and define it: connectivity, restoration, inclusion, and culture and other amenities.
Community engagement will be sustained throughout the continuing County process and will proceed with each major step and adjustment over the next three decades. As James Rouse would have it, we will go on doing it together. Read the full letter.
Greg Hamm
Vice President, Master Planned Communities
General Manager, Columbia
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Pat was one of the first 10 people to enlist in the Peace Corps, and he was the first to take a group of volunteers oversees to Ghana to begin the work of the organization.
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| Pat Kennedy on Symphony Woods
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| "Something has to happen to make that a lively place, and an attractive place for people to go to, so it is not sitting there ignored..." |
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| And did you know?
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| In the proposed plan, Symphony Woods would become a new arts district with plazas, public spaces, gardens and a children's theater. All of which would encourage people to gather there. A study conducted by Biohabitats concluded that only 41 out of 106 acres of forest downtown will be affected by these new amenities. At the same time, 4,880 linear feet of streambeds would be restored and an additional 1.5 acres of wetlands would be created, improving the overall health of Symphony Woods. |
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| Calendar of Events
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Date: April 23, 2009
Time: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Event: Dr. Richard Florida -- Internationally recognized American Urban Studies Theorist and author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
Location: Kossikoff Center, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel |
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