GGP’s Greg Hamm was instrumental in the redevelopment of Reston, VA. He recently sat down with David Yungmann to discuss how Columbia can learn from their experiences as we inch closer to our own transformation.
Warfield, Lakefront and Symphony Overlook
November 19, 2008Here it is! We’re still working on the sound, so thanks for your patience!
GGP and Sigaty Meeting
November 13, 2008There’s lots of scary news out there about GGP these days. The fact is that they have over a billion dollars of debt coming due in the next few weeks and the capital markets are so screwed up that extending or refinancing the debt might not be possible. So, don’t be surprised if they file for bankruptcy protection.
BUT…. Anyone using this as a reason to delay the process of evaluating and approving this plan doesn’t get it. First, this is a COMMUNITY plan and a COUNTY effort, regardless of who the developer(s) might be. Howard County needs a new downtown and if GGP and we can’t abandon that effort due to GGP issues that we can’t control.
Frankly, the prospect of the Columbia properties being sold off in pieces should create even MORE URGENCY to get them pulled together within a binding general plan. Having parcels sold off one by one to be developed without regard to an overall plan would be terrible for the County. So let’s use the GGP uncertainty as a reason to speed things up, not slow them down as the opposition will surely try to do.
Katie, Mac and I met with Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty today. She is 100% behind getting a general plan in place sooner than later and agrees that the GGP issues create even more urgency. She’s also been reaching out to young people (high school and college ages) trying to keep them informed about the plan. We talked about the many ways we can help each other reach our respective audiences through vehicles such as our videos. We’re fortunate to have such an impressive advocate of a new downtown on the County Council!
The Crescent and Merriweather
November 11, 2008Our second video explores the plans for the area surrounding Merriweather Post Pavillion. We’d love to hear your comments.
C20 Launches First Video in Series - General Plan Overview
October 29, 2008In keeping with our goal of informing you through new media, we’re luanching a series of short video clips that will be delivered over the next 2 weeks. Take a quick look at this introduction and look out for the first in the series later this week! After you watch, feel free to leave us a comment!
Opponents get organized
October 28, 2008We hear that the Coalition for Downtown, which is the opposition group in this fight to transform Town Center into the real city it was envisioned to be, is having a coming out party this week. Since this group seems more appropriately named the Coalition to Slow Columbia Down, we’re not surprised they’ve lined up a couple of old Rouse guys to help them stop positive change. So now they have a partnership between the guys who abandoned the Columbia vision 20 years ago and the community “leaders” who sat back and watched the place deteriorate. It must take the thought of someone making money in their utopian backyard to get them interested again (of course, GGP has given the community 3 years of input and collaboration!). Over the next few weeks, you’ll hear these folks belly-aching about too many residential units in downtown (so people can walk to everything), traffic (as if something exciting might actually be happening there), removing trees (they’re planting 15,000 new trees), etc. It’s all right from the old anti-change playbook – just tactics to stop this process and let Town Center die. With your help, we’re not about to let this vocal minority hijack our future.
Wordbones Gets It
October 20, 2008Local blogger wordbones had a great post this past Friday in response to this article in The Flier.
In his post, wordbones calls Liz Bobo out for saying she, “remains skeptical about Columbia gaining mass transit anytime soon because of high costs.” He calls her, “shortsighted” for not trying to lay the groundwork now for mass transit in the future.
He also lays into CA Board Member Alex Hekimian for calling GGP’s traffic study, “not credible”. Wordbones says, “ It certainly would be valid for Alex to have some objections to certain criteria in the study but to say that a traffic study prepared by a professional traffic engineer is “not credible” is both a little over the top and insulting.”
We agree on both points, wordbones. It always seems to be something with Liz and Alex, not to mention Lloyd and Alan. They kind of remind me of Rachael Dratch’s character “Debbie Downer” on SNL. You remember her, right. She would persistently add bad news or her own negative feelings to a gathering, thus bringing down the mood of everyone around her. “Feline AIDS is the #1 killer of domestic cats.” Waa Waa Waa.
I guess it’ll always be something with these people. This time it’s too much traffic. Last week it was not enough affordable housing. Tomorrow it’ll be something else. It’s always easier to find an excuse not to do something than it is to roll up your sleeves and get it done.
Move It Forward
October 11, 2008Explore Howard has 3 good articles about the plan GGP submitted to the county last week.
One focused on the overall plan, complete with renderings and a breakdown of each of the 5 new neighborhoods within Town Center. Another hit on some the financial woes GGP is experiencing now, which we blogged about here a couple weeks ago.
And finally, the other article focuses on feedback from county and community leaders. Our own David Yungmann was quoted as saying, “We’ve done a lot of talking and had a lot of discussion, but now’s the time to move it forward.”
We’d also like to thank hocoblogs for listing us on their blog! If you haven’t visited hocoblogs before, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s a great resource for staying in tune with everything going on in Howard County.
What They’re Saying
October 8, 2008Anyone catch this article in Sunday’s Sun? GGP’s Greg Hamm was quoted as saying, “This proposal doesn’t represent a first draft. This is what we think works.”
From everything we’ve seen, we think it does too. Give GGP credit for assembling a world class team of architects, cultural and master planners, designers and environmental experts to bring us a new vision of our town.
It’s also clear that they listened to the community as evidenced by their decision to implement the plan with three phases of incremental growth. This means GGP must meet certain adequate public facilities benchmarks before the next phase of housing is granted.
Explore Howard also covers the story here. And The Washington Post had a nice article as well.
In other news, we are now on facebook and myspace. Please stop by and add us as your friend! Also, we are planning our next event right now, so check back often for details.
