In the Howard County Blogosphere

Bill Santos has done a great job looking at another mall that GGP owns and recently expanded in a similar way as it sounds like GGP is considering expanding the Columbia Mall. There is a lot of meat in Bill’s post. You should go read it yourself, but a couple things stand out from GGP’s experience with the other mall it wanted to expand:

1) It took 4.5 years to get a mall expansion approved. Here in Columbia we are talking about the complete redevelopment of the downtown of the second largest community in the state of Maryland. Personally, I sure hope we can complete our plan in a lot less time than the Natick Mall redevelopment project, but it kind of puts things in perspective.

2) GGP committed to mitigate the cost to the community of their development. Bill quotes this section of a Boston Globe article addressing GGP’s Vice President Jim Grant's reaction to GGP’s work with the community to the mitigation the costs of their development:

"I don't think, four years ago, we expected it to be that high," Grant said of the total mitigation costs. "In every case, we said, 'Gosh, this is tough, but we can live with this amount.' "

Note the reaction. It is tough, but we can live with this amount. The desirability to build in Howard County is as high and more likely much higher than at this other mall project that was rather small compared to the redevelopment of downtown Columbia. I have said from the start that I want GGP to make a huge profit, but that profit must not come at the expense of tax-payers, lien-payers, or the community’s values of mixed income communities and the preservation of greenspace.

3) Julian J. Munnich, the Planning Board Chairman of the community where this other mall is, had this very important thing to say that Bill quotes from that Boston Globe article:

Natick would not have received the concessions "unless the town could show they had the wherewithal to be serious in its negotiations," Munnich said.

This goes back to my longstanding frustration with those in our community that want to play the “we are asking for to much” surrender flag or try to say we cannot ask for X because Y is a higher priority for them and they stupidly think the best way to get Y is to pick a fight with the people who want X rather than actually insisting that the plan include Y.