County Puts Out Downtown Redevelopment Plan

The County has put out its revised Downtown Columbia Redevelopment Plan.

Go read it and let me know what you think. Together as a community we can create a redeveloped downtown that advances the quality of life in our community.

The Focus Group will meet again on Wednesday, October 10th from 4pm to 6pm. The location and the agenda haven't been announced yet, but I will link to them as soon as I find out.

September Bagel Bin Listening Session

I will hold my next Bagel Bin Listening Session on Sunday, September 23rd from 12noon to 2pm. Please come by and share your thoughts on any issues effecting our community.

Responsible Development

Wednesday night at the Kings Contrivance Village Board meeting I saw a presentation by Wegman's. The Wegman's proposal includes Wegman's paying for significant road improvements in that area where they are planning on building at the corner of Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Road. If more developers demonstrated this willingness to mitigate the traffic problems they create we would not be having such a problem with downtown Columbia redevelopment.

Though I have significant concerns about the impact Wegman's will have on the Village Centers I gained a lot of respect for Wegman's handling of the traffic situation. I suggest that to prepare for Wegman's arrival villages need to quickly develop a plan to evolve their Village Centers to survive Wegman's arrival. I have written on my suggestion on how Village Centers can evolve to meet the modern economy here.