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.
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.
Labels: Village Centers, Wegman's
posted by Evan | 2:05 AM
9 Comments:
Are you suggesting that paying for infrastructure issues makes development, like the tower, more palatable?
Evan, I have to agree with Anon 5:46. Please help us understand. Are you saying that building more roads is equivalent to responsible development? That seems to be a pretty low bar. Are there any other proposed developments that do not meet your criteria? I would love to hear you expand on this notion.
I was pointing out that one part of responsible development is not padding developer profits by pushing costs onto taxpayers. I am not for corporate welfare, which is one of my concerns with the most recent downtown redevelopment plan. Wegman's presented a plan where they pay for the traffic infrastructure needed to address the traffic they create.
Evan,
Thanks for the follow-up. Could you further define corporate welfare? I am not certain what you are referring to.
When most development plans (at least the larger ones) go through DPZ, the county is able to extract from the developer such things as increased road easements, improvements to the roads, the building of sidewalks to connect to a nearby sidewalk, etc. It is required-not voluntary. Are you saying that Wegman's is going beyond what the county requires of them? If so that would be notable.
Cathy,
The reason I made this post was the Wegman's representative said that they were going beyond the county requirements.
It is time for Wegman's in Columbia. I have been to th e one on Hunt Valley and it is great. The CA sports clubs had to upgrade facilities, open SSC on a 24/7 basis, etc. once Lifetime Fitness moved into Columbia. Giant, Safeway, and Food Lion will have to the same now with Harris Teeter, Trader Joes, and Wegman's coming.
Competition is great for everyone.
rTa
If Wegmans was really going beyond, then why didn't they study all of the intersections on Snowden River Parkway, including Broken Land Parkway intersection? Obviously traffic will come from there just as much. Also, they did there traffic study on January 18th...I think there was a chance of snow that day. Don't think many cars would be out then. The devil is in the details...you need to read into what they are claiming for yourself and just don't listen to what they say. Its a good company but they are trying to cheat on the traffic study.
anon,
That is interesting. You are right that details matter. Do you have a link to info on when the traffic study was done? You are also right that the Brokenland Parkway and Snowden River Parkway intersection is a mess. Are there any studies on what impact the Wegman's will have on that intersection and the intersections of Rt 175 and Snowden and Dobbin Road and Oakland Mills Road intersections. Maybe the county council needs to expand the range of what intersections are considered impacted by particular developments.
Post a Comment
<< Home