Patuxent Fishwrap has posted their article here about the CA vision for Symphony Woods. Upon looking at the plan, it's honestly...not a bad one. It is very much park-like, with some water, some art...a quiet place for residents to come and recreate, workers to go have lunch, and a place to provide a respite from the hustle and bustle of Town Center. This design provides an oasis in a desert of activity for Columbia residents and workers, and for that, I think CA should be commended.
Uh-oh. Roll in the "not enough development" crew. GGP and local types like Jud Malone, President of Howard County Tomorrow (BTW, who is the Vice President of Howard County Tomorrow?) would like to see more "destination"-type activities in Symphony Woods. Such as-- a museum, a children's theater, maybe a cafe or two, etc. Hmm, OK....to be honest, those features would far from suck as well. In fact those could be quite nice.
Less clear and more head-tilting are the thoughts that Symphony Woods provide a closer "connection" to Merriwether Post Pavilion. Remind me please, why is this necessary? When I was in my teens, Symphony Woods and MPP were quite well-connected; the woods were where I went to listen to the shows I didn't have the dough to buy a ticket to and walk 100 yards so I could see it in person! Seriously, does the area around Wolf Trap connect to it? What about around Nissan Center? Hmm, actually, those areas seem to be surrounded by fields and parking lots-- kind of like MPP is now!
On the other hand, the Coalition to Never, Ever Change Anything...err...Coalition for Columbia's Downtown just LOVES CA's plan as it is. That's enough to question their judgment right there. Fortunately they expressed said support without bleating on about "Jim Rouse's vision."
And so we have the current state of affairs. Which begs the question: why not put GGP's chocolate into CCD's peanut butter? Why NOT a children's theatre? Why NOT a museum? Could one think of any possibly better place to build permanent home for the Columbia Archives?
What's special about this is that the people on both sides of this issue who are so carefully staking out their positions on this plan, knowing full well that these visions-- CA's and GGP's-- will almost certainly meet in the middle, are some of the same people who take turns arguing expediency or due diligence in Columbia's plans for its village centers, and downtown. It's the sort of posturing that turns most residents off and contributes to the apathy in Columbia. And these types blame each other for that too. They should look in the mirror to see who's responsible.
Let's move away from the posturing and get to the next step on this. This plan has to be folded into the downtown development plans; as much as the plan for Symphony Woods can be worked on and improved in the interim (I presume by CA) it should be.
If the plan was for the Smith property it would be perfect. It is not.
There were many questions about the park the evening of the presentation like asking the police about the affect the design would have on Merriweather Post. Nor was there any explanation how it would be funded or how much it would cost. Are you ready to support CA spending $5 million of lien money on this project? I'm not, because it is not necessary for CA bare the full cost of improving Symphony Woods.
I am waiting for a real joint presentation by the three main stakeholders (CA, GGP & County) then I will be excited about the paln for Symphony Woods.
Posted by: Tom | September 27, 2009 at 06:11 PM