Monday, October 30, 2006

And Speaking Of Downtown Plans...

Okay, I have to admit I got energized by two letters to the editor in the Howard section of The Sun Yesterday. One was by Marylou Semones in support of The Plaza residences in Town Center and the other was by Robert Tennenbaum urging his fellow downtown task force members to get off the dime and move the Town Center planning process forward.

Amen to Ms. Semones and Mr. Tennenbaum.

As far as the Plaza Residences go, enough is truly enough. Let's give WCI communities their building permit and get this beautiful building started. First of all it is in the right place, not on the lake where it might obstruct views but right on by Little Patuxent Parkway. Secondly, yes , it is a tall boy but really, when you consider that is actually downhill from the Mall, it will probably end up (visually anyway) not much taller than Merrill Lynch building.

As for the rest of the Town Center plan, it is time for action, not more study.

The largest landowner in Town Center, General Growth Properties, has shown more patience with this "planning" process than could reasonably be expected. Keep in mind that they still have the right to put big box retail and offices behind Merriweather without a new plan. It was primarily Ken Ullman and Judd Malone (former Town Center Columbia Council rep) who convinced GGP to get on board with the county and comunity to consider a wholistic plan. Now both of these guys are being attacked for doing just that. Judd Malone lost his reelection to the council and now it sounds like Ken's opponent, Chris Merdon, has made a campaign issue out of it.

No good deed goes unpunished they say.

Theodore Roosevelt put it best:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

who cares?

Anonymous said...

General Growth can only do what the underlying zoning and available building permits allow it to do. A landowner is governed by law and zoning and has no rights otherwise.

wordbones said...

Existing new town zoning allows GGP to develop the remaining parcels of land in Town Center with a mix of retail and office.

That IS the underlying zoning and that IS within their rights.

Anonymous said...

There's a few other legitimate limitations that also have to be considered.

Such development and the traffic upgrades they'd need would be constricted by laws protecting against incursion into the floodplain, streams, wetlands, and their accompanying buffers near South Entrance Road and Route 29.

wordbones said...

You know Tom...

It is really tiresome when people begin their diatribe by stating things like "You obviously don't know the history of the Crescent property."

What can you possibly hope to accomplish when you begin a dialogue that way?

I know more about the development process and the various insundry players that you may suspect.

wordbones said...

Tom,

You seem to carry around a great deal of anger and perhaps that is what gets in the way of clear thinking.

Attending every sketch plan meeting does not necessarily equate to being knowledgable.

Accusing Ken of making a back room deal with GGP for more density without hard evidence is reckless and unwarrented. You might try phrasing it like "I suspect that a back room deal was made..."

That might come accross better.

GGP was not intially keen on the charette but Ken and Jud helped sell it to them by making the point that it would be far better to have the county and the community on board with the process. This is a fact.

To call the charette "phony" diminishes the efforts and time of of a great deal of people who are dedicated to making this community a better place.

Just because you don't like the outcome it doesn't mean that it was nefarious.

Then again, I doubt you are ready to hear this either.

wordbones said...

Tom,

I caution you to be very careful when making claims of corruption without hard evidence.

I am willing to listen to facts backed up by evidence but I will not tolerate baseless accusations.