Town Center; the Stepchild of Columbia Villages

My recent post about the ongoing debate over the future of Wilde Lake Village Green got me thinking about the village of Town Center. With the current focus and debate on centered on the future of Town Center, it is instructive to look back at the Town Center village that Columbia’s original planners left us with.

Town Center does not have a grocery store. It never had one. It doesn’t have a pharmacy. It doesn’t have a convenience store.

Town Center does not have any neighborhood pools. Not one. The opponents of the Plaza Residences often decried the exclusivity of that buildings rooftop swimming pool but at least it had a pool.

Town Center has neighborhoods that are separated by another village. The Town Center neighborhoods of Amesbury Hill and Creighton’s Run are only accessed by driving through the Wilde Lake neighborhood of Running Brook.

It kind of makes you wonder whether the original Rouse planners had more of a concept than a real plan for Town Center beyond the mall and the office buildings that surround it.

In many ways, the residents of the village are fortunate that General Growth has come along to fill this void in the Columbia vision.