The Village that Ate Clarksville

Back in 1990, when HRD finally got around to developing Columbia’s final village, I called River Hill the village that ate Clarksville. Today it is hard to find any remnants of the former country crossroad community. Ironically, Clarksville Pike has become everything that Columbia once promised to eliminate…a “miracle mile” of retail.

And more retail may soon be on the way. The owners of the River Hill Garden Center have filed a rezoning application to allow it to redevelop the property as a shopping center. The garden center is currently operating as a non-conforming use on land zoned R-20 which allows for two residential units per acre. They are seeking a change to B-1. The owners are arguing that everything else along this stretch of the road is already zoned B-1 or B-2.

Down the road and across the street, six development teams are vying for the right to redevelop the county owned former Gateway School which sits on approximately 8 acres along Clarksville Pike. A citizen’s advisory committee has reviewed development proposals that call for a mix of office, residential and retail space. The six teams are Holland Properties, Clarksville Development Group (Kirk Halpin, Focal Development, Kinsley Construction and Corridor Reznick), Security Development, Kimco, George Stone and a joint venture of JPB Enterprises and Roadside Development. The advisory committee is made up of Susan Smith, Mitch Caplan, Jacqueline Easley, Anne Stuart, Barry Curtis, Susan Goldberg, Roger Jones, Mohammad Saleem, Michael McGarvey, Steven Sass and John Connolly.

The committee will be making a recommendation this fall on which team to move forward with.

Despite these changes, you can still find a few reminders of Clarksville’s past like this old mile marker, probably dating back to the 1800’s, which sits in front of the Gateway school property. It reads simply, “9 M To EC.”