Across the street?
How about across the highway.
click to enlargeThe “valued Oakland Mills business” she lovingly refers to is located at the end of a quarter mile drive with no sidewalks. It isn’t even connected to the village pathway system.
This “valued Oakland Mills business” doesn’t exactly offer the greatest store hours either. Walgreens is open 24 hours.
This “valued Oakland Mills business” doesn’t exactly offer the greatest store hours either. Walgreens is open 24 hours.
I happen to think the residents of Oakland Mills deserve better than this.
Some Hickory Ridge residents also objected when Walgreens wanted to build across the street from the existing pharmacy in Hickory Village's village center.
ReplyDeleteThose truly concerned about Oakland Mills residents needing pedestrian access to a pharmacy would advocate for a better alternative - placing this pharmacy centrally, across the street from Oakland Mills' populations of more modest means, in its village center, and not about a mile's walk away from them.
The mall was so vibrant earlier this week that many cars were parked illegally in an effort to squeeze into all that... vibrancy. And more good news, the vibrancy extended all the way to the northern county wherein, again, Marriottsville Rd. was so vibrant that cars coming out of Waverly Woods were barely able to squeeze onto a parking-lot like Marriottsville Rd. And, then! Rt. 70 was ultra (or 'uber' depending on your age) vibrant this very morning. Now, I admit to not being the biggest fan of this type of vibrancy and was somewhat relieved on arrival to Baltimore County where cars were actually moving.
ReplyDeleteThe proposed Walgreens at Thunder Hill Road and Route 175 has two problems - safe traffic access and poor development/market planning for the Oakland Mills retail center.
ReplyDeleteThe developer has stated they must create a "right turn in" from Thunder Hill and are not willing to accept the existing access Twin Knolls Road access that the former bank had.
The former bank (adjacent to the existing office/hotel complex) was an excellent example of appropriate business placement and planning. On the other hand, creating a retail pharmacy & convenience store less than a mile from the existing village center is an excellent example of inept or non existant planning.
The situation is exascerbated by the widely held belief that no one is willing to invest in the OM village center's retail development. It appears that the OM Village Board is opting for the alternative of taking half a loaf with poor traffic and planning.
Given the recent passage of CB29 (village center redevelopment), why are government & community officials willing to accept this? Is this any indication of what we can expect with ZRA-113 (town center redevelopment)?
Sounds like this needs to be re-thought all around. Needs of the residents versus traffic planning and flow through.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you need a Systems Engineer (check CNN's "Best Jobs" of the year story.)
Seriously, 175 is becoming a high speed throughfare, and the decel lane might not cut it. I've never gone through here with green lights at less than 50 mph. And people honk at me because I'm holding them up.
And there is no hope for pedestrian traffic in this area...hmmm...was not that supposed to be part of the original plan for Columbia?
I'm not opposed to development or new businesses moving in to HoCo, but this seems to need some rethinking. Maybe we need a referendum? (Ba Da Bing!)
"You can't stop progress, but you can control it." -- Hayduke
Why does the Chamber NEVER support existing businesses when faced with ANY new commercial proposition? And while I'm at it, are all chambers as political as Howard's? Legislative breakfasts, back-slapping, are they all this powerful and driven to control local governments? Or are we just special.
ReplyDelete