The planned Shipley?s Grant village demonstrates how the nationwide trend of mixed-use development is gaining ground in Howard County.
“The hope is to create a mini-community where people have access to the goods and services they may need” close to their homes, said Steve Lafferty, deputy director of the county?s Department of Planning and Zoning.
Most zoning guidelines separate community uses, designating land for housing or businesses only, but mixed-use allows for more integration, Lafferty said.
This can cut down on traffic, since residents don?t have to travel far for certain amenities, he said.
However, critics contend that mixed-use developments actually mean more dense, concentrated traffic, Lafferty said, with residents from outside the development visiting the shops or offices.
In Howard County, resistance is also coming from residents unwilling to change the area?s traditionally rural atmosphere, Lafferty said.
“It?s a much more urban approach to living,” he said, “and many people aren?t ready for that, so they question how it will work.”
Gerrit Knaap, executive director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland, said some mixed-use critics think separating land use is ideal because it cuts down on traffic and street noise.
They “don?t like the nuisance of commercial activity in their neighborhood,” he said.
Anthony Downs, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution?s Metropolitan Policy Program, said one challenge with the approach is that many store owners prefer to operate on a large scale, but it?s hard to bring a large grocery or department stores into a compact community.
These stores need the larger parking lots and roads not included in many developments.
If developed properly, mixed-use areas can create what Knaap called an “urbane atmosphere,” for residents who enjoy the proximity of shops and restaurants.
The mixed-use success stories, such as downtown Silver Spring, are relatively high-density neighborhoods served by public transit and a strong pedestrian infrastructure, he said.
“It?s not simply stuffing residential and commercial development together,” Knaap said.
“It?s hard to create mixed use in what are presently homogenous residential communities. There are some areas of Howard County that are very low density, very exclusively residential, and a lot of people like it that way.”
