Columbia turns 40

Or that other 4-year-olds in the Baltimore-Washington corridor of the late 1960s weren?t living alongside neighbors of other races and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“When I grew up, it wasn?t the real world, I guess,” said Bryant, 43, who lives in River Hill, Columbia?s newest village, with his wife, Andrea, and their two children. “I always liked the idea of Columbia, even when I really didn?t understand it.”

Bryant, like many second-generation Columbians, moved away, experienced the “real world” and has since moved back to the friendly confines of this unusual town ? a town that seems to have a lasting and profound effect on those who settle there.

Columbia turns 40 this month, and second-generation residents ? along with its “pioneers” ? continue to revel in the town?s founding vision while lamenting some of the elements lost since its inception.

Beginning with people

The great Baltimore developer James Rouse, who died in 1996 at the age of 81, took issue with theway American cities were growing. It was the early 1960s, and cities were growing haphazardly, marred by “disorder, lack of high purpose and principal” and were void of any sense of community, Rouse said in a 1963 speech at the University of California, Berkeley.

He began asking tough questions about the growth of cities:

What makes a successful community?

Is the racial and economic mixing of people important for individual growth?

Could city services ? such as parks and roads ? be more effectively managed by a corporation, rather than by the government?

Meanwhile, the Rouse Company had been quietly acquiring 14,000 acres in Howard County about 20 miles southwest of Baltimore. The planned city would have 10 villages, each with a village center, a few neighborhoods and about 10,000 residents. Public pools would be built near elementary schools. Bike paths would wind through the city. Downtown would have a mall, restaurants and a lake. People could gather in interfaith centers and parks.

But the vision for Columbia went beyond the blueprints.

“We can?t plan effectively for the future growth of American communities unless we start at the beginning ? and that beginning is people,” said Rouse, who wanted a place that fostered individual growth. Through the city?s design and amenities, this somewhat intangible goal is what makes Columbia unique.

“That is what separates Columbia from other planned communities: the idea that they worked from the social end up,” said Barbara Kellner, manager of the Columbia Archives.

Where everybody knows your name

There were 16 houses on Amy Levitt?s street in Wilde Lake when she was growing up. And she knew all her neighbors.

Levitt, 44, also lives in River Hill, having moved back to Columbia after living overseas. There are more than a dozen houses on her block, “and I still know everybody and their pets,” she said.

This sense of community has endured since Levitt?s childhood, as has Columbia?s open space, which many count among the city?s successes.

“In so many ways it has worked,” said Joseph Mitchell, co-author with David Stebenne of the recently released book “New City Upon a Hill.”

The paths where Levitt once rode her bike and the lakefront where she watched fireworks are now sanctuaries for her three children.

“They are doing some of the same things I did as a kid,” Levitt said.

Roughly 40 percent of the town was set aside for open space, which Columbia has managed to preserve, according to Stebenne, who said that Columbia has gone a long way to protect open space from the pressures of development.

But growth was inevitable. The “pioneers” expected it, and many welcomed it.

Helen Ruther, among the first to move to Wilde Lake in 1967, remembers finding a box turtle wandering down Gov. Warfield Parkway. Now a major thoroughfare, the parkway then was a tree-lined dirt road with little hint of what it was to become. Where bagel shop and an organic market now stand in the Wilde Lake Village Center was once home to a pipe emporium and a butcher shop, Ruther recalled.

There was a time when she could stand where the Interfaith Center was built and watch the stars. Her children walked to school on a direct path from their home.

“So much has changed,” said Ruther, who now lives in Town Center.

Affordable housing: a great idea, but …

In outlining his four main goals ? to build a complete city, to respect the land, to provide for the growth of people and to make a profit ? Rouse also introduced a founding principle for Columbia: housing for residents of all income levels. Columbia would have “houses and apartmentsat rents and prices to match the income of all who work there, from company janitor to company executive,” he said.

The mixed-income housing was a vital piece of Rouse?s plan, and it was strictly enforced, Kellner said. Through the efforts of low-cost home-builder Howard Homes and the religious coalition Interfaith Housing Corporation, early Columbia sought to address these housing needs.

“In a way, Columbia has become a victim of its own success,” said Stebenne, an associate history professor at Ohio State University. “It was not intended to be exclusive. There?s not as much diversity economically as Rouse would have liked.”

The median cost of a single-family detached home in Howard County last year was $575,000 and nearly $277,000 for a condo, according to the county?s Department of Planning and Zoning. In Columbia, the mean home prices were between $371,693 and $395,139.

In River Hill, where many second-generation Columbians now live, there is no dedicated low- or moderate-income housing. “Where I grew up [in Wilde Lake], it was very mixed, with kids getting free school lunches,” said Levitt, who attended Bryant Woods Elementary School. “At my son?s elementary school [Pointers Run], that?s almost nonexistent.”

In the 1970s, President Nixon cut funding for affordable housing programs, which also coincided with a recession for the Rouse Company, Mitchell said. “And that took the heart out of low- to middle-income housing projects. I don?t think they ever materialized,” he said.

A strong transportation system also didn?t fully materialize. A planned minibus system failed, and the low-density neighborhoods didn?t sustain mass transit, according to “New City Upon a Hill.”

And Columbia is no exception to America?s dependence on the automobile. Fewer Columbians walk than in the 1960s and 1970s, and more often young children are driven to school.

The growth also has brought strip malls and big-box stores to Columbia?s periphery ? their convenience and design threatening the welfare of the village centers. The centers were intended to be places where residents could gather, complete with supermarkets and service stores.

But several centers have seen their supermarkets close. The Giant left Wilde Lake, and the long-empty Safeway building in Kings Contrivance Village Center was recently demolished to make way for a Harris Teeter supermarket.

Large grocery stores grew out of the smaller space in village centers, said Doug Godine, general manager at General Growth Properties Inc., which owns land in Town Center. Now, many village centers are having to rethink how they serve the residents, he said.

“The village centers used to be a more important part of Columbia,” said Megan Wiley Rivera, who grew up in Oakland Mills and moved back with her family to live in Town Center.

Holding onto Columbia?s purpose

As Columbia turns 40, many contend Rouse?s vision remains intact. But without the promotion of its uniqueness, it could become just another suburb.

“I still feel like the vision is here, but people don?t understand it anymore,” Bryant said.

Some newer residents haven?t heard of Rouse, or they move in without knowing the founding vision, he said.

The bond to Columbia?s beginnings isn?t as strong for the second generation of Columbians, said Mitchell, adding he is optimistic about the town?s future.

“There are those of us making the concerted effort to make sure people are aware of what Columbia is and is intended to be,” said Maggie Brown, 67, a 37-year Columbia resident and president of the Columbia Association. “The more of us who work on it and make it known, then the next generation will pick up and run with it.”

Perhaps the largest issue facing the residents is the continuing development of Town Center, Columbia?s unfinished piece.

In the contentious debate over what downtown Columbia should look like, Rouse?s words and the various interpretations of his vision often are called upon to support one side or the other ? the proposed high-rise building, for instance.

The final design must bring people to the downtown, Godine said. The company and the county have been working on plans, which will be unveiled this fall, that will include a mix of retail and office space that they hope will draw people back downtown.

“We feel the plans will create a vitality that?s missing here now,” Godine said.

This redevelopment process offers the greatest promise for Columbia?s future. The community is taking part in the debate, which has the attention of county leaders, including Columbia-born County Executive Ken Ulman.

To Rivera, Rouse was a visionary, not bound by the status quo, who built the foundation.

“He seems like the father of Columbia, and now it?s the children who have taken over,” she said. “It?s time for the children to step up and help form Columbia.”

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COLUMBIA STILL A UTOPIA FOR MANY: Many of the first Columbia settlers in the early 1960s were lured by the promise of racial and economic integration and a strong sense of community intended to foster personal growth. But 40 years later, what brings new residents to Columbia and keeps those founding pioneers there?

Rouse?s four main objectives for Columbia

» To build a complete city. With 100,000 residents, the city would have homes, jobs, schools, churches, offices, restaurants and stores. It would be racially and economically diverse.

» To respect the land. Thousands of acres of open space would be dedicated to parks, lakes and pathways.

» To provide for the growth of people. With the village design, neighborhood associations and nonprofit organizations, the town would foster a sense of community.

» To make a profit. By making a profit, the city would demonstrate to other developers that good development can be good for business.

Source: Columbia Archives

No plans for incorporation

With about 100,000 residents, Columbia would be the second-largest city in Maryland ? that is, if it were a city.

Although this planned community has elected leaders and a tax-like property assessment to help pay for parks and roads, Columbia has not incorporated as a municipality.

“Howard County has a great infrastructure in itself, and I truly believe the format in which we exist today is the best for all of us,” Maggie Brown, president of the Columbia Association, said.

The CA, created two years before Columbia?s inception, is the center of that format. The nonprofit homeowners association provides recreational and community services and manages the town?s lakes, parks and pathways.

The county provides all other services, such as trash collection, police, firefighters and schools.

Columbia founder James Rouse envisioned a corporation taking care of these facilities, which would then concentrate the focus on political and public service.

The assessment, or annual charge, is 68 cents per $100 of valuation assessed on 50 percent of the property value, and the increase is capped at 4 percent.

The residents of the nine villages and Town Center elect a representative to serve on the 10-member CA Board of Directors. Residents also elect members of a village board.

The idea of incorporation used to surface every five to seven years, Brown said, “even though it would be a complicated matter.”

For example, incorporation would double services such as police and utilities, which Howard County already does well, Brown said.

The city also would have to determine who runs the schools and where the revenue comes from, Howard County Director of Planning and Zoning Marsha McLaughlin said.

“It?s a fairly complicated endeavor,” she said.

Columbia also has made few moves to grow beyond its borders. The only significant piece of land annexed has been Dorsey Hall; the founders didn?t have the goal of expanding the town, said Barbara Kellner, manager of the Columbia Archives.

Even small outparcels within Columbia that weren?t initially acquired haven?t been sought for inclusion, she said.

“That?s not part of the plan,” Kellner said. “The whole idea was you have this land you planned.”