Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in The Examiner’s series profiling the five proposed neighborhoods in the master plan for the redevelopment of downtown Columbia. Next week, the series concludes with the Crescent neighborhood.
Residents strolling through the Lakefront neighborhood in Columbia will be greeted with striking views of the lake and many opportunities to walk around and enjoy the area.
“We want to bring community life back to the water’s edge,” said Greg Hamm, regional vice president of General Growth Properties Inc. and general manager of Columbia.
“It’s a place we want to be less dense — lakefronts, by definition, have only two ways out.”
The Lakefront neighborhood, bordering Lake Kittamaqundi, is one of five distinct but connected neighborhoods that GGP has proposed in its 20- to 30-year master plan. The others are Merriweather, Warfield, Crescent and Symphony Overlook.
The Lakefront neighborhood will have lower density along the lakefront, with some height farther out from the lake.
“We’re doing this to try to have as many take advantage of the views as possible,” he said.
Several residents, like Bridget Mugane, said that while it shouldn’t be too heavily developed, it could benefit from being enlivened.
“There was a strong feeling that the Lakefront was the heart of Columbia, historically and now, and that it’s sacred and shouldn’t be affected by heavy development,” said Mugane, who was part of a focus group that met a few years ago when the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning was considering changes to the Lakefront before GGP took over developing plans.
GGP now has plans that include new landscaping with flowering trees and a push to encourage residents to take advantage of the water. Artist renderings of the scenic neighborhood showed small, nonpower boats on the lake.
Visitors to this area will be greeted with a more vibrant atmosphere with more activity, said Jaquelin Robertson, an architect with Cooper, Robertson & Partners, a New York City firm that’s part of GGP’s design and planning team.
The planners hope to achieve this through pathways and a community event space by the lake.
An appeal to the neighborhood will be its connection to the nearby Warfield neighborhood. An interior walkway will link Warfield’s main street and plaza area to Lakefront’s fountain terrace, channel garden and promenade, said Robertson.
Not only would the neighborhood be an attractive place for many recreational activities, it’ll also be a place for offices and many residences, GGP officials said.
The plan must be approved by the county before changes can happen.
At a glance
Proposed use of the Lakefront neighborhood:
- Retail: 123,190 square feet
- Office: 1,074,100 square feet
- Cultural civic: 15,000 square feet
- Residential: 2,000 dwelling units
Source: General Growth Properties Inc.
