We already see the beginnings of the new residential housing that is starting to go up next to the Columbia Mall. But next year at this time we might be seeing similar work taking place on the other side of Little Patuxent Parkway along Brokenland Parkway.
We have all become used to seeing this area be a treed area and open space near Merriweather Post that is used to sell Christmas trees in December. With the plans developing this area is poised to look very different.
As the drawing above shows this area may soon become a large office building corridor that will compliment the existing office buildings along Little Patuxent. With this area's development beginning as soon as this time next year the number of new jobs and employers in our downtown will significantly increase. If you travel on Route 29 during rush hours you will see that more cars are coming into Columbia than are leaving. This development will only increase this traffic flow reality. This expansion is in line with Jim Rouse's vision that Columbia be not just a suburban residential community but a community that had significant commercial activity that gave residents of the new town an opportunity to work in as well as live in Columbia. The residential part of our town's development is almost complete and the growth of the commercial sector is soon to move into high gear in making Columbia more urban moving into our future. The types of businesses and other employers attracted to our town will probably be the clean, hi tech, high income jobs that will continue to provide a healthy tax base to continue to fund the high quality services to which we have grown accustomed.
P.S.
One other area of development in the area around the new Whole Foods store will be some new buildings in newly created promenade from Whole Foods moving east. The drawing below shows the new construction in orange.
2 comments:
Looks like Columbia's got a lot in store for us. Hopefully, not too much traffic ;) We expect these new structures to be in sync with rest of the community. More than the external though, is the internal. Maybe some stalwarts and experts in office design could come in and help set up the interiors, to maximize the loose yet measured mode of a residential area.
Oralia @ C2C
Hope it will be good looking city and also hope it will be a traffic less city!
Post a Comment