Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. Columbia is a suburb of Baltimore and, to a lesser degree, Washington, D.C. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not just in terms of economics and engineering. Opened in 1967, Columbia was designed to not only eliminate the inconveniences of then-current subdivision design, but also eliminate racial, religious, and income segregation.
Today, Columbia has a population of about 97,200 and is the most populous census-designated place in Maryland. By the early 2000s, the town had acquired many of the characteristics of other contemporary U.S. suburbs, such as increasingly large private homes on large parcels and "big box" retail stores accessible mostly by automobile. Rouse's ethos remains a strong influence upon the physical and political development of Columbia.
History
The Rouse Company accumulated over 14,000 acres (57 km 2 ), 10 percent of Howard County (located between Baltimore and Washington), from 140 separate owners. This acquisition was funded by Connecticut General Life Insurance, at an average price of $1,500 per acre ($0.37/m²). In October 1963, the acquisition was revealed to the residents of Howard County, putting to rest rumors about the mysterious purchases. These had included the theory that the site was for a laboratory to study diseases and another that the site was intended to become a giant compost heap.
At this unveiling, James Rouse described Columbia as a planned new city which would avoid the leap-frog and spot development threatening the county. The new city would be complete with jobs, schools, shopping, and medical services, and a range of housing choices. The property taxes from commercial development would cover the additional services with which housing would burden the county. The planning process for Columbia included not only planners, but also a convening of a panel of nationally recognized experts in the social sciences, known as the Work Group. Meeting for two days, twice a month, for half a year, the Work Group suggested innovations that the planners should try in education, recreation, religion, and health care, as well as ways of improving social interactions. Open classrooms, the interfaith centers, and the then-novel idea of a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) with a group practice of doctors (the Columbia Medical Plan) sprung from these meetings. Columbia was not incorporated; some governance, however, was to be provided by the Columbia Association, which manages common areas and functions as a homeowners' association with regard to private property. The first manager of the Columbia Association was John Estabrook Slayton, who died in early 1967. The community center in Wilde Lake, the Slayton House, was named after him for the contributions he made to the early planning of Columbia.
The physical plan, with neighborhood and village centers, also were decided upon at these meetings. Columbia's “New Town District” zoning ordinance gives the developer great flexibility about what to put where, without getting approval from the county for each specific project.
The first village to be developed in Columbia was Wilde Lake. The first high school to open in Columbia was Wilde Lake High School, which opened in 1971 as a model school for the nation. Constructed in the open classroom style, it was razed and reconstructed on the same site in 1996.
Columbia proper consists only of that territory governed by the Columbia Association, but larger areas are included under its name by the post office and the census. These include several other communities which predate Columbia, including Simpsonville, Atholton, and in the case of the census, Clarksville and Savage.
Master plan
To achieve the goals set forth by the Work Group, Columbia's Master Plan called for a series of ten self-contained villages, around which day-to-day life would revolve. The centerpiece of Columbia would be the Mall in Columbia and man-made Lake Kittamaqundi.
Villages and neighborhoods
The village concept is aimed to provide Columbia a small-town feel (like Easton, Maryland, where James Rouse grew up). Each village comprises several neighborhoods. The village center may contain middle and high schools. All villages have a shopping center, recreational facilities, a community center, a system of bike/walking paths, and homes. Four of the villages have interfaith centers, common worship facilities which are owned and jointly operated by a variety of religious congregations working together.
Most of Columbia's neighborhoods contain single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and apartments (though some are more exclusive than others). The original plan, following the neighborhood concept of Clarence Perry, would have had all the children of a neighborhood attend the same school, melding neighborhoods into a community and ensuring that all of Columbia's children get the same high-quality education.
- Village – Neighborhoods (in rough order of opening)
- Wilde Lake – Bryant Woods, Faulkner Ridge, Running Brook, The Birches
- Harper's Choice – Longfellow, Swansfield, Hobbit's Glen
- Oakland Mills – Thunder Hill, Talbott Springs, Stevens Forest
- Long Reach – Phelps Luck, Jeffers Hill, Locust Park, Kendall Ridge
- Owen Brown – Dasher Green, Elkhorn, Hopewell
- Hickory Ridge – Clemens Crossing, Hawthorn, Clary's Forest
- Dorsey's Search – Dorsey Hall, Fairway Hills
- Kings Contrivance – Dickinson, Huntington, Macgill's Common
- River Hill – Pheasant Ridge, Pointers Run
- Town Center – Vantage Point, Banneker, Amesbury, Creighton's Run, and Warfield Triangle
Columbia takes its street names from famous works of art and literature: for example, the neighborhood of Hobbit's Glen takes its street names from the work of J. R. R. Tolkien; Running Brook, from the poetry of Robert Frost; and Clemens Crossing, from the work of Mark Twain. The book Oh, you must live in Columbia! chronicles the artistic, poetic, and historical origins of the street and place names in Columbia.
Columbia today
In 2006, Money magazine ranked Columbia (together with Ellicott City, its neighbor to the north) #4 out of the 100 "Best Places to Live" in the United States. In 2008, Columbia and Ellicott City were ranked #8 on this list.
Education and libraries
Columbia's public schools are operated by the Howard County Public School System. As of the 2007-2008 school year, the following high schools served some part of Columbia:
- Atholton
- Hammond
- Howard
- Long Reach
- Oakland Mills
- River Hill
- Wilde Lake
Note that almost all of these schools also serve students from outside Columbia, as is also the case with middle and elementary schools.
There are no conventional four year colleges or universities in Columbia, but several other college level programs have facilities there. Howard Community College is located near the town center, while the University of Phoenix and Loyola College in Maryland have facilities on the east side of town.
Two of the six branches of the Howard County public library system are in Columbia, including the Central Library in Town Center and the East Columbia Branch in Owen Brown.
Health
Medical care is available in the recently renovated Howard County General Hospital, affiliated with Baltimore's famous Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Columbia Medical Plan was the city's largest health maintenance organization (HMO). In more recent years, however, this plan has divided into separate medical groups that simply share the Twin Knolls buildings. Today, there is a Kaiser Permanente facility located in the Columbia Gateway industrial park. There are also a number of clinics, such as the Nighttime Care Center offering after-hours care.
Shopping
The Mall in Columbia is a large regional shopping mall with five anchor department stores (Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Sears, Macy's, and JC Penney) and over 200 stores and restaurants. Also containing a 14-screen AMC movie theater, an LL Bean retail store, a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, and a Bank of America, the Mall is a societal center for the community and is located in Town Center.
There are several other major shopping centers in the Columbia area, including Snowden Square, Columbia Crossing I and II, Dobbin Center, Gateway Overlook, Ellicott City's Long Gate Shopping Center, and Hanover's Arundel Mills (in neighboring Anne Arundel County).
Columbia's nine "village centers" provide residents with nearby shopping as well, often including supermarkets, gas stations, liquor stores, dry cleaners, restaurants, and hair salons. The village centers are laid out so that individual stores are not visible from the road, unlike traditional strip malls). The arrangement is criticized because it makes it difficult for newcomers and non-residents to know what shopping is available; it is praised for eliminating much of the garishness of roadside America.
The village centers have evolved over time. The Oakland Mills Village Center had a traditional Village Center
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