Rouse Didn't Say Let There Be Light

Well that's not entirely true but his vision of Columbia did not involve an excessive use of street lighting or neon lighting at all. In single family homes the builders and home owners were required to their own outside light on a post in lieu of traditional street lights. This can be seen along Green Mountain Circle.Eventually homes didn't have these lights anymore but still there was little traditional street lighting to be found. The Village Centers also had and still have very little lighting. Usually in retail strip centers the signs for the businesses are lit up for road visibility, not in Columbia. Storefronts originally faced inward to create a European village courtyard theme. This ultimately didn't work because of visibility. Many of the Village Canters have been renovated into more traditional strip centers or are now in the process of doing so.

Today the need for additional lighting is in greater demand than it was back in the 1960s while Columbia was in its planning stages. Village main streets like Tamar Drive, Harpers Farm Road, Twin Rivers Road, and Cradlerock Way have benefited from additional and more adequate lighting. However, one turn off of these streets and you will be in the dark. Here are some neighborhood streets and their cul de sacs that should all have more street and pathway lighting. They include but are not limited to Green Mountain Circle and Windstream Drive in Bryant Woods, Faulkner Ridge Circle in Faulkner Ridge, West Running Brook Road, Ten Mills Road, and Columbia Road in Running Brook, Eliots Oak Road and Hesperous Drive in Longfellow, Cedar Lane in Swansfield, Martin Road, Freetown Road, Cedar Lane, and Quarterstaff Road in Clemens Crossing. Hickory Ridge Road in Clarys Forest and Hawthorn, Columbia Road in Dorseys Search. Cradlerock Way in Dasher Green and Elkhorn. Stevens Forest Road, and Thunderhill Road in Oakland Mills. Phelps Luck Drive and High Tor Hill in Phelps Luck.

Rouse may not have said let there be light then, but he'd say it now.