Wilde Lake Reinvestment

Wilde Lake has perhaps the largest number of small developments with many different housing choices. Some have aged better than others. Those that haven't aged well were published in my Wilde Lake Redevelopment post back in 2008. Those that have aged better are for the most, larger homes that have been privately owned their entire lifespan, those that haven't were converted as such and maintain a high home ownership rate. In order for these homes, when they start coming on the market again not to be skipped over by potential Buyers and Real Estate Agents alike their exterior facades are due for a major reinvestment to keep them viable for decades to come.
First we start with Columbia's very first homes, Bryant Gardens. Originally Apartments these have been created into Condos and the upkeep is great. However, the exterior facades mimic those of dated crime ridden Apartments despite their great upkeep. Unlike many many older Columbia Neighborhoods, trees appear very healthy and green grass can grow all around.The updated Bryant Gardens will feature vinyl siding where the stucco was and new bricks where the old ones are. The windows will be upgraded allowing for decks and balconies. Buildings will be enclosed and guests will be "buzzed" in. The interior of the Buildings were be illuminated and carpeted and the steps will be upgraded.The Cove is almost identical to Bryant Gardens with both developments being built in 1967 as Apartments and being converted into Condos in the early 1980s. One the Cove does have a leg up on Bryant Gardens is the fact that it's on Wilde Lake. If ever Columbia had Million Dollar Condos outside of Town Center, The Cove might be it. Getting their facades upgraded might be a challenge seeing that Oprah lived here they might qualify for Historic Designation.Be that as it may, I still say a more modern look is needed. Seeing that Bryant Gardens has been a virtual twin to the Cove for 43 years, I say their updated looks be identical as well. The Cove will feature new windows, siding, and balconies, and enclosed buildings. Like Bryant Gardens The Cove already has great landscaping.Russett Ridge town homes, located along Windstream Drive, Greek Boy Place, and Barcan Circle appear to have aged worse than Bryant Gardens and the Cove despite never being rentals and being two years younger having been built in 1969. Homes here are either two or three stories as depicted by the photos above.The revamped Russett Ridge will feature updated siding, bricks, or stone with new windows and decorative dormers. As you can see I've provided examples of what the two story and three story homes would look like.Beechin Hills Town Homes have aged very gracefully. As Columbia's first town homes a mild freshening with new siding is all that's in order. The structures don't really warrant much overhauling like other developments.Like I said just fresh siding and trim. Very little is needed for these diamond in the rough town homes.Hollow Oaks features town homes that are three to a row. Unlike Beechin Hills they need more than just a freshening. But don't fret! I have a good idea on how to transform these threesomes.I found some three to a row town homes in Baltimore that part of a Hope VI redevelopment known as Heritage Crossing. Like Hollow Oaks Heritage Crossing has the two end units larger than the middle one. Hollow Oaks can adapt the brick end units and the vinyl siding middle unit.
Also in Hollow Oaks lies large three story split foyer town homes. These are more than three in a row but reinvestment is needed none the less.Here we have brand new large Town Homes that also happen to be split foyer. These would be the perfect model for the larger Hollow Oaks Town Homes.In Hollow Oaks there is space for new construction! With the existing homes redone new homes won't look out of place. The new homes in Hollow Oaks will be two car garage Town Homes. The ones pictures above are in the same development as the split foyer ones I suggested for the existing Hollow Oaks.Finally we come to Cross Fox. Cross Fox is Condos and back to back Town Homes which started as rentals and were converted to home ownership. These are a little than the other developments listed here being built in 1975. Their brick exteriors lack any accessories.The perfect solution is to give them partial siding and window treatments as shown here in an Apartment Complex that was all brick lack luster and has been transformed into what you see here. These original Apartments were built in 1974.

Well that's it for the reinvestment of Wilde Lake! This one's been a long time coming.

The Plans Don't Exist!

Month after month I hear there's going to be a meeting where Kimco will announce its plans for Wilde Lake Village Center. The residents who attend those meetings time and time again find out they're just "listening sessions" to seek "Community Input" well in case you haven't figured it out there are no plans and there never have been any.
Kimco and the County are creating a smokescreen to make it look like progress is being made when in fact, it's going backwards. The New Zoning Amendment for redeveloping Village Centers passed by the County simply prolonghs the process by having meeting after meeting review board after review board before anything is passed. That hasn't even started yet because Kimco has yet to come forth any development plans. It's also holding me back, if there aren't any plans, I can't write about how flawed they are.Many of the residents who attend these meetings have lived in Wilde Lake since the late 1960s and they're aging hippies. They want to see preservation of everything that hearkens back to the Wilde Lake they moved to 40 years ago. By not redeveloping the Village Center earlier like other Centers have done, that created the problem Wilde Lake faces today. Congratulations, old hippies you're part of the problem, not the solution.
I, unlike Kimco or the County have come up with plenty of solutions, some of which I had back logged long before Giant Closed. The ideas for new stores that residents have suggested aren't bad but they won't come to the Center as is and if they did take the gamble, they wouldn't last. None of those stores are anchors therefore they don't draw a large enough percentage of the market to the Center. Village Centers have always been Grocery anchored. The only thing that will bring Wilde Lake back to life is another Grocery Store.
15 years ago Harpers Choice Village Center was all but abandoned, then Safeway built a store there and the merchants and shoppers came back in droves.Now if Oakland Mills can attract a Grocery Store why can't Wilde Lake? Oakland Mills Village Center has the worst location of any Retail Center I've ever seen, yet when they lose a Grocer, they can get another one. Heck, Kimco bought Oakland Mills after the Metro closed and while Kimco owned it, they attracted the current Food Lion before selling it to Cedar Shopping Centers. Back then, the red tape didn't exist for Village Center redevelopment.
Now people talk about blending in Wilde Lake with Town Center. The only time Town Center should be mentioned is in a pitch meeting to a potential Grocer citing the 5,000 new homes projected to be built there and how they would use Wilde Lake to go Grocery Shopping if you opened a store there. I don't hold onto vestiges of yesteryear and hope they will one day become viable again, I think what's viable now and what will remain viable and that is a new bigger Grocery Store. Like I've said many times, there are plenty of reputable Grocery Stores that don't have a niche in West Columbia or Columbia at all that love to stake their claim. Well, Grocers the place you can expand your market base into Columbia is Wilde Lake.
While Kimco and the County have scratching their heads and buying more times I have published both a short term and a long term solution for Wilde Lake.
It might not ultimately keep the current "Village Green" but it can be relocated and thus preserved in a viable manner. I will make no apologies for any of the statements I've made on this post. Here are my two solutions
http://columbiafuture.blogspot.com/2009/06/walgreens-to-rescue.html Short Term
http://columbiafuture.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-best-redevelop-wilde-lake.html Long Term

Hickory Ridge Redvelopment

There are those who think that Hickory Ridge doesn't need any redevelopment because it's one of Columbia's newest Villages. Fact of the matter is Hickory Ridge is Columbia's Fifth Village with the first homes going up in the early 1970s before Owen Brown. Hickory Ridge was built in stages and three big reasons that it's thought of as a new Village is because its Village Center is Columbia's second newest opening in 1992, the newer housing st along Broken Land Parkway and Hickory Ridge Road, and Clarys Forest. Even Clarys Forest has a few developments that need redevelopment and with that I give you the redevelopment of Hickory Ridge.First comes Sierra Villas. I don't ever recall these ever being attractive in their 35 year existence. Located at the high traffic Cedar Lane and Hickory Ridge Road intersection they serve as a Gateway to Clary's Forest.Villas can be done right. First off, these have Garages allowing for more homes to be built on the land locked site Sierra Villas sits on. Garages are much better than carports when it comes to security, protection, and cosmetics. These villas are built with vinyl siding and brick compared with the yellow stucco and brown wooding siding of the current Sierra Villas. This will be 100% Market Rate Home Ownership.Next there's the Bluffs at Clary's Forest, surrounded by newer looking developments like Clarys Chase, Reflections, The Club Merion, and Clary's Crossing. There haven't been any interior renovations here and the trees are sick not allowing grass to grow here. In its place will be new elevator mixed income Apartments/Condos 55% Market Rate Home Ownership 35% Market Rate Rentals and 10% Subsidized Home Ownership. It will also complement the existing developments nearby.The Greens at Columbia, now why this one? There haven't been interior renovations and the amount needed (I toured this complex) would require vacating the complex and gutting the interior and updating the exterior facades. A full redevelopment would be just as viable.In its place will be a new courtyard style Condo Complex that would complement the way the Greens at Columbia are currently configured. A new development would put a new face on another Clarys Forest "Gateway" Complex like Sierra Villas. It will be 50% Market Rate Home Ownership and 50% Below Market Rate Home Ownership.The Bluffs at Hawthorn is identical to the Bluffs at Clarys Forest. Surrounding Developments along Hickory Ridge Road are newer and have had substantial reinvestment at the same time. The Bluffs at Hawthorn has neither of these things. It's time this aging development be replaced with new 100% Market Rate Rentals that would go with its surroundings better. The old Bluffs at Hawthorn shares the same flaws as the Bluffs at Clarys Forest.Hickory Ridge Place might be the first Apartment Building in the Village. Even though it's had interior renovations it's still seen better days. In fact, I would have it redeveloped as a 100% Subsidized Senior Apartment Complex.Here's a good example of a new Senior Apartment Building that would be a great replacement for Hickory Ridge Place. It has the same branching off that Hickory Ridge Place does.

Well most of you would think that these developments don't need to be changed. I do mostly because they haven't withstood the test of time. In order for Columbia to be a contender in the 21st Century all developments need to look in pristine condition. And I do mean all of them.

Vantage Point Reinvestment

Town Center is almost exclusively new housing. Banneker was built in the mid 1990s and that's the second oldest part. Vantage Point is the oldest part and most think of it as an extension to Running Brook (I grew up in Vantage Point and had to explain it that way when somebody asked where I lived). I didn't even count Creighton's Run (Davidge Drive) as Town Center because it's too weird to think of that as Town Center. Vantage Point is full of subdivisions that were built from 1974-1986. Vantage House was completed in 1990 but I'm concentrating on all ages housing stock. How about we reinvest in Vantage Point and make it look brand new just like the rest of Town Center? Also the part of Running Brook that Vantage Point abuts to I would have redeveloped.
First lets start off with the Condos on Smooth Meadow Way. They were built in 1983 and with a minor facelift they can look brand new.The new look for Smooth Meadow I'm taking cues from Island Club Apartments in Dorsey's Search which believe it or not were built in 1986 and just received a face lift themselves.Now we come to Ring Dove Lane town homes built in 1974 these were the first homes in Vantage Point, I resided at 5477 from 1988-2003 age 4-19, I attended Running Brook Elementary and Wilde Lake Middle and High. They've already received face lifts in 2000 but I'd like to kick it up a notch. Two story town homes will lose the front storage patios (which were always a carpenter bee's haven) to make way for larger front yards and more decorative front windows. The bedroom balconies and bump outs will be taken out as well. Up stairs windows will be moved away from the sides to allow for decorative shutters. The bricks that separate each home will be done away with.The three story town homes will have garages built where the carports currently are. Front doors will be bumped out to reflect this as well. Balconies will be done away with just like the two stories for decorative windows as will the separating bricks. Windows here are in a much better location for shutters.Here's what I have in mind for the two stories, notice the clean fresh appearance and the decorative features currently lacking. The three stories, now garages will give Ring Dove Lane a more modern look than the dated car ports and will make them a bigger selling point.
Waterbury town homes have held up quite well. Built in 1984, a good 10 years after the first houses in Vantage Point they still use wooden siding and every row of houses uses the same light blue color.
I'm using Foregate on the Green in Dorsey's Search as a good idea for putting on new siding in Waterbury. It will use vinyl siding and use different colors to create a more interesting mix of homes.Now we come to Glen Meadows, which consists of both Condos and Town Homes. Built in 1986 they're Vantage Point's newest homes yet they look the most dated. The dark wood siding and the lack of front windows over the front doors don't do these homes any favors. The condos, although their siding is dated don't need any real design changes. The new siding will take care of everything. I might add enclosed building entries as a safety measure.I took design cues from a rental Apartment/Town Home Complex known as Kaiser Park in Ellicott City. Although it was built from 2003-2004 a good 17-18 years after Glen Meadows it's easy to plug in the design of these homes into Glen Meadows. I'm aware Glen Meadows has garages and these don't but look beyond that. The condos are even easier to transform. Just add new siding and an enclosed building entry and there's your new Glen Meadows. These are the Apartments at Kaiser Park in Ellicott City same development as the Town Homes.Water's Edge is Vantage Point's second development. Built in 1975 these town homes are huge! They use a stucco exterior which is dated and that's putting it nicely. Unlike the rest of Vantage Point it's hard to grow grass here. That's a sign that the trees here are sickly and need to be replaced with new healthy trees allowing grass to grow once again.For Waters Edge I used Summerfield at River Hill as a design cue. Their brick fronts provide a fresh modern look. They also have fireplaces in the front like Waters Edge which has and this shows this design can look in the 21st century.

Well that's for Vantage Point, the neighborhood that raised me, after the housing stock is updated it will look brand new just like the rest of Town Center making it fit in perfectly.