Charrette update...

Time was spent this week at the charrette focus group meeting discussing what to do with the current gravel parking lots surrounding Merriweather Post; the land known as “The Crescent.” Surprisingly, I like much of what I hear.

A plan to create a miniature Central Park in downtown Columbia needs more attention paid to the arts, according to members of a focus group that is helping to plot downtown's redevelopment.

"Wouldn't it be nice if every office building and lobby had a place for artists to display artwork?" said Robert Tennenbaum, one of Columbia's original planners and a member of the focus group.

Tennenbaum spoke May 3 at a meeting in which Howard County planners floated a proposal to build a school, fire station, cultural and civic places, and residential and commercial development on a 51-acre plot bordering Merriweather Post called the "crescent site."

Central Park? Yup.

Public Art? You betcha.

Cultural and Civic Buildings? I’m right there with you.

School? No way.

Aside from the fact that there are several schools already within a few minutes of Town Center, I’m completely opposed to having a school site in Town Center because I think it’s a huge waste of land that could otherwise be used for something we want but currently don’t have.

Let’s face it: schools ain’t what they used to be, even just 30 years ago. Instead of nice, little neighborhood school buildings that double as community meeting places and ballfields for organized and non-organized play (something kids today should probably have more of), we have turned them into massive, unwelcoming, aesthetically-grotesque complexes that are more akin to penal institutions than educational ones (I more than partially owe that observation to a friend of mine).

They devour huge swaths of land -- more than 10 acres for just an elementary school (.pdf of school system policy). They’re surrounded by massive lots of surface parking. They’re built on shoestring budgets by governments (e.g. housing in the Soviet Union). All of this, it seems, runs counter to the walkable, visionary goals we have for Town Center. Why devote almost a quarter of the land in the Crescent to something that doesn’t fit with its surroundings and is easily substituted for existing resources within the county?

In fact, substitution is the right way to look at this. The amount of land in Town Center is limited, but our wants for that land, at least for the sake of argument, are not. If we choose to have a school, then we have to substitute it for something else we might like. But is a school site really close to the top of the priority list, considering the strong desires expressed for more civic buildings, more cultural buildings, more affordable housing, more entertainment, more restaurants, more retail, or more transportation? This is, after all, our downtown -- our urban core -- not the traditional neighborhoods in the rest of the county, where nearby schools are much more appropriate and desirable.

Of course, since I’m a noted wishy-washer, I can be convinced that we should dedicate a nice big chunk of land to a school. But before that ever happens, I need to know what we will be sacrificing and how such a land-intensive use will mesh with its more land-efficient neighbors.