This sketch is based on the drawing Kimco has shown the community, mainly to illustrate the relative locations and heights of the buildings. The existing Giant Food store is at the top of the sketch and the proposed 5-story apartment building, including an interior parking deck, to the right. Existing retail stores wrap around the left side of the Giant. New retail stores to replace the existing building are shown in red on the ground floor of the apartment building and the three new buildings surrounding the parking lot. (The Professor)
HoCoMDcc 
It is fascinating how this 3D sketch gives me a better understanding of the plan. To me, it dramatizes how the site for the community park is now cut off from the rest of the site. What if Kimco and Columbia Association arranged a land swap that enabled the apartment building to push back into the woods where the park was to be and allowed Columbia Association to create the park or some other public-use facility adjoining the Village Green?
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Sounds like a good idea!
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Zoning for village center – “Residential uses, to the extent appropriate to support and enhance, but not overwhelm, other uses in the village center”. Who makes the decision regarding whether or not the apartment building will overwhelm? Certainly it will with parking and traffic and will take away the feeling of a village center. Does Kimko make that decision?
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It’s obviously a judgement call, that’s going to have a lot of smart people contributing to the decision. Kimco will present their best argument that the apartments are secondary to the retail and public purposes of the Village Center. The HoCo Dept of Planning and Zoning will present their analysis to the Planning Board, and the County Council, acting as the Zoning Board, has final say. Traffic and parking will be a big part of the debate. And lot’s of opportunity for community input.
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