Introduction

On Saturday, October 15, 2005, a group of over 300 community members participated in the first day of a week-long Charrette process to discuss their needs, hopes, and dreams for the completion of Columbia’s Downtown. Their initial excitement and optimism were tempered, however, when it became clear that much of the citizens’ input was dismissed or ignored by County officials. Attention was instead steered into a plan many saw as pre-determined by the Charrette organizers. Participants who were without ties to the development community began to drop out. Not surprisingly, the plan that eventually emerged differed significantly from that envisioned by the original 300+ citizens on October 15^th.

The plan unveiled at the end of the Charrette week is often referred to as the “Charrette plan” or “the plan that came from the citizens.” We disagree. Only the October 15 vision can legitimately be referred to as coming from the community.

The purpose of the Coalition for Columbia’s Downtown is to represent the community’s true aims and priorities, as expressed during the first day of the Charrette, and which we see aligned with the values that have made Columbia the best place to live east of the Mississippi.

We favor the continuing development of Downtown, but there are many models of diverse and vibrant downtowns. We offer Georgetown and Annapolis as examples of communities that do not rely on high density to provoke an exciting sense of place. These locations are especially interesting, and they exude excitement – even though their skylines rarely exceed four stories. It is important to remind ourselves that Jim Rouse’s dream was to create The Next America, built to a human scale, not another version of existing urban development.