The quiet, burgeoning community called Kendall Ridge -- nestled in eastern Columbia -- is a magnet for homebuyers who desire a safe place to raise children. The growing community is filled with tot lots and bicycle and walkway paths and has easy access to good schools.
"I'm a stay-at-home mom. I like the fact that there are other children here," said 35-year-old Donna Woo, as she loaded her four children into her van one day so her oldest, Anna, who will be 6 at the end of this month, could make her ballet class on time. "I like the sense of family that's here."
She and her husband, Richard, an engineer, have lived in a well-kept townhouse in Kendall Ridge for five years. "We're busting out of that one," Mrs. Woo said, referring to her growing family.
Like the Woos, other Kendall Ridge couples say they are attracted to the neighborhood's sense of family.
The neighborhood has attractive contemporary detached one- and two-door garage single-family homes, townhouses and luxury apartments and condominiums. Currently, about 3,300 people live there, and the numbers continue to grow.
Forty-two homes were sold in Kendall Ridge during the last 12 months, according to the Howard County Association of Realtors, Inc. The average settlement price was $183,872.
Kendall Ridge, the final phase of the Village of Long Reach, Columbia's most populous, was first developed in the late 1970s as part of James W. Rouse's plans for Columbia, the town he built from scratch. Kendall Ridge was named after a family of settlers with the surname Kendall who came to the region in the early 1700s, said David Forester, the Rouse Co.'s senior development director.
"It wasn't developed with the rest [of Long Reach] because we had to wait till water lines went through," said Sarah Uphouse, Long Reach's village manager. "Once the water lines went through, they started to develop the remainder of Kendall Ridge" in the 1980s, called Kendall II.
The Columbia Association (CA), a private nonprofit group which imposes an annual fee on Columbia property owners to oversee recreational facilities, community services and parkland, is developing the last phase of Kendall Ridge called Kendall Ridge III. The final phase should be completed in 2 1/2 years.
The plan for Kendall Ridge included townhouses for moderate-income families, which dozens of residents fought unsuccessfully. They complained the units would adversely affect their property values and foster crime.
