Anti-sprawl mall?

Arundel Mills: Megamall could become example of good land use with peripheral development.

IT'S THE POSTER child for suburban sprawl.

Arundel Mills mall was allowed to gobble up 120 acres of pristine northern county real estate, instead of being directed toward existing population centers.

No amount of tweaking can make this commercial conglomeration an example of Smart Growth.

But if developers make the right choices about what to build around the mall, it could someday be an example of more responsible land use.

There was no need to build Arundel Mills mall where it is. Anne Arundel has several struggling commercial districts that could have used this development to spark a rebirth.

Instead, the new mall -- which looks like it fell from the sky into an open swath of land -- has been attracting stores away from those struggling commercial districts, making their survival even more doubtful.

Nothing can be done about that now. But the parcels surrounding Arundel Mills offer a chance to duplicate malls in Owings Mills, White Marsh and Columbia, which smartly blend retail with office buildings, hotels and even housing.

Those malls were built as part of comprehensive growth management programs. They blend in with their communities and serve as residential, commercial and light industrial centers. The Mills parcels are ideal for office buildings and hotels. The demand for both is great. The vacancy rate for Class A office space in the area is only about 2 percent. And fast-growing Baltimore-Washington International Airport boosts the need for hotels.

Arundel Mills should become a magnet for that kind of development. It should not bring more acres of retailing, which would anoint its environs as this area's worst example of sprawl.