A big crowd of Oakland Mills residents is being urged to turn out for tomorrow night's Howard County Council public hearing by village officials worried that a plan to build an office building there may be in trouble.
"Oakland Mills residents, it is essential to make your voices heard to keep revitalization moving forward!" reads the bold black letters on the e-mail sent last week by Oakland Mills Village Manager Sandy Cederbaum.
"The bill is unlikely to pass without an avalanche of support from the Oakland Mills community," Cederbaum warned.
Barbara Russell, Oakland Mills' representative on the Columbia Association board and a retired County Council staff member, said, "This is getting a little more emphasis" because four of the five council members' votes are needed to approve the project.
The bill before the council would amend the current capital budget to allow County Executive Ken Ulman to use $4 million set aside for a new county office complex to buy 15,000 square feet of office condominium space in Meridian Square, a proposed four-story building set to rise on the vacant pad of a former gas station next to Oakland Mills Village Center.
Ulman said he plans to ask the council members at their legislative session Jan. 7 to table the bill for a month to enable him to answer their questions.
"What we're going to tell council members Monday is we think investing in older neighborhoods is an important public policy position," Ulman said. "I firmly believe it is an important investment."
One who agrees is Councilwoman Jen Terrasa, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat.
"I have the same questions [other members have], but the concept of investing in older neighborhoods, I love," she said, noting that she graduated from Oakland Mills High School and frequently visited the village center.
In addition, she said, she has been impressed with the "energy and effort" Oakland Mills residents have put into revitalization.
"It's critical," Russell said. "This project is so important to our village."
Like other Columbia village centers, Oakland Mills has suffered as retail commerce has moved away from the original Rouse Co. neighborhood concept to big-box shopping centers on major highways.
The groundbreaking for the much-heralded Meridian Square "green" building was postponed Nov. 29 because, without a guarantee of the county's purchase as a lead tenant, the developer, Metroventures Inc., can't get the financing.
