"I've talked to all the food players," Glazer said of plans for Wilde Lake. "I'd love to get a food player. It just hasn't worked out."
The reinvented village center would feature outdoor cafes, a Main Street setting with highly visible storefronts, specialty stores and green space, he said.
"I love it," said Joyce Ardo of Wilde Lake. "I'm really excited about it. I'm moved by your commitment to the village center."
But in the crowd, which included many longtime residents and some merchants, not everyone was as comfortable with Kimco's proposal.
"I am not so excited about what I'm seeing," said Jay Bonstingl, who lives in the village. "It looks to me like you are going to turn the village center into a residential project. I don't see anything but some neat buildings for rich people."
In an interview later, Bonstingl asked: "Has everyone in Columbia lost the appetite for the human scale? It seems to me what he's really saying is, `We're stuck with this plot of land, so we'll build residences and rent them out to rich people and turn what was a nice human-scale village center into one more residential tower."
Philip W. Kirsch, vice chairman of the Columbia Association representing Wilde Lake, said he was troubled by the drawings he saw.
"I want a very vibrant village center," he said. "When I look at your plans, I see an apartment complex. I don't see a village center."
Andy Solberg, who lives in Wilde Lake, said he hoped that developers would remember the original function of the village center as they move forward.
"The village center to us Columbians is a place where we can get basic services," he said. "I hope you will keep this in mind for those of us who live here. I hope it will not be just ice cream shops."
june.arney@baltsun.com
