The place where Jimi played is the hole in a doughnut.
Merriweather Post Pavilion - the summertime stage for music from Hendrix to now, and one of Columbia's most visited tracts - is at the center of what could be the initial test in the planned community's first large-scale makeover.
If the concert venue is the hole, then the surrounding 37-acre ring of land, owned by the community association that essentially governs Columbia, is the doughnut.
But the Columbia Association has had a cool relationship with General Growth Properties - the developer that owns the concert venue and much of downtown Columbia, and has unveiled a $350 million plan to transform the place.
The two sides wrestled for months to find a time to hold a meeting, and CA has complained about being left out of the loop during planning.
"My fear that GGP would want to put amenities on our land - that's exactly what they were showing," Barbara Russell, outgoing CA chairwoman, said of renderings released by the developer.
The odd land configuration puts cooperation at a premium for the looming redevelopment project, which includes a remaking of Merriweather and the surrounding land.
The community is in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, and nothing happens here without plenty of input from its well-educated, high-achiever population.
Some locals see the complexities of the land ownership in downtown Columbia as a particularly sticky issue.
CA-owned land also abuts GGP acreage along the edge of Lake Kittamaqundi, not far from where the iconic People Tree, the Hug statue and a fountain plaza sit near popular restaurants. This area is not affected in the initial GGP plan, but residents say they are on alert for any proposal that might affect them down the road.
The developer's first batch of renderings included a portrayal of cultural buildings on the Symphony Woods property, the CA-owned doughnut of land that surrounds Merriweather. Among the possibilities that have been discussed are a themed library, an international center for the study of small cities and a new location for Toby's Dinner Theater.
"They are at the same time calling Symphony Woods a Central Park while filling it up with things that are not conducive to a park," said Russell. "I do not think that developing Symphony Woods by gobbling up the land with buildings, parking areas and roads is a good idea."
