"I love the name of this place. We all need serenity, not just people who have gone through these problems," she said.
Communing with nature
The ceremonial groundbreaking for the 25,000-square-foot Robinson Nature Center on Aug. 29 showed off the woodsy, secluded world off Cedar Lane alongside the Middle Patuxent River once occupied by Anne and James Robinson.
By October 2010, county officials hope to officially cut the ribbon on the L-shaped $18 million center, which will be built into the side of a steep hill to help it blend into the surrounding forest.
There will be gardens, walking trails, a butterfly house, a tiny amphitheater, 130 parking spaces and a greenhouse on the 18.4-acre site, which is also to be an environmental showplace.
Recreation and Parks director Gary J. Arthur told about 50 attendees that the county has had a dream to have such a nature center for at least 25 years, and his agency is working closely with county school officials to collaborate on programs for the center.
County Executive Ulman said one of his first days in office was spent walking the land, which was sold to the county in 2005 for $2 million by the Robinson Foundation, which then donated half that money back to the county as seed money to get the project rolling. James Robinson died in 1977 and his wife, Anne, who was determined that her land not become another housing development, died in February 2005 at age 89. The state pitched in $800,000 for the project.
"This is one of the things to engage our families and our children," said County Council Chairwoman Sigaty, who said the setting and the purpose remind her of looking up at the stars at night and feeling very small.
"This is a place to give us this sense of wonder, to think bigger than we are."
Hurry up and wait
As the county planning board crept closer last week to approving recommendations for the much-discussed downtown Columbia redevelopment plan, a business-oriented group called Columbia 2.0 voiced a rare public complaint that the review process is taking far too long.
Often Columbia residents complain the government is moving too fast to approve development, but not David Yungmann's group.
"The community came together over four years ago to begin collaborating on a plan to redevelop downtown Columbia," said group member Phil Engelke of Oakland Mills in a prearranged conference call.
"We are about to enter the ninth month of public hearings, technical staff presentations, developer presentations and at least 10 work sessions," he said. "We the community and our plan remain hostages of an unelected and unaccountable planning board."
Yungmann said he feels the planning board "has simply hijacked this plan." He urged board members to move quickly to send the plan to the County Council for action.
Board chairman David Grabowski defends his group's painstaking efforts.
"We've had it [for discussion] since April," Grabowski said.
"We've covered a lot of territory."
With the General Plan amendment approved, the board is ready to tackle the actual Zoning Regulation Amendment, which changes zoning law language to provide the legal basis for actual changes.
"I don't think we're holding it hostage. We've gone above and beyond," Grabowski said, referring to the home study time and late evening meetings board members have done.
