Choice Village

Metro Food Markets will open a 42,000-square-foot store next year -- its first in Howard County -- in Columbia's Oakland Mills Village Center, replacing the old, small Giant that closed in June.The Richmond, Va.-based chain, which has 18 stores in Maryland, will invest more than $5 million in the Columbia store and hire about 300 employees, said Kevin J. Nielsen, a vice president of Richfood, the chain's parent company.Construction of the store will begin in March and the Rouse Co. said it is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation of the aging village center that is to include a more open style, like a strip mall.

It was not long ago that Columbia's Harper's Choice Village Center seemed to be given up for dead -- a closed supermarket, deserted storefronts and a reputation for petty crime drove away shoppers who might have been attracted to the stores it did have.The opening of a Safeway in March and a $3.5 million renovation have solved many of the center's image problems. Now Howard County police are launching a program to tackle crime.In two weeks, police are scheduled to meet with national experts, Columbia Association officials, village residents and administrators from county agencies to develop better crime-fighting and prevention programs.

Longtime residents of Columbia's Harper's Choice village are not ready to buy the Rouse Co.'s plan for a large new grocery store intended to revitalize their aging village center.Though excited about the Safeway scheduled to open in late 1997, residents want improvements to the village center's courtyard, which was designed more than 20 years ago as the heart of the community but now is seen as a dark, gloomy place with high crime and low commercial appeal.Dax Norman, echoing other residents at a community meeting Tuesday night when Rouse revealed details of the plan, said, "The square is going to be set aside.

Members of a newly formed community policing task force in Columbia's Harper's Choice village -- where a 17-year-old boy and a 38-year-old man were shot in separate incidents near the village center last month -- decided not to address the recent violence at their monthly meeting last night.Instead, they chose a formal name for themselves, discussed plans for the Apple Fest and talked about installing more lights and setting up extra trash cans in and around the village center."We need to move on," said Sgt. Rick Maltz, who regularly patrols Harper's Choice as part of an anti-crime effort begun in that village in June.

The struggling Harper's Choice Village Center -- once a hub of activity but now viewed by many as unsafe, inconvenient and outdated -- has suffered two more blows.A sandwich shop closed recently and a pizza shop is leaving soon.The closing of Subway Sandwiches and the pending departure of Little Caesar's Pizza marks further decline for the troubled West Columbia shopping center.John and Nell Murray, the pizza shop's owners, said it wasn't just a lack of customers that led to the closing of their unprofitable store, but also their landlord, the Rouse Co., Columbia's developer.

Seafood lovers can stop searching the seven seas for fresh fare, skillfully prepared. Atlantis Seafood & Grill opened Jan. 31 in Harper's Choice Village Center in Columbia. Owner Bobbi Aliapanah has transformed the space, formerly occupied by the Gringada Mexican restaurant, into a tranquil, upscale eating place. The 135-seat restaurant -- decorated with wooden model ships and other nautical memorabilia -- has a private banquet room and cocktail bar. The extensive menu offers an array of appetizers, including hot crab dip Aliapanah, described as a house specialty; clams casino; crab imperial stuffed mushroom caps; and raw bar selections.

Even when she's not in her Howard County police uniform, Cpl. Donna Rowlette is a commanding - but loving - presence in the halls of Harper's Choice Middle School. From casually talking to pupils in the middle school's after-school program to running her own youth group, the Harper's Choice HotSpot coordinator has made it her business to be there for the community's children. Her success at building relationships and trust with the Columbia pupils offers an interesting perspective on the political debate about the value of the state-funded HotSpots program.

AT AGE 88, Hilda Stephenson is more active than a lot of folks half her age. Her normal routine includes an aerobics class five days a week. After class, she walks from Harper's Choice Village Center to The Mall in Columbia to catch a bus home. "It's really nothing," Stephenson said. "To me it's a cinch. I think I was doing exercises when I was a baby. I was standing on my head until about four years ago." Born in North Carolina, Ste phenson spent most of her life in New York City, moving to Columbia in 1979.

An article about a shooting in Tuesday's Howard County edition of The Sun misstated the location of Turnabout Lane, which is in Columbia's Harper's Choice village.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 8/01/96

POLICE LOG* Harper's Choice: 5400 block of Harpers Farm Road: Five people in ski masks robbed a person Friday night about 11:30 p.m. outside the Maryland National Bank in the Harpers Choice Village Center. The suspects -- one of whom displayed a semi-automatic handgun -- demanded the money that the victim had just withdrawn from an automatic teller machine.