Town Center

An Exxon gas station under renovation in Columbia's Town Center will include a new mini-market when it reopens this month, officials from Exxon Co. U.S.A. said yesterday.The station -- on Sterrett Place at Little Patuxent Parkway, across from The Mall -- was closed in late April for renovations, said John Husk, who manages the station and two others in Columbia's Oakland Mills and Long Reach villages.When it reopens June 16, the station will include a Tiger Mart convenience store that will sell fast foods, snacks and coffee, said Bill Oram-Smith, an Exxon manager in charge of the region that includes Howard County.

A plan to give Columbia a more urban appearance by building 500 town house or apartment units in Town Center has been substantially pared by county officials, who worried that noise from nearby Merriweather Post Pavilion would disrupt future tenants.The decision weakened a plan that some believed might revitalize Columbia's quiet downtown area.But the move also baffled some community leaders who have long pushed for more-affordable housing in the affluent community. Others were perplexed because noise had not surfaced as an issue during hearings on the plan.

An article about transportation improvements in Odenton in yesterday's edition of The Sun in Anne Arundel incorrectly identified the state agency that awarded the county a grant for some of the work.The Mass Transit Administration gave the county $300,000 to make improvements around the Odenton Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) station.The Sun regrets the error.With the opening of a newly widened and landscaped Piney Orchard Parkway last week, 30-year-old plans for a town center in Odenton finally became tangible.

The Town Center and Wilde Lake Community Associations will host a family pool party from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Bryant Woods Pool. Event is free and include pizza, refreshments, swimming and a raffle. Children younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Party is for Town Center and Wilde Lake residents only. Call 410-730-3987 for more information. Slayton House events * Summer registration continues for Slayton House Camp of the Arts. Camp dates are Aug. 3-14. Families with two or more children in the same session can receive a discount.

With plans for the Glen Burnie Town Center moving forward, County Executive John G. Gary is already talking about using more county-owned lots to revive the area's downtown."

In Dante's "Inferno," there are nine circles of Hell. In Towson Town Center's main parking garage, there are seven. To many shoppers, that's about the only difference."

The Columbia Association's board of directors approved a $7.06 million capital budget last night at a meeting that became a forum for Town Center's frustrations. The board, which serves as the Columbia Council, also was considering adding and subtracting items from a proposed $44.4 million operating budget late last night. The vote on the capital budget followed an impassioned plea by Councilwoman Donna Rice on behalf of Town Center, the area of Columbia that she represents. Saying Town Center has been cheated because it does not manage its own community center, Rice urged the council to add $50,000 to the budget to plan construction of such a building.

Should Columbia's Town Center be redeveloped into a lively urban core, closer to what James W. Rouse imagined when he began designing his model city in 1963? General Growth Properties, which purchased the Rouse Co. in 2005, is answering with an enthusiastic yes - proposing major growth that includes half a million square feet of new office and retail space, as many as 5,500 new condos and townhouses and a significant redesign of the landscape around Columbia Mall. But for some Columbians, the plan carries with it the threat of too much traffic and housing within the tight geography of Town Center.

ODENTON TOWN CENTER'S development seems to be a 28-year lesson in frustration. Since Anne Arundel County designated the area, bordered by Routes 32 and 175 and the Amtrak rail lines, as one of its three town centers decades ago, development has been stymied over the question of building on non-tidal wetlands.This fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Maryland Department of the Environment will decide whether the latest development plan is acceptable. The dilemma is a case of one laudable planning goal -- concentrating high density residential, commercial and office development to prevent sprawl -- butting up against an equally commendable environmental goal -- that of protecting wetlands.

DEVELOPMENT OF ODENTON'S high-density retail and commercial nucleus has hit another snag. The Maryland Department of the Environment has denied a permit to build on about 11 acres of non-tidal wetlands, meaning that Anne Arundel County planners have to return to the drawing board. They are confident that this latest delay won't unravel their plans, 29 years in the making, to carve out a town center in the western part of the county.When Anne Arundel officials selected Odenton as a potential town center in 1968, protection of wetlands was not an environmental priority.