Long Reach Village Center's weekend-long Country Fair is how 40-year-resident Sue Nicholson remembers the bustling days of one of Howard County's oldest and largest villages in Columbia.
Businesses of Long Reach gathered in the center to sell their goods, while the community enjoyed music, games and local eateries.
"We started a business selling barbecue at the Long Reach Country Fair in 1980," Nicholson said. "[The Village Center] was full of people. Now, there are a lot of things not open."
As her bank, drugstore and grocery store closed, smaller merchants, like cleaners, a nail salon and an international cuisine restaurant, were the ones to remain alongside the Columbia Art Center.
On May 28, Nicholson was back at Long Reach to help save the once-thriving village as the county and community gathered to "Re-Imagine Long Reach Village Center" and develop an urban renewal plan for redevelopment of the 40-year-old village center, which has struggled with high retail vacancy rates, trash and crime, and was declared a blight zone by the County Council a year ago.
The county purchased most of the property from majority owner Long Reach Village Associates LLC for $5 million in October, and in February purchased the site of the former Safeway store, which has been vacant since July 2013, for an additional $2.5 million.
During the second of four meetings called by County Executive Allan Kittleman, who couldn't attend because of commitments with high school commencements, Director of Downtown Redevelopment Mark Thompson said the county continues to hear citizens' ideas and concerns in the redevelopment process.
"We started that redevelopment planning process with a community engagement effort that began about a month ago with our first community meeting on April 30," Thompson said. "We had over 150 people attend the meeting. It was a great success and I got a lot of really good input."
The county sustained the high attendance Thursday evening.
The discussion began with a question and answer session by Sean Davis of Morris, Ritchie and Associates design team, and Geoff Glazer, of Kimco Realty, about redevelopment at another village center, Wilde Lake Village Center.
"It took us about seven years to get to where we are today [with Wilde Lake] and we're still under construction today," Glazer said. "It's a long process.
After establishing new legislation and interviewing stakeholders, Glazer said it was important for the team to create an anchor at Wilde Lake, such as a department store or movie theater, for consistent foot traffic.
"With a $60 to $70 million project cost, you have to have a strong-enough anchor," Glazer said. "The residential area became an anchor for empty nesters wanting to stay nearer their families and younger couples who just moved into the area. Whatever that anchor is, it's foot traffic and generating foot traffic, trying to get somebody back into that village center."
When asked about an estimated time frame for redevelopent of Long Reach, Glazer said the county plans to sell the property to a private developer by summer or fall 2016 with a possible groundbreaking in 2018 or 2019. However, the time frame is still undetermined.
Duncan Webb, of Webb Management Services, shared opportunities for the arts at Long Reach.
"In some cases, we use big lofty arguments to support the arts, like healing or arts education." Webb said.
Webb said a needs assessment showed two-thirds of Howard County residents believe new arts and cultural facilities are needed with a long list of local theatres and exhibitions encouraging more small performance and rehearsal space. By including arts into Long Reach's redevelopment, Webb said, the space could drive arts education in the area as well as increase foot traffic with cultural tourists.
Having participated in several classes at the village's art center, Nicholson agreed.
"They talked about possibly what they were going to do with the art stuff and possibly fill in some of these places, which I thought was very exciting," she said. "I don't know whether that's going to happen or not. This is full of art students, too, who are horsing around and carrying on every day, which is lots of livelihood and excitement."
While supportive of an arts component, Karen Hitcho, chair of the Long Reach Village Board, said it isn't "a done deal." The Columbia Art Center is located at Long Reach and Hitcho said she does "consider the concern that was raised about having competition."
Adding something that complemeted the Columbia Art Center, however, could work, Hitcho said.
"I don't think we can make the whole village center an arts district; I think we still need some retail here," Hitcho said. "But an arts component would be fantastic. I really want to see it become, again, a community center, that's going to mean some nicely designed open space, activities and foot traffic."
The ARTreach Festival on June 20 is a way to jump start the foot traffic, Hitcho said, where the community can enjoy live music, art demonstrations, food and exhibits at the village center.
"It's a re-thinking of the concept that is some big event that gets people to come," Hitcho said. "I'm optimistic we will get a really good turnout for that."
Hoping to attend the next meeting on June 11, Nicholson said her voice will not be left unheard.
"A lot of us have lived here a long time and raised our children here," Nicholson said. "This is the future of this end of the village. We ought to be doing something with it."