It usually doesn't take a couple of years to find a spot to build a playground in one of Columbia's villages.

But sometimes residents' worries and environmental issues present roadblocks. That is what has happened in River Hill: The village and the Columbia Association are looking at a third - and they hope, final - potential site for a long-sought tot lot.

"There's always questions and concerns, and we're trying to take into account everyone's wishes and desires," said Chick Rhodehamel, the association's vice president for open-space management.

In the past two years, the association and River Hill have scrapped two proposed locations for the lot, southwest of Great Star Drive, near the village center.

Now, the Howard County Planning Board is not sure whether the current site - behind condominiums where a number of older adults are expected to live - is the best place for youngsters to play.

The proposal - rejected once by the Planning Board - had been scheduled to go before the board again yesterday. But that hearing was postponed at the request of the association and the village board, to allow them more time to gather information requested by the board, said Susan Smith, River Hill's village manager.

The playground would be built along a path directly behind one of the four Fieldstone at River Hill condominium buildings, which are planned to contain 27 units each.

The first residents are expected to move into the condominiums, being built at Signal Bell Lane and Great Star Drive, in June or July, said Daniel Gregory, general sales manger for Beazer Homes, which is building them.

Considered an amenity

Columbia's 163 tot lots are a major amenity along the town's nearly 90 miles of paths. The demand for a playground in the proposed area is high because the closest one is behind Ascending Moon Path, Smith said.

"I think there's a real need in that area for a tot lot," she said. "We have had residents expressing an interest in having something in that area."

The Planning Board turned down the tot-lot proposal in May, concerned that it would be built behind condominiums that would be occupied primarily by older residents.

The board asked the village and the association to re-evaluate the plan or wait until residents had moved into the buildings before returning with another plan, said Gary Kaufman, chairman of the Planning Board.

"The board's concern was that they were moving it to where there weren't any children," he said. "It just didn't seem like the right place for it."

The village and the association returned last month with the same location, and the board asked them to come back again with the condominiums' age demographics and to report on whether the builder was disclosing the tot lot's location to prospective buyers, Kaufman said.

Although Fieldstone at River Hill is not an age-restricted community, Beazer had anticipated a number of empty-nesters moving there, Gregory said. About 60 percent of the units have been sold, and Gregory estimated that 45 percent of the owners are 50 or older.

The proposed tot lot is marked on the map given to all prospective buyers. Five or six of the 27 owners who would live in the building in front of the lot have expressed some concern, Gregory said. But, he said, those concerns have not prompted anyone to cancel sales contracts for the condominiums, which sell from $252,990 to $302,990.

"Most folks know that tot lots tend to not only attract toddlers during the day with their parents, but also during the evenings older teens ... hanging out with friends," Gregory said.

Part of master plan

The general location of the tot lot was chosen as part of the village's master plan three years ago, Rhodehamel said.

The playground was first designed on a spot along the pathway that runs parallel to Route 32 and Great Star Drive. But the site was moved because residents were troubled that it would be in a wooded area.

"There were safety concerns, and a desire to have it open and visible," Smith said.

A second location was chosen where storm-water management ponds had to be constructed for the Fieldstone community, so the playground had to be moved 150 feet southeast to its current proposed site, Rhodehamel said.

As the possibility of approving that site for a tot lot draws closer, construction of the open-space amenities in River Hill - Columbia's final village - is nearing completion. By April 2004, the village's final 11,000 linear feet of paths in the Pheasant Ridge III development, as well as three other tot lots, are scheduled to be completed.

The general locations of the three remaining tot lots have been determined, but the specific sites will have to be approved by the county later, Rhodehamel said.

Rhodehamel said he would like the tot lot proposed near the condominiums to be built by April 2004. Once those four remaining playgrounds - which can include playground equipment such as slides and swing sets - are built, the village will have 24 tot lots.

Despite the delays, Smith said she isn't frustrated that the playground near the condominiums hasn't been built.

"These things do take time," she said.