Columbia is nothing if not organized, and three Howard County council members want to use that village structure to create a citywide revitalization committee to keep the four-decade old town spiffy.
Two members, Mary Kay Sigaty and Calvin Ball, both Democrats, took a first step toward that goal yesterday with a meeting in the county council chambers involving eight of Columbia's 10 villages and a variety of county agencies and private business representatives.
"This is a great opportunity to improve our constituent services. Columbia offers a structure of villages and village managers and boards" that lends itself to helping council members serve the public, said Ball, the council chairman who represents the East Columbia villages of Oakland Mills and Long Reach.
Sigaty, who represents six villages in West Columbia, said Ball and Councilwoman Jen Terrasa, a Democrat whose district includes Kings Contrivance and Owen Brown, wanted to expand a smaller group covering Wilde Lake and Harper's Choice that was established over a decade ago by former council member Mary C. Lorsung. The idea was to bring together the top officials from government, the town's developer, the Columbia Association and some business and community leaders to solve the kinds of small, often vexing neighborhood problems that can, left untended, grow into blight.
"The idea to expand was Calvin's, and Jen was really interested," Sigaty said after yesterday's session. "It makes perfect sense. It's a larger group, but there are issues crossing all the villages."
Representatives from Owen Brown and Kings Contrivance missed the first expanded, citywide meeting, as did Terrasa, who was on vacation. No representative from the firms that own the village shopping centers or General Growth Properties Inc., the firm that bought the Rouse Co. in 2004, attended. Sigaty said she would try to get them to the next quarterly session, Oct. 11.
Still, 65 people did attend, including Columbia Association president Maggie Brown, and officials from a variety of county agencies from police to planning and zoning, recreation and parks and public works.
The first issue involved how many people can live in one house -- a question raised by Susan Smith, the village manager of River Hill, and Bridget R. Mugane, a member of the Long Reach Village Board.
"There's someone who buys it, but multiple individuals are living in homes. How do you find out if it's a family or just individuals?" Smith asked.
Mugane said one home in her townhouse community has a basement level divided by sheets and filled with bunks. The home holds 8 to 10 people, she said, and they have six to eight vehicles outside, including one up on blocks.
Planning director Marsha McLaughlin said there are no limits on the numbers of family members who can live in one house, but county zoning laws limit the number of unrelated adults to eight.
Inspections, Licenses and Permits director Bob Francis said he also gets calls about crowded dwellings, but county officials have to be careful "because there are racial and ethnic overtones" to some situations and complaints. His department inspects licensed rental properties, Francis said, because they're required to have specific minimum amounts of space for each resident.
Sigaty said her own Wilde Lake community had a crowded house that prompted complaints and "our board of directors felt we had to reach out to the family and bring them into the neighborhood" emotionally. Smith said often complaints are about parking problems, and Sigaty agreed.
"It always comes back to cars," she laughed.
Mugane said there is another aspect to the problem. "When you pay folks $6 or $7 an hour, how do you expect them to live?"
The group talked about myriad other issues, including pedestrian problems, sidewalks, leaf collection, bus shelters, tot lots and neighborhood speeders.
Linda Engel, a member of the Town Center board, said a newly refurbished playground is attracting more children on Vantage Point Road, and mothers are complaining about speeding motorists.
Smith said drivers who try to obey pedestrian laws sometimes are hit by other drivers. A River Hill board member who stopped his car for a pedestrian in May was hit from behind by another car, she said.
Public Works director James M. Irvin said "people don't obey the law. The reality is people don't stop," though Maryland law requires it. Residents asked for more signs to make people stop.
Police Captain Sandy Reglen said the police can do "pedestrian sting operations" to catch motorists who don't stop, but she warned that often makes area residents angry, because they are the ones caught and ticketed.
"They are not well received," she said about police action.
The two council members were pleased with the two-hour meeting.
"We've done a lot this morning," Sigaty said, ending the session.
larry.carson@baltsun.com