Howard County Executive Ken Ulman has vigorously defended his plan to spend $4 million in county funds to buy office space in a proposed building in Oakland Mills, dismissing complaints about parking from several County Council members.
"If we had a parking problem in Oakland Mills Village Center, I'd be the happiest person around," he said during remarks on Columbia development.
Ulman said at a Columbia Business Exchange luncheon last week that the county cannot wait until a vacant lot becomes a wider blight problem.
"What we can't afford is to have boarded-up and vacant properties. We're not going to tolerate it," he said.
The four-story Meridian Square building would be built on a long-vacant lot at the edge of Oakland Mills Village Center, where a gas station once stood. A restaurant in the center recently closed, and a former bank building is vacant.
"We're not different" from older communities where blight has been allowed to fester, making rejuvenation more difficult, he said.
"Unless we take the opportunities as they come, we could be there," Ulman said.
Responding to questions about the county's investment, Ulman said, "Not a lot of people have lost money investing in property in Howard County," drawing laughter.
If the purchase is made and the building is constructed, he said, the county will provide a "one-stop shop" for county services there.
The developers have said they need the county as a lead investor to get construction financing, and Oakland Mills leaders, including County Councilman Calvin Ball, an east Columbia Democrat who represents Oakland, say the building is essential to revitalization efforts.
County Council members Greg Fox, a Fulton Republican, and Mary Kay Sigaty, a west Columbia Democrat, have said that they believe county planners violated parking regulations in approving the 60,000-square-foot building, which they said could cause problems later.
The council is to vote on the issue in May as part of the Ulman administration's capital budget request for fiscal 2009.
larry.carson@baltsun.com