Crafting plans to remake the ailing Wilde Lake Village Center and winning approval for them will "take every bit of two years," before any actual work can begin, according to Geoffrey Glazer, vice president of Kimco Realty, the center's owner.

Meanwhile, he said, the planned redevelopment of Columbia's nearby Town Center area into an urbanized downtown is making it nearly impossible to attract new merchants to the town's oldest, and now partly empty, village center about a mile away.

"The downtown is clearly my competition. I've got to clearly separate myself from what downtown is," to entice merchants, Glazer told about 200 residents at a meeting Monday night at Slayton House.

The new county zoning process for major redevelopment of Columbia's neighborhood retail hubs that was approved by the County Council last year is designed to give residents more opportunities to play an important role, but some who attended the required Kimco meeting expressed frustration over the slow pace.

"We're not proposing a plan here," Glazer told the crowd. Kimco officials were there to listen and write down ideas, he said. Then they will come back with a plan in several months.

With the center's anchor Giant supermarket having closed more than three years ago, followed by Produce Galore and other small businesses, some area residents and business operators who came to offer suggestions for Kimco's plan expressed impatience and confusion.

"I wonder if all this planning is going to delay us getting a supermarket?" asked Charles Power.

"What is the difference between this meeting and the one in December?" asked Jeff Kamala, who operates a Crown gas station at the center's edge. "How long are you going to drag this out while we all close up?" he asked Glazer.

After the 2 1/2 -hour meeting, Kamala said, "Meetings are fine, but when are they going to do something?"

Glazer explained that a meeting in mid-December was called by the village board to firm up the community's wishes for the center, while this week's Kimco-sponsored session is required under the new law to give residents a chance to make those suggestions to the developer.

Under the law, Kimco will now produce a proposal and present it publicly in March or April. Two more community meetings are required before that plan can be submitted to the county government for review. Once county planners weigh in on it, it goes before the Planning Board for hearings and a recommendation, and then ultimately to the Zoning Board for hearings and a final decision. Since the Zoning Board, composed of County Council members, typically does not hold sessions in the latter part of an election year, such as 2010, that too could delay things.

The issue has been debated for several years, since Kimco's first unsuccessful attempt to win residents' support for a plan to demolish the center and replace it with 500 apartments and 50,000 square feet of retail space. That idea was eventually abandoned, and the new county zoning process for redevelopment of village centers was instituted.

During Monday night's meeting, a fundamental dispute arose over the boundaries of the village center under the new law.

Glazer proposed including properties on the far periphery of the area along Little Patuxent Parkway, across school athletic fields from the center, as well as homes and condominiums west of Governor Warfield Parkway and Lynx Lane. Under the new law, that larger area would, in effect, increase the allowable density on the 10 acres that Kimco owns. Glazer said that would provide "more flexibility" in drawing up a plan.

The community's plan suggested a much smaller center area that would include Wilde Lake Middle and High schools, the Columbia Association's swim center, the Interfaith Center and Slayton House, along with the commercial properties and the village green.

"I am trying to figure out what's going on here," said Del. Elizabeth Bobo, who with her husband, former County Councilman Lloyd Knowles, has taken a strong interest in both the village center and downtown redevelopment plans. "Who are you to propose that all these properties should be within the village center boundary? I can't understand what's happening here. I've never seen anything like this in my life," the former county executive said.

Glazer said he will confer with the village board and come up with a consensus on the boundaries.

Board Chairwoman Nancy Alexander showed the crowd survey results showing that residents strongly want a grocery store, and to preserve features like the village green and Slayton House, while perhaps adding some residential units.

Others offered their own suggestions, like a new pub, a diner, an unusual toy store, or a business like David's Natural Market that would be unique to Wilde Lake, to create a new "center with a heart," as Edith Cord put it.

Lillian Shapiro's suggestion for "a good Jewish delicatessen" drew some laughs.

"I thought you'd come in with your concept plan," she told Glazer. "I don't understand. You've been working at this for a long time."

"We're following the process," Glazer replied.

Ultimately, the questions returned to the desire for another grocery store.

"Have you offered free rent for the [former] Giant space?" asked Alan Klein, a spokesman for the Coalition for Columbia's Downtown.

Joel Broida said he's read newspaper articles about smaller groceries being a "new" retail trend.

Glazer said he won't discuss individual business contracts, but he did say that he has repeatedly tried to entice a grocer, to no avail. If he could find one to go into the 23,000-square-foot Giant store space, he said, he wouldn't have had to go through the redevelopment and rezoning process.

"We'd love to do it," he said.