Sea Scout Ship Columbia Ranger

In October 1963, the Rouse Company announced to the citizens of Howard County, Maryland, that it had acquired some 15,000 acres, about one-tenth of the County's total landarea, for the purpose of building a new city. In nine months, the Company had purchased 140 separate properties at an average price of $1,490 per acre. Rumors of alI kinds had spread throughout the County: the government was buying land to create a living laboratory of dreaded tropical diseases; the combined sanitation companies of Washington, DC and Baltimore were planning a huge compost heap to turn garbage into peat moss. It had even been hinted that the money was coming from the Soviet Union.

In disclosing his company's plans to a rural Howard County, James W. Rouse, Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Rouse Company, described his vision of the new city. Columbia, because it would be planned from the beginning, would avoid urban sprawl, the waste and inconveniences that have come to typify spot development. The new city, he said, would provide jobs and recreation, shopping and health care, and the many other facilities and services people want and need in a city, along with a broad range of housing choices. Residential development would be balanced by commercial and industrial development so that Columbia would not only "pay its way" for County services, but would contribute excess tax revenues to benefit the entire County.

Financing the Venture

To finance the land acquisition, in February 1963 Connecticut General Life Insurance Company agreed to inuest in the project and, in return, acquired an equity participation. This arrangement was subsequently formalized by the creation of the Howard Research Development Corporation, the joint venture to develop Columbia. In December 1964, additional private financing (the city is being developed entirely by the private sector) was provided by Chase Manhatten Bank and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. In 1970, two additional lenders, Morgan Guaranty and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Companies, joined the investors in Columbia.

Planning the City

From October 1963 to November 1964, Company planners created a general plan for the city, detailing land uses, densities, development pace and economics. To help determine what the city's social objectives should be and how they might be reflected in the physical plan, the Company convened a group of fourteen nationally-known experts in such fields as education, health care, recreation, economics, sociology, psychology and communications. During the next six months the group met for two days twice a month to determine not just what was possible, but how a city might work best. Ideas from these meetings found expression both in the physical plan for the city (in the location of schools at the core of each neighborhood, for example) and in innovative programs (team teaching in open classrooms, ungraded schools, the shared facilities Interfaith Center, and the group practice Columbia Medical Plan).

In November 1964, the Columbia plan was presented to the people and government of Howard County, along with a request for a new kind of zoning which would permit greater flexibility in mixing land uses. In a county that was concerned about the ravages of urban sprawl and aroused by zoning battles, Columbia, for all its boldness, offered a better alternative. At the crucial hearing on Columbia's original zoning proposal, not a single County resident appeared in opposition. In August 1965, the County passed a "New Town District" zoning ordinance and granted zoning for Columbia's development.

Wilde Lake: the First Village

The Company went immediately to work on detailed plans for the city's first village, the Village of Wilde Lake, named for Frazer B. Wilde, past chairman of the board of Conecticut General. Ten months later, in June 1966, construction was started.

Columbia opened to the public one year later, drawing international publicity and more than 100,000 visitors to the Exhibit Center during the first summer. Since then, over two million people have toured the city.

In July 1967, Columbia's first residents moved into the village of Wilde Lake. Today there are approximately 79,000 people living in Columbia's nine villages and Town Center. At full development there will be over 95,000 residents. The ninth and final village welcomed its first residents in April 1992.

Columbia's Industrial Base

Columbia's first industrial firm, Hittman Associates Inc., a research and engineering firm, anounced its intention to move here in May 1967. The company moved into its new quarters in December 1967. Hittman has since been joined by more than 2,400 other business firms occupying over 21 million square feet of space. Some of the businesses in Columbia include Allied-Signal, AT&T, General Physics, Marriott Corporation, Maryland National Bank, NCR, Columbia National Mortgage Finance, Ryland, State Farm Insurance, Ford Motor Credit, Sears Distribution Center and Westinghouse. In addition, over 30 foreign-owned firms have moved to Columbia. Nearly 55,400 jobs have been created, with many more being created each year as Columbia's business base grows.

In September 1985, The Rouse Company acquired Connecticut General's (now CIGNA's) interest in Howard Research and Development Corporation, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Rouse Company.

Retail Shopping, Restaurants and Amenities

In the 27 years since the first residents moved into Columbia, not only the framework, but many of the vital elements that make a city have been put into place. Eight village centers, each providing a variety of day-to-day shopping needs, community and recreational facilities, and professional services, are now in operation. Snowden Square opened in 1993, providing 500,000 square feet of additional retail space to the community. Today Columbia contains over 2.7 million square feet of commercial space.

Downtown, the Mall in Columbia, which opened in August 1971, has three department stores and over 190 shops and restaurants. Downtown also includes over 1.9 million square feet of office space, a 25-acre lake, the 17,000-capacity Merriweather Post Concert Pavilion, Symphony Woods Park, Howard County General Hospital, the main branch of the Howard County Public Library, a dinner theatre, a multi-screen cinema, the 289-room Columbia Inn, townhouses and apartments, several fine restaurants and many other amenities.

Educational and Recreational Facilities

In education, Columbia presently has 14 elementary, 5 middle and 6 public high schools, undergraduate and graduate programs, and 29 daycare and/or pre-school programs. Religious activities are centered primarily in four interfaith centers where denominations share common worship facilities.

Recreational opportunities include an 18-hole golf course, 4 indoor and 51 outdoor tennis courts, an equestrian center, an indoor ice skating rink, a bowling center, 4 indoor pools and two water slides, 21 outdoor swimming pools, 2 athletic clubs and 2 Nautilus Centers. Over 2,700 acres of land have been set aside to date for parks, playgrounds and natural areas, interlaced by over 57 miles of bicycling and biking paths. In addition, there are three man-made lakes within Columbia for sailing, boating and fishing. A total of over 5,000 acres of open space (more than 1/3 of Columbia's land), including the 1,000-acre Middle Patuxent Environmental Area, are spread throughout Columbia, providing abundant natural areas and unifying pathways to neighboring villages.

Community Development
The Rouse Company
April 1994