Editing Columbia, Maryland (section)

=== Howard County land acquisition ===
In April 1962, Mel Berman, a longtime Howard County resident who was also a member of the CRD's Board of Directors, saw a sign on Cedar Lane in Howard County advertising {{convert|1309|acre}} for sale. Berman reported the option to the CRD and a decision was made to purchase the land. This was the first of 165 land purchases made by Rouse over the next year-and-a-half. In order to keep land costs low, Jack Jones, an attorney from Rouse's firm of [[DLA Piper|Piper Marbury]], set up a grid system to secretly buy land through dummy corporations like the "Alaska Iron Mines Company".<ref>{{cite book |title=Property and Law |first1=Charles Monroe |last1=Haar |first2=Lance |last2=Liebman |publisher=Little, Brown |page=685}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Reforming Suburbia: The Planned Communities of Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands |author=Forsythe |page=114}}</ref> Some of these straw purchasers included Columbia Industrial Development Corporation, 95-32 Corporation, 95-216 Corporation, Premble, Inc., Columbia Mall, Inc., Oakland Ridge Industrial Development Corporation, and Columbia Development Corporation. Robert Moxley's firm Security Realty Company (now Security Development Group Inc),<ref name=Sachs>{{cite news| newspaper=The Baltimore Sun| title=Developer envisions 22 homes on 10 acres of Dasher Homestead; Moxley has ties to Columbia's birth| date=November 16, 1993| author=Adam Sachs}}</ref> negotiated many of the land deals for Jones, becoming his best client.<ref name=Sachs /><ref name="New City">{{cite book| title=New City Upon a Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland |author1=Joseph R. Mitchell |author2=David Stebenne}}</ref>{{rp|57}} <ref>{{cite book| title=Columbia| author=Barbara Kellner| page=10}}</ref> CRD accumulated {{convert|14178|acre|km2}}, 10 percent of Howard County, from 140 separate owners. Rouse was turned down in financing from [[David Rockefeller]], who had recently cancelled a planned Rouse "Village" concept called Pocantico Hills.<ref name="New City"/>{{rp|58}} The $19,122,622 acquisition was then funded by Rouse's former employer [[Cigna|Connecticut General Life Insurance]] in October 1962 at an average price of $1,500 per acre ($0.37/m<sup>2</sup>). The town center land of [[Oakland Manor]] was purchased from Isadore Guldesky who was turned down from building high-rises on the site by Rob Moxley's brother, County Commissioner and land developer [[Norman E. Moxley]]. Sensing that he had a key property, he requested $5 million for his {{convert|1000|acre}}, signing an agreement by hand on a land plat.<ref>{{cite book |title=Columbia and the New Cities |author=Gurney Breckenfeld |page=233}}</ref> The competition between Rouse and Guldesky carried over to the competing [[Tysons Corner Center]] and [[Tysons Galleria]] projects, with each hiring their competitor's employees.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=H. Max Ammerman Dies; Development Suburban Malls |date=November 1, 1988}}</ref>

By late 1962, citizens had elected an all-[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] three-member council. J. Hubert Black, [[Charles E. Miller]], and David W. Force who campaigned on a low-density growth ballot, but later approved the Columbia project.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stebenne |first1=David |last2=Mitchell |first2=Joseph Rocco |date=2007 |title=New City Upon a Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland |publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]] |page=48 |isbn=9781614230991}}</ref> The [[Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning|Howard County Planning Commission]] Chairman Wilmer Sanner declared, "if this adds to the orderly development of the county, that's what we are looking for."<ref name="New City"/>{{rp|56}} That July, Sanner sold the majority of his {{convert|73|acre|adj=on}} [[Simpsonville, Maryland|Simpsonville]] farm to Howard Research prior to the public announcement.<ref>{{cite book| title=Maryland State Archives Book 440| pages=80–82}}</ref> In October 1963, the acquisition was revealed to the residents of Howard County, putting to rest rumors about the mysterious purchases. These had included theories that the site was to become a [[medical research]] laboratory or a giant [[compost]] heap. Despite the moniker of being a "planned city", the planning for the city occupied Rouse officials for most of 1964 after the announcement while marketing director Scott Ditch was brought from Baltimore's [[Village of Cross Keys|Cross Keys]] development to promote the project to community groups.<ref name="New City"/>{{rp|56}} <ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |title=Rouse Official Oversaw Naming Of Columbia's Streets, Helped Gain Harborplace Approval |date=June 20, 2009 |author=Jacques Kelly}}</ref>
 
In December 1964 the [[zoning]] was rejected by planning director Tom Harris Jr. for handing nearly all planning control to the developer. A media push was instituted to approve the zoning by Dorris Thompson of ''[[The Howard County Times]]'', Seymour Barondes of the Howard County Civic Association, and Anita Iribe of the [[League of Women Voters]].<ref name="New City"/>{{rp|64}} In June 1965 zoning was approved for the project, and Howard Research and Development entered into a $37.5 million construction deed backed by the property.<ref>{{cite news| newspaper=The Baltimore Sun| title=Columbia's first 25 years: a chronology| url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/06/14/columbias-first-25-years-a-chronology/| date=June 14, 1992| author=Columbia Archives| access-date=June 8, 2013| archive-date=February 1, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201233301/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-06-14/news/1992166270_1_columbia-association-merriweather-post-pavilion-wilde-lake| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="oag.state.md.us">{{cite web| title=HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND et al. v. HOWARD RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION et al.| url=http://www.oag.state.md.us/Courts/1990/1990_04_16.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923132849/http://www.oag.state.md.us/Courts/1990/1990_04_16.pdf |archive-date=2006-09-23 |url-status=live| access-date=February 14, 2014}}</ref> Development was temporarily stalled in October 1965 when James and Anna Hepding of Simpsonville sued the planning board, stating New Town zoning was a form of [[spot zoning]] benefiting a sole property owner. The case was dropped when developer [[Homer Gudelsky]] purchased the estate.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |title=Flashbacks |date=October 17, 1990}}</ref> Ten years later, former Councilman Charles E. Miller stated that if he could do it over again, he wouldn't have voted to approve Columbia. He felt exploited and felt the [[subsidized housing]] would become a problem for the rest of the county.<ref>{{cite news| title=At youthful age of 10, Columbia is feeling like a grown-up new town| newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]| date=June 19, 1977| author=Michael J. Clark| page=B1}}</ref> Miller had been defeated in the November 1974 Howard County Council elections, in part as a result of the changed political landscape that Columbia's development brought. In early 1976, a ''Columbia Flier'' editorial charged that Miller was a fear-mongering reactionary who had a personal vendetta against Columbia, Rouse and Columbia residents.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Columbia Flier |title=Middle Patuxent: a solid proposal |date=January 15, 1976}}</ref>