Editing Columbia, Maryland (section)

=== Unveiling and growth ===
[[File:View looking southwest - Blandair, 6651 Highway 175, Columbia, Howard County, MD HABS MD-1149-6.tif|thumb|[[Blandair]], a historic plantation located in the center of Columbia]]
At the unveiling on June 21, 1967, [[James Rouse]] described Columbia as a [[planned community|planned new city]] which would avoid the [[Urban sprawl|leap-frog]] and spot-zoning development threatening the county.<ref name="leap"/> The new city would be complete with jobs, schools, shopping, and medical services, and a range of housing choices. [[Property tax]]es from commercial development would cover the additional services with which housing would burden the county. The [[urban planning]] process for Columbia included not only planners, but also a convened panel of nationally recognized experts in the [[social science]]s, known as the Work Group. The fourteen member group of men and one woman, [[Antonia Handler Chayes]], met for two days, twice a month, for half a year starting in 1963.<ref name="New City"/>{{rp|68}} The Work Group suggested innovations for planners in education, recreation, religion, and health care, as well as ways of improving social interactions. Columbia's [[open classroom]]s, [[Interfaith worship spaces|interfaith centers]], and the then-novel idea of a [[health maintenance organization]] (HMO) with a group practice of medical doctors (the Columbia Medical Plan) sprung from these meetings. The community's physical plan, with neighborhood and village centers, was also decided. Columbia's "New Town District" zoning ordinance gave developers great flexibility about what to put where, without requiring county approval for each specific project.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

[[File:Former Rouse Headquaters.jpg|thumb|Former Rouse Headquarters]]
In 1968, vice-presidential candidate [[Spiro Agnew]] referenced Columbia to reporters, saying, "Government should act as a catalyst to encourage the local governments to encourage industry and business to move next to a planned community," and "I want to lessen the density in the ghettos, and concurrently rebuild the ghetto areas."<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Agnew Says Vice President Should Quit in a Major Rift |author=Richard Reeves |date=August 25, 1968}}</ref> In 1969, County Executive Omar J. Jones felt that the increase in tax base was lagging behind the need for infrastructure as the operating budget doubled to $15 million in three years.<ref name="Ellen Hoffman">{{cite news| newspaper=The Washington Post| title=New Towners, The Voiceless Marylanders: Columbia Citizens Seeking More Say| author=Ellen Hoffman| date=September 26, 1969}}</ref> Crime rates shot up around the county by 30–50% a year, with hot spots around the development.<ref>{{cite news| newspaper=The Washington Post| title=Howard County Boom Malignant or Benign?| date=September 19, 1972| author=Tom Huth}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| newspaper=The Washington Post| title=Rural Howard County Goes on a Crime Alert| date=December 11, 1971}}</ref> By 1970, the project required additional financing to continue, borrowing $30 million from Connecticut General, [[Manufacturers Hanover Trust]], and [[Morgan Guaranty]]. In 1972, amendments to New Town zoning proposing to place a maximum height for buildings and maintain the original density limit of 2.2 units per acre were opposed by Rouse allies including the [[Columbia Association]], the Ellicott City Businessman's Association and the Columbia Democratic Club.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |title=Rouse campaigning against Columbia zoning amendments |date=June 22, 1972 |author=Michael J. Clark}}</ref> By 1974, the amount owed reached $100,000 million,{{dubious|date=October 2015}}<!--that's 100 billion--> prompting partner Connecticut General to consider [[bankruptcy]]. An effort to create a special taxing district in 1978 and an effort to incorporate with a mayor in 1979 failed.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |title=Plan to Incorporate Columbia Faces Defeat |author=Micheal J. Clark |date=February 21, 1979}}</ref> In 1985 Cigna (Connecticut General) divested itself of the project for $120 million. By 1990 Howard Research and Development owed $125,162,689.<ref>{{cite book| title=A Biography of James Rouse| page=234| author=Joshua Olsen}}</ref><ref name="oag.state.md.us"/> In 2004 the project was sold to [[General Growth Properties]], which went bankrupt in 2008. General Growth Properties submitted a plan for increasing density throughout Columbia in 2004 which was unanimously voted down.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |title=Howard Week |date=September 19, 2004}}</ref> Ownership of the project fell to the previous Rouse subsidiary the [[Howard Hughes Corporation]]. Howard Hughes submitted a new plan to increase density in 2010 under the [[Kenneth Ulman|Ulman]] administration that passed unanimously.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

Columbia has never [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]]; some governance, however, is provided by the non-profit Columbia Association, which manages common areas and functions as a [[homeowner association]] with regard to private property. The first boards were filled entirely with Rouse Company appointees.<ref name="Ellen Hoffman"/> The first manager of the Columbia Association was John Estabrook Slayton (d. 1967). For Slayton's contributions to the early planning of Columbia, the community center in the [[Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland|Wilde Lake]] village, Slayton House, was named for him. Wilde Lake was the first village area to be developed in Columbia; accordingly, the town's first [[High school (North America)|high school]] was [[Wilde Lake High School]], which opened in 1971 as a "model school for the nation". Constructed in the open classroom style, it was razed in 1994 and reconstructed on the same site, reopening in 1996.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}