Places
To Live In
Columbia
Town Center: Remains the geographical, retail and cultural center
of Columbia, with several distinct residential neighborhoods.
Hickory Ridge: South of the Town Center along Route 29, includes
the neighborhoods Hawthorn, Clemens Crossing and Clary's Forest.
River Hill: The westernmost of Columbia's villages, near the
intersection of Routes 32 and 108. Includes 900 acres of the
Middle Patuxent Environment Area.
Harper's Choice: Also west of Route 29, includes the Longfellow,
Swansfield and Hobbit's Glen neighborhoods.
Wilde Lake: Just north of Town Center, near one of Columbia's
largest lakes. Home of the Bryant Woods, Faulkner Ridge and Running
Brook neighborhoods.
Dorsey's Search: Most northern of the villages, where Route
29 meets Route 108. Neighborhoods include Dorsey Hall and Fairway
Hills.
Long Reach: Farthest east Columbia village, along Route 108
east of Route 29, comprising the Jeffers Hill, Kendall Ridge,
Locust Park and Phelps Luck neighborhoods.
Owen Brown: Off of Broken Land Parkway near Lake Elkhorn, Owen
Brown includes the neighborhoods.
Kings Contrivance: East of Route 29 just north of Route 32.
Oakland Mills: Kind of a mirror to the Town Center, directly
opposite on the eastern side of Route 29. Oakland Mills neighborhoods
are Steven's Forest, Talbott Springs and Thunder Hill. Maple
Lawn:
A new mixed-used development with both a "town center" style
retail and commercial district plus residential areas.
Montjoy: Single-family homes, townhomes, and apartments north
of Columbia near Ellicott City.
Emerson: A new 500+ acre community between Columbia and Laurel. |
About Columbia
Columbia is centrally located in Maryland,
about halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC. The ten
villages of Columbia are roughly bounded by Route 108 on the
north and west, Route 32 on the south and Snowden River Parkway
on the east. Route 29, a major artery between Baltimore and Washington,
bisects Columbia. The central "Town Center" village is located
adjacent to Route 29. View an interactive
map of Columbia.
Appropriately, the commercial and retail center
of Columbia is in the village called Town Center. The
Mall in Columbia is a large regional mall and there are numerous additional
retail and restaurant businesses in the immediate neighborhood.
A significant number of major employers also inhabit the tall
office buildings that encircle the mall and the area around nearby
Lake Kittamaqundi. Each village also has a village center (of
varying sizes) that is home to retails businesses.
The cultural center of Columbia is the Merriwether
Post Pavilion. Although the Pavilion has lost some of its
popularity in recent years due to competition from other venues,
it's still a very pleasant place to enjoy a wide variety of musical
acts. There are several parks and over 3000 acres of land designated
to remain undeveloped.
Columbia is actually an unincorporated area
governed by a homeowners association called the Columbia
Association (CA). Each village elects a representative to the Columbia Council
which oversees the common areas of the community.
There are several golf courses near Columbia
that are open for public play, including Timbers
at Troy, Waverly
Woods, Willow
Springs, and Hampshire
Greens.
|
Columbia is the population center of Howard County and Maryland's largest
planned community. Since its beginning in 1963 Columbia has grown into
a major city divided into ten villages. Just outside of Columbia you'll
find several other communities, including Maple Lawn, a new mixed-used
"Traditional Neighborhood Development".