Politics & Government

Downtown Partnership Board May Be Amended

Howard Hughes and the County Council have been debating the makeup of the board of directors, which currently gives the development firm a majority of members.

The makeup of the board of directors of the Downtown Columbia Partnership, which has been the subject of contentious debate by the County Council recently, may be subject to an amendment on Thursday.

The debate is centered on the fact that four of the board’s original seven members would be made up of Howard Hughes Corp. employees, thus giving the development firm a majority.

Council member Calvin Ball said on Tuesday that he is currently evaluating the makeup of the board.

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“I think we’ll have to keep looking at what an appropriate makeup will be,” said Ball. “We’ll have to examine what the responsibilities of the various board members will be.”

He said after amendments to bills are pre-filed on Thursday another discussion of the subject will likely take place before a vote on the legislation takes place. A vote is scheduled for July 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.

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Council Member Courtney Watson agreed with Ball's view on re-examining the makeup of the board.

"I think that ultimately it needs to be a well-rounded board that represents everyone that has a stake in Downtown Columbia," said Watson on Tuesday. She said the board would benefit from representation from additional constituencies such as the commercial building owners in the area that aren't part of Howard Hughes and a representative from the Town Center community.

As the legislation is currently written, the board would consist of four Howard Hughes employees, the county executive, the general manager of the Mall in Columbia and the President of the Columbia Association.

What do you think, should the council amend the makeup of the partnership board in the legislation or is giving Howard Hughes control the right decision? - Tell us in the comments.

The Downtown Columbia Partnership would be responsible for collecting affordable housing and transportation funds, as well as marketing the downtown district, expenses that are predicted to cost millions of dollars.

Howard Hughes senior vice president John DeWolf said at a Council work session last week that he believes Howard Hughes should have initial control of the board because it is responsible for the start-up expenses, according to an article on Explore Howard.

According to the article, DeWolf said that Howard Hughes shouldn’t even have to be in front of the Council and that this conversation should be between the planning department and Howard Hughes.

Local blogger Dennis Lane of Wordbones.com weighed in on the issue in a recent blog post by noting Howard Hughes may be contributing tens of millions of dollars to affordable housing, transportation and environmental initiatives.

“Of course they want to control the authority, at least initially,” wrote Lane. “They are the only ones with real skin in the game.”

After 500,000 square feet of development takes place, the legislation allows the county executive to appoint two additional members to the partnership's board.

However, at last week’s Council public hearing on Monday, multiple members of the public lamented that the legislation was giving control of the partnership to Howard Hughes.

"Essentially you're giving control of the partnership to Howard Hughes," said Alan Klein, a spokesperson for the coalition for Columbia's downtown. "That doesn't sound like much of a partnership to us." 

Watson said she thought it's just the matter of the very first start-up phase where Howard Hughes is asking for control. She said either the Council needs to give Howard Hughes control in the beginning or identify how much the Council expects the company to spend so they know what their liability is in setting up the partnership.

Ball said the Council would continue to work together to set up legislation to create a successful downtown.

“On Thursday afternoon we’ll have a much greater sense of how things will unfold,” said Ball, referring to when the amendments will be prefiled.

Previous Coverage on Downtown Columbia:


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