Thunder Hill Park Alliance

Thunder Hill Park: Changing the Destiny of Columbia
by Robert J. Moon, Architect

Good evening. Thank you for inviting me here tonight to talk about development of the Smith property, the 300-acre tract of land in the middle of Columbia that was purchased in 1998 by Howard County and the State of Maryland for use as a regional park.

There are several things I want to discuss, and I also want to allow plenty of time for questions, so I will be brief.

I will talk about:

ß The promise and potential of the Smith property.

ß A partnership model for developing Thunder Hill Park.

ß The role the Columbia Association could play in moving the project forward.

First of all, a week from today, I will celebrate the 12th anniversary of a heart transplant I received at the Cleveland Clinic.

In the years since what was for me a momentous life event, I have made a couple dozen trips to Cleveland for check-ups. During those trips, I have often visited the Cleveland Botanical Gardens near the clinic, reflecting upon my own good fortune, enjoying the physical beauty and benefiting from the healing power of the natural world.

The jewel in the crown of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens is the Hershey Children’s Garden, a wondrous environment for little children of all ages and their families. It captured my imagination and reserved a place in my mind’s eye.

During the late 90’s when the Smith property became available, the image of the Hershey Children’s Garden served as a catalyst for me to join a citizens committee convened by the county to begin brainstorming about how the Smith property could serve the people of Columbia and Howard County.

During the almost two years we spent on that committee, a group of us became committed to a vision of a regional park as being something more than merely a site for a collection of unrelated activities. We became convinced that the Smith property had the potential to change the destiny of Columbia itself.

The Promise and Potential of the Smith Property

For a number of years now, the once burnished reputation of Columbia has taken a beating. Newspaper articles have recounted deterioration of properties and specific neighborhoods and their schools have been identified as less than desirable, and, in fact, some of our mature villages are seen as requiring “revitalization efforts.”

As an architect and a Columbian since 1971, I have watched this with concern, particularly for Oakland Mills.

Who would ever have thought that the Enterprise Foundation, founded by Jim Rouse to help decaying inner cities, would be called upon to reverse the direction of one of Columbia’s own villages?

However, it’s a good thing that Oakland Mills is getting that attention, and I support the efforts of the Village Board and the Oakland Mills Revitalization Group underway there.

In fact, what the Smith property offers is the opportunity to take a giant step forward in supporting revitalization of the areas surrounding the park site, and that includes the Villages of Oakland Mills and Long Reach.

That 300-acre Smith property site is an unexpected windfall, a gift of immeasurable proportions… for our generation, for our children and grandchildren and their children and grandchildren down through the ages.

The site includes a house and complex of outbuilding, but its real assets are the forest and the pastures, the wetlands, two farm ponds, the flora and the fauna. Portions of the site act as a wildlife movement corridor. It is swimming in wildflowers. A survey found 68 specimen trees of 30-inches in diameter or larger on the property.

The varieties of trees alone are worth singing about. There are:
Black cherry
Red maple and Silver maple
Ornamental apple
Slippery elm
Black locust
Pin oak and white oak
American sycamore
Flowering dogwood
Black walnut
Chinese chestnut

Think what would happen if this incredible resource, smack in the middle of Columbia, were developed in such a way as to maximize every inch of its uniqueness!

It was this vision that drove a group of us to establish the Thunder Hill Park Alliance, a 501c3 non-profit organization. We raised money from a group of founding donors to get it started.

In studying other parks, it became clear that parks need “friends,” a community of people who will support the best uses and best design of these community assets and serve as fundraising vehicles and oversight boards.

With the vision of the Hershey Children’s Garden in mind, we contacted its designer, Herb Schaal of EDAW, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm, and asked him to come and visit the site. We paid for an expert’s visit with money from a grant made to the Thunder Hill Park Alliance by The Horizon Foundation.

He was here for a 4-day visit that included site surveys, meetings with community leaders, preliminary concepts for use of the site, and a presentation of his ideas. He followed by sending more finished drawings of his ideas upon his return to Colorado.

It is this concept plan for a 300-acre Nature Park in the center of Columbia that has exhilarated us and that we hope will exhilarate you. It would:

• Preserve the natural landscape
• Restore the woodlands and grasslands as a perfect setting for the existing buildings
• Provide the only entrance to the park with a grade separated entrance from Rt. 175
• Preserve the existing alee approach to the house
• Preserve the existing farm buildings
• Include a Nature Center and greenhouses
• Display Nature Art
• Feature an 8-acre Children’s Nature Adventure with restored woodlands, ponds and marshes
• Include Youth Community Gardens near Oakland Mills High School for older children to grow plants and vegetables and perhaps sell their products as they do in Cleveland
• Provide Outdoors Skills areas for rock climbing and a canopy rope course
• Connect miles of interpretive nature walking trails and paths to the pathways and open space in Columbia

• Create a destination point from all the pathways in Columbia

A Partnership Model for Developing Thunder Hill Park

The question uppermost in your minds at this moment is probably, “How is this ambitious plan going to be funded?”

It is primarily going to be funded by a partnership of those that care the most about it: the people, the government, the businesses, and the foundations of Columbia and the rest of Howard County.

They will invest in it through their government, through their assessments and through their individual, corporate and foundation contributions. In other words, through a real partnership and incidentally, The Audubon Society has also expressed interest in the Thunder Hill Park as a partnership. In addition, the Thunder Hill Park Alliance, as a 501c3, could serve as a fundraising vehicle and grant recipient.

This is a BIG IDEA, and it is going to attract supporters. In the last two years, we have spoken with literally hundreds of people about the idea of developing the Thunder Hill Park. The concept has met with unanimous enthusiasm.

We have a Leadership Team that is distinguished by its history of community leadership and its willingness to make this ambitious plan a reality. I would like to introduce some members of that team who are here tonight:

Tim Ambrose, Development Director, National Parks Conservation Association
Alan Davis, Owner, Princeton Sporting Goods
Mary Ann Scully, President and CEO, Howard Bank
John Quinn, Coordinator, Secondary Science, Howard County Public Schools
Barbara VanWinkle, Owner, Nancy Adams Personnel
Steve Wecker, Owner, Iron Bridge Wine Corp.
Sylvia Ramsey, Manager, Community Enhancement Programs, Maryland Department of Transportation

Each of us may have a different emphasis in supporting the Thunder Hill Park. As members of the CA Board of Directors, you may see the project as an economic development tool.

Indeed, the development of the Smith property should transform the east side of Columbia into the “garden spot” of Howard County.

Proper development could be the catalyst for increasing property values in Oakland Mills and Long Reach and for inspiring

community reinvestment. Changing the character and perception of our mature villages is essential to their revitalization and future success.

The economic benefit to everyone – the residents of adjacent property, those who live elsewhere in the improved villages, indeed, the people of Columbia and elsewhere in Howard County – is incalculable.

Think about the effect on The Columbia Association itself if people start investing in their properties and those properties appreciate in value and become more desirable places to live, attracting people who are now avoiding some of our older neighborhoods.

The legacy we are talking about is manifold. There will never again be such an opportunity to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, protect birds and other wildlife and their habitats, and provide an environment where all of us, our children especially, can observe and enjoy the wonders of the natural world right in their own hometown.

The Role of The Columbia Association

Finally, where does CA fit in? We look to CA to recognize that a 300-acre site in the middle of Columbia deserves CA’s thoughtful attention, aggressive participation in its planning of use and design, and the allocation of resources to justify a partnership role.

The Columbia Association has a long history with this site, starting with attempts in the mid 70’s to include Nancy Smith’s farm into the openspace of Columbia. We missed that chance. The Alliance is asking you today to include Thunder Hill Park at the top of your list when discussing financial allocations for open space. We look to you for leadership and support. In particular, we look to you to start the project moving forward by beginning conversations with the county about Thunder Hill Park.

Thank you for your time and attention. I welcome your questions.