Now that local citizens groups have had a month to digest General Growth Properties’ plan for downtown Columbia, they are starting to react to the plan.

Columbia 2.0, an organization aimed at younger people in Howard County, has begun posting a series of videos to its Web site to educate supporters about the 30-year General Growth plan.

The group’s members lead busy lives, said David Yungmann, one of the organization’s co-founders. and do not necessarily have the time to go to late-night meetings or sift through the hundreds of pages submitted by General Growth.

“We’ve come out and said we’re going to approach and involve and energize younger people and to do that, you have to approach it in a different way,” he said.

“Our general position is we like the plan,” Yungmann added. “We think it fairly represents the community consensus for change.”

Columbia 2.0’s Web site, which doubles as a blog about local issues, features two videos. One gives an introduction to the series and the other provides an overview of the General Growth proposal.

Future installments, organizers said, will detail the specific neighborhoods in the plan and provide more information on culture, the environment and transportation.

After all of the videos have been posted, Columbia 2.0 plans to host an event where people can talk about and debate it, Yungmann said.

The Coalition for Columbia’s Downtown, a citizens’ group that has been critical of parts of General Growth’s plan, held an event Oct. 29 presenting its own plan for “A Town Center for the People.” The coalition, established in part to help shape downtown development, has said it wants to adhere closely to what citizens suggested during a week-long community planning session in 2005.

Alan Klein, the group’s spokesman, said his organization likes parts of the General Growth plan, but has concerns with other elements of it.

Among the parts they support are the idea of including housing for people with a wide range of incomes, incorporating mixed-use design, supporting arts and culture downtown and focusing on the environment, walkability and transit options, he said.

However, he said group members have concerns about the traffic study the company used to support its plan, the intention to remove trees from Symphony Woods and the phasing of the plan.

Klein said his group would like to see GGP’s plan broken into five-year phases rather than 10-year phases, which he said would ensure that each development stage is not approved unless certain goals are met.

The coalition also has a problem with including 15- to 20-story buildings in the design and believes the Lakefront neighborhood should be broken up more to create a sixth neighborhood in downtown, he said.

The group’s top priority, Klein said, is finding a way to make sure the amenities promised in the plan actually are delivered.

“The general plan is only a guide,” Klein said. “Zoning is enforceable.”

At the coalition’s event Oct. 29, Cy Paumier, an urban planner who worked on Columbia in the early years of its development, offered alternative suggestions for the downtown design. Paumier said The Rouse Co. was not able to devote as much time to Symphony Woods and downtown as it would have liked, since designers were busy constructing the villages and village centers.

Paumier discussed enhancing the area around Lake Kittamaqundi to include a path around the lake and adding more space for outdoor cafes and a plaza. Merriweather Post Pavilion should be linked more to the surrounding park and forest land, and Paumier said only dead trees, not healthy ones, should be removed from Symphony Woods.

In general, he suggested a lower-impact design on Symphony Woods than General Growth envisions, but did propose a walking trail, food concessions and perhaps an interactive fountain in the area.

To reach Columbia 2.0, go to www.columbia2.wordpress.com/

To reach the Coalition for Columbia’s Downtown, go to www.coalitionforcolumbiasdowntown.org.

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