Columbia, Md (Map, News) - Gateway Overlook’s big-box store draw is forcing some Columbia villages to get creative.

Oakland Mills Village Center has plans for an international theme center, hoping to draw artisans and festivals to its community, according to Sandy Cederbaum, village manager for the Oakland Mills Community Association.

“We’re looking at it knowing there are a lot of changes coming to Columbia, and village centers have to look to the future,” Cederbaum said. “We’re looking at possibly changing the way they were designed 40 years ago so we can compete.”

The Oakland Mills anchor is a Food Lion supermarket.

Last summer, the Giant grocery store in Wilde Lake announced it would be closing.

“We lost our grocery store and that’s what’s driving our current attempts at revitalization. We’re looking for a grocery store who’s willing to come in here,” said Philip Kirsch, Columbia Council representative from the village of Wilde Lake.

“We’re trying to make it more of a transportation hub where people can get buses to Baltimore and Washington, and while they’re waiting or when they get back from work, they can do a little shopping.”

However, some Columbia-area community associations aren’t worried about coming up with a new angle to attract customers.

“Gateway Overlook is a welcome part of the community,” said Tom Wulf, village manager of the Owen Brown Community Association, the closest village to Gateway Overlook in Columbia.

And while Wulf accepts the development coming into the area, other residents are just as proud about what the community has accomplished.

“Columbia has proven that [founder Jim] Rouse’s original idea of keeping growth at a human scale and creating neighborhood and villages which then form into a city has proven extremely successful,” said Barbara Russell, chair of the Columbia Council board of directors. “The village revitalization efforts are critical to keeping the whole Columbia plan and concept alive.”

ekrupp@baltimoreexaminer.com