“Ideally more diverse types of home such as apartments, townhomes etc, so middle class folks can afford them not just endless McMansions contributing to sprawl.”

Agree wholeheartedly with this, though I do wonder about the thought process and planning/consideration that goes into approval for each development, with regard to environmental impact, impacts to schools, transportation, etc. I mean, it seems this county has to redistrict every couple of years, and old EC flooded twice since I moved here (in 2016), which leads me to believe that the planning in these areas has been insufficient or inadequate. Given that Kittleman was the former CE and Ball was on the council, and from what I understand, voted for this development, it doesn’t make me super happy that they are the options for CE (though this crappy planning probably began before them).

People want to move and live here, and so we need housing options for every budget, but we also need to plan the space around that housing in a responsible manner in order to avoid becoming San Francisco or MoCo. If the county council has indeed been working on this in a thoughtful manner, it would be nice if they made this information more available in an easily digestible way to the public.

“I'd like to see a Rouse-like approach for the 21st century, rather than copying the copycats in the way we've seen so far”

Me too! Columbia seems as though it was well thought out with regard to its infrastructure (roads, walkability, village centers, schools, etc.), coupled with the different housing options that made this county more socioeconomically diverse. The different housing options blend well too… the only outer Columbia example I can think of is Waverly Woods. It would be nice if the remainder of the county (EC, Elkridge, etc) could be retrofitted similar to Columbia.