I'd say concentrate on finding a place. Then look into that particular village's guidelines. If it's even covered under a village. There are plenty of 'outparcels' which are independent of CA and the villages within Columbia. They don't have the same restrictions.

Found this for you.

https://www.columbiaassociation.org/explore-columbia/columbia-villages/

Former Covenant Advisor here.

I can tell you there is no master guideline, but most of the 10 villages have similar guidelines, and exceptions to the guidelines are made on case by case basis at each village. Each village has it's own application process.

That being said, you will rarely find a fence higher than 48" on a single family home for any of the villages. Town homes and small sections of SFH (privacy fence) can have a 6' fence, but not an entire yard. There are a few exceptions to this, as there are older villages that had some builder installed concrete walls between homes that measured 6'. These homes typically have the remainder of the yard enclosed with a similar height 'shadow box' style fence.

There's about 3 or 4 styles typically approved for your 48" fences. Estate and Paddock are usually the style most people with big dogs go with. Again, this varies between villages.

Also remember, if you buy a home and an adjacent neighbor that has an existing fence, you will likely be made to match that style of fence. Whether the residential architectural committee for the village will make you match the height, I don't know. (some homes have 36" fences)

I've seen people with similar situations as you, having large dogs, plead for higher fences and they have been denied. I've even seen homeowners pay for the replacement of a neighbor's fence so that they would match and be of a more secure type.

Whatever village in Columbia you end up being interested in, make sure to check the Covenants prior to buying. Also check with the Covenant Advisor, they're there to help you.

Each village has a website and the Covenants are usually on there as a PDF.

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Also...you can't apply for a new fence until you are officially the new homeowner. This has been a issue in the case of someone wanting to buy a home and be sure they can get what they're looking for approved.

Ours is still inside, the signal booster made a world of difference. Was about $30 on Amazon.

I bought one of the indoor HD Antennas off Amazon that claim to get you 60 miles of signal, was very hit or miss for both Baltimore & DC channels. There's about half a dozen being sold under different names.

What I ended up buying on was a separate signal booster (most of the antenna packages come with a weaker booster) and it made a world of difference. No issues since. I will recommend that also hanging the antenna on an exterior wall (hid ours behind a bookshelf) seems to help.

You can only access it from outside the building. It's on the 2nd floor parking level, 'towards the back'.

The selection isn't bad. If I'm at Wegmans I'd go in to get something if I was in a hurry. Otherwise, I don't mind driving over to Perfect Pour.

There's a few new apartment buildings on the west side of the Columbia Mall. Don't expect to get much bigger than a 2 bedroom for less than $3000. Also if by 'upscale' you mean luxury, the one building might get you a 1 bedroom for that price.

As for townhouses that might be available for rent, you might find one for about that price, but it could be hit or miss on whether it's been renovated recently.

More of this needs to happen in Columbia. Many of the Covenants for the Villages are outdated and it's a handful of people that decide what changes are made to them. They have picturesque ideas of what yards need to look like based on ideas from when Columbia was originally established 50 years ago.

APL Federal Credit Union (both locations) take TFT donations until December 17th

Actually, there are deer hunts in the area.

I learned some years ago when the Blaindair Park area (Smith farm) was originally owned by the State, there were bow hunts to control the deer population. Too many deer and they starve, so the idea was to thin the population out enough to keep them healthy.

Also, interesting fact.

Bucks will leave you a nice big hefty turd in your yard in the mornings. Was told by a hunter friend that a buck generally does this in the area where it beds for the night. It doesn't look like regular dear poop.

Before I knew what it was, I thought there was something seriously wrong with my dog.

1. It's deer mating season.
2. Not sure where you're located. With the development of the Blandair Park area, many deer have been pushed into adjacent areas.
3. Have a buck in our backyard from time to time. He's never been hostile.

EDIT: spelling, grammar

Get all your neighbors who support Ms. Boyd to/on the next meeting for your Village Board. Ask questions.

Email each of the KC Village Board members. You could also attend the next board meeting and ask why your Village doesn't support Ms. Boyd. It's a interesting thing that everyone should be doing if their Village has kept quiet.

I believe in the case of the Villages that have officially supported Ms. Boyd, there were votes taken by the Village Boards. It isn't just the position of the Village Rep to CA that decides. Harper's Choice (rep. Alan Klein) has also added their support for Ms. Boyd, but Mr. Klein is part of the anti-Boyd movement.

I intend to ask this question at the next Long Reach Board meeting in a little over a week. Janet seems to support Ms. Boyd, but I think there's a certain element in the Long Reach Village Board that doesn't. You can easily connect the dots if you do a little browsing.

Couple things I can recommend.

I had a 20+ year old remediation system on our home. There's kits you can purchase to perform the testing. The same kind of testing commercial companies will use.

If you're concerned about the exhaust motor/fan, there's a couple big name exhaust systems that are used by all the companies. Our old one was rated to last only between 15 and 20 years. I was surprised it lasted as long as it had, and was getting noisy, so I decided it best to replace it. I bought the newer more energy efficient replacement model and swapped it out. It's now whisper quiet. Even if you have limited electrical knowledge it's a rather easy fix. It might even be cheaper to have an electrician install it than a radon remediation company.

Also. Our home being older, when the most recent roof was changed, the vent exited below the roofline. If you want to be to code, the exhaust should be to the level of your roof and away from your home. Use PVC. For the end piece, buy something with a screen. I found multiple bird skeletons, maybe even part of a squirrel skeleton from creatures that entered the exhaust pipe and never made it out.

These are just suggestions if you're comfortable doing things yourself. I replaced the exhaust fan and pvc piping for around $400, including testing.

When in doubt, call a professional. Can't remember the name of the company, but they're either in Sykesville or Mt. Airy and came highly recommended.

You get Radon gas due to the uranium decay chain. Down in the ground we have minerals like granite which contain very small amounts of uranium. The uranium decays over time, releasing Radon.

Radon then usually gathers under foundations and in our area can make its way into basements. This is usually remediated in a simple way. They're use a venting system connected to a low point in your basement, likely your sump pump pit, seal it with plexiglass, and route a PVC pipe from there to the outside of your home with a fan that runs 24/7 that continually pulls out any particles to the outside.

From the last CA Board Meeting on Nov. 10th.

https://youtu.be/uRjV7hguudk?t=2773

She said everything I think that needs to be said. If you're reading this Christie, that was about 3 of the best minutes in the entire meeting.

Mango Grove off Stanford & Dobbin.

The other thing I might mention, my SO works with interns over the summer and housing has been a big issue in the area. It's unfortunate because it has been a cause of many people having to turn down internships.

Another issue is transportation. Not sure if you'll be arriving with a vehicle, but it's usually a must. We have buses throughout the County, but they won't necessarily get you where you need to go easily.

Check with the company you're interning with.

Don't think you're going to find anything that cheap. You'll likely need to find a place to share with a roommate.

If you're here in Columbia, check with CAC of Howard County.

There's also a smaller group that started up around the time of the pandemic, Columbia Community Care, they have a page on Facebook.

The OP mentioned they're in Hickory Ridg, which is part of CA. None of the Villages under CA have any authority over any noise-levels. They will however cite you for excessive leaves on your property.

If you watch any of the meetings, it's just a sad mess.

You have a group of old seniors, that are unprepared and seem to just attend the meeting to be confrontational. They give that vibe where they'd yell at you the second your kid's ball landed in their yard and you walked over to pick it up.

Watching Dick Boulton and Alan Klein in action, makes you wish COVID had hit the area a little harder. Brian England sits staring into space on his video feed. I sometimes wonder if he's dead, but then he mutters something incomprehensible and usually doesn't know what's actually going on. Then you have Eric Greenberg who just falls in line with the Old White Guy posse.

How the CEO hasn't quit at this point is beyond me.

I'm getting older and I firmly believe you limit the age of the people involved in some of these elected positions. Yes it's ageism. Leave this in the hands of the younger members in the CA community that are going to be affected by these decisions long after most of these people on the Board are long dead.

Oh hey...lets not even mention the total lack of diversity on the Board.

Mad respect for Janet Evans. If you ever watch the recording of the meeting where they voted her out of the Chairperson seat. It was just sad. She's one of the few knowledgeable and hardworking members of the Board that is always prepared and knows what's going on.

>The board comes off as idiots who are way out of their element.

It's always fun to watch them argue with the CA Attorney. Because you know, I'm older so I know better.