URGENT: Come to Tonight's Community Workshop on Reston Development Planning Principles

I am writing you this morning to request that you take time to attend and participate in this evening’s critical Community Workshop of the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force. The meeting is at Langston Hughes Intermediate School at 7 PM.

The purpose of this evening’s meeting is to generate and prioritize ideas for planning principles that will guide the task force’s planning process. The agenda includes presentation of the county’s draft strawman planning principles, as well as the presentation of alternative planning principles by local groups. This will be followed by a period in which some sense of prioritization of the principles will be generated.

This meeting is the first substantive step in the task force effort and it must reflect the views of the diverse Reston community. If you have an interest, idea, or concern about Reston’s future, including density, transportation, parks & recreation, business development, environment, diversity, or any of a number of other matters, this is the best opportunity you will have to make a case. Moreover, if the process of identifying planning principles is not done well, it could start the task force Reston development and redevelopment off on the wrong path for decades to come.

More important than any particular direction the task force takes, it is imperative that the task force see and understand that Restonians care about the future of the community. Only a large number of people willing to take the time to participate in a community workshop like this will show that Restonians care. If few people participate, the task force may discern that Restonians do not care and they will set off on a course of their own choosing.

Here are some key links to documents for this evening’s session:

1. The agenda

2. The county draft strawman planning principles

3. The Reston 2020 Committee proposed planning principles

4. The ARCH draft proposed planning principles

5. The Rando-Kaplan proposed planning principles

6. Other background material handouts for the meeting, including the Tysons Corner planning principles, the Comprehensive Plan Suburban Areawide Recommendations, and the Lake Anne Areawide Plan.

Please come to this evening’s community workshop. Please participate in the task force’s planning process. And please share this information with your family and friends. This is your first best chance to help shape Reston’s future.

I look forward to seeing you there this evening.

Terry Maynard
Blog Administrator
Reston 2020 Committee