RCA President Remarks and RCA Board Statement on Task Force Inhibiting Public Participation, Reston Task Force Meeting, February 23, 2010

I’m Marion Stillson, the publicly-elected President of RCA, the Reston Citizens Association. RCA was founded in 1967 to promote and protect the founding goals of Reston. All of the founding goals will be impacted by the actions of the Task Force (TF). I am also a regular member of RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee.

Supervisor Hudgins stated her intent to involve the maximum number of citizens in the work of the TF. We are disappointed that actions and inactions of the TF and the County’s Department of Planning and Zoning (DPZ) have inhibited the ability of Reston citizens to contribute. My statement provides some key examples, which I will highlight here.

1. Most of all, the County DPZ has failed to deliver an Existing Conditions and Current Plans Report, promised by the end of September 2009. We understand that the DPZ is underfunded and shorthanded and we admire the professionalism with which they act nevertheless. We also understand that the DPZ expects to publish this Report before the TF makes any decisions. But ordinary citizens who want to grapple with its implications need more time than that.

2. The TF has failed to utilize those citizens who participated in Supervisor Hudgins’ Reston Land Use College in September, 2009. Early in February, TF Chair Nicoson rejected Reston 2020 Committee’s offer to organize them into working groups at no taxpayer cost.

3. The DPZ has consistently failed to publish TF meeting agendas and related materials in a timely manner, denying citizens the opportunity to understand what will be discussed and to plan their own participation. Today’s meeting was, as late as yesterday, advertized as taking place in two different venues. A journalist went to the wrong place in January because of a last-minute change of venue.

4. Finally, the TF and DPZ have failed to inform affected residents in and around areas that will be discussed in either their informational or community meetings. RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee had to inform residents of Polo Fields, close to Herndon-Monroe TOD area, that their area will be discussed at the February 23 and 26 meetings of the TF.

Thank you.

Marion Stillson
President, Reston Citizens Association

Reston TF Inhibits Citizen Participation