Official Meeting Summary: Reston Master Plan Special Study Community Meeting, January 26, 2010

Reston Master Plan Special Study
Community Meeting

January 26, 2010, 7:00 PM
Langston Hughes HS cafeteria.
Approximately 100-110 community and task force members

Heidi Merkel, senior planner with the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning, presented an overview of the purpose of the meeting – “to capture public ideas” and “express preferences about Reston’s prospective planning principles”.

Bob Simon's original 1962 goals were used to introduce the concept of principles and as foundation for further discussion.

Simon's goals focused on the following:
• variety of leisure options
• housing options
• phased development that provided for community amenities throughout the development life cycle
• housing for all stages of life and income levels
• living and working in the same community, etc

Heidi Merkel presented an example “strawman” drafted by staff. The “strawman” example is a tool to begin discussion. The “Strawman” included the following principles:
• Preservation of the long-term stability of Reston
• Transportation network that supports the planned land uses
• Connectivity throughout the community
• Housing diversity
• Wide range of mobility options, etc.

Jerry Volloy (representing the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners) presented the group's position paper on planning principles:
• Study should determine how much development is possible versus how much is best for the community.
• Development should be well planned
• Transportation improvements should be in place before development occurs, etc

Kathy Kaplan (representing the Citizens’ Master Plan Group) presented the groups planning principles:
• World class design
• Building height limits
• 33 1/3 percent open space
• Parkland provided for residents on site by developer
• Complete separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic
• Cleaned water and clear air standards, etc

Ms. Kaplan also proposed changes in the county’s “strawman” planning principles. An edited version was provided to the public.

Dick Stillson (representing the Reston 2020 Committee) presented the groups planning principles
• Planning must be for the whole of Reston
• Phased development
• Excellence in planning design in architecture
• Consolidation of parcels within land sub units
• Require transportation improvements that support development
• Confine higher densities to the Reston Center for Industry and Government, Reston Town Center and the village centers, etc

Upon completion of presentations, the floor was opened to community discussion and suggestions for additional principles to be considered.

Question: Can RA or clusters turn over (sell, rent) parts of their property to developers

Answer(s): RA would have to have a successful referendum to transfer property to another party. Clusters could transfer their common property to others if the cluster boards and the RA Board approved such a transaction. Fairfax County tries to preserve stable neighborhoods, but it cannot interfere if clusters make a collective decision to sell their properties to a developer.

Note: Fairfax would not downzone a property unless it has compelling public purpose.

Question: What studies have been done that show that Metro can handle new demands from Transit Oriented Development (TOD)

Answer(s): Good topic for discussion at an upcoming task force meeting on transportation. Studies have been done and can be made available.

Other suggested principles:
• connectivity across bridges
• expanded bus coverage
• “level-of-service” for Reston’s streets as part of the development effort
• Reston as a place where people can “grow old and die”
• no additional taxes or tolls placed on Restonians
• more educational opportunities in Reston
• more public art

A polling exercise was conducted as the last step of the community meeting.

All of the proposed planning principles were presented on 4 boards in 4 corners of the cafeteria. Attendees were given nine “dot” stickers to express their preferences regarding which principles in any list that they felt was important.

Planning Staff collected the boards and will analyze the results to present to the Task Force at a future meeting.