Notes from Town Center Committee Meeting, August 31, 2010, Dick Rogers

Process: Perhaps the biggest item to come out of the meeting was the committee's decision to go back to cover possible redevelopment in the TC core. This was partly in response to 2020 comments that the TC sub-com was leaving out "the hole in the donut". Mark Looney has been a particular proponent of this, saying that TC urban core conceivably can have considerable additional residential development under current standards, and the some facilities like the movie theater and two story buildings may be ripe for redevelopment.

Revised schedule: As a result of this decision, the sub com will meet on 14, 21 and 28 September with the goal of presenting a final report to the Reston Task Force (TF)on 28 Sept. NO MEETING ON 7 SEPT.

Heidi Merkel, senior County DPZ planner, confirmed TF meetings on 14 and 28 Sept and 12 Oct. She now thought that final recommendations of the TF on the station areas would not come till January.

Substance: The bulk of the meeting was spent discussing sections of the revised draft report. Since this had been circulated only late on 30 August only a few had read it.

Further confusion came from a map and chart attached to the draft report. The map showed large areas of 5 FARs and more areas of 3.5 FARs. The map had been done by Rae Noritake as an assist but was rapidly disowned by the sub-com. A density chart also proved confusing and will be looked at again for accuracy and clarity.

The report continues to say the committee did not wrestle with "infrastructure" and Robert Goudie, committee co-chair, again urged creation of a committee to look at this. (Comment: How the TC Committee has been able to go ahead with proposing the vast development it advocates when the infrastructure issues are not clear remains beyond my comprehension.)

Urban parks: The Committee spent much time continuing to knock down the FCPA urban park standards as unrealistic and precluding too much development. There was hope that at the next meeting the committee would define more clearly what it is looking for in open space, focusing on quality not quantity. Heidi Merkel thought the TF will need to hone on this more clearly; she thought it again needs to hear from Sandi Stallman of FCPA. Heidi mentioned that two forms of planned communities have different park standards:
Planned Developed Communities--15%
Planned Residential Mixed Use--20%
She seemed to be implying that the committee should choose from these.

Management of the parks was also discussed but not resolved. Choice would be between a community association (RA/RTCA) or developers. But the parks would be open to all. (Comment: As with other Task Force committees, at this point no one has begun to assess how the TC/RCIG/HM open spaces will related to the rest of Reston, particularly RA open space and the potential impact of high density areas on RA open space/parks.)

John Landry of Brookfield twice voiced opposition to the idea of a major south side park that would impinge greatly on its property in E-5.

Commercial-residential balance: There was a long discussion about how to preclude developers from "gaming the system" by promising eventual residential development only to obtain short term commercial development. The Vornado property in D-3 was cited as one place where this could take place. There was talk of how to allow coordinated development plans that would share and allocate overall residential and commercial density. Some mention was made of enhanced FARs to encourage collaboration.

Joe Stowers again more urged attention to the creation of vibrant residential neighborhoods. He thought the Comprehensive Plan should aim at this in TC North and TC South

Governance: Joe Stowers said he has submitted a 2-page paper on this to the committee, apparently encouraging that all property should be subject to some sort of design review process, even if advisory. There was some discussion of making governance optional for the developers to decide it they want to join and association or be independent.

There was some discussion of the RTCA-RA issue with the upshot being a consensus that it should be put in the section of issues not addressed.

Comment: At one point Heidi M surprised me by saying that she was not at all sure the reports of the committees would be accepted "wholesale" by the entire Task Force and that there may be considerable discussion of them. Given the composition of the TF, I was puzzled by where she thought significant reservations would come from.