Notes on RTF Reston Town Center Committee Meeting, September 14, 2010, Dick Rogers

Process: Robert Goudie, Co-Chair, said he hoped that in two more meetings (21 and 28 September) the committee would be able to report out to the Task Force. However, he also has tentatively scheduled a 5 October meeting.

Open Space: The main issue. Sandi Stallman of FC Parks Authority (FCPA) sent a few comments stressing that an area must be publicly accessible to be considered open space. She suggested the committee worry less about numerical standards and focus on defining quality open space. She does not believe storm water ponds and medians should be counted in open space. (In discussion, the committee seemed to decide that if a storm water pond was configured as a park and if sidewalks were "wide urban sidewalks" with features like benches, they could be counted).

The committee thought the figure of 20% open space would be realistic but thought that if a developer contributed to form a large park/open space this could be discounted.

The committee acknowledged that Town Center would not be the place for large active recreation fields, in effect throwing the ball to RA and FCPA. They thought the Vision Sub-com might also want to address this. Heidi Merkel, FC Department of Planning and Zoning, thought the whole Task Force will have to look at the issue of adequate parks.

The Brookfield representative again strenuously objected to placing a major Southside park of 5-8 acres on its property in E-5, saying "you are putting us in a very narrow box" with parks and roads cutting up its 36 acres. "The large park will become our burden".

Robert Goudie strongly argued for making the existing Town Square Park in the urban core larger, saying that Town Center residents wanted more park area. Since this would come from the newly acquired adjacent Boston Properties property it drew a groan from Peter Otteni, Co-Chair, and not much support from others. (Comment: This struck me as ironic since Robert has been in the lead in reducing the park area in North Town Center--this could have been a relief value for his park hungry Town Center compatriots). Again dog walkers were cited as a major consumer of Town Center parkland.

Urban Core periphery: There was much disjointed discussion about peripheral areas around the urban core--whether it should be all residential or "predominantly residential". There was much discussion about whether the urban core should be extended into D-3 and the southern part of D-1 since they are within or fall on the half-mile circle. Eventually, it was decided that the Vornado property in D-3 would be included in the urban core and blessed with a FAR of 5. The sentiment seemed to be to leave things elsewhere alone; for example, Target apparently has existing rights for considerable expansion/increased density.

There was some discussion about the character of major streets such a Sunset Hills and Reston Parkway with sentiment leaning toward making the former an "urban" boulevard and the latter a speedway.

Other peripheral areas such as the Home Depot area will be left for a Phase II. (Note: Phase II of the Task Force's work will look at all areas of Reston outside Town Center and the station Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) areas now being examined.)

Representatives of the Town Center Office Building--the lonely former home of the late Reston Times left adrift in the Spectrum area--came and asked for an "integrated vision" about how their property may fit into Town Center (curiously, it is not in RTCA). Nothing much was forthcoming on this from the committee.

Vision Committee: I called attention to the work of the Vision Committee and urged Robert Goudie to sit in on a session to get a feel for the different atmosphere. There was some resentment that the Vision Committee could even be thinking of commenting on the Town Center area.