Message to Reston Task Force Members from Department of Planning & Zoning re Next RTF Meeting, October 19, 2012

Members of the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force received the following e-mail message this afternoon from Heidi Merkel, the Department of Planning and Zoning senior staff officer who is coordinating the work of the task force. 

Dear Task Force members,

Staff has received a lot of feedback regarding Scenario G since the Task Force meeting on October 9th.  There is not enough time prior to next week's Task Force meeting for us to synthesize everything we've heard and bring back new information regarding Scenario G.  We will be prepared to talk further about Scenario G at the Task Force's November 13th meeting. 

Therefore, at next week's meeting, we will present information about the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning Staff report re: Jobs:Housing ratios and the draft George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis updated forecast.  Chairman Patty Nicoson will also talk about drafting the Task Force report. 

Thank you. 

Heidi Merkel

As Colin Mills, RCA's President, reflected in his Reston Patch blog post this week, the discussion of Scenario G at the last RTF meeting generated a lot of controversy.  Ms. Merkel presented a modified draft scenario--Draft Scenario G--reflecting some lower densities and a slight shift of mixes to more residential use that the previous mainline scenario, Scenario E.  The reduction of density and shift in mix was driven by FC Department of Transportation analysis that showed that, if achieved, the density/mix in Scenario E would cause absolute traffic gridlock at two critical intersections, even with the best efforts to mitigate those situations.   Such a situation would not be received well by state transportation officials who must review major changes in traffic planning.   

So the task force will be discussing the jobs/housing balance, itself a thorny issue, and listen to GMU's latest forecast for Reston TOD area growth.  Based on a presentation by GMU's Dr. Lisa Sturtevant in January, we anticipate that this forecast will suggest much slower growth that GMU earlier forecast for the task force.  

The next meeting will be on October 23 at 7PM at RCC--Lake Anne.