Notes on the Reston Task Force Meeting, July 30, 2013

Notes on the

Reston Task Force Meeting

July 30, 2013

R. Rogers

                                                                                 

Summary:  DPZ released version 5 of the draft plan (now containing the full text including the TOD area specifics) just before 5PM the day of the meeting, too late for meaningful RTF comment on it.  It will be discussed on 13 August.  The RTF was told that if it has substantial problems with the draft, it can take its comments to the Planning Commission.

Public Comments

Office Square footage: Dick Rogers opened the public comment period by calling attention to the 16 July Washington Post front page article on GSA adopting smaller officer space and “tightening up” on space use.  He noted that the county so far been resistant to 2020 urgings that the 300 SF policy per office worker be reconsidered.  He said that the traffic implications of more workers are considerable and that the shrinkage of office space means the jobs-housing balance in the draft plan is all askew.

Heidi Merkel responded that DPZ has discussed this and if 2020 wants changes it can approach the Planning Commission when the draft goes forward.  She also said that the jobs figures come from the demand projections by GMU and implied that this could latter lead to revisions.

Patti Nicoson seemed sympathetic to the 2020 point saying that hopefully there will be points when the plan can be revised. (Comment: Under Virginia law what is given now will remain forever.)

Patti Nicoson mentioned that Metro Wiehle station opening will be delayed up to two months by WMAA and WMTA attempts to inspect properly.

Lake Anne redevelopment was mentioned.  Although the Planning Board will review the new plan on 7 Sept it has not been made public and has been reviewed by only a select group.  However Bob Simon is reported to have said “it is great.”

Presentation on Street Adjustment 

Representatives from Kimberly-Horn consultants discussed possible street-scape changes to Sunset Hills Road and the Reston Parkway Bridge near RTC.  Their graphics—presumably on the county web site—showed ideas for narrowing lanes, building medians, and increasing sidewalks. They stressed that this would be a low cost way to increase urban access.  They said they would compensate for the lane reductions by lowering speed limits.

The JBG reps were very much in favor of the concept, saying it would decrease the time pedestrians would have to be in the roadway. (Comment: No suggestion was made that the real answer is a pedestrian underpass from Ridge Heights under Reston Parkway to the station)

Plan Draft V.5

This was released by DPZ to the Task force at 4:45 PM 30 July.  A few people had an opportunity to skim it.  Heidi promised that “we can have a dialogue” about this draft at the 13 August meeting.

Heidi had talking points, presumably on the website, to highlight new elements. These include a remarkably long 15-page section on urban standards and sections on the specific TOD areas. Heidi later said that this completes the draft; there may be inserts and changes, but no large bodies of new text.

Re urban design, it was noted by Heidi that VDOT is still working to develop urban standards but that the timing of their completion is unclear.  She noted that RTC was privately owned and had more latitude to develop an urban framework

Various questions were raised.  JBG rep Trimmer asked why the urban standards will not be applied more broadly.  Dave Sittler, “the INOVA TF member”, asked if the references to squares and open space in the TOD sections related to park needs (implying they should be subtracted from park needs).  HM said that “in some instances” they will apply.  The second JBG rep, Valentini, asked why there would be 35 foot wide streets when in some case narrower would be better.  Richard Kennedy asked for an overall paper outline more explicit and detailed than the one-page table of contents in order to allow members to pull all the threads together.

There is a brief implementation section of a few pages.  Earlier Jerry Volloy had raised the question about what mechanism there will be for enforcement of standards and how will the Reston community be involved?  Heidi said that the Reston P and Z will presumably have a role, that this in being discussed with Supervisor Hudgins, and that design review is still “up in the air.”

The issue of whether TOD boundaries will be from station entrances or platforms was brought up.  Heidi said Rae Noritake had done calculations but no further information on them was given.  Heidi said that DPZ is  trying to think of walk times in terms of boundaries, with a 5-10 minute walk being the limit.

The last 17 pages dealt with the TOD areas.  Robert Goudie said he had skimmed this and found the description of North Town Center incomplete, with various features such as a park, and consolidation of county facilities in a major county building, being very vague. He briefly alluded to the need for more residential in Wiehle and Herndon-Monroe and raised the issue of why hotels are counted as part of the residential quotient.

There were no questions about the Herndon or Wiehle sections (Wiehle Sub-Committee Co-Chair Bill Penniman was absent).

Dick Rogers raised the inadequate discussion in the transportation section of public transit, particularly bus access. He was told that the County Transportation Development Plan contains details and maybe this should be cross referenced.

Next

At the end of the meeting Heidi in effect challenged the RTF that if it wanted to take a different position than the DPZ draft it should be prepared to go to the Fairfax County Planning commission.  (Comment: This was a new “take it or leave it” tone by her and suggests she believes she has official backing for the draft.  It was also the same response Terry Maynard, RCA's primary rep to the RTF, received in an e-mail from C/BOS Sharon Bulova re office space per worker.)

There will be a 13 August meeting to discuss the draft with two further meetings set for September.