As Reston Grows, Will Parks Keep Up? Connie Hartke, Reston Patch, October 16, 2013

The train is about to arrive at the station and if Restonians don’t start making some noise, Fairfax County is going to leave us in the dust again.

Fairfax County has countywide Service Level Standards for Park Facilities based on population. The Reston Citizens Association (RCA) has analyzed how the draft Reston Comprehensive Plan stacks up after 49,000+ new residents move into the high rises that will be built between Sunrise Valley and Sunset Hills Roads.  More details Thursday, October 17 at the RA/RCA/ARCH forum.

As one example, let’s look at the County requirement for sports fields.  The 49,000 new residents within the Reston transit area corridor require 12 diamond & 13 rectangular fields.  This number can probably be reduced to 6 and 6 assuming artificial turf and lighting which increases usage capacity.  

So the County Standard is 25 fields of this type; reasonable people can compromise on 12 if built for high capacity usage.  How many ball fields does the current draft of the Comprehensive Plan call for?  Two.

I see only one County Park Facilities Standard that Reston already meets, no thanks to this effort.  The County has a standard of one hole of golf for every 3,200 citizens.  Using a projected Reston population of 114,118 we need 36 holes.  Fantastic!  Reston has two privately owned, publicly accessible golf courses which cost us taxpayers nothing.  Check that one off the list.  This doesn’t mean that the golf course battle is over, but knowing about this standard will help us hold our County Supervisors accountable.

We have a short window of opportunity to press the developers to make a real commitment to our community by providing space (yes, there's enough!) and substantial funding for courts, playgrounds and other amenities - just as they're required to do in the rest of the County.  So far, though, the developers keep asking for more "flexibility" in the Plan - and they're winning. 

Please attend the RA/RCA/ARCH forum on Thursday, October 17 at 7 p.m. at RA headquarters to learn about this aspect of the Plan and several other key areas of concern. We’ll give you the short version.  Then we’ll suggest what can be done to affect change.

Then mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 29.  This will be the Reston Comprehensive Plan Special Study Task Force meeting, possibly the last one.  Come to this meeting with your family, neighbors and sports teams.  The comprehensive plan is still in draft format, but it’s about to go final.  It is not too late for input and to affect change.