Reston Spring

Reston Spring
Reston Spring

Friday, November 22, 2013

A sad day for Reston: RA Board approves parking lot at cost of an acre of mature trees

In a thorough recounting in RestonNow this morning entitled, "Reston Association OKs Land Swap for New Parking at Lake Anne," Karen Goff reports on the RA Board's egregious decision to sell out an acre of mature woodland so a developer can put in a parking lot at Lake Anne.  Here is the lede:
The Reston Association Board of Directors voted on Thursday to go ahead with a land swap necessary for construction of a 120-space parking garage at the revitalized Lake Anne Plaza.
The controversial land swap — which exchanges a parcel of wooded land adjacent to the current Lake Anne Plaza parking lot for a less-desirable piece off of Baron Cameron Avenue — came about as part of Republic Land Development ‘s plans for a redeveloped Crescent Apartments and Lake Anne Plaza area.
The proposal was met with strong opinions all around. . . .
The bottom line is that the RA Board overruled the unanimous recommendation of its own Environmental Advisory Committee NOT to make the swap and its own official position in documents to the County on the Reston Master Plan to improve Plan assurances to protect the community's mature tree canopy.  Who needs County assurances if you own HOA Board of Directors is willing to sell out the community's half-century old values?  Can the County protect us from our own leaders?

Hypocrisy and greed run rampant!

1 comment:

  1. Current Board seems to have been cowed into acceptance of the deal, except for two brave Directors...who's running the show? Eve Thompson dominated the conversation, even though she has admitted a material interest in the outcome. Whole thing stinks to high heaven, IMHO. Opposition needs to mount a full-scale campaign to turn this baby around--national publicity and public interest lawsuit (anyone know a pro-bono environmental law firm?).

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