Today the Coalition for a Planned Reston (CPR) sent a letter
to Supervisor Hudgins (see below) saying that it would be best to postpone its scheduled
meeting with her and County staff on Monday, April 2, to discuss the County's last minute response to CPR's and RA's proposed Reston plan amendments.
The County staff commentary highlights that it is the
County's "practice" not to amend plans within five years of their
approval, although it has done so with Tysons and other county areas in the
recent past. The County staff states
that it "cannot support changes to land use, density or intensity
recommendations in the Reston Master Plan for the Transit Station Areas until
after 2019 and for
Reston's neighborhoods and village centers until after
2020."
By that time, the County's approval of development proposals
under the current plan would cause irrevocable damage to Reston as a planned
community and create local crises in transportation, education, parks and
recreation, and the environment. In
fact, County data shows that more than 22,000 high-density commercial dwelling
units are approved or planned in Reston areas zoned Planned Residential
Community (PRC), not counting thousands of affordable housing units and related
"bonus" market rate units.
This also does not count a comparable number of housing units in the
non-PRC parts of the Reston transit station areas (TSAs), especially around
Wiehle and Town Center South.
All told, the new development permitted by the current
Reston plan could triple Reston’s population in the coming years and decades. All of this population burden would be added
with little County planning or oversight and grossly inadequate funding resources
for the necessary supporting infrastructure.
“The scope of this high-density development is totally
inconsistent with any sense of Reston as a planned community,” said Terry
Maynard, a member of the CPR leadership.
“It ignores the quality of life values that are the foundation of Bob
Simon’s vision and Reston’s planning principles detailed in its plan.”
CPR's letter to Supervisor Hudgins highlights that a meeting
on Monday would not meet the terms reached in the meeting with her in February,
in particular, to have small groups on both sides meet to discuss the specifics
of the County's commentary and follow-up with a joint meeting with Supervisor Hudgins. Moreover, CPR told Supervisor Hudgins and
County staff it needed to meet with the community to discuss its response
before meeting with County staff and her.
CPR requested that the meeting be postponed until the Reston community
and County staff have had an opportunity to review the County's response in
detail.
