Reston Getting Smaller?, Reston Connection, January 25, 2011, Alex McVeigh

Survey suggests population has gone down in past five years.

Most groups planning for the future of Reston are concerned with making sure there are enough schools, roads and other infrastructure for what is projected to be a growing population. But according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Reston might have gotten smaller in the past decade.

The American Community Survey, a five-year population estimate for Reston for the years 2005-2009, estimated a population of 53,759, which is almost 3,000 fewer people than the 2000 census data, which was 56,407. . . .

Read the rest of this article here.  

Although I'm quoted in this article, the quotes do not reflect fully my skepticism about the accuracy of the survey numbers compared with the 2000 census quoted above.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics began surveying communities Reston's size on a three-year basis in 2005 as part of its annual American Community Survey.  It produced several overlapping 3-year surveys and, most recently, the 5-year.  Here are the tallies for Reston's population since the 2000 census.

	ACS5Yr	ACS 3 Yr Surveys------------			Census
	2005-9	2007-9	2006-8	2005-7	2000
Households	23,831	24,393	24,096	23,348	23,320
Population	53,468	55,801	53,304	50,690	56,407
Pers/HH	2.24	2.29	2.21	2.17	2.42

The key point from this brief table is that it the 2005-7 ACS survey--the first for Reston--shows a 6,000 person drop in Reston's population from the 2000 census.  I do not believe this is anywhere near accurate.

Each of the two subsequent 3-year ACS surveys show significant gains in Reston's population from that first survey.  The 5-year survey appears to be roughly an average of the three 3-year surveys--and doesn't reflect any new data.   I strongly suspect that the 5,000 person gain reflected over the 3-year surveys in the last five years are close to correct and ought to be added to the 2000 census levels for the last five years.  I would suspect the first half of the decade showed similar 1,000 persons/year gains.

In short, I suspect Reston's population is now in the mid-60,000s.  I certainly don't believe we're shrinking.  We'll see when the full census results are available!

Terry Maynard
Reston 2020 Committee

Reston 2020 Is Now on Facebook

For those of you who are Facebook users--or want a reason to become one--RCA Reston 2020 has created a Facebook page to help you keep up to date on the activities of Reston 2020 as well as give you an even better opportunity for contributing your ideas.

Log on or sign up for Facebook and check out our Facebook page at RCA Reston 2020 Committee

500 Reston 2020 Blog Posts and Counting...

The Reston 2020 blog post yesterday afternoon notifying readers of the postponement of last night's Reston 2020 meeting was the 500th post in the fourteen months this blog has been in operation.  As reflected in the "Topical Index" in the right-hand column, the 500 posts have covered just about every conceivable topic related to planning in Reston.

Here are some other statistics about this blog based on automatically collected data:

• The blog has had more than 13,000 visitors since we started counting one year ago almost to the day--that's about 1,100 visits per month.
• This includes more than 2,500 visitors who have visited the blog multiple times.  
• The vast majority of those visits are from the Reston area, but include US visitors from as far away as San Franciso and international visits from more than a dozen countries.
• We have "embedded" (enclosed PDF versions of) more than 200 documents in blog posts. 
• These embedded documents (which are stored in the scribd.com digital library) have been read more than 30,000 times, some 24,000 of those reads have been "click throughs" from the blog.
• Some 2,600 of those reads have been within the last month.
• Reston 2020 documents stored on scibd.com with more than 400 reads each include various TOD committee reports, several documents on parks, and several of Reston 2020's working group reports
• And people are taking these reads seriously.  The average time spent reading each document is more than five and a half minutes--including those people who may have made a mistake and moved on quickly. 

The blog has clearly become an important source of information and research for Restonians and others on the course of planning for the community.  We welcome your readership and contributions to the blog and to the committee effort. 

Stay informed, stay involved--Read the blog and participate in the RCA Reston 2020 Committee.

TONIGHT'S RESTON 2020 MEETING HAS BEEN POSTPONED

Due to the slippery conditions on Reston's roads, bound be worse as the night progresses, we are postponing tonight's meeting of the Reston 2020 Committee.  We expect to re-schedule it next week.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may create. 

Terry Maynard,
Co-chair
RCA Reston 2020 Committee

Notes from the RTF Steering Committee Meeting, January 25, 2011, Dick Rogers

Summary: The well attended mtg focused on reviewing the "vision" for each station. In general the push was to emphasize the predominance of Reston Town Center vs the outlying stations. However, changes were modest.

 

    Attendance.  All present except Penniman and Riegel. Van Foster there only briefly. Surprise: John Schlichting came for JBG; said Andy Van Horn has been re-assigned to Arlington; noted he has a lot of catching up to do. Several other TF members present including John Bowman as well as Goldi Harrison from Cathy Hudgins' office.

 

    In public comments at the meeting's outset, the head of the Reston Chorale spoke up in favor of a performance center. Got a non-committal response.

 

    Planning Principles: I asked if the omission of housing from the introductory section of the PP was deliberate; was told no. I suggested the PP be remanded to the VC. Was told that DPZ staff is still working on them. John Carter said his Vision com was busy finishing its overall report but noted the VC had unanimously voted for the PP.

 

    Herndon-Monroe: Patti Nicoson, RTF & SC chair, noted last week's meeting of the Herndon planners and developers and thought it noteworthy that the consensus was to cut back the area for re-development.  Soto voce she noted that the view seemed to be that anyone who wanted to drive to Metro should go to the Reston side; she said "obviously this will need more discussion."  Nick Bauer said he hoped that the HM sub com will meet again to discuss the situation.

 

    Task Force (remember that group?): Heidi M noted that the purpose of the checklist had been revised to specifically note the SC will return to the full Task Fore with proposals for votes on "the sub-committees' recommendations."  She said this was not well stated originally (See the FC website for the checklist). Kohnan Williams, who made several adroit observations on process, suggested that a note be sent to TF members explaining what the SC is about.

 

    Review of station "visions": About an hour was spent on this.  In the checklist the DPZ staff had presented a condensed version of visions based as much on its own conception as what the sub coms had done. In general the discussion involved clarifying that the TC is predominant in terms on density  and that the other stations will be less dense. Wiehle was described as a "urban transit neighborhood" vice "urban village" but generally left unscarred.

 

    Re HM the staff was subtly pushing for more a greater residential emphasis (the HM sub com summary stressed offices).

 

    Robert Goudie pushed for more residential at HM but did not press his 2/1 idea re Wiehle aggressively.

 

    Paul Thomas noted the difficulty of dealing with the large and diverse TC area in the few sentences provided by the TC sub-com and the staff. He suggested breaking out the North Town Center as a fourth area.

 

    Mark Looney pushed for more office development in all areas.

 

    Comment: The staff effort was not particularly strong: things relevant to all stations were singled out for only one or another (grids of streets, protecting established neighborhoods). The staff vision did not pick up some of the important points laid out by the Wiehle SC in particular. The large TC area is treated very briefly. How the staff vision will be combined with those of the sub coms was left unclear. As usual, reading the actual text will be needed.

 

    Impatience: Some comments indicated impatience with the pace of the effort. Otteni urged a schedule be put forth and asked how the SC effort will relate to the TF. Goudie urged a vote at next mtg on the planning principles and station visions.

 

    Schedule: Some discussion about morning meetings although some members noted they have to work.  The next meeting will be Tuesday 8 Feb, presumably at Lake Anne.  The "form, general location, and connectivity" sections of the checklist will be discussed then.

 

    The next meeting of the RMPTF was set for 25 February to hear the Vision Com report.

Photo of the Day: Yes, There Is a Summer in Reston, Reston 2020 Photostream, Flickr

As the snow, rain, sleet, and freezing rain continues to fall on Reston and the Washington area, I thought it might be useful--and refreshing--to remind Restonians that summer does come to Reston.  This Independence Day photo taken by Reston 2020's intrepid photographer looks toward the Town Center fountain from New Dominion Parkway.

Herndon Officials Refine Metrorail Station Area Plan, Reston Patch, January 26, 2011

The plan will now go back to the consultants for further study before coming back to the town

By Leslie Perales

To view the interactive map that goes with this story, click here. 

After some revisions by the Town Council and Planning Commission, Herndon’s Metrorail area station plan will be going back to Vanasse Hangen Brustlin’s consultants for more in-depth study.

On Friday, Jan. 21, the Council and Planning Commission met with landowners and property managers in the study area. Afterward they worked to merge Area Plans 1 and 2, which the town and residents have been discussing, to come up with the next version of the plan.

Kay Robertson, senior planner for the town, said the major thing that happened during the discussion was reducing the size of the study area. . . .

A map of the changes to the Herndon Metrorail Station Area Plan study. To view the interactive map see the link in the story.  Credit Leslie Perales

For the rest of this Herndon Patch article, read it here. 

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