Reston 2020 Comment on and Edited Draft Version of the Goudie-Nicoson Draft Reston Vision and Planning Principles Statement

The below comments and edited draft were presented to the RTF Steering Committee at its February 16, 2011, meeting. 


Reston 2020 Comment on Goudie-Nicoson Draft Vision and Planning Principles Statement--021611 Reston 2020 Edits on Goudie-Nicoson Vision and Planning Principles Discussion Document for Reston Steering ...

Revised Agenda: RTF Steering Committee Meeting, Wed., Feb. 16, 2011

 Note:  The revision eliminates any voting on matters before the Committee.

RESTON MASTER PLAN SPECIAL STUDY TASK FORCE

Co-Chairs’ Steering Sub-Committee Meeting

Reston Association Headquarters Conference Room

12001 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20191-3404

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 – 8:00-10:00 a.m.

REVISED AGENDA

8:00 a.m.       Administrative Items Patty Nicoson, Chair

8:10 a.m.       Public Comment

8:20 a.m.       Review of revised community Vision and Planning Principles

8:35 a.m.       Review of proposed 3 Station area and North Town Center Character Statements

8:45 a.m.       Review of Station-area Form and General Location of Uses Recommendations

9:20 a.m.       Discussion of Presentation to Full Task Force (2/22)

9:50 a.m.       Next Meeting

•         When (where TBD)

•         Proposed Topics

10:00 a.m.     Adjourn, Patty Nicoson

Revised Draft Steering Committee Vision & Planning Principles

Dear Restonians,

After discussion at the last Steering Sub-Committee meeting, committee members Robert Goudie and Patty Nicoson edited the draft Vision and Planning Principles document attempting to make it more focused and concise.  Please see the revised document below which will be discussed at the committee meeting on Wednesday a.m.  Please also review the revised agenda shown below.  Both of these documents will be posted to our website today under the Steering sub-committee page. 

Regards,

Sandi

Sandi M. Beaulieu

Planner II

Planning Division, DPZ

Desk phone: 703.324.1239

---

Vision and Planning Principles Discussion Document For Steering Committee Meeting

Vision

Reston will be a complete community designed for the 21st century.  An increasingly diverse residential population will have broad choices in jobs, housing, and lifestyles.  To achieve this vision:

• Planning will emphasize the natural environment and an array of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities.
• Planning will take full advantage of Metrorail’s Silver Line Extension. Metrorail will connect to the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Region and Washington Dulles International Airport and will be complimented by a strong local and regional bus network, complete streets that serve pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users, and a network of trails.
• The community’s greatest densities will be at the three Metro station areas, which will be Reston’s urban centers.  A broad mix of regional retail and other attractions will be part of an enhanced urban center at the Town Center and strong local retail and a variety of amenities will characterize the other Metro station areas and village centers.
• A full range of housing choices will be provided for households of all incomes and needs.
• Employment opportunities will build upon the existing mix of international and national corporations, professional associations, centers for advanced technology, research and development companies, and local services.
• A strong institutional component will include a major hospital center, a regional government center, other civic and cultural uses, and public and private educational institutions of higher learning.

Planning Principles

Planning will consider Reston as a comprehensive unit.  Development projects will be evaluated based on their ability to meet the planning principles and the particular vision and recommendations for each area, as well as their specific impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods.  The following principles will guide development of Reston as a complete community for the 21st century. 

1.              The rail corridor is transformed over time from predominantly office parks to mixed-use communities.  Each of the transit station areas will have a distinct character and complement each other to meet multiple community needs.  Town Center will be a regional urban center and destination with the community’s highest densities.  Reston East/Wiehle Avenue and Reston West/Herndon-Monroe will be urban transit neighborhoods, with special encouragement in the former for higher educational uses and special focus in the latter on its central environmental (wetlands) feature.  The highest densities will be concentrated within one-quarter mile of the rail stations tapering down somewhat within one-half mile to maximize the use of rail.  Future air rights development at the stations should be encouraged to enhance development opportunities, encourage transit use, and improve north-south connectivity across the Dulles Toll Road.

2.              Reston offers a mix of urban and suburban life styles.  The Metro Silver Line extension will add transit-oriented development to Reston’s already diverse and unique community.  In terms of emphasis:

• The Metro Stations will be Reston’s urban areas, with densities that step down from the Town Center to the other station areas and finally to the village centers.  These will also be the areas of highest commercial activity in the community.
• The village centers are important, lower-density community building blocks that include a mix of locally serving retail, a strong residential component, and a limited amount of employment. 
• Residential neighborhoods outside the transit stations and village centers maintain their essentially residential character and continue to provide a variety of housing types serving all income levels.  Appropriate transitions will be provided between new development and the predominantly residential neighborhoods. 

3.              Reston remains a vibrant employment center.   From its inception Reston has provided a place for a spectrum of companies, from local to international of varying sizes.  Future development and redevelopment should continue to promote a broad range of opportunities for a robust and diverse business community.

4.              Housing accommodates people of all ages, incomes, physical abilities and households of all sizes and stages of family life.

5.              Strengthen Reston Connectivity.  A range of high-quality transportation facilities -- including roads, bridges, sidewalks, bikeways, trails, strengthened and expanded bus and shuttle services, and Metro link the residential community and resident workers with activity centers, employment, open spaces, parks, schools, and recreational facilities.  A robust transit system, expanded pedestrian and bicycle networks and transportation demand management strategies help reduce reliance on the automobile.

6.              Development will be phased with the provision of transportation infrastructure and programs and other infrastructure such as schools and public facilities

7.              Quality active and passive open space and a range of recreational and cultural opportunities are essential components of the high quality of life in Reston.  The transit station areas and village centers should include a variety of public spaces such as central greens, urban plazas, pocket parks, small playgrounds, and public amenities.  Larger active recreation areas appropriate to Reston’s residential and commercial populations should be provided outside the transit corridor.

8.              Excellence in planning and urban design, architecture, compatibility of uses, livability, and the integration of high-quality public art will continue to be a distinguishing feature of the Reston community.

9.              Plan for environmental sustainability and green technology.  Natural resources will be protected through conservation and restoration.  Environmentally sensitive areas will be respected to reduce the impact of development.  Corridors will be provided for the movement of wildlife.  Green neighborhood and building practices will be followed.  

10.          The build out of Reston as a complete community for the 21^st Century will evolve over several decades.  The cumulative impacts of development and redevelopment will be continually assessed and evaluated.  Local participation will remain a hallmark of the evaluation, planning, and zoning processes.

 

Reston 2020 E-Mail re Failure to Provide Public Access to Task Force Materials; Reston 2020 Alternative

UPDATE:  Planned votes this week canceled per DPZ e-mail.

• RE: Failure to Provide Meeting Materials, Reston 2020 Comments and Proposals on Existing Materials‏

To Terry Maynard, PNICOSON@aol.com, Selden, Fred

From:	Merkel, Heidi T. (Heidi.Merkel@fairfaxcounty.gov)
Sent:	Mon 2/14/11 9:41 AM
To:	Terry Maynard (terrmayn@msn.com)
Cc:	PNICOSON@aol.com; Selden, Fred (Fred.Selden@fairfaxcounty.gov)

 

Good morning Terry,

 

Thanks for your continuing input.  It was my error that the draft agenda that went out on Friday indicated that the Steering Committee would be taking votes at Wednesday's meeting.  Patty let me know on Friday afternoon that she does not want to have any votes because we were not able to circulate the materials with the agenda.  We will be circulating a revised agenda noting that later today. 

 

I checked with the County Attorney's Office again last week to confirm that the FOIA requirement is that copies of meeting materials be made available to the public at the same time as they are made available to the committee members.  We are working hard to post items on the webpage at the same time as we send materials to the committee members. 

 

Please note that the Public Comment period for Wednesday's meeting is at 8:10 a.m. if you or other Reston 2020 members would like to make a brief statement re: the comments you're submitting. 

 

Regards,

Heidi

 

Heidi T. Merkel, AICP

Senior Planner

Planning Division, DPZ

direct phone: (703) 324-1383

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chariman Nicoson, Reston Task Force, and Heidi Merkel, FC DPZ,

For the second week in a row, the Steering Committee, the Task Force, and the public do not have a timely opportunity to review and comment on matters to be voted on by the RTF Steering Committee.  As this message is sent, meeting materials on which the Steering Committee will vote two days from now have not been made available to the public.  Whether this is a violation of Virginia FOIA law is unclear, but it is clear that it prevents a  constructive public dialogue on the Steering Committee's efforts.  We anticipate significant changes in content in the draft Reston Vision & Planning Principles and the character statements for the three TOD station areas given the Steering Committee discussion and the direction it gave DPZ to draft the wording rather than rely on the committee to do so. 

That said, we have attached our comments and suggestions for alternative language for the previous draft Vision and Planning Principles statement as well as the character statements for the three TOD areas based on the versions made publicly available only last Monday.   We hope that these ideas will make it into your revisions and that they will  be discussed as this Wednesday's meeting. 

Terry Maynard, Co-Chair
Reston 2020 Committee
Reston Citizens Association

cc: Reston Task Force

Reston Vision and Planning Principles Discussion Document--R2020 Final

Proposed R2020 Reston Station Area Character Statements--Final

Reston 2020 E-mail to the Fairfax County Federation of Community Associations, February 12, 2011

The following is the text of an e-mail Reston 2020 sent to the officers of the Fairfax County Federation of Community Associations (FCFCA), an organization representing the scores if not hundreds of community associations through the county.  We specifically thanked the FCFCA for featuring this blog in its latest blog and took exception its characterization of an upcoming presentation to FCFCA by Mr. Goudie that the Town Center Committee's model of re-development was a good one.  

Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2011 11:00 AM

Subject: The RCA Reston 2020 Committee and Reston Planning

Dear Fairfax Federation Officers,

As a member of the Reston Citizens Association (RCA) Board of Directors, an FCFCA member organization, and co-chairman of its Reston 2020 Committee, I would like to thank you for your recognition of the Reston 2020 blog Reston 2020: Citizens Shaping Reston’s Future

in your latest newsletter. 

The Reston 2020 blog is at the center of a major citizen effort to make Reston a better planned community in the 21st Century.  Readers of the blog--all 6,500 of them-- will find an extensive, if not quite exhaustive, archive of over 500 posts and other research and reference materials there about the ongoing process of revising Reston’s Comprehensive Plan by the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force.   The posts include Reston 2020 comments, task force news, press articles, letters, photos, studies, and other materials that we try to post on a near real-time basis to keep the community informed of the task force’s ongoing effort.  The right-hand column provides a guide to key reference and research information and links to Reston, transit-oriented development, and other planning materials, including an index of post topics.  The most significant of these links may be to the 18 major reports the RCA Reston 2020 Committee prepared for the task force since spring 2010.  These reports cover everything from vision to infrastructure and implementation issues, including virtually all of the issues addressed by your several topical committees—environment, transportation, education, and land use specifically—as well as several of the areas addressed by your liaison officers.

Noting that your principal speaker this coming week will be Mr. Robert Goudie addressing “Reston Metro Station — An Example of Good Re-Development Planning,” I believe it is important to state that Reston 2020 deeply disagrees with this characterization.  Indeed, we were so disappointed in the report of the task force committee that Mr. Goudie leads that we presented our alternative version to the task force in early December 2010 based on a major report we prepared.  The report, called “Planning World-Class Transit-Oriented Development in Reston Town Center:  The Community’s Alternative Vision,” and the presentation are available via the blog.

The key driver in our move to create, publish, and present an alternative vision was that we believe the overall job and residential growth and mix called for in the task force committee report are much too large for Reston to absorb over the next twenty years.  Within this overarching criticism, three key substantive flaws stood out:

• The report pays insufficient attention to the public infrastructure necessary to accommodate the influx of workers and residents it proposes, particularly their impact on public schools and transportation.
• The report pays insufficient attention to needed public amenities expected in Fairfax County, much less a premier planned community, including open space and cultural facilities.
• The report pays limited attention to the core principles of transit-oriented development, especially the need for a robust mix of uses within the TOD area that exploit the opportunities to reduce congestion growth.

This Reston 2020 Committee comprises any Restonian who wishes to volunteer his or her time to attend its meetings, participate in its discussions there, or—more ambitiously—help in the preparation of the committee’s many reports.  As you may see in looking at the contributors to its various reports, many scores of residents care deeply about Reston’s future and are willing to make an investment to assure a better “place to live, work, and play.”  At the moment, we are busy monitoring, critiquing, and contributing to the activities of the task force’s Steering Committee, working with other Reston civic groups to draft a proposal for a revamped task force to address Phase II of the effort (examining Reston’s village centers and residential areas), preparing a workable implementation proposal for the task force’s consideration, and other activities. 

We have been engaged in this effort now for nearly two years and intend to continue through the completion of the Reston planning process at least.  While it has been hard work for all of us, Reston’s citizens believe strongly in Reston’s historic vision as a diverse, environmentally-friendly, successful planned community, and we are committed to both preserving the great resources we possess while adapting to the opportunities created by a more urban, rail-linked 21^st Century  Reston. 

Again, thank you for letting people know about our effort and our blog.  Please feel free to share this e-mail with your membership.  If we can be of any further assistance to FCFCA, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Terry Maynard, Co-Chairman

Reston 2020 Committee

Reston Citizens Association

terrmayn@msn.com

cc: 

FCFCA Committee Chairs, Representatives, & Liaison Officers

RCA Board of Directors

Agenda: RTF Steering Committee Meeting, February 16, 2011

RESTON MASTER PLAN SPECIAL STUDY TASK FORCE
Co-Chairs’ Steering Sub-Committee Meeting
Reston Association Headquarters Conference Room
12001 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20191-3404
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - 8-10 a.m.

AGENDA
8:00 a.m. Administrative Items Patty Nicoson, Chair
8:10 a.m. Public Comment
8:20 a.m. Review of revised community Vision and Planning Principles
8:30 a.m. Vote on revised community Vision and Planning Principles
8:35 a.m. Review of proposed 3 Station area and North Town Center Character Statements
8:45 a.m. Review of Station-area Form and General Location of Uses Recommendations
9:20 a.m. Discussion of Presentation to Full Task Force (2/22)
9:50 a.m. Next Meeting
•  When (where TBD)
•  Proposed Topics
10:00 a.m. Adjourn, Patty Nicoson

Photo of the Day: Spring Season Little League Game at Brown's Chapel Ballfield

 We can at least hope this kind of scene may soon become a warm reality with the rapid departure of winter.  Just one of the hundreds of photos on the Reston 2020 Flickr photostream. 



This photo was taken on April 11, 2010.  April 11 is just two months away!