Rescue Reston--Please check it out and help if you can

Rescue Reston, an organization focused on saving the Reston National Golf Course as open space from the plans and efforts of developers to turn it into thousands of residences--possibly more than 8,000, has created a website.   The website offers information on their activities, how you can stay informed, and how you can help. 

Click here to access this new website. 

From the website:

Rescue Reston is a grass roots community organization that is committed to defending Reston's planned community open spaces from over development.

We have been brought to action by a July 27, 2012 proposal from the owners of the Reston National Golf Course to turn the golf course's open space, into a residential development. We strongly oppose this action, based on Reston's history of communal open spaces, and long standing zoning ordinances.

If you would like to help, please Contact Us.

Best Places to LIve: Reston #7, Money Magazine,

 Money Magazine ranks Reston number #7 in its list of "best places to live.  It has this to say about Reston: 

Reston may be a planned community, but don't expect cookie-cutter homes here. Thanks to famed master planner Robert Simon, houses of all shapes and sizes sit next to one another.

Activities come in all stripes too, from an über-urban downtown to 55 miles of bike paths, 52 tennis courts, and 15 pools.

Thanks to Reston's growing reputation as a technology hub near Washington Dulles International Airport, major firms have large offices here. Those who do commute to D.C. contend with traffic, but next year's completion of the Washington Metro's extension to Reston will help alleviate the pain.

For the rest of this description and the full list of the magazines best places to live, click here.  

Letter: Virginia bears the brunt of airport authority decisions. So why doesn’t it get more control?, Capital Business, Washington Post, August 19, 2012

In this letter by the President of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, Jim Corcoran argues for Virginians controlling the MWAA Board of Directors, especially in light of its questionable activities and  lack of accountability and transparency. 

The key passage from a Dulles Corridor perspective is as follows:

The decisions made by this board, especially as they relate to tolls in the Dulles Corridor, directly impact the daily lives of millions of Northern Virginians and thousands of businesses; yet, the majority of board members don’t have to deal with the consequences. The board members from Maryland and the District will rarely, if ever, be forced to pay the tolls on the Dulles Toll Road and the federal appointees do not live in the region.

 For the full letter, please click here.  

Letter, AAA says MWAA has tin ear on tolls, Fairfax Times, August 17, 2012

MWAA board isn’t grasping impact of toll hikes

Another increasingly expensive round of fee hikes is in the offing for users of the Dulles Toll Road, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates the road.

The $6 billion cost of the construction of the Silver Line — and the ever-escalating tolls to finance it — are like a “silver bullet” in the heart of motorists and commuters.

It appears the Airports Authority Board of Directors has a tin ear; it has done little to convince us otherwise. It is not heeding the cry of burdened motorists and commuters who are being nickled-and-dimed to death at the toll booth. . . .

For the rest of this letter from John B. Townsend II, manager of Public and Government Affairs, AAA Mid-Atlantic, click here. 

Homeowners Preparing for Golf Course Battle, Reston Patch, August 16, 2012

Possible zoning issue could change face of Reston, some say.

By Karen Goff

Residents of several neighborhoods in South Reston are getting organized and ready for a fight in order to keep Reston National Golf Course green space.

The homeowners are responding to the news that the owners of the golf course will go before the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals in October as part of an effort to determine the zoning for the 166-acre course.

RN Golf Management LLC asked the county last spring for clarification as to whether the course is zoned residential or open space, and what would be necessary to alter the zoning. . . .

Click here for the rest of this article. 

The 231-page re-zoning appeal is available here.

Secretary LaHood, et al, Letter to MWAA, None of which Reduces Future Huge DTR Toll Increases

MWAA Letter

Dulles Toll Road Toll Increases and You: Did You Know . . .

Dulles Toll Road Toll Increases and You

DID YOU KNOW MWAA’s traffic & revenue consultant forecasts—

• doubling full one-way tolls on the Dulles Toll Road (DTR) next year?        
•  . . . tripling tolls ($6.75) within five years?
• . . . nearly quadrupling tolls (to $8.75) within a decade?
• . . . and making further huge toll increases until at least 2047 when they will reach $18.75?

And no one—not even Congress which created MWAA—has the authority to prevent MWAA from making these massive toll increases under current law.

 

What do these toll increases mean to the Dulles Corridor and its residents and employees?

Crippling Regular DTR User Costs

They mean that the cost of using the DTR for regular toll road users (44 work weeks per year) will increase more than eight-fold from less than $1,000 in 2012 to more than $8,000 in 2050.

·         Even on a real cost basis, assuming inflation is 2.5% per year, tolls will increase more than three-fold.  Would you pay nearly $8 each way to use the DTR today?

 

The toll increases will consume nearly half of the future after-tax income growth of weekday Fairfax DTR commuters who earn the current County average household income ($103K).

• That assumes Fairfax income growth will be as robust as it has been since 1990 (2.8%/yr.) and inflation remains at 2.6% of the last two decades.  
• That’s money families won’t be spending on rents/mortgages, education, shopping, medical care, entertainment, etc.

Do you want to spend half of your future raises on tolls?

 

Massive Traffic Diversion to Local Roads

Instead of using the DTR, large numbers of current and future potential DTR users (from new jobs & residents nearby) will shift their driving to local roads.  Based on MWAA’s traffic and growth data, we estimate—

• 36K vehicle trips per day will shift to local roads by 2015, about one-third of those in Reston . . .
• That number will more than double by 2030 (73K trips per day) and . . .
• . . . nearly triple (103K trips per day) by 2050!

Already congested area highways and local roads will become absolutely gridlocked, costing not only driver's time, but adding to regional environmental damage.  On the other hand, the DTR will become "The Highway of the One Percent," driving to work, shop, and play at the speed limit or above.

 

Reduced Dulles Corridor Economic Growth

The massive increases in tolls will almost certainly erode forecast economic growth--jobs and population--in the Dulles Corridor, undercutting Virginia and County expectations for higher tax revenues to meet growing spending needs.  People who won't be able to afford the DTR or are unwilling to pay the exorbitant tolls will find homes and jobs in other areas of Metropolitan Washington. 

• Investments in Fairfax County road improvements, education, parks & recreation, and social programs, among others will need to be reduced—or property taxes raised--despite a growing demand for services. 
• Other areas of Metro Washington will gain from the unfulfilled growth along the Dulles Corridor, including the I-270 technology corridor in Montgomery County.