The Reston Master Plan
Task Force held a special meeting on Thursday to discuss potential changes to
the Comprehensive Plan draft. RCA’s Dick
Rogers wrote up a report on the meeting, which appears below. If you want to see the latest draft and share
your comments, be sure to attend the next Task Force meeting, which will be on Tuesday, September 10 at 7 PM at RCC Lake
Anne.
Summary: The Reston Master Planning Sub-group met
for two hours on 4 Sept to hash out several issues for the TF meeting on 10
Sept. The three proposals—expand the TOD areas by moving the central point from the
station platform to the station entrances, count hotels as residential, and
re-allocate residential at the stations (the Goudie proposal)—were all nixed. Heidi indicated the RCA call for less
flexibility in the draft will probably not be possible.
***
The meeting was attended by John Carter, Joe Stowers, Judy
Pew, Bill Penniman, Nick Bauer, Dick Rogers, and Matt Valentini from JBG. Patti
Nicoson chaired and Hedi Merkel provided staff support.
In response to questions from Dick Rogers, Heidi indicated
that the only “closed” issue is the square footage per office worker--that
would have to be taken up with the Planning Commission. Re the schedule, she and Patti implied there
could be minor slippage from the Oct 30 date with the Planning Commission. They
will look at a two week postponement.
Re the extensive Reston Association comments of 16 August, Heidi
said these will be addressed in text boxes.
Heidi said a version 6 will be forthcoming but is unlikely
to be available before Monday 9 Sept.
Heidi called the meeting with RCA President Mills and RCA TF
Rep Maynard “fruitful”. She stressed
that there will be changes in the parks section in particular. However, she said there was limited ability
to make any changes re stiffening language as RCA had proposed. She said Maynard contrasted the overall draft
with the urban design section (which tells developers how precisely to do
various design elements). However, Heidi
said that “one simply could not have a checklist that had to be met” as RCA
seemed to be proposing.
Some panel members asked what the flexibility issues were.
Patti suggested that any unresolved issues could be
presented in the TF report.
Issues
Station platform or
entrances? There was a long
discussion on this that recited familiar arguments. Eventually John Carter summarized the issue
as of having little significance at Wiehle and RTC
except on the east and west edges. He
suggested that the plan have some language that would give some flexibility to
properties on the border lines but to keep the existing boundaries. This won the day.
Hotels as residences. There was little support for classifying
hotels as residential. The consensus was
the keep hotels in the commercial category.
Residential balance
at stations: The idea that residential units should be shifted from Town
Center to the other TOD areas was
quickly disposed of. There was no strong
proponent of the concept in the group. No
change.
Apparently the results of these discussions will be
summarized Tuesday.
Other Issues
Heidi Merkel noted that the new draft will have several new
paragraphs about what is special with Reston.
John Carter again brought up his proposal that Reston be “visionary”
in Fairfax County. He laid out 6 issues:
- Get the jobs-to-households balance right.
- Push for Bob Simon’s “placemaking.”
- Be more aggressive re community facilities
- Have a recreation center at the station area.
- Focus more on getting a university here.
- Create “LEED neighborhoods” with LEED architecture, a tree canopy, “place making” and walkability
John said all this would “put Reston
out in front”.
Judy Pew raised several issues including the need for
interior sound proofing in condos, the need for urban parks and a civic center
and the need for harmonious design in North Town Center.
Next
There was a desire for the group to meet again after the 10
Sept TF mtg. Tentatively a meeting was set for 17 Sept at 7 PM. There also will
be a regular TF meeting on 24 September.
There was talk of an additional TF meeting in Sept but this
was left a little vague. Keep posted.
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