Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Minutes from October RCA Meeting


Location: Reston Community Center, Hunters Woods

Present: Colin Mills, President; Terry Maynard, Secretary; Dick Rogers; George Kain; Connie Hartke; Tammi Petrine

The meeting was called to order at 7:30PM. 

#1.  Agenda
Terry Maynard moved that the agenda be accepted as presented.  George Kain seconded the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.

#2  Meeting Minutes
Connie Hartke moved that the minutes of the Sept. board meeting be approved as presented by Terry Maynard.  Tammi Petrine seconded.  The motion passed with a vote of 5 yeas and Colin abstaining as he was absent for that meeting.

#3  Treasurer’s Report
Tammi Petrine moved that the treasurer’s report be approved as presented by Joe Leighton via email.  George Kain seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

#4  RCA/RA/ARCH Joint Community Forum Review
Colin gave an overview of a very successful joint forum of RA/RCA/ARCH on Oct. 17 at 7PM at RA headquarters.  The crowd was standing room only in the main conference room and an over-flow room in the basement.  After the main presentations, the Q & A session was lively.  A synopsis of the questions and answers were promised be made available to the public by RA staff.  Colin will follow up to see when that will be done.

Terry and Colin also attended Supervisor Hudgins forum held on Tuesday, Oct. 22nd.  They reported that is was not anywhere near as well attended or presented as the joint forum.  Many of audience were county staff who were interested only in presenting their pitch but not fielding questions or entertaining suggestions/concerns.

#5  Task Force Comprehensive Master Plan Vote
Next Terry led discussion on the next Task Force meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29th at 7PM at RA headquarters.  A joint statement totaling 7 pages was submitted by RA/RCA/ARCH.  In addition, Colin had condensed the main sections of the TF report into a one page report card with grades for each section.  The board expressed approval of this terrific graphic as something the public can easily understand and get ideas of report’s strengths and weaknesses.  Colin expressed that he thought the grades were harsh.  Tammi Petrine insisted that RCA and 2020’s 4 years of efforts to advocate for the best results for the community necessitated a no-nonsense approach to the report that so far is far from acceptable in many ways.  Terry summed up the good points and then the failing sections: Transportation, Parks & Rec and the non-existent Implementation. 

George Kain made and Terry Maynard seconded a resolution of the RCA board which passed unanimously which directed Terry Maynard to vote “NO” on accepting the Task Force report if significant changes which address our major concerns are not made to the document on Tuesday evening.  It was also decided to provide 50 copies of the Report Card to be available on the TF sign-in table.  Connie volunteered to provide the copies.

#6  RA Lake Anne Land Swap
The board discussion on this subject was long and complex.  Everyone enthusiastically supports successful revitalization of Lake Anne by the developer who won the contract with the county.  Colin clarified some of the details of the arrangement followed by Connie who has been actively researching the facts of the conflict and problems of clearing the 100+ year old upland forest area that RA proposes to swap with a worthless steep, problematic parcel adjacent to Baron Cameron Road.  The reality is that the BC parcel would cost RA money to maintain and was virtually worthless as an asset to RA.  Also, the added benefits provided by developer cited in the swap are all items that would be required anyway by the RA deed so were really a red herring in the debate.  Tammi added that Eve Thompson’s ownership of LA plaza property should render her ineligible to vote as an RA director on this issue as clearly she has a conflict of interest.  After much consideration, Dick Rogers will craft a resolution which the members of the RCA board who were present for the discussion will vote on by email which states our concerns and position on this critical, precedent-setting RA move.

#7  FCFCA Resolution on Studio Apartments
After discussing the intent of the Fairfax County Federation of Community Associations’ resolution, Tammi Petrine made a motion which was seconded by Terry Maynard to endorse the resolution.  The motion passed unanimously.
Copy attached.

#8  RCA Citizen of the Year
Colin will be emailing nomination materials for this wonderful award to RCA board members and others in the near future.  Members of the committee are:  Colin, Tammi, John Hanley, Connie and Gary Lee Thomas.

#9  Library Beta Plan
Tammi led a discussion of the library debacle and latest news.  Wed, Oct. 30th is the Hunters Woods district meeting sponsored by Supervisor Hudgins.  All were encouraged to attend to support the library and the elimination of Beta forever.  In all areas of county, citizens are vocal about saving good, diverse libraries, increasing the library budget, and requiring MFA personnel. 

#10  Nova Labs Update
Gary Lee was absent so this discussion was tabled until the November meeting.  It is hoped Nova Labs president will be available to attend then.

#11  Technology Report
Colin reported that the website hits are steadily increasing.  He invited anyone to submit content on relevant community issues to keep the site current and interesting.

#12  SLHS IB Science Project involving Reston National Golf Course
Connie gave a synopsis of the program she chaired for the kick-off of the SLHS IB science project involving 300+ students which this year will assess the ecological advantages that the golf course provides for the local watershed.  She worked with an IB biology teacher to formulate the challenges of this project which promises to be a great source of information for proponents of saving the property from development.
Copy of project overview attached

#13  Other Business
George Kain presented more glossy Metro updates that he is receiving in the mail.  In addition, he discussed the RCA bylaw revisions re: elections to the RCA board that he is working on.  He will present them to the rest of the committee in the near future.

#14  Time and Place of Next Meeting; Adjournment
The next meeting will be Monday, November 25 at 7:30PM at RCC.  There is no Dec. meeting scheduled this year.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:30PM.

Respectfully submitted:
Tammi Petrine

Acting Secretary

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