RCA Board of Directors Meeting 04/25/16

RCA Board of Directors Meeting

April 25, 2016

National Realty Building

Those attending included: Connie Hartke, Nick Georgas, Sridhar Ganesan, George Kain, Yavuz Inanli, Annmarie Swope, John Hanley, Joe Leighton, Robin Hogan, Hank Schonzeit, Dennis Hays

Absent were: Lynne Mulston, Geoffrey Lewis

Guests were: Michael Travis

1. Agenda - Based on a motion by Annmarie and a second by Joe the agenda was unanimously adopted by those in attendance.
2. March 28th RCA Meeting Minutes - Based on a motion by Joe and a second by George the March 28th, 2016 minutes were unanimously approved as distributed.
3. Treasurer’s Report – Based on a motion by Joe and a second by Hank the treasurer’s report previously circulated by Joe via email was unanimously approved as distributed.
4. Citizen of the Year Review - Connie thanked the Board and gave a rundown of the successful Citizen of The Year Ceremony on April 24th. The event was well attended by members of the community and the RCA Board. For next year, pending RCA activities and Citizen of the Year award winner,  Annmarie suggested that we explore  other venues and continue to identify high profile and relevant speakers. Hank suggested vegetarian food options to be more inclusive and to get RTCA involved in an outreach effort. Annmarie suggested inviting other associations within Reston (i.e  cluster and neighborhood associations, community non-profits, etc  next year). The Congressional Commendation was discussed as being an added honorfor Rescue Reston and other community organizations.
5. Elections Committee – Sridhar updated everyone on the Call for Candidates and the actions taken by the Elections Committee. May 13th is the deadline for the Call for Candidates and elections begin on May 20th. In addition to media and neighborhood outreach, flyers will be distributed to local businesses.
6. 501 (c) 3 – Yavuz said that the application is completed pending the Tax ID Number, which Joe then provided. We will need to review finances in an effort to come up with the required $400 to file the application. John will work with Joe to figure out the finances from the Citizen of the Year Ceremony to determine if RCA has any available funds to go towards the filing of the application. Yafuz offered to pay the fee and ask RCA to reimburse in near future. Connie made a motion and Robin seconded it to allow Yavuz to pay for the application immediately. The motion was unanimously passed by all those in attendance.
7. RTC North Redevelopment - Dennis discussed a response from Andy Miller which didn’t positively address all of RCA’s concerns expressed to the County both at meetings and in writing. There will be a community meeting announced a month prior to the meeting regarding the RFP. There is concern that the smaller size of the proposed library (39,000 sq feet)  is less than adequate to handle the current and future Reston Region population estimates (80,000+) over the next 20+ years. In addition, the temporary Library is expected to only be approximately 5,000 sq ft. Dennis will  reconvene with the RCA Library Committee to develop a survey and press release  to help secure input from the community and raise awareness. We should target the folks using the library, especially those from underserved households and families to get their feedback and to help support the cause.

8. RTC Parking Proposal - Dennis discussed the RTC parking proposal. Yavuz explained the proffer condition that led to the paid parking requirement. The issue is the current plan of how paid parking will be  implemented beginning in August. The group discussed all of the concerns and strategized what RCA’s approach could be to help the community. It was agreed to await feedback from Geoff and Lynn who attended the public meeting hosted by Boston Properties before discussing other implementation options.
9. Proposed Transportation Tax - The Board of Supervisors is creating another Reston Tax District to help fund transportation programs in the County. The impression is that the County is trying to move the legislation through quickly to avoid public input. RCA will investigate the tax districts and where the boundaries are and what we can do to enhance education and engagement of the community.
10. St John’s Woods - Annmarie spoke on her experience at the DRB presentation for St. John’s Woods and the reaction of the developer’s proposal by the DRB and citizens who attended the meeting. The biggest takeaways were the elimination of 30’ft buffer of trees on Center Harbor, the design looking more like RTC than St John’s Woods, and the traffic study proposal and access points onto Center Harbour. Annmarie is going to follow-up with Cate at Reston Association to find out if Reston Association will explore an independent traffic study.
11. Zoning Ordinance - John discussed the FAR changes to the Zoning Ordinance and the Fairfax County Federation’s reaction to County efforts to push through the FAR5 proposal. The Fairfax Federation is against the changes, which could see FAR5 developments being permitted well outside the CBC, CRD and TSA areas. They would like to see FAR limited to 4 within a ¼ mile of metro stops. John will find out if this affects Reston when he attends the Federation Board Meeting on Thursday, April 28th.
12. W&OD Trail Lighting - Michael spoke about the safety issue of the unlit W&OD trail.  RCA should get involved to take up the cause as being good stewards. George spoke with the Town of Herndon to get information on the cost of adding lighting to the trail as they are currently in Phase III of lighting the W&OD. George will continue to pursue this information with the Town of Herndon. RCA will need to contact the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority to get more information on potential past studies and lighting options.
13. Other Business -
1. Robin brought up the County Septage facility. After strong negative public reaction, it is likely that it will either be renovated at the present site, or be moved elsewhere, not to Reston.
14. Location and Time of Next Meeting - The next meeting will be May 23rd, 2016 at 7:30 at the Hartke Building. Joe made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Dennis seconded it. The motion was unanimously approved by all those in attendance.

Draft Minutes will be approved at the next Board Meeting