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RCA, legislators debate ResTOWN
The Reston Citizens Association presented nearly 3,700 signatures on a petition that asks for a referendum on a town charter to Reston's elected representatives Tuesday.
State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Reston), Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston) and Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) sat at the table with RCA President Mike Corrigan, Vice President Marion Stilson and board member Colin Mills.
The work meeting took place at the offices of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce and attracted an audience of nearly 50.
“We have here the direct voices of almost 4,000 of your constituents from Small Tax District #5,” said RCA board member Jane Wong as she physically handed the stacks of signatures over.
The meeting was held primarily to answer the concerns of Howell, Plum and Hudgins over the proposed charter, which they say lacks the participation of other Reston organizations.
To this end, a letter has been sent to several of those organizations from Howell and Plum, including the Reston Town Center Association, the Reston Association and the Reston Community Center, that requests a response to the RCA's proposal by Dec. 15.
Corrigan has said he doesn't believe those organizations will participate until they believe the referendum has a chance, a hurdle he said the representatives can help overcome.
“Unless there was a real drive from you ... many of those organizations are reluctant to spend a lot of time and energy on this. They simply don't want to spend resources on something they feel is an unlikely possibility,” Corrigan said.
In response to the letter, the Town Center Association said it would not be interested in transferring assets to a town. Corrigan called the answer a “knee-jerk” reaction and disputed the necessity of having the community organizations on board.
“Do they get to veto as to whether we get to vote on being a town? No,” he said.
Howell and Plum, however, said they need to consider the the opinions of the other Reston organizations, and any differences would need to be worked out before they proposed the legislation in Richmond.
“We have some very high hurdles to overcome for this to go forward,” Howell said. “The only possibility of success is having a unified Reston.”
In the way of a charter are two Virginia laws, one that bars the formation of towns in counties with the urban executive form of government. Fairfax is the only such county in the state, and was designated as such to grant more powers to the most populated county in Virginia.
A second Virginia law bars the formation of towns in areas that have more than 200 people per square mile.
Plum said both laws could be overridden with a "notwithstanding" clause in the charter, but that alone is not enough to satisfy the legislature.
“You've got to have some reason why you have to [form a town],” he said. “If Fairfax County had a huge crime rate we could march down to Richmond and say we need a town. The problem is Fairfax has such incredible services.”
The proposed charter would keep county-provided fire and rescue, school and police services, but take over planning and zoning functions, which Corrigan said was a frequent request from petitioners and is a driving force behind the effort.
“It's hard to maintain a sense of community when you can't coordinate a sidewalk,” he said.
Plum said the charter fails to grant greater control to Reston over land use. Because Fairfax County is granted greater powers by the state, a town charter would in fact lessen control, he said.
“The bottom line of [the charter] is 'control our destiny,' but I don't believe your proposed charter does that,” he said. “The way I'm reading it you're taking a step back,” Plum said,
The Reston Association's assets would be transferred to the town, with the exception of the covenants department, which is a contractual agreement between the homeowners and the association and therefore cannot be transferred.
The proposed budget depends heavily on the town taxes, which would replace the RA assessments. A referendum would be required to transfer those assets.
“If that fails, it takes the heart out of this budget,” he said.
The charter aims to give Reston greater control, a need Corrigan said was underscored by the Board of Supervisors' vote in March to approve an amendment to the Planned Residential Community ordinance over the objections of the Reston Association, the RCA and the Alliance of Reston Homeowners and Clusters.
Hudgins said the proposal might not be the best solution to the problems the RCA say necessitate a town.
“Are there other alternatives beside a layer of government to accomplish this? When you answer that you can move on to another model,” she said.
Whose side are they on anyway?
It is human nature that if you don't want something to happen, you will find countless things wrong with it. This is how 3 of Reston's elected officials came off at the meeting held 10/30 at the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce with the Reston Citizens Association (RCA) when the latter group presented their proposal for Reston to become a town. I don't think we ever saw such a sour-faced group of 3 who obviously came to the meeting bound and determined that there was NOTHING they were going to find good about the plan. Granted, 2 of them are running unopposed in the upcoming election, but at the very least a smile here or there would have been nice with a large group of their constituents sitting there looking at them. One wonders why they even called the meeting at all, just a few days before an election, if they all were going to look so glum.
Why is it that our elected officials don't want Reston to become a town? Why don't they just come out and tell us their real reasons, instead of just poking holes in RCA's plan and shaking their heads NO every time a part of the proposal is explained to them?
For the past 3 years, they all have found excuses why "It just isn't possible!" One hurdle they always site is the fact that Fairfax Co. has an "urban executive" form of governance which prohibits towns from forming, AND YET we know that a referendum was authorized by the VA Legislature in 1980, so that argument has holes in it. They tell RCA to change things in the plan, so RCA changes them. But the next time around, those changes aren't enough, something else has to be changed. I'm sure that all 3 wish that Reston's residents would just get the message - "We, your elected officials, have no intention of making Reston a town, so why don't you all get this silly little idea out of your heads, because it makes us nervous every time you bring it up, since we have to then come up with another reason why you can't do it."
One starts to wonder - whose side are they on anyway?
Susan Merk
RCA At-Large Director
Posted by sbmerk
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