RESTON COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CORPORATION

Board Meeting

December 13, 2007
Lake Anne Office Building
11484 Washington Plaza West
Reston, VA 20190

MINUTES

Board Members Present:
Howard Green
Walt Peter
Van Foster
Kurt Pronske
Bob Simon
Anne Strange

Invited Guests:
Bridget Hill, FC OCRR
Goldie Harrison, Hunter Mill Supervisor's Office
Heidi Merkel, FC DPZ

Observers:
Dave Edwards

MINUTES                         

The meeting was called to order at 7:35PM. Mr. Foster asked if the minutes from the November 8th meeting were correct. Mr. Peter moved that the minutes be accepted, Ms. Strange seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Comprehensive Plan Amendment Status

Ms. Merkel described the status of the Parking and Road Network study. The RFP was released earlier this week and proposals are due January 15 th. The draft final report will be due April 28 th.

The staff considers the specifications to be flexible and may change depending on the consultant’s study of site conditions. Two items not discussed at the last meeting include a requests that the consultant provide pricing for participation in a public meeting if staff feels that is warranted and that the consultant prepare graphic illustrations based on the BBPA report.

Ms. Merkel noted that a public meeting would be held by the DPZ for presentation of the staff report on the comprehensive plan amendment and that the consultant may be asked to attend to support the staff.

Graphic illustrations were found to be useful in the Merrifield revitalization program. Although the staff recognizes the potential concerns in including illustrations in the Plan, it felt that, on balance, they might be useful for Lake Anne as well.

Ms. Merkel felt that the contract schedule would support a summer 2008 presentation of the comprehensive plan amendment to the County Planning Commission. She provided an amendment process diagram showing the steps that will be taken in finalizing the amendment.

 Ms. Merkel noted the controversy over the comparison of FARs in the BBPA report and the Reston Town Center. She presented an analysis of the Reston Town Center and its Urban Core with the following significant points:

• The residential density of the Town Center, both within and outside of the Urban Core is specified as a minimum of 1400 dwelling units
• The overall intensity within the Urban Core is limited to 0.95 FAR for non-residential uses
• Residential density within the Urban Core isn’t specified but is subject to the 50 DU’s per acre maximum specified by the PRC zoning.

Discussion of this issue highlighted that the BBPA report specified a 2.0 FAR for Sub Area 1 (the Lake Anne parking area) but that RCRC and others had recommended cutting this to 1.0. Also, if FAR only included the non-residential use, then the FAR would be half of these values.

Mr. Simon objected to comparing densities unless the total acreages in both the Town Center and Lake Anne were included.

The BBPA report specified residential density in the other sub areas in terms of FAR; the consensus was that it would be better if this were specified in DU’s per acre, particularly for Sub Areas 3, 4 and 5 where non-residential use was insignificant.

Lake Anne Center Ownership Potential Issues

Ms. Harrison brought up the issue of County funding for a study of the issues involving existing properties in the Lake Anne Center. The County attorney asked for a definition of the issues to be addressed.

The Board noted that LARCA has engaged in discussions on this issue and is expected to pursue it with the County.

The question was discussed and the consensus was that it would be difficult to predict what issues would arise and would be better to allow these to be defined within the context of a developer’s plan. Also, the Board will look to the LARCA discussions for the resolution of this issue.

Future Meeting Objectives

The Board discussed the objectives for future meetings. The consensus was that a presentation be arranged on affordable/workforce housing, tentatively for the January meeting, and invite the Lake Anne community representatives to attend. Ms. Strange will try to arrange the presentation.

Next Meeting Schedule and Adjournment

The next meeting will be Thursday, Januaryth.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20PM.