RESTON COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CORPORATION

Board Meeting

Mar. 9, 2006
Lake Anne Office Building
11484 Washington Plaza West
Reston, VA 20190

MINUTES

Board Members Present:
Kurt Pronske
Howard Green
Anne Strange
Van Foster
Rick Thompson
Robin Smyers
Bob Simon

Invited Guests:
Bob Fields Fairfax County HCD

Observers:
Jason Hartke The Reston Connection
John Marcario The Reston Times
Nabil Faltas
John Lovaas

President Pronske called the meeting to order at 7:40PM and invited public comments. There were none.

Approval of the February 9th Minutes
Mr. Simon moved and Mr. Thompson seconded a motion that the minutes of the February 9th meeting be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

Charrette Report
President Pronske reported that the County had received the charrette report, reviewed it and requested the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) to make revisions. Several members said that the County shouldn’t make revisions without RCRC input and that the Board should have access to the original. The Board discussed formalizing such a request. Mr. Simon questioned the point of pursuing this since the economic analysis and charrette reports should not be the basis for any future planning. Specifically, he said that the conclusions on density were not acceptable to this group. Mr. Green felt that there was no consensus on density yet.

Mr. Fields joined the meeting and explained the County’s action. The staff found the report was well below the expected quality and included many personal opinions of the faciltators. The staff felt it would be an embarrassment to release the report, as submitted, to the public. In line with County purchasing policy, the Revitalization Division will not make payment until a fiinal report is accepted. Revitalization has requested that the report be revised and resubmitted by the first week of April. The Board discussed having several members review the report at the HCD office and discuss it with the staff. Mr. Fields was happy to comply and would make himself and staff available at a time convenient to us.

Mr. Green moved and Mr. Thompson seconded a motion that three Board members review and discuss the original report at the HCD offices. The motion passed unanimously. The three members will be Mr. Pronske, Mr. Simon and Mr. Thompson.

Funding for Design Guidelines
Mr. Fields said that the County is preparing a Request for Proposal for professional consultant assistance to address several possible topics including potential out-of-turn Comprehensive Plan Amendment and related design guidelines for the Lake Anne area. The approximately $30K cost will be funded from existing County funds. Mr. Fields would be willing to discuss the RFP with Board members prior to its release scheduled for mid-April.

Lutheran Church Property
President Pronske reported that KSI had exercised their option during the feasibility study phase to back out of their contract for the Good Shepard Lutheran Church property. KSI based this action on several factors including their inability to get a definition of applicable density from the County, the higher construction costs involved in changing the design concept from four stories to a high rise as requested by the DRB, and the weakening of the condominium market.

County Revitalization Program Staffing
As a recent meeting of the Revitalization Policy Committee, President Pronske learned that the Revitalization Program was understaffed and that the Revitalization Coalition was recommending augmentation. Mr. Pronske proposed that the Board pass a resolution on the matter encouraging Supervisor Hudgins to support increased staffing. The Board discussed the matter and concluded that the draft resolution should be amended to recommend that the staff be brought up to budgeted strength.

Mr. Simon moved that the amended resolution be approved and Ms. Smyers seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Annual Meeting Election of Officers
As announced at the previous Board meeting, President Pronske noted that this meeting is an Annual Meeting and that officers would be elected for the coming year.

Ms. Strange moved that the current officers be re-elected and Mr. Simon seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Adjournment
President Pronske adjourned the meeting at 9PM.