RESTON COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CORPORATION

Board Meeting

March 8, 2007
Lake Anne Office Building
11484 Washington Plaza West
Reston, VA 20190

MINUTES

Board Members Present:
Kurt Pronske
Howard Green
Walt Peter
Robin Smyers
Anne Strange
Phil Tobey
Rick Thompson
Bob Simon

Invited Guests:
Bridget Hill Fairfax County HCD
Goldie Harrison Hunter Mill District Supervisor's Office

Observers:
Patrick Knight
John Lovaas

President Pronske called the meeting to order at 7:34PM and invited public comments; there were none. The minutes were reviewed and were passed by acclimation.

REPORT OF TAP/DESIGN GUIDELINES ACTIVITY
Phil Tobey and Robin Smyers reported on the activity’s status and gave a verbal overview of the deliverable. The status provided stated that the TAP’s role is completed and that the report was being given to the County’s ARB. Mr. Tobey stressed that he, nor to his knowledge any other TAP member, had not seen the report that is being presented to the County. The County had asked that the findings of the report not be given at this meeting noting that the report would be presented in a public meeting before the end of the month and that the findings will be rolled out in draft within the next two weeks. Description of the deliverable was that it was a written conceptual, text-oriented report without drawings or specific recommendations. Both Mr. Tobey and Ms. Smyers stated that they thought the report had achieved consensus amongst the TAP’s membership.

Mr. Tobey noted that the report cited two goals: to enhance the physical characteristics of the district and to improve the economic vitality. The recommendation of the report specifically did not touch the core of the district, advocating instead its preservation with proximate increased density. He also cited that recommendations of the report: 1) presented two alternatives for North Shore routing -- to leave as is or to change to route to Baron Cameron; would allow participation by one or multiple developers; organized the precinct into zones; and specified underground parking.

Later in the meeting, Mr. Green, who had just returned from the earlier ARB meeting to listen to the presentation of the report by the TAP Consult group to the ARB, cited his observations of that meeting. Specific points he noted about the presentation to the ARB were that 1)the report included preserving Heron House as the icon of the core vis-à-vis other planned high rises, 2) there was an absence of FAR specifics in the presentation, 3) the recommendations did not articulate the preservation of viewscape/viewsheds, 4) the recommendations were an attempt to achieve the original design concept that Conklin did not achieve noting that more detail information should be in the final work product, and 5) it seemed the ARB generally liked the ideas presented and viewed them as good for the community.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OUT-OF-TURN AMENDMENT
President Pronske noted that the process was on target noting that the Design Guidelines report was being presented the same evening and that public meetings would be held in the near time to present the report’s recommendations.

ULI-PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP SEMINAR
President Pronske noted that Howard Green, Rick Thompson and himself had attended the subject seminar. The seminar was held at the County building and attended by approximately 125 individuals. At the general morning session, which addressed the general characteristics of public/private programs, speakers from the Urban Land Institute were joined by a planning director from Montgomery County. The afternoon sessions included more specific planning topics and the financial characteristics of candidate projects.

RCRC FUTURE
President Pronske noted that the County’s Revitalization program is being elevated to a central position within the County’s organization structure and that Ms. Hill would be a part of that effective July 1. He asked the RCRC members to consider its mission and focus in advance of the July 12th Annual Meeting.

NEXT MEETING
Chairman Pronske announced that he would not been attending the April meeting since he would be celebrating his 55th wedding anniversary. It was agreed that Mr. Tobey would chair the meeting.

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM.