RESTON COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CORPORATION

Board Meeting

Sept. 14, 2006
Lake Anne Office Building
11484 Washington Plaza West
Reston, VA 20190

MINUTES

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

Invited Guests:
Ayanna Brown Fairfax County HCD
Bob Fields Fairfax County HCD
Goldie Harrison Supervisor Hudgins Office
Lee Rau RHA

Observers:
Jason Hartke Reston Connection
John Lovaas

President Pronske called the meeting to order at 7:35PM and invited public comments; there were none. The minutes were reviewed and approved unanimously.

Design Guidelines Progress
President Pronske reported that the selection of the contractor and the members of the technical advisory panel (TAP) would be announced next Monday or Tuesday. Mr. Fields noted that the contract cost would be $41,998 and that the role of the contractor is to support the TAP. The TAP has the lead role in determining the design guidelines and its effort will set the schedule for the project. Based on the resulting guidelines, the consultant will develop draft comprehensive plan language. The guidelines are expected to address issues like architectural style, building heights, etc., but not be prescriptive. The design guidelines should be the basis for an amendment to the comprehensive plan.

G-7 White Paper
The G-7 (Fairfax County Commercial Revitalization Coalition) has prepared a draft Work Plan, which recognizes the need to revise the current revitalization process and tempo. President Pronske invited discussion on the paper. Mr. Fields commented that the G-7 has good leadership but revitalization needs a greater county priority and would benefit from more staffing. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a retreat in December that will focus on revitalization; the G-7 composed the draft, or “white paper”, to present to the Board as the type of assistance and action desired.

Mr. Green said that the draft recognizes that the process is too time consuming and that opportunities for revitalization are missed due to the delays. The group noted that KSI had backed away from its plans for the Good Shepard Lutheran Church property because it couldn’t get ground rules from the County. Developers want clear guidelines that allow them to proceed efficiently and that have been developed with community involvement.

Mr. Simon commented that the “bottom-up” populist development of guidelines and approval processes blocks the ability of developers to execute projects. He believes it is preferable to issue an RFP for the revitalization of Lake Anne rather than proceed with what will be a lengthy bureaucratic process of developing guidelines and an invitation to NIMBY obstruction.

The group also discussed the lack of a timeline or specific steps in the overall process leading from the charrette to guidelines, comprehensive plan amendments and beyond. Mr. Fields commented that once the amendment was completed, the RCRC could play a role as “mover and shaker” in working with the community and developers get the project going. President Pronske noted that RFPs have been used in other areas for revitalization projects and that the RCRC was constituted with representation of the Lake Anne center owners. However, it wasn’t clear to the group how this would work in the context of Lake Anne.

Mr. Green proposed that Supervisor Hudgins meet with the RCRC to discuss and clarify the revitalization process. The consensus was that this should be done and the Board would be happy to meet at the Supervisor’s convenience. Ms. Harrison will discuss this with the Supervisor.

Charrette Project – Payment Processing
President Pronske reported and Mr. Fields confirmed that the County will not be able to pay NVRC directly. RCRC will need to set up a bank account, accept the funds from the County and pay the NVRC invoice.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:55.