Ever read Supervisor Cathy Hudgins monthly newsletter and understand it? I am speaking specifically of the Land Use section. It is written in legalese to be designed (perhaps deliberately) to obfuscate the uninitiated. Do we know where to find a copy of the Planned Residential Community (PRC) plans? Do we know where to locate a Tax Map? Can one readily read and understand a Tax Map? Occasionally, an address is given to help us mere mortals locate a property. Clue: check the Reston Regional Library.
Perhaps an explanation of the "code" words would tell us what is happening to our community. One of the more interesting code words is the term "residential unit." We all pretty well know it is where people will live: an apartment building or complex, a town home, or a single or multi-family dwelling. Knowing the number of residential units does not tell you how many people will be living there unless you know the planning figure used by Fairfax County Planning Commission: it’s somewhere around 2.1 persons per dwelling unit. The actual figures are available in staff reports located on–line for each project.
The April 2012 Hudgins "All is Sunshine" Gram lists five proposed land use projects which propose a net increase of approximately 5,760 persons (most of whom will live within a half mile of a Silver Line Metro stop) with somewhere around 9,000 additional vehicles in Reston’s gridlock. Let’s assume that half of our population growth will use MetroRail for the work days. What about the weekends? Will bicycle lanes take up the slack? This is one month’s count of projects: think about how many other Hudgins grams that have reported land use projects with additional population growth. Recall that planning number of 20,000 new residents that are needed to make the Silver Line meet the Federal Government standards for subsidizing urban rail.
Another unknown is the willingness of Loudoun County to contribute to the costs of Phase Two – extending Rail-to-Dulles into Ashburn.
The only transportation item in the April "gram" is the repaving project of the Fairfax County Parkway. It will make the drive smoother but there are no immediate plans to increase the capacity: an additional two lanes. The same goes for the Reston Parkway, Sunrise Valley or Sunset Hills roads and for that matter, the intersection of Sunrise Valley Drive and the Reston Parkway.
As this column will not go to press until after the Reston Association Annual Meeting, it will be interesting to hear what plans the RA has developed for accommodating the increase in demand for recreational facilities, as well as the potential for additional revenue. Most apartment complexes add to or include RA dues in the rental cost.
We Restonians are in for a rude awakening when this growth takes hold. It will happen as the economy improves. By then, we will be stuck with overly optimistic planning and needed, but missing infrastructure project executions.