Fairfax County and the Reston Association (RA) will have a joint meeting next Wednesday, March 20, to get the community involved in the renovation of the Southgate Recreation Center. The meeting will be open to the public and will run from 7 to 9 p.m. It will take place in the Dogwood Elementary School cafeteria, 12300 Glade Drive.
RA board vice president Suzi Jones said she hopes to see around 100 people at the meeting.
"We're trying to get as many people as possible," she said.
The meeting will start out with an overview of the history of the project. Renovation of the center was originally proposed by RA in 1997, when the existing outdoor pool was closed. The renovation design, developed early on in the process, was based on input from neighborhood residents. The renovation will replace the pool with an indoor basketball court and community meeting rooms.
"It's a very flexible building," Jones said. "We can make programming changes as the nature of the community changes."
When RA and the county first started discussing the renovation, though, only verbal funding commitments were made. Then years later, after some staff turnover, county staff said they no longer had money for the project. Recently, the county introduced a proposal to fund the construction of the project, in return for control of the property. RA and the county are currently negotiating a long-term lease on the property. The terms of the lease have not been released.
A referendum is scheduled for fall 2002 on the renovation project. Reston Association property owners must approve, by referendum, any association land transfers, leases or sales on the scale of Southgate. For the referendum to pass, 40 percent of Reston homes must vote. Jones said it will be difficult to achieve the required participation level, and that this and successive meetings will help to generate interest.
AFTER OUTLINING the history of the Southgate Recreation Center, the second half of the meeting will focus on program planning. People will be able to look at the programming ideas originally generated by the community. Then, the large group will break up into smaller groups, each led by a facilitator. In the small groups, meeting attendees will be able to brainstorm ideas for future programming.
"We're really excited about it," Jones said. "We're working hard to get the process going."
To publicize the meeting, RA has been distributing fliers and sending invitational letters to community leaders, including cluster presidents in the neighborhoods surrounding the center.
"I am delighted that [Hunter Mill] Supervisor [Cathy] Hudgins is taking the time, along with RA, to consult with the residents of the area," said John Lovaas, who was president of the RA Board of Directors when the homeowner's association originally undertook the project. Recently, after learning the project was being revisited by the county and by RA, Lovaas asked both parties to make sure to involve the surrounding community in program planning.
"THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS of this meeting are reassuring the residents that, one, they will have a major voice in the programming and, two, that the county will guarantee priority access so we don't end up with a facility that is open to the entire county with our residents shut out from using it," Lovaas said.
Hudgins said the model for county community centers dictates that the county "not only go in and see what people want. We also continue evaluating our centers on an ongoing basis. Out of this meeting will come the beginnings of a neighborhood council."
The neighborhood council will be made up of residents living nearby the center. Those on the council will help with evaluating and setting programs at the center.
Hudgins said the renovated community center will be smaller than most county centers, "but not much smaller." She said some current county community centers already follow the kind of neighborhood-oriented philosophy she envisions for Southgate.
"That's the role of the neighborhood council," Hudgins said. "There isn't someone else who is going to reach down and say, 'This is what you're going to do.'"