o Yes: 7,851, 96%
o No: 302, 4 %
The counting is over and the Southgate Center is coming. Reston voters overwhelmingly approved the Southgate Center referendum, Reston Association announced on Thursday.
More than 8,100 eligible Reston homeowners, nearly 50 percent of eligible voters, cast their ballots during the seven week long election and 96 percent voted"yes," with barely 300 households voting against the measure.
Susan Jones, president of Reston Association, made the announcement at November's RA board meeting. "The overwhelming community-wide support has been phenomenal," Jones said. "Congratulations to all involved, this is so important to our community."
With the unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort, spearheaded by RA, board members were pleased at the result. "I don' t want to make referendums a habit," joked Mike Corrigan, at Thursday's board meeting. "But I guess if have to, at least, now we know how to do it right."
In the RA-sponsored election, the measure required 40 percent of eligible voters, or RA homeowners, to submit their ballots. The highest previous turnout was 31 percent during the nature house referendum. After only three weeks, RA announced they had surpassed the 40 percent mark. One obstacle remained. According to RA bylaws, two-thirds of all votes cast had to approve the referendum. While RA officials consistently expressed confidence that Reston voters would easily approve the measure, the final word did not arrive until November.
RA's executive director, Jerry Volloy, praised the efforts, and long hours, of his staff and the board in their community education drive, dubbed "Operation Southgate." "It just shows we can do a lot," Volloy said at Thursday's monthly meeting. "Every time I thought about the 40 percent number, I said it was just impossible, but then I would say, 'heck, this is Reston and this is the kind of community we have.'"
<b>WITH THE PASSAGE</b> of the referendum, Fairfax County and RA will move forward to finalize the lease, according to Volloy, and then the county will begin the process of bringing the new $2.3 million multi-purpose recreation center to South Reston. "We hope to begin construction in just after the new year in 2003," said Volloy. "And our plan is to open the facility in early 2004. As of now, I see nothing that would keep us from achieving that goal."
The county agreed to pay for the construction and operation of the new center if RA members, who effectively own the property on which the center will be built, agreed to lease the property to the county for a period of 99 years. Once constructed, operation of the new Southgate Center would come under the Fairfax County Department of Community and Recreation Services.
"I think it says something about our community — a community that, when it sees a problem, it really decides that if that's the problem that we are faced with, we need to come together and face it," said Supervisor Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill). "We knew it was going to be a very difficult task. We also knew that this is something that we need. And I am not surprised that the Reston community stepped forward."
Jones agreed. "I think Reston is a community that really cares and Reston is a community where people really do participate in civic affairs," the RA president said. "We knew it was a challenge and a lot of people thought it couldn't be done, but I felt that Reston would rise to the occasion and it really did."
The 7,733-square-foot Southgate Center will be a multi-use facility to be built on 2.4 acres of Reston Association common land located at 12125 Pinecrest Road near Glade Drive on the Southgate Neighborhood Recreation Area Site in Reston. The center is planned to house a multi-purpose gymnasium, a large meeting room, two smaller meeting rooms, a kitchen and an office.