Fairfax County Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D) and a panel of other county and local officials heard detailed proposals Friday morning to develop a 1,000 acre parcel of land contiguous to Reston. The plans called for a monorail line, a trolley, a skatepark, an outdoor amphitheater, a Bingo palace, an art museum and a city-wide ban on cars.
Actually, the proposals were part of a class project for Team W at Langston Hughes Middle School and were presented before Hudgins and her fellow officials in the school's auditorium.
The students interviewed longtime Reston residents about what they like and dislike about the community. That information was then used to inform the students' designs for a hypothetical 1,000 acre piece of land.
"We let them discover how the community works," said Sarah Larson, the project's coordinator. "We hope they get a sense of how they can shape the community they live in."
Apart from the monorails and Bingo palaces, the students designed communities by incorporating the main tenets upon which Reston was founded. Nearly all the proposals included a substantial amount of open space and most students made a point of including housing for all income levels, saying the community needed to be open to everyone.
Teja Chalasani, an eighth-grade student who participated in the project, said she learned from her interview that Reston's natural environment was highly valued, but transportation alternatives were the community's greatest need.
"My person told me that Reston had bad transportation and bad traffic," she said.
FOR THE LAST 10 years, Hughes Middle School students have participated in the oral history project, which was conceived by Larson while one of her sons was enrolled at the school. The idea is for students to understand more about Reston and its founding principles.
Each year, the students interview a Reston resident about a particular theme. This year's theme was planning, though past projects have focused on Reston's leadership, small business community and volunteerism.
Larson said she hopes the students walk away from the project each year with the knowledge that they can make Reston — or wherever else they live one day — a better place through positive actions.
"There's so much passivity about the way things are. People complain about it, but don't do anything about it," she said. "This project lets them see that people can make change, whether by building a homeless shelter or whatever else," Larson said.
Members of the panel praised the students Friday morning, saying many of the eighth-graders had a in-depth understanding of town planning and the compassion to include people from all ages, races and income levels.
"This has to do with the philosophy of life. It's about human needs and human concerns, said Ron Christian, vice chair of the county's Redevelopment and Housing Authority. "It's about the question of how do we make a community that is right and good for all kinds of people."
IN 1965, Reston's founder Bob Simon gave a speech, saying, "It's not maps, it's not topography, it's philosophy that guides a community." Harry Hilton, executive director of the Reston Historic Trust, recalled that quote Friday after listening the middle school students give presentations incorporating Simon's vision of a community in which a diverse group of residents can live, work and play.
Hilton spent about 20 hours teaching the students on Team W about SimonÕs vision and about land use planning in general.
"It's given me so much hope for the future," Hilton said. "These kids are so smart."
Hudgins seconded Hilton's praise Friday morning after the presentations. "They're amazing," she said. "Just amazing."