For the first two hours of the July 12 Hunter Mill Road Area Task Force meeting, Robert Walker sat and listened.
He watched for an hour as fellow task-force members used blue and yellow posted notes to write comments, fine tuning the public input process — a process that he thought had largely been decided in the task force’s two previous meetings.
Then, in the conference room overflowing with about 50 people, he urged the task force to get back on track.
"We have the public coming to these meetings," he said, looking to the crowd, some of whom were standing outside the room. "Let’s not get so wrapped up in the process that we don’t deal with the issues."
After several task-force members affirmed Walker’s concern, the task force set Aug. 9 to begin hearing from developers who wanted to replan the area around Hunter Mill Road and the Dulles Access Road.
THE TASK FORCE, comprised of 20 Hunter Mill and Dranesville residents appointed by Fairfax County Supervisors Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) and Joan DuBois (R-Dranesville), was created to draft recommendations to the Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors on land-use plans for a 305-acre area on the Reston-Vienna border. The area stretches along Sunset Hills Road and is bounded by the Lake Fairfax Business Center on the west, the Golf Park at Hunter Mill Driving Range on the east and Lake Fairfax Park to the north. The deadline for the draft is December 2005.
The need for the task force grew out of the Area Plan Review process, when developers Washington Homes and Ashbriar Partnership introduced a nomination to increase density. Their proposal, which was put on hold, would increase housing density up to eight-fold on a 226-acre parcel, most of which is owned by Vienna resident John Thoburn. The area is currently zoned to allow one house for every 2 acres. The proposal called for a base density increase of three to four houses per acre.
The proposal also said that if the area were to reach "substantial consolidation" for a joint development, the housing density could be increased up to 16-fold or five to eight houses per acre.
During last week's meeting at the Lake Anne Professional Building in Reston, task-force members Arthur Hill and Chris Halligan supported Walker’s suggestion to move up plans to hear from developers.
"I really want to echo what [Walker] said. Let’s get nominators here to talk," said Halligan.
Hill, frustrated with the focus on administrative affairs, particularly the details of the public input process, said things were getting "ludicrous."
"The process is fine, but we’re getting bogged down," Hill said. "I propose a plan to have the nominators come in, present for an hour, let the task force ask questions for an hour, and then let the public ask questions for a half hour."
While the task force did not take public comments at the three-hour meeting, members discussed the importance of public input. "I think if you want to hear from the nominators, the public should also be able to ask questions," said task-force member John Ulfelder. "It would not be fair to have people hear from the nominators and then not be able to weigh in at that time."
On Aug. 9, when the task force is scheduled to begin hearing from nominators, Hill’s suggestion, which includes time for public questions, will be the tentative format for the meeting.