Rescue Reston co-founder John Pinkman testifies against RN Golf’s appeal on Jan. 21 at the county Board of Zoning Appeals. Photo by Reena Singh.
Julie Bitzer moved to a home near the Reston National Golf Course so she can indulge in her favorite past time as often as she likes.
“I’m a golfer,” she said. “I was ecstatic I could live at and see the golf course and the open space.”
With a home that faces the expansive greens of the 18-hole course, she felt her lifestyle and home were at risk when RN Golf - owned by Northwestern Mutual - appealed the Fairfax County Planning and Zoning staff’s decision that the course could not be converted to a residential area.
She was not the only one to be concerned by the appeal. The county’s Government Center auditorium was packed with a spill out into the lobby with area residents sporting brilliant yellow shirts exclaiming “Support Open Space: Today, Tomorrow, Forever” for the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting on Jan. 21.
THE BOARD’S DECISION at the end of the nearly six hour meeting was to hold another meeting April 15 to allow the county P&Z staff to prepare a packet with more information about the area’s official zoning.
“Rescue Reston is optimistic that after the BZA has fully considered the record presented at today’s hearing it will uphold the decision of the Zoning Administrator to maintain the Reston National Golf Course as open space,” wrote Rescue Reston Vice President of Legal Affairs David Burns in a statement after the meeting. “We thank the supporters who attended the hearing to help present the community’s views as well as over 5,300 petitioners. We also thank the Reston Association for fighting on behalf of its members for open space.”
Rescue Reston is an organization that is dedicated to preserving open space in the community - and the group is fighting to keep the Reston National Golf Course an open space for the community.
Many of the residents and Rescue Reston supporters rebutted the golf course owners and Northwest Mutual’s appeal with emotional responses - cries for open space for recreation, environmental concerns and the Reston vision. However, BZA member James Hart told the packed room that the board’s decision is based on facts and legality.
As the line of people wearing bright yellow snaked down the middle aisle, he told them to focus on technical issues, rather than emotional issues, against the appeal.
Frank McDermott, representing the RN Golf, talked about the process he took to try and find a certified zoning map for the golf course. He called the zoning propositions that he had to find in George Mason University’s archives “drafts at best,” because they did not have a certification seal verifying the land could only be used for open recreational space.
He said the idea that the golf course is open to all is false and that runners or walkers - even those who live by the golf course - traversing the course are “trespassing.”
“The plan is a guide,” he said. “The plan is not handcuffs. Even in the (Planned Residential Community), the plan is a guide.”
He also noted that if the appeal was granted, any new developer’s plans will be subject to county approval.
“We’re here to confirm our property rights - we, the owner,” he said. “That’s all.”
John McBride, an attorney representing Reston Association, explained the unusual nature of Reston’s Master Plan - a plan created through Robert Simon’s New Town dream for a planned community. That first community was built without many certified maps and documents, McBride noted.
“This is a planned community regulatory scheme, unusual of other areas in Fairfax County,” he said.
RESCUE RESTON board member Ray Wedell, who also sells real estate, believes the value of the property surrounding the golf course is already dropping - and that if homes were built on the space currently inhabiting the rolling greens, they would also not have a high property value.
Wedell noted that there were six homes for sale in Indian Ridge that sold in a very short time after their $500,000-plus listings.
“However, in the second half of 2014, there were no contracts ratified for sale in the Indian Ridge, and at year end, five houses remained actively on the market,” he said. “This shift in market sentiment is in large due to buyers’ uncertainty regarding the golf course rezoning and their unwillingness to invest in a lifestyle which could disappear at a rezoning hearing.”