Approved Materials - Reston Community Center

March 25, 2013 Long Range Planning Committee Meeting Report
A guest asked if the center was built at Baron Cameron, where would the dog park be moved to.
Leila responded that the Park Authority planning process would consider the entire 68 acres. She said
until the Park Authority listens to the kinds of comments that the RCC Board has been listening to and
considers all of the Park’s uses, she doesn’t think that we will have an answer to that question because
the Park Authority will have to come up with an answer. The Park is the property of the Park Authority. It
does not belong to RCC. Leila indicated that she sees no reason why there would need to be a loss of
the uses there; fields and dog park uses could well remain.
Leila said that she appreciated everyone’s input and that we needed to move into the portion of the
meeting that would be a focus group to imagine what a recreation center would look like. She explained
that the Board needed that input from the community in order to make a fully educated decision on this
opportunity. Leila said that we needed to move into the next portion of the meeting so that we could give
those people in support of a facility the same opportunity as has been given to everyone who spoke in
opposition to the facility this evening.
David Okerson, Reston resident, said he is a resident of Longwood Grove. He said that he has had the
experience of dealing with the Park Authority’s planning process before. He said he cannot speak more
lowly of it. He said the Park Authority simply pretends to listen to public input and then do not accept it.
He is concerned that the same process might happen here. He thinks it is very easy to organize a public
meeting by inviting all the proponents of the facility – such as swimmers and hot tubbers - but not bother
to tell the people that will have to live across the street from it. He wonders whether that was intentional.
He said it’s very easy to take notes at a public meeting and get precisely the answer you have predecided.
He thinks that if this goes to the Park Authority, that they will have already decided what they
want to do. He asked Bill Bouie for a response. Bill B. responded that there was no pre-determined
decision. David said they had last time and asked why he should trust them. He thanked RCC for
holding this meeting but said he is concerned about it and does not want to pay for facility for Fairfax
County and doesn’t want it across the street from his home.
There were a few questions from guests that did not identify themselves. One guest asked if we could
add underground parking to the RCC Hunters Woods facility in order to renovate that facility instead of
building a new one. Leila said that was not a possibility due to restrictions on parking related to RCC’s
shared parking arrangement with the owner of the shopping center. She encouraged the attendees to
send their proposals to RCC for consideration.
A guest said she found out about this meeting at the last minute and asked how she would find out about
future meetings. Leila said that all attendees who signed in would be added to our distribution list and
shared with the Park Authority. The woman asked how her neighbors would find it. Leila encouraged the
woman to share information with her neighbors. She also said that all of our meetings are published on
our website, in the buildings and with the media, including Reston Patch and newspapers.
Public comment ended and the Focus Group began at 8:05 p.m.
FOCUS GROUP
Sam Jung of Brailsford & Dunlavey welcomed the group and explained that the purpose of tonight’s
discussion is to imagine the features of a potential recreation facility. He further explained that we are still
“visioning” every possibility and we should therefore not restrict our input. Brailsford & Dunlavey would
then use this discussion – along with the February 11 discussion – to develop costs of the options to
deliver to the Board for review. He said Reston is a unique community and we want to reflect that. He
added that this session will focus on facility amenities that resonated with people at the first session that
Brailsford & Dunlavey conducted on February 11: aquatics, fitness/recreation, and multi-purpose rooms.
In addition to facilitating general discussion about potential recreation center amenities, Sam and another
representative from Brailsford & Dunlavey distributed a survey for participants to indicate the level of
importance they place on a list of potential features (a copy is attached.)
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