| Don't
Fear the High-Rise |
| Several years ago I was talking to Pat Kane, a renowned
long-time Reston resident and expert community planner, about
the future of Lake Anne Village Center. |
| Lake Anne with its Washington Plaza is the historic center
of Reston, the first village center built in the community
when it opened to international acclaim as the future of planned
communities in the 1960s. |
| Pat Kane pointed to the hills on the far side of the plaza
and asked me, "Do you know what's missing at Lake Anne?" I
knew the answer, but I waited for him to say it. "People." |
| Lake Anne was built with one high-rise residential condominium
building. But when it was envisioned, it was expected to have
several high-rise condos surrounding the plaza. The thinking,
as true then as it is today, was that the plaza needed lots
of people to keep it vibrant. |
| The businesses need traffic to stay in business. And more
people on an urban-style plaza make for a more enjoyable atmosphere.
But the way the old-timers in Reston tell it, when it came
time to build a second high-rise condo at Lake Anne, the community
revolted. Eventually, what was built was much smaller-scale. |
| As a result, the past 40 years at Lake Anne have been pleasant
for the few people who live there, and tolerable by the small
businesses that operate there, but it's never seen the success
everyone had hoped for when Lake Anne began, because it can
never attract enough people. |
| Over the past few years, the community has slowly been coming
to terms that the only hope for making Lake Anne a vibrant
community center is to embrace high-density development around
the plaza. Isn't that what smart development is all about,
anyway? Have lots of homes within walking distance of shops
and restaurants? |
| Still, there is a dwindling chorus of people out there who
are campaigning against the "Tysonization" of Lake Anne. They
have a point that unchecked development is never a good idea. |
| But now that the residential condo market has taken off
in Reston, now is the time to embrace high-density development
in the Lake Anne area to make the community what it's always
been intended to be. |
| Yes, that means more people living in your neighborhood.
Yes, that means more cars on the road. Yes, that means you
may actually bump into someone when you're walking your dog
across the plaza in the mornings. But that's what Lake Anne
needs. A little more life. |
| Cathy Hudgins, the Hunter Mill district supervisor who represents
Reston on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, has been
instrumental in guiding the community through this process
of determining what Lake Anne needs and how to provide it. |
| In fact, she has been instrumental in guiding all of Reston
forward as it struggles with how to deal with the new end-line
rail station that is planned to be built in the coming years,
with the growth of high-density development in other parts
of Reston, and as we contemplate the future of our community. |
| But last week, she was rightly rebuked for her performance
in a letter to the editor written by John Lovaas, a long-time
Reston resident and community activist. In his letter, he
noted that despite the objections of three of the main community
leadership groups in Reston, Mrs. Hudgins got her colleagues
on the county board to approve more housing units in Reston. |
| In his letter, Mr. Lovaas made the point that Reston has
little representation at the county level. Since Reston is
not a town, all land-use decisions are made by the county,
and Reston is only part of a district that its representative,
Mrs. Hudgins, represents. |
| In the end, Mrs. Hudgins has many people to serve and is
not beholden strictly to the people of Reston in her work.
I echo Mr. Lovaas's comment. No matter what master plans are
in place, Reston will always be subject to the whims of the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unless it stakes out a
claim and strives to become a town. Reston will never be able
to make the community what the people would want it to be
without the ability to directly control its own land use.
|
| The best way to achieve that level of control is to become
a town or a city. While that is a long and difficult path,
and many people in the community have been walking that road
for years already, the future success of Reston depends on
it. |
| Any community that will see exponential growth in commerce
and population over the coming decades must have control over
its land use and planning if it expects to retain control
over its own future. Redeveloping Lake Anne is a necessity.
Capturing local land-use control is paramount. |
