Reston Association Hunters Woods/Dogwood Director Cheryl Beamer resigned from the RA board this week, the RA announced today.
Beamer served as the Hunters Woods/Dogwood District director since 2007.
RA will hold a special board meeting on June 10 to discuss filling the vacated seat. The Hunters Woods/Dogwood term runs until April 2014.
The RA credited Beamer for her advocacy of public art, trail maintenance and upkeep, and employee benefits and services. The release also singled her out for her work on the move of RA headquarters to its current location, calling her efforts "one of the key reasons RA was able to move its headquarters from Isaac Newton Square to the renovated, LEED Silver certified space on Sunrise Valley Drive."
Also, today was RA CEO Milton Matthews' last day on the job. Last year, the eight-year veteran of the association's top spot announced he was stepping down because his wife had taken a job as the city manager of Rockville, Md., which has a residency requirement. A new CEO has not yet been selected, but on the bright side, Matthews did get a groovy farewell plaque that we're sure will be the centerpiece of his rumpus room.
We wish the best of luck to Beamer and Matthews. It's shaping up to be an interesting summer for the RA, that's for sure.
We're conceivably within six months of the awesome Wiehle Avenue Metro station opening, and apparently, they're still trying to figure out whether people will actually be able to walk to the skybridge on the south side of the Toll Road… like on sidewalks, as has been the case in most urban and semi-urban areas for the past bunch of centuries. We guess that isn't all that surprising, given the slow pace of other improvements around the new station, but still… really? This hasn't been figured out?
At a recent Reston Planning & Zoning meeting, the subject of whether the property owners will allow a county-built sidewalk came up for discussion.
Chris Wells said there definitely will be a sidewalk linking Wiehle to the southside escalator along the DTR exit. (This comment was triggered by reference to the ongoing bus ramp construction in the area and the current absence of a sidewalk).
Wells said the county has had one meeting with Vornado re pedestrian access through there property. The county has already set aside $ for a walkway through the property. He noted that several owners are involved grouped together in an Association. “There is not unanimous agreement” among them. They are concerned about liability but if you build a public walkway the county accepts liability.
Now, we are but simple "web loggers," but mayhap this subject could have come up for discussion before the decision to build a fancy umpteen million-dollar bridge over the Toll Road was made? (Yes, we know there's apparently also going to be some sort of bus offloading access thingy on that side, maybe, but still… why sweat the small stuff?)
But no worries!
[Wells] commented that he did not think “they will prevent people from walking though the property” even if there is no public sidewalk.
Or would they? If the property owners are that concerned about liability, they could always hire an out-of-work "cast member" from Medieval Times:
Our BFFs at Patch found this Craigslist ad that suggests that Reston's employment mix is already diversifying in the light of our new economic realities. Way to go! (And remember -- the smiley-face emoticon means it's definitely not solicitation, maybe.) We don't know how to iron, but for $100 an hour, we'll learn.
On a related topic, Confidential Restonian Operative "Sean" points out that there might still be a little juice left in the strapping-bombs-to-dolphins business, so don't toss the brochure for that quality German import just yet, the end.
Disappointing news for lovers of Biblical plagues and red-eyed critters that aren't part of the late-night crowd at Jackson's: It looks like the onslaught of hell-born demonspawncicadas may wind up missing Reston this time around.
This not-at-all-creepy map of cicada sightings from a website called Magicicada (SRSLY) shows that Reston is in some sort of protective, cicada-free envelope, even as our counterparts in Fairfax County's other planned community, Burke, have been besieged. (So have Manassas, Woodbridge and Dale City, but really -- who could tell the difference?)
But we digress. Our BFFs at the Capital Weather Gang have more "bad" news for bug-lovers as well:
If you have not yet seen cicadas where you live, there is a good chance that Brood II has missed your area.
Their own, thankfully bug-free, map also shows Reston well outside of the Danger Zone:
Our favorite correspondent, the Peasant from Less Sought After South Reston, has his own theory:
Guess Brood II used its 17 years underground wisely and read the entire DRB handbook, in the process realizing that red eyes and orange wing veins are definitely not considered earth-toned.
No worries, though. Those of us who were in Reston in 2004 remember that we got plenty of cicadas that year, meaning that in 2021, we'll have the red-eyed bug market covered -- assuming there's any ground left unturned in Reston between now and then, the end.
Set the controls on the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to sometime in the late 1970s, where we can be witness to construction of the v. v. exciting Tall Oaks Stucco Wasteland Shopping Center. Much like today, the parking lot is virtually empty, albeit a little bit dustier.
Even though the signature white stucco hasn't even been applied to the buildings in these pictures, you can almost taste the optimism, a future full of rad music festivals and full parking lots. It would be nearly three decades before the Giant would leave, only to be replaced by a couple of international stores with sexist bread and excellent spokespeople and then… well, not much.
The funky '70s "Tall Oaks" sign is still there, although its original DRB-friendly Goldenrod Sunshine color choice is now something in a murkier Russet Brown, the end.
But we digress. The idea of building atop the Toll Road as it runs through Reston has been on people's minds for years. That would free up more than 100 acres of land in the middle of Reston for development, plus maybe even help address the need for some pesky bridge over the Toll Road people keep whining about for some reason. Some people, including Reston architect Guy Rando, have even come up with some groovy ideas of what that kind of development might look like.
But while it looks like that ship has sailed for the Wiehle station, Fairfax officials are apparently debating whether encouraging similar development makes sense for Phase 2 stations, including the one to be built near Reston Town Center. Give us some good blockquote, Washington Post:
But should the planning for the “air rights” over the stations, and building the foundations of such projects, begin now, as plans are being made to start building the Phase 2 stations near Reston Town Center, Herndon and Innovation Center near Route 28? Some say yes, including Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield), who is urging his colleagues to seriously study the idea, former Fairfax board chair and Congressman Tom Davis, and Leo Schefer, president of the Washington Airports Task Force. Others say no, including Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee), the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (which owns the land and is building the stations) and even Stewart Schwartz, head of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. They note that the market for such development simply isn’t there right now — there’s too much available land and open office space for developers to spend the money on an expensive, speculative project above a Metro station. But what about…the future?
Herrity has been badgering his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to simply authorize a $30,000 study of “what’s going to be the marketability and shall we move forward when the time is right.” The decision to actually allow developers to build over the Silver Line stations would be up to MWAA, but Herrity said selling air rights could “bring down the tolls and pay down the debt” of Metro construction.
“I think they missed the boat on Phase 1,” said Davis, now vice-chair of the MWAA board, about the first part of the Silver Line, which runs through Tysons Corner and then along the toll road out to Reston. He said the economic climate is wrong now, “but do you plan for the future? You’ve got to be a little visionary on this.” He said the issue was “something I’m going to try to continue the dialogue” with other MWAA board members.
The selling point? It's cheaper now -- more than $30 million per station cheaper -- to build the supports for future development while the Metro stations are being built, as opposed to coming back and doing it later. But here's something we haven't heard a lot about amid all the breathless talk of development in the area:
The study also cited a George Mason University economic study which said that only 4.4 million square feet of additional non-residential space was expected to be needed in the Reston Parkway area over the next 20 years, almost all of which “could be satisfied using land with already approved zoning in that area. The risk of over-speculation and over-supply is very real.”
The harsh light of reality is hard to face sometimes. Apparently some sort of study will take place in the coming months, though we doubt we'll see any proposals as creative (and leafy) as this:
This new AutoCAD hawtness represents JBG's revised plans for the long-delayed Reston Heights development off Sunrise Valley Drive, which the Washington Business Journaldeclares "is looking like a shoo-in for Fairfax County approval." From these plans, it's clear that developer JBG learned some lessons from its long battle to get its Fairway Apartments redevelopment approved, most notably removing most of the mauvescrapers originally planed for the Reston Heights West site and replacing them with midrise, mixed-use buildings.
Reston Heights West was first approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2008 for 498 residential units, 245,000 square feet of retail and nearly 430,000 square feet of office in six buildings. In the amended plan, the numbers remain roughly the same, but the site has been completely re-imagined.
Citing changes in market trends and community interest in a more neighborhood-like scale, JBG has proposed a new blueprint that "allows for a new grocery and neighborhood retail into pedestrian-friendly, urban-type streetscape with mid-rise residential above…
What was, in 2008, four residential towers, one office tower, a single story commercial addition to the existing Reston International Center and underground parking is now six buildings — including a screened five-story parking garage — dominated by a 519,000-square-foot mid-rise residential building, a 15-story, 328,225-square-foot addition to the international center and lower-level retail distributed along a central plaza…
JBG's revised proposal "would make a strong design statement in the Dulles Toll Road corridor and Town Center portions of Reston," county staff concluded in its report, issued in late April ahead of a May 9 Planning Commission public hearing…
In layman's terms, the "strong design statement" appears to be "buildings whose sides come together at 90-degree angles," unlike Reston's other showcase of transit-oriented development. Though we are intrigued by what this structure fronting the Toll Road might be:
Based on the perspective of this rendering, this wavy building is awfully skinny. It's also not clear from the rendering if it's transparent. Maybe it's a parking garage for cars with really narrow turn radii. Or maybe it's a heat mirage from the exhaust fumes wafting in from the Toll Road.
To JBG's credit, there's acknowledgement that infrastructure around the development needs to be addressed to accommodate the additional traffic all this TOD hawtness will bring:
JBG has proposed a new traffic signal at Sunrise Valley Drive, new right-turn lanes at Reston Parkway and Sunrise Valley Drive, a shared-use path, new sidewalks and 280 bicycle spaces. Those commitments aside, ensuring safe passage across Reston Parkway, which will be widened ahead of the Silver Line's arrival in Reston, remains an issue that has not yet been solved. JBG has, however, agreed to fill in missing pedestrian links to safely get people from Reston Heights West to the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station about a mile away.
That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's more than will actually be ready a mile or so down Sunrise Valley when the Wiehle Metro station opens, so, um, good slightly better planning?
Is this fancy fenced enclosure at Lake Anne Plaza a temporary holding cell for children who dare to enter the "children's fountain"? Another performance art installation, this one to protest FEMA camps and/or Guantanamo Bay, depending on your political affiliation? A DRB-sanctioned public pillory allowing us to jeer at those among us who dare sully their yards with red mulch? We just don't know. We just don't know.
Set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to 1966, where we can be witness to this major bit of science stuff being done by a scientist somewhere sciencey in Reston, most likely in Isaac Newton Square. "Reston scientist conducting experiments," the photo caption reads, further describing the experiment as "unidentifiable." Of course, given the area's scientific pedigree, it probably has something to do with strapping bombs to dolphins, or watching rabbits copulate, or maybe investigating whether the site of some horrific transmittable disease would make a good daycare center.
We'd like to think the funky red and blue glasses means our buzzcut-bearing scientist is working on an early prototype of a 3-D "web log," in which various earth tones literally jump off the screen CRT. And it's clear some 17 years later, this research paid off:
A Reston woman says a salesman assaulted her in her home earlier this week.
The victim, 47, told Fairfax County Police a man selling meat products came to her door in the 2200 block of Cedar Cove Court on Wednesday.
The man asked to use the restroom, police said. Once inside the home, he allegedly touched the victim against her will. He then left the home. The victim was not injured.
The suspect was described as white, 20 to 30 years old, approximately 6 feet tall and between 160 and 190 pounds. He had brown hair.
Who knew there were still door-to-door meat salesmen?
Grab your kids and gather around the YouTubes machine for yet another edition of Reston Today. In this thrilling May installment, dulcet-toned Andy Sigle dons a hard hat and visits the Wiehle Metro station's parking garage, where Dave Mesich, senior superintendent of construction, updates us all on the progress at everyone's favorite Sleestak pit:
"We dug a big hole," he explains. "Then we filled it with concrete and steel."
Along with the usual hawtt concrete riser action we've grown accustomed to in previous video tours of the garage, we get to see the shiny new glass atrium that will transport pedestrians from the sun-filled civic plaza to the dark shadowy nether regions where the buses (and aforementioned Sleestaks) will prowl. Even the concrete planters that will adorn the civic plaza are already in place, though the fanciful concrete bollards are still conspicuously absent.
Also, with garage construction topped off, the first of the five high-rise buildings are now rising from the ground. Along with the interim retail center that will someday become the ground floor of a hotel, the vowel-free apartment building is now built up to the second floor. Work will "really get rolling" this summer, we're told.
Moving away from the construction site, we learn about this weekend's long-anticipated reopening of Dogwood Pool. But to be honest, we weren't paying much attention because of this teaser at the beginning of the video:
That's right. Reston will soon be besieged by millions of the winged crawly hell-beasts known as cicadas. "They're quite harmless," Sigle says reassuringly. Yeah, right. That's what they said about the Sleestaks too, and just look what happened, the end.
From the Twitter machine comes this photo of the horrific sinkhole that opened without warning this morning on Lawyers Road near its intersection with Steeplechase Drive in South Reston. This is what happens when you anger the Sleestaks by building a giant underground parking garage that encroaches on their kingdom, the end.
Update: Some v. v. exciting aerial footage, courtesy of the DRB Predator drone the ActionMcNews chopper:
You really can't blame the Reston Association for being a bit cautious about the Reston Community Center's plans to maybe build an awesome new rec center at Baron Cameron Park. After all, the RA was RCC's partner in the failed attempt to build a similar facility at adjacent Brown's Chapel Park a few years back, which didn't exactly end well for anyone involved. This time around, RCC has a new dance partner, the county park authority, and has made a point of holding multiple public hearings, including one last night during which our BFFs at Patch said "tensions ran high."
Today, the RA issued a press release saying it has yet to take a position on the proposed rec center, adding that "before finalizing a position on the recreation facility, the RA board and staff will continue to attend meetings and gather more information about the proposal."
During yesterday's meeting, RCC's consultants outlined their preliminary findings (executive summary: people who swim like swimming pools) and shared the two options currently on the table for the Baron Cameron facility. Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Patch:
One option features a 25-yard pool, a 5,000-square-foot leisure pool, a gym, two multipurpose rooms for 62,850 square feet of space on 0.72 acres.
The other option is a 50-meter pool, a 7,500-square-foot leisure pool, a larger weight room and other features for 98,000 square feet of space on 1.12 acres.
Both layouts would need an estimated 200-250 parking spaces on 1-1.2 acres, Levin said.
The consultants don't yet have a financial analysis, which is good, because it allowed for more time for attendees of Monday's meeting to accuse each other of NIMBYism:
"We live there. We can't get to the park," said Longwood Grove resident Jill Gallagher, who told the board that the idea is poorly planned. "Traffic is so bad.When you pull out of Longwood Grove and take a left, you are taking your life in your hands."
Some residents accused pool opponents of being dramatic.
"There is no threat to the dog park and fields," said one speaker. "But there is threat from the neighbors about too much noise from dogs barking. They would prefer completely open space. I don’t know why our neighbors at Lake Newport are so concerned. This open space should be used."
Said resident Sheila Casey: "I think there is a lot of dishonesty about the opposition about this park. It is a small group of homeowners. That park is busy at one time only, and that is Saturday mornings."
There is, of course, an online petition calling for the preservation of the Baron Cameron fields; to date it has 60 signatures. Others have pointed out that this attitude is why kids from North Reston go to Herndon High School instead of the school that was originally planned for Baron Cameron; in fact, the school board was the "owner" of the park until very recently, once the rec center plans got rolling in earnest.
Other locations have been suggested, including Lake Fairfax Park, an area closer to the Town Center, and even more out-there ideas like Tall Oaks Village Center, Isaac Newton Square, or even the Reston National Golf Course(?). It's not clear if any of these suggestions are being considered seriously -- or at all -- by RCC, the park authority, and their consultants. That's a shame, as it focuses all the heat and energy on the location rather than the need for the rec center as our earth-toned community continues to grow. As Tammi Petrine of the Reston Citizens Association said at the meeting last night:
"I am really astonished when I started looking into the proposal to find out that both Spring Hill and Oak Marr adding on huge additions to their pools, racquetball courts and other facilities," she said. "Of 14 districts, Hunter Mill is the only one that does not have its own FCPA rec center. We have a problem here. Our taxes are paying for Spring Hill and Oakton to add on. These are not impoverished communities.
"We have 40 percent of county’s subsidized housing here," she said. "If you are supporting this population, rest of community needs to support you in that effort."
In conclusion, please to be enjoying this video our BFFs at Patch shot last night:
Our heads hurt.
Update: Our BFFs at Reston2020 weigh in with a post on possible locations for the rec center, including the importance of "adhering to Reston's core values, including protecting the environment."
Set the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine(tm) to 1976, where, as those of you too young to remember the nation's bicentennial sadly missed, every possible product available for sale was produced in a tacky "commemorative" edition. Apparently, you could even pick up a commemorative edition of an earth-toned planned community, something called "Reston 76." We're assuming it was pretty much the same as then-modern-day Reston, only the Redcoats were sporting uniforms more in a shade of DRB-approved burnt umber.
Tacky, yes. But not so bad compared to this:
Of course, some things haven't changed in Reston over the past 35 years. We bet that sweeeeet sedan parked in the middle of the picture got upwards of 14 miles per gallon, making it the Prius of the mid-1970s, the end.
We've written before about suspicious airborne devices that may (or may not) be part of a "secret air war" against the scourge of red mulch and white stone by the DRB. And there have been other unmanned airborne vehicles trolling the skies over our beloved earth-toned community. But Confidential Restonian Operative "Joel" has spotted what might be the strangest one yet, a contraption that looks like a WW2-era barrage balloon. He writes:
When I saw a balloon floating over south Reston on Wednesday, my first thought was that Reston's first car dealership had opened. It was not to be.
The balloon flew above Reston again on Thursday near the Town Center. Guided by its tether line, I found a support trailer parked in a corner of the park & ride lot. They must have spotted me; as I approached, the balloon lowered through doors on the roof of the trailer.
Fortunately, "Joel" was able to snap this photo of the UFO returning to its mothership:
The fancy "web site" advertised on the trailer suggests that the company is involved in "aerial thermal imaging and audit services, large-scale construction documentation, cellular tower simulations" and other similar kinds of from-above imaging. But for who? And why? And to what purpose? All we know is we're covering our illicit pink flamingo with some earth-toned mosquito netting before turning in tonight, the end.
Green space. Conformist architectural noncomformity. Lots of earth tones. The Macaroni Grill (RIP)! Covering the New Town (tm) of Reston (tm) like invasive English Ivy since 2007, a look at what's doing in our favorite plastic fantastic planned community, warts and all.
Flashbacks:
The RNGC Caddyshackpocalypse
Bollards!
Disappointing news for lovers of Biblical plagues and red-eyed critters that aren't part of the late-night crowd at Jackson's: It looks like the onslaught of 
You really can't blame the Reston Association for being a bit cautious about the Reston Community Center's plans to maybe build 
We've written before about 
