Flashback Monday: Reston The 'Instant City'

Strap on your circular glasses and set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to December 24, 1965, where residents of a certain planned community took a moment from their holiday festivities of choice to see themselves portrayed in Life magazine (for our younger readers, a "magazine" is like Buzzfeed, only with slightly fewer animated GIFs and slightly more concern trolling, as the incendiary headline above would suggest).

But we digress. Our Favorite Correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, shared some fancy digital scans from this magazine and had this to say about it:

I suspect the impetus for this theme came from the Watts riot that summer, the start of LBJ's Great Society and urban renewal programs, etc.  In an article titled "What's To Come", Reston was given a two-page spread under the headline, "Reston: First Of The New 'Satellite' Cities". 

Note that thanks to the text in the article we can now choose between not one but two new slogans for our beloved community: "A Harbinger of the Future" or "The Country's First Instant City".  Either sounds a lot better than the current one.

Are there pictures of adorable children playing amid brutalist, shin-cracking concrete abutments? As the people of the 1960s might say, you bet your sweet bippy!

A triptych of the undeveloped land around Lake Anne Village Center, a slice-o-townhouse, and Bob Simon himself:

 

Back when you could get anywhere in under 10 minutes:

And finally, there's this:

Well, maybe.

We May Not Have the Biggest Snowpile, But Ours Is The Cleanest

Because nothing else is going on in the world that might require the attention of a "news paper," the Washington Post decided to share pictures from the variety of snowpiles still littering the region. While Reston Town Center famously had a pile that lasted well into the spring last year, we didn't get the honor of "biggest snowpile" this time around. But check out this side-by-side comparison of RTC's 2016 snowpile (top) and one at Fairfax Town Center (bottom) from the Post article:

Ours is much prettier, and -- dare we say it? -- theirs is grittier. Guess it's time for another dumpster fire or infestation to reassert RTC's urban cred, the end.

Same S, Different Day: With County Septic Proposal, Reston Could Become Even More Earth-Toned

Those of us who live in Reston take a lot of crap from our fancier-than-thou neighbors in the super zips around us. That could soon be literal.

County officials are proposing creating a sewage disposal site off Hunter Mill Road on Lake Fairfax Park property. Apparently the current Colvin Run site near "Great" Falls, which receives "deliveries" from that fancypants community and semi-fancypants Oakton, among other places, was drawing too many complaints from well-heeled NIMBYs is no longer suitable for receiving truckloads of septic tank contents and industrial greases. So, hey -- Reston is open for business!

Confidential Restonian Operative "Mark" provided this reportage from last Thursday's contentious community meeting, which he describes as "a contentious community meeting":

In a contentious community meeting held last Thursday, it came as a surprise to Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and Fairfax Wastewater execs that local residents were up in arms about the completed feasibility study that would move a septic receiving facility from a utility road off Colvin Run and Route 7 to the backside of Lake Fairfax Park off Hunter Mill Road. Yes, the septic sewage from Great Falls and Oakton, as well as port-a-potties and grease from restaurants from Northern Fairfax County would no longer be dumped into the existing, 40 year old "open hole in the ground", just inside a floodplain along a community trail which the Colvin Mill residents complained to their Dranesville supervisor John Faust about the odor and noise of beeping trucks backing up. Not In My Back Yard - anymore!

Why the surprise? Despite the lack of timely public notice, sixty residents showed up with questions, concerns and a sh*tload of suspicions that were soon to be proven well founded. A hired consultant Eric Leinhard from Hazen and Sawyer presented his firm's feasibility study on alternative sites judged on access to large pipe and major roads, outside a flood plain, away from public use and more space. Suitable accommodations for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did not make the top 5 list here.

Of course the best site that comes to mind is a public park surrounded by several communities within a stone's throw and directly uphill from a Chesapeake Protection Resource Area floodplain and a one lane bridge with a pedestrian crossing and trail on windy, hilly country road. To show impartial bias, three alternative sites on county land were also considered but unfortunately all of them immediately fell short as they were in flood plains, near public areas and didn't have the space to support a modern, odor controlled facility that provide drive-through amenities for septic haulers. Lake Fairfax Park was the clear stand out prize based on this selectively hypocritical criteria!

Asking residents to hold their questions to the end of his presentation, Leinhard showed pictures to help explain the septic lifecyle and photos illustrate how the new site would be convenient to the 22 trucks that would visit the site daily, some of which may use Hunter Mill already. Selling to the resident's civic nature, it's not just the septic from rich communities, it's port-a-potties found at T-ball games, not realizing our less privileged Reston little leaguers are still whizzing behind trees. If Colvin Run site floods, it's a health issue!. And if it weren't convenient for the haulers, they might be inclined to dump their load "down a manhole." So we need to move the site... anywhere from Great Falls but close to Great Falls and Oakton. How about Reston?

When asked for copies of the presentation, about 12 copies were handed out to the crowd. When the audience began to call out "liar, liar, pants on fire" with contradictory evidence, Cathy Hudgins stood up, walked to center stage to castigate her constituents, how could they interrupt this shill technical expert's sales feasibility presentation? Everyone would be given a chance to speak….except the folks who signed up to speak - the staff apparently lost the sign-up sheet.

While the existing site was considered in the study, it was clear that moving--not modernizing--was the grand plan from the answers given on the Colvin Mill site

For the record, were there ANY EPA or State violations for this site? A forced and awkward "No" came from Wastewater Management.

Could they state the number of times the site was flooded? Uh, No

Could they raise the intake pipe? Cap the intake pipe to contain any flood-inducing leaks?

Could septic be pumped into a closed system? You folks weren't supposed to helping us problem solve here…

Had they considered moving the trail away from the facilities fence? Nope

Regarding the proposed Lake Fairfax site:

1) How could Hunter Mill Road be called a major road when it was windy, hilly, had a one lane bridge and had daily half mile back ups. Imagine idling in traffic behind 22 septic trucks making 44 trips to and from Lake Fairfax. Well it's a 25 mph road... no, I don't know how fast a septic truck can go uphill across a 1 lane bridge from a dead stop. With a little help from the audience, the junior engineer was able to confirm that math but not the vomit inducing stench.

2) You refer to a dated 10 year old traffic plan - did you consider the new private high school being built, new corporate campus on Sunset Hills , and that new Silver Line Metro that's being extended out to Dulles? There' s no data too outdated to use to prove their case

3)Pictures shown cut out or obscured the curvy road, one lane bridge, pedestrian crossing - We might have driven by there once or twice?

4) Signage shows the bridge's weight limit which would not likely carry a full loaded septic truck - No comment.

No mention mentioned to the stream below the bridge that feeds into the Potomac. We're not sure how far it is despite having cars, building and houses to scale on the picture…yes it appears very, very close but again it's totally uphill from the floodplain…what's your point?

Have you considered buying land in a industrial area? Yeah… we were looking at use existing county land, outside of actually fixing the existing facility. Guess they aren't the big wheel outfit like the RA that can buy a lake for $2.5M.

The residents' biggest concern: Was this was already done a deal? They had been burnt before by active community feedback that some strongly felt was overlooked by folks looking to develop and expand Hunter Mill. By input, are you looking for us to agree on the color of the facility walls or approve this fool idea of installing an industrial plant in our park and neighborhood? When pressed for an answer, the Wastewater exec and Hudgins told the residents emphatically that this was just a preliminary study and there was no design planned yet. Yet the presentation next steps shared (and redacted afterwards)? Start preliminary design!

Billy Joel concludes his concerts by sharing "Don't Take Sh&t from anyone." For Lake Fairfax Park residents, it appears that Cathy Hudgins will take Sh*T from Great Falls and Oakton but not from them.

Community feedback is requested to this preliminary design by March 18th to Jonathan.Okafor@fairfaxcounty.gov.

We will keep you informed as this story develops.

Will Reston take any crap? We'll see!

VY Not: Maybe They're Digging For Vowels

Please to be enjoying this photo of various luminaries "breaking ground" on the soon-to-be-built, vowel-challenged VY mixed-use project at Reston Heights. (We're guessing they were using shvls to dig.)

If the thought of another dollop of bollardy goodness isn't enough to get your earth-toned heart pumping, try this stirring quote from the grndbrkng ceremony:

“Reston continues to be a thriving submarket, and JBG is pleased to be expanding our strong presence here,” said Principal Greg Trimmer. “VY at Reston Heights will be an active destination with social public spaces, new living options, and new shopping and dining for all of Reston.”

That's right. You might have thought you're living in a community, silly rabbits, but you're not. You're not even living in a Census-Designated Place. Instead, we're all denizens of a "submarket." Think The Matrix, only with worse traffic and none of the awesome slow-mo bullet dodging.

In other vowel-related news, we stumbled across this exciting promotional video for the vowel-free BLVD apartments soon to open on the other side of the Toll Road. Check it, as the kids haven't said in years:

Along with some seriously sweet CGI of the rooftop pool and floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedrooms and the jet-age "stainless steel" appliances and whatnot, the video is chock full of awesome stock B-roll trying to "sell" the D.C. region as a hip place, with BLVD at Ground Zero of urban/suburban flair. We'll save you one minute and 41 seconds of your life and show you the money shot, naturally taken in a chain coffee (or, in this case, cff) shop:

You may hate unrestrained development and faddish naming conventions, but you've gotta love that facial hair, the end.

Flair Warning: Immovable Object Meets Unstoppable Force, or DRB Out-DRBed By Larger Quasigovernmental Agency

V. v. sad news for future riders of the Silver Line. When they alight at the Reston Town Center Metro station at some point in the future, assuming the system doesn't disintegrate into one continuous, 24/7 track fire that's visible from low earth orbit by then, they won't be graced with the sight of "flair." Give us some absolutely heartbreaking blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

The RTC’s Design Review Board late last year made several design suggestions to the county, the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (MWAA) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Among them:

• The pedestrian bridge over the Dulles Toll Road that “should signal arrival at a place of distinction,” possibly with LED lighting that could be programmed to change color periodically.

• An entrance pavilion with different colored bricks or paint.

• Bus staging area and larger island with artistic flair — “perhaps a tensile structure that would serve both function and form. A general “softening” of the island scape (essentially a solid concrete platform) would also be desirable.

• Public art that would add to the sense of distinction.

We have no qualms with the idea that our fake downtown gritty urban core is a "place of distinction." We have the most distinctive midscale chain options anywhere, and "flair" is a nice homage to the RTC chain dining experience:

But you know who wasn't impressed by the RTC DRB's call for flair? Metro and MWAA, that's who:

Representatives from MWAA and Metro responded that Metro facilities must have a uniform appearance.

Kind of like our houses, compost bins, mulch, landscaping stones, and party walls? That's right -- our fake downtown's DRB just got out-DRBed by our fake transit agency's DRB. That hurts, especially when it comes from an agency whose idea of wild innovation is single-tracking three lines worth of trains into one tunnel during rush hour.

Adding insult to injury, we're guessing this means that our much-anticipated rad '80s art is never coming to Wiehle, the end.

Two Comrades Running Unopposed For Glorious RA Board Seats; One Seat Contested in Bourgeois-Style "Election"

Most glorious news, bourgeois homeowning comrades! Five of our brothers and sisters in our earth-toned union have agreed to run for three seats in this year's plebiscite election for the RA Board. As per usual in recent years, two of the three seats are unopposed. Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

Lake Anne/Tall Oaks Director Eve Thompson, the current board secretary, will run for re-election, but as an At-Large candidate. Opposing her will be newcomers John Bowman, who has been active in RA’s Transportation Advisory Committee and the Reston Citizens Association, and financial professional April Tan.

Ken Knueven, former RA Board President, currently fills the At-Large seat up for election. He cannot run again because RA Bylaws prohibit more than two consecutive three-year terms by board members.

North Point District Director Dannielle LaRosa, who was appointed to the board in summer 2014 when former North Point Director Tim Cohn resigned for health reasons. She was elected by North Point district residents in 2o15 to fill the remaining one-year of the term. She is now running unopposed for the full three-year term. LaRosa currently serves as the RA Board Treasurer.

Running unopposed for the Lake Anne/Tall Oaks District Director is Sherri Hebert, who has been active in the citizens group watching Tall Oaks redevelopment. While two of this year’s races are uncontested, a 10-percent quorum is required to make the election official, RA says.

At least one of the races is contested. After years of complaining about uncontested seats in board elections, we're starting to run out of Soviet clip art to use. We mainly blame that softie Gorbachev, but being an RA board member is admittedly a pretty thankless job. When people think "community service" or "politics," the first thing they think of is probably not their homeowner's association. Unless, of course, they love paint swatches and extensive design guidelines. But we digress!

The problem is that the RA board actually makes important decisions about whether our money gets spent on referenda to purchase waterlogged lakeside properties... or bocce. It also decides exactly how hard it plans to fight against the vaguely inevitable paving of our open spaces with the county and the courts. So yeah, we guess it kind of matters, and for reasons beyond forcing the RA to hold another election if they don't meet the steep barrier of that 10 percent quorum.

You can read each candidate's official statement here (PDF). Or, for your convenience, we've included a fancy "word cloud" below, like it's 2007 or something:

Shout out to the 20190! And committees!