October 28, 2005

This is the second newsletter issued to keep the members of the Lake Anne of Reston Condominium Association (LARCA) informed about Fairfax County ’s Lake Anne Revitalization initiative and activities. This newsletter issued by the LARCA Revitalization Committee. This Committee was established early this year and is open to all. Rick Thompson is the Chairman of this Committee. Through this newsletter and periodic meetings we are attempting to let you know what is happening regarding Revitalization at the County level, at the RCRC (Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation) meetings and what our own Committee is doing. Committee meetings are generally held on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 6 PM at the Reston Museum and are open to all. If you would like to attend these meetings, please contact Jeannie Cook or Rick Thompson to verify time and place of the next meeting. Again, we plan to have periodic meetings to facilitate question and answer interaction and open discussion. At the Annual Meeting on November 1st we will amplify this newsletter and answer questions from the Unit Owners.

County Activities

As a reminder, documentation of County sponsored Lake Anne Revitalization activities is on the web at www.fcrevit.org/lakeanne/, and can be obtained by request from the County’s Housing and Community Development, 3700 Pender Drive Suite 300 , Fairfax , VA 22030-7444 or by phone 703-246-5034.
As noted previously, funding of revitalization activities for the seven designated districts, including Lake Anne , will be voted on in the form of next year’s (November 2006) Bond Referendum. All other Revitalization activities must be accomplished by private sector initiatives. Projects that might be included in the Bond Referendum are now being discussed with representatives of the Revitalization districts. The Lake Anne representative to the County is the RCRC (Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation), which was formed at the initiative of the County, and whose President was appointed by the County.

RCRC Activities

To review, the RCRC was designated by our district Supervisor, Cathy Hudgins, as the official liaison with her office for community input concerning Lake Anne Revitalization. The LARCA members serving on the RCRC Board of Directors include Martha Green (LARCA President), Eduardo Faubert (LARCA Director and Merchants Committee Chair), and Bob Simon. Other members of the RCRC include representatives of other Lake Anne properties, community groups, Reston Association, and several “at large” members.

The RCRC meetings are held the second Thursday of each month on the third floor of the Lake Anne Office Building . Minutes from these meetings are published on the at www.fcrevit.org/lakeanne/ web site. Although anyone can attend the RCRC as an observer, participation is limited to the RCRC members.

A current activity of the RCRC is to provide recommendations to the County’s Housing and Community Development (HCD) department on Revitalization projects for Lake Anne . Based on projects that emerged from the Charrette, at the Sept 8th RCRC meeting, the County suggested and the RCRC endorsed the following projects:

1. Parking garage – use of Plaza parking lot to provide additional parking

2. Signage

3. Street realignment – potential modifications to N Shore and/or Village Drive to accommodate accessibility and traffic control

4. Accessibility 504/ADA – Plaza access

5. Improve gateway landscape – improvements at the Baron Cameron and Village Drive intersection

6. Improve environmental quality of Lake Anne

Other projects that were suggested for consideration by the RCRC were

1. Intersection improvements

2. Fellowship Square access to the plaza

3. Acquire water rights to Lake Anne from the golf course

3. Public park space

4. Pedestrian circulation study

5. Street furniture

6. Redevelopment guidelines

7. Parking management for period of construction

8. Plaza maintenance and easements

In reaction to the RCRC suggestions, the County indicated they would consider these projects but noted that County funds could only be expended for public interest projects. It was also noted that the parking lot would need to be controlled in some way by the County, at least for the period of construction and funding amortization.

LARCA Activities

LARCA has continued the exploration of forming an organization of the Plaza and adjacent property owners for the purpose of selecting a developer partner in order to maximize LARCA economic return and development influence. Other potential property owners that might be interested in such an organization include the ASBO, WP Baptist Church, Millennium Bank, Fellowship House, and Reston Association.

LARCA Revitalization Committee Activities

Current active members of the Committee include Rick Thompson (Chair), Martha Green, John Lovaas, Nabil Faltas, Alan Hines including, occasionally, Mike Smith, Eduardo Faubert, Jeff Crowe, and Kevin Le. The Committee’s principal objective is to follow, participate in as appropriate and report to the membership on Lake Anne 's "Revitalization" in order to assure the best outcomes for the association in terms of the community's quality of life as well as continued economic vitality.

The Committee had been pursuing the following activities:

The committee has explored the idea of holding a design competition with the idea in mind that the quality of the physical product of redevelopment could thus be assured. We met with Paul Spreiregen, the organizer of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Competition, who gave a presentation that included an analysis of the various forms of competition that might be applied to our situation. Three stood out as potentially useful: 1.) an international design competition; 2.) a closed competition among selected architects; and, 3.) a developer competition. At this point in the process, the first alternative, an international design competition, seems to be unlikely due to a lack of available financing. A substantial sum of money is required to hold such a competition. The other two options are still potentially viable (depending on circumstances) and might be employed to beneficial effect at certain stages of the process. We have not yet reached those junctures, however.

Determining the consequential implications of any of the proposed redevelopment projects on the structure and finances of LARCA.

Meetings with Lee Rau, one of the Directors of the County’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board regarding District Design Guidelines and the County’s affordable housing objectives

Monitoring plans for adjacent site development including the Lutheran Church site and the redevelopment of the Crescent Apartments.

NOTICE:

The Committee will report to the Membership at the Annual Meeting on November 1st to discuss the foregoing and respond to any questions. Please attend if possible; otherwise, you can send questions or comments via email to the sending address of this email or via letter correspondence to the LARCA Business Office.