August 31, 2005

This is the first in a series of newsletters that will be published to keep the members of the Lake Anne of Reston Condominium Association (LARCA) informed about Revitalization activities. The purpose of this newsletter is to let you know what is happening regarding Revitalization at the County level, at the RCRC (Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation) meetings, is the County’s interface to community input regarding Lake Anne revitalization), and LARCA’s own condo-level Revitalization Committee. This newsletter will be distributed monthly (and more frequently as time dependent activities might require). In addition to the newsletter, a monthly meeting will be held to allow everyone to ask questions about and to discuss Revitalization issue and activities. Members of the LARCA Revitalization Committee will be at this meeting, along with other invited guests who might have information to share. The first of these monthly meetings will be on Thursday, Sept 8th at 7:00 PM at the RCC on the Plaza.

County Activities

As everyone is probably aware, Lake Anne has been designated one of the seven “revitalization” areas in Fairfax County . To date, the County has sponsored three activities to support revitalization at Lake Anne :

1. In 2004, the County contracted with Basil, Bauman and Prost to conduct an economic study to assess the possible benefits of investing in the revitalization of Lake Anne Village Center . This report was presented to the community in March 2005.
2. Based on the study recommendations, the County then sponsored 6 focus groups in May 2005 to discuss the report and to help the community articulate the values that are important in considering any revitalization initiative here at Lake Anne .
3. This was followed in June 2005 by a County sponsored-charrette (design concept review). In general, the options presented by charrette focused on moderate to heavy density increases as the way to increase the economic vitality of Lake Anne .

The results of all these County initiatives are available on the web at http://www.fcrevit.org/lakeanne/, 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. The County is now soliciting suggestions for County-funded revitalization projects from each of the seven revitalization districts. These projects will be considered by the County Executive and Supervisors for inclusion in the County’s 2006 Bond Referendum. The LARCA Revitalization Committee is identifying several projects that would build on the general consensus expressed at the focus groups and charrette, and will propose these to the County. The County will ask the RCRC to review and provide a recommendation for the projects we propose, so the committee is working in close coordination with the RCRC to determine what should go forward.

RCRC Activities

The RCRC (Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation) was designated by our Supervisor, Cathy Hudgins, as the official liaison with her office for community input concerning Lake Anne Revitalization. Therefore, one of the principle purposes of the RCRC is to educate the public about the Lake Anne Revitalization program and solicit community feedback at each step of the process.

As noted above, the next principle activity of the RCRC will be to provide recommendations on the Lake Anne Revitalization projects submitted to the County. This will occur toward the end of September.

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. Responding to interest from LARCA members and the community at large, the RCRC has opened its meetings to Lake Anne residents and the general public. Although anyone can attend the RCRC as an observer, participation is limited to the RCRC 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.

LARCA Revitalization Committee Activities

The LARCA Revitalization Committee was formed by Martha Green at the condominium’s 2004 Annual Meeting. Rick Thompson was subsequently appointed as the Revitalization Committee Chair. Presently, the active members of the Committee include Rick Thompson (Chair), Martha Green, Mike Smith, Nabil Faltas, Jon Lovaas, Jeff Crowe and Alan Hines. 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 has been quite active and has:

a) met with Jim Prost to review the Economic Analysis,

b) met with Lee Rau, one of the Directors of the County’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board

c) worked with the LARCA Board of Directors to resolve legal concerns

d) attended the focus groups and charrette

e) sent representatives to attend the County’s June 2005 Revitalization strategy retreat

f) informally participated in the DRB (Design Review Board) review of the initial plans for development on the Lutheran Church site. The DRB directed the developer (KSI) to improve the plans and return to the DRB at a later date. Committee members will continue to follow that process.

The Committee has been quite active, especially since the inconclusive community Charrette which did not arrive at any consensus plan or actionable plan. Following the Charrette, the group decided to move to take a more active role in order to put the action in the hands of those most affected—the Lake Anne property owners of which LARCA is a principal member. Committee members Rick Thompson, Martha Green and Mike Smith have met with principals from other property owners (ASBO, Winkler, WP Baptist Church, Millennium Bank, Fellowship House) to assess common interest in putting together a formal group, perhaps an LLC. While there was insufficient interest to initiate the formal structure at this time, the three from the committee have proceeded to form a preliminary LLC to begin the process.

Next, we plan to research the steps necessary to undertake an international competition in order move towards design of a plan to achieve excellence in design for a revitalized Lake Anne Village that will meet the economic vitality and the quality of life goals desired by the community. At the same time, we plan to begin to talk with developers who might be interested ( Fairfax County staff have sent a letter to some 250 developers seeking interest). No one has any inside track for these discussions and the Committee is committed to conducting open processes and to full communications of its activities to the membership and to the Community at large. As with the international design competition, the committee seeks to use open, competitive processes to assure the best outcomes for our membership.

The Revitalization Committee meets on a frequent basis to determine what the next steps in the revitalization process are, to analyze how each step affects the financial and non-financial interests of LARCA’s members, and to propose the LARCA strategy for moving forward to the LARCA Board of Directors.

At the same time, the LARCA Board and the Revitalization Committee have been meeting with the other property owners groups whose land is included in the potential revitalization projects, to discuss how we can overcome the obstacles of multiple ownership by working together.

The Committee seeks to address concerns and to include ideas of all LARCA members. Therefore:

· Please plan to attend the LARCA Revitalization Meeting to be held on September 8, 2005 at the RCC on the Plaza to discuss these important issues.

· Please send the Committee your email address so that we can get this newsletter to you as soon as possible (and minimize effort and expense). Email your address to larca@comcast.net attn: Rick Thompson.

At this meeting, we will attempt to answer all questions, hear all concerns and discuss all issues as a means of focusing our viewpoints and giving direction to the work of the Committee. Items that will be discussed will include:

1. communications with membership and community – what methods should be used?
2. discussion of potential projects for the County's consideration for inclusion in the bond referendum
3. what are our “design ideas” as improvements/refinements to the Charrette’s outcome? how strongly do we feel about conducting a Design Competition? can we conduct an international competition?
4. what is LARCA doing with the other Plaza property owners? what is the LLC initiative?
5. what other ideas should we be pursuing for Lake Anne Revitalization ideas? merchant initiatives? Plaza activities? other improvements? In general, what else can we be doing?