Last night’s meeting at Hunters Woods raised issues for the Reston community, some new, some old. Perhaps, over the coming months, the community will resolve some of them.
Resolutions will, however, be hard to come by if the tone of future conversations resembles the belligerent and antagonistic approach adopted by most speakers last night. Some speakers professed a willingness to listen to other viewpoints, but sweet reason was in short supply in the audience. Particularly troubling was the repeated message that Brown’s Chapel belongs, in reality, to the families who live nearby, and not to the whole Reston community. There’s no reason why, for example, the North Point communities should have anything more to say about a master plan for Brown’s Chapel, if one is needed, than any other community in Reston. Yet that’s that one cluster president claimed. Also disturbing is the fact that so many people are energized only by protecting what they consider their bit of turf. Reston faces serious transportation problems and the continued threat of inappropriately dense development, both facilitated by inadequate planning and zoning procedures. Yet one could go to many public meetings about public transportation or planning and zoning and never see the kind of energy displayed last night.
Having said that, it is also true that the RA and RCC boards have only themselves to blame. Letting it slip that a new facility was intended for Brown’s Chapel before consulting the entire community and assembling real support was monumentally stupid. Posting a draft contractor’s report on the RCC website, without apparently having it reviewed thoroughly, and then removing it and issuing a revised report three weeks later won’t win any prizes either. The sad truth is that both boards are accustomed to working outside public scrutiny, bending the rules, and imposing their will on the community. Accusations that they listen to Supervisor Hudgins and to developers more than the community certainly seem credible. And neither board has a record of solid achievement. After all, Reston wouldn’t face a deficit in indoor recreation facilities, if either RA or RCC did what they were supposed to. Cooperation is a good thing, but when one band of bumblers cooperates with another band of bumblers, the result is just more bumbling.
