Meanwhile, the Reston Association is gearing up for its annual Board of Directors election. Ballots for this election will be mailed out o/a March 1 and are due back at the end of the month. This election is major. Five of nine board seats are on the ballot instead of the usual three. There are eight candidates vying for three at-large openings of different terms. Four of them are candidates for the at-large director for a full three-year term. One old timer, land-use attorney John Farrell; golf course advocate Margaret Perry; and two bright, shiny newcomers Jeff Spurrier and Gene Zapfel. The at-large seat for a two-year term attracted two newcomers, Trevor Grywatch and Jalal Mapar. The at-large seat with just one-year remaining also drew two hats in the ring, surprisingly one of them by steadfast Treasurer and budget watchdog Bob Petrine, the other by newcomer Michael Brandland. If it were up to me, Bob Petrine would stay at least three more years. He’s a thorough, hardworking, and trustworthy keeper of the till. Travis Johnson, a promising businessman currently filling the remaining weeks of an at-large seat, is the lone candidate for the Hunters Woods/Dogwood seat (once filled by yours truly). Michael Collins, the incumbent Apartment Owner’s Director, is the only candidate for this post elected by the handful of owners of Reston apartment complexes, with a nod from Hunter Mill Supervisor. Collins is a former liaison with Reston for Congressman Gerry Connolly.
The Draft Reston Comprehensive Plan, in the works for about 2 ½ years is still out for community comment. Typical for Fairfax County productions it is a tome, but it was done with Supervisor Alcorn’s oversight with a considerable amount of community input. Being a Reston product, it has some bells and whistles not found in other community comp. Plans … including sections on equity, the environment, community health and more. Google “Reston Draft Comprehensive Plan” and scroll through the lengthy table of contents to pick what you really might want to read. County Planning staff needed considerable time to review it and try to figure out how all the bells and whistles might actually function as they try to implement this Plan!
Good news over here in Lake Anne. The Lake Anne Condo Association reformist Board of Directors is making progress restoring order and stabilizing Association finances. It has begun to address overdue infrastructure fixes as well as sprucing up appearances of Condo property. It has also made consistency and transparency its modus operandi.
One recent, unusually positive development, is an offer of a voluntary contribution of funding for repaving a couple of sections of Condo-owned access roadways also used by some residents of the neighboring townhouse Cluster Association. The cluster association’s voluntary contribution should enable Lake Anne to accelerate the whole, long overdue roadway and parking lot redo that will add to the appearance and value of the heart of Reston. Founder Bob Simon, who lived in a condo on floor 13 of the Heron House apartment tower, would have approved.