Reston Community Center at Lake Anne

ATTENDING: Victoria Brombacher, Lois Rice, Feliza Kepler, Joe Stowers, Steve Cerny, Edythe Frankel, Gene Klein, and Antonio Lizardi

Guests: Goldie Harrison and Supervisor Cathy Hudgins

The meeting began at 7:30 p.m.

Joe and Steve agreed to do the minutes.

Victoria: How many times should subcommittee meet starting in September? She suggests twice monthly.
Lois: Agrees.
Victoria: Suggests first and third Tuesdays.

After some discussion, subcommittee agrees to this and sets the following schedule for the rest of the year: September 5th and 19th, October 3rd and 17th, November 6th (note: this in a Monday, since Tuesday the 7th is election day), November 21st, and December 5th.

Victoria: Where should the subcommittee meet?
Lois: Suggests having the next meeting at McNair Farms Community Center because of Crimson's presentation re: Dulles Station.
Antonio: Subcommittee should meet at locations convenient for the public.
Cathy: Subcommittee should meet at same location regularly because meeting at different locations could be confusing and might hurt the subcommittee's credibility if people don't know where to go.
Decided: Subcommittee will hold August 24th meeting at Reston Library, as planned. No objections.
Goldie: Where does the subcommittee want to meet for the rest of the year?
Decided: Subcommittee will always try to meet at the Reston Library as its first choice and, if unavailable, at the Reston Community Center (Hunters Woods). No objections. Victoria: Asks subcommittee members to advise her as to what meetings they will be unable to attend.

Victoria: What will constitute a quorum?
Feliza: The other subcommittee sets it at one half the subcommittee membership plus one.
Joe: Roberts' Rules don't require a quorum if nobody objects.
Victoria: Expresses concern about subcommittee's credibility if too few participants are involved in a decision.
Decided: Subcommittee adopts the one half plus one policy. Since there are 11 members of this subcommittee, 6 will constitute a quorum. No objections.

Victoria: Does this subcommittee make a recommendation to the Supervisor and Planning Commissioner or actually "approve" or "disapprove" a project?
Joe: We should make recommendations only.
Cathy: Joe's comments reflect her thinking. The subcommittee's recommendation would ultimately get passed on to the Board of Supervisors. She suggests that the subcommittee should communicate its recommendations to her in writing.

Lois: Some cases, such as St. Mark's, may be too complicated for the subcommittee to merely make a "yes" or "no" recommendation.
Cathy: This should not dissuade the subcommittee from making recommendations to her if subcommittee can reach agreement amongst itself. Citizens will be expecting some action as a result of the process. Identification of issues by the subcommittee would be very useful to her.
Joe: Chaired Reston P&Z for 17 years. On only a handful of cases was P&Z unable to resolve issues, and in no case was is unable to render a decision on a recommendation. Edythe: Mason's experience is similar.
Antonio: What we're trying to do is resolve issues through discussion.
Cathy: Agrees.
Decided: Agreed that subcommittee will make recommendations to Supervisor, Planning Commission, and BOS.
Feliza: Offers to put together a template or form that reflects the subcommittee's decision using examples from Mason and Western Fairfax.

Victoria: Which proposals should subcommittee consider?
Goldie: Ideally, subcommittee should look at all of them.
Cathy: Points out that the total number of applications is not overwhelming given that many of them are multiple applications for the same project.
Victoria: In what order should subcommittee consider the projects?
Discussion turns to Dulles Station and whether developer will be ready to meet on Aug. 24th and whether there will be anything to discuss on that day.
Joe: Subcommittee asked a lot of questions at previous meeting (e.g., the need for more information on the plans for the plaza and the pedestrian circulation system) and the developer promised to get back to us on them.
Lois: Subcommittee has received some of this information such as the proffers and the transportation study.
Antonio: We also asked for aerial photographs.
Agreed: Subcommittee will hear Dulles Station and Woodland (to conclude presentation begun on August 9th) on August 24th.

[St. Mark's is set for August 30th.]

Antonio: Norton proposal should be reviewed in conjunction with the Dulles Station proposal because it is adjacent to it.
Lois: Points out that Norton is scheduled for October 26th.
Edythe: When would St. Mark's come back for a second time? She suggests September 17th.
Edythe also volunteers to put together a draft schedule for the rest of the year.
Agreed: The subcommittee decides to generally review proposals in the order in which the Planning Commission will review them. Edythe will prepare and circulate a draft schedule for the subcommittee's review.

Joe: Proposes criteria that subcommittee would use to evaluate projects. Feliza circulates a copy of his proposal.
Steve: What is meant by "good planning practice"?
Joe: Transit-oriented and mixed-use development generally. Good common sense as well. Use a check list.
Cathy: Suggests looking at West Fairfax's and Mason's criteria.
Edythe: Mason has a checklist which she distributed previously.
Decided: Antonio offered to work with Joe to develop and circulate a recommendation to the subcommittee; however, Feliza said she would first like to compile a composite draft from all the proposals that are floating around, and get it to Antonio and Joe by Friday. She asked that they review it and get back to her by Sunday for ciculation to all members by Monday. Subcommittee will vote on criteria on August 24th. No objections.

Adoption of minutes for the August 9th meeting. Decided (per Lois' motion and Joe's second): Minutes are adopted with the following corrections; "ADU" for "ADA" and ".99" FAR for the Dulles Station project. In addition, the following will be added: "Also attending the meeting as guests were: Kevin Dougherty, Greg Hamm, and Mitch Bonanno of Crimson; and Elizabeth Baker of Walsh, Colucci. No objections.

Lois: How should the subcommittee's questioning of developers be handled?
Decided: Chair should recognize members before they speak. By consensus.

Victoria: Raises the issue of time limits for presentations.
Decided: Time limit for developer's initial presentations will be set by consensus of the subcommittee in consultation with applicants.

Victoria: How will subcommittee case manager be determined? Joe: Agrees to do be contact for Dulles Station. Lois: Agrees to be contact person for Woodland, and St. Mark's.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 10 p.m.

Submitted by Steve Cerny, August 24, 2000 (scerny@hud.gov, cernybrown@earthlink.net)