| RCC
Meeting Brings Out Spirit of Reston Town |
| To the editor: |
| On Feb. 11, there was an open meeting to discuss the boundaries
of Small Tax District #5 and the funding of the Reston Community
Center. Although the meeting had nothing directly to do with
the proposal to make Reston a town, the strongly held views
about the community spirit of Reston expressed during the
meeting provided a strong argument for why Reston should be
a town. |
| The speakers at the meeting broke down into two groups defined
in part by where people lived. About half of the speakers
lived within what one might call the traditional boundaries
of Reston, roughly the area encompassed by the Reston master
plan. These speakers passionately expressed their feeling
of community and the positive roll that RCC has played in
supporting and forming that community. |
| They also said it was important that RCC not be folded into
the county community and recreational centers and thus lose
the local control that exists because it is financed by the
local tax district. The other speakers lived outside the traditional
Reston boundaries but within Small Tax District #5. They just
as forcibly expressed their view that they were not a part
of the Reston community and that it was unfair that they should
be required to pay for a facility that mostly benefited the
residents of Reston. |
| This was an extraordinary expression of community identity.
People who live within Reston felt and expressed a partnership
and those who did not understood that Reston was a community
and that they were not, and did not want to be, part of it.
Reston is a defined and unique place both to the people who
live here and to those who do not. |
| This has implications for Reston becoming a town. The Reston
Community Association, the primary organization lobbying for
Reston to become a town, tends to emphasize the increased
clout that a Reston town government would have in local decision-making
bodies. In a meeting last fall, our county supervisor, Cathy
Hudgins, our local delegate, Ken Plum, and our state senator,
Janet Howell, challenged RCA to list local services that the
county and state did not provide or that a new town could
do better. |
| Both those arguments miss an important point. Most residents
are satisfied with county and state services and they would
continue just as they are, and Reston residents would continue
to pay for them as they do now. A town of Reston, however,
would provide a recognized boundary and a focus for the strong
community feelings expressed at the RCC meeting. |
| The town government would replace diffuse community organizations
such as the Reston Association (which does not include all
of Reston, for example the Reston Town Center), and the RCC
(which currently includes more than Reston). |
| Cathy, Ken and Janet, you should be proud that a large part
of your constituencies has this community spirit. Few suburban
areas do. You should foster and support this community spirit,
and allowing a town of Reston would do that. |
| Dick Stillson |
| Reston |
