Advantages of Town Status for Reston
Dear Editor of the Reston Connection, (June 2006)

Your newspaper continues to be peppered with references to town status. It is appropriate for me to point out some of these references, because Reston Citizens Association (RCA) has now formally asked the Reston Association (RA) Board whether it supports a referendum on Reston town status. RCA will follow with the same question to the other Reston organizations specified to us by our state senator and delegate.

The May 31-June 6 edition of The Reston Connection pointed out in a Metro article that a state representative told the RA Board it was “unlikely” RA could even attend planning meetings about Metro.  He stated this is because Reston is not a town. Your reporter noted that nevertheless, Reston commuters will help pay at least one quarter of the costs for Metro’s Phase I.

The same edition described a new video of Reston, which includes footage of Janet Howell twenty-five years ago “passionately campaigning” for township. She has since changed her position, without really explaining why.

In the Real Estate section, Bill Keefe is told that developers cannot make proffers to RA to help fund the Nature House because RA is not a governmental entity. It was left unsaid that if Reston were a town, this would not be a problem.

In the prior edition of The Connection, Reston resident James Hubbard wrote that Reston needs its own planning board, empowered to enforce the Reston Master Plan. Again, this could be achieved if Reston were a town.

Jack Kenny’s column that week spoke unkindly of Congressman Moran, including a mocking challenge to Moran to deliver federal appropriations to Reston. Kenny probably is unaware that Congressman Moran quite seriously has said, more than once, that it would be much easier to channel federal funds to Reston if it were incorporated as a town.

In the OutSpoken column that week, Curt Clinton said he dreamed of being the first mayor of Reston, to “deliver on Mr. Simon’s dream.” While the column was ironic, Clinton expressed a fear that is spreading in Reston, that Bob Simon’s goals will be lost. RCA’s town proposal addresses this fear by placing Bob Simon’s goals, verbatim, right in the Town Charter.

I would urge everyone to take a close look at all of the articles mentioned, and to consider carefully the many advantages that town status would offer Reston. Town status cannot occur unless the people of Reston act to make it happen.

Yours sincerely,

Marion Stillson, Vice President, RCA

11286 Spyglass Cove Lane