As you drive out in the morning into a crowded roadway, or possibly send your child off to an equally crowded school, ask yourself a simple question: What kind of community do you want to live in?
Does your vision involve more congestion? More cars and children packed into the same finite facilities?
Probably not. And that's why you should be concerned. Because shoe-horning more into less is the vision of many developers seeking to reshape Fairfax County. And unless we speak up, that is the vision our elected leaders will enact.
On Oct. 3, you can personally help set our county on a new and more positive direction.
At a town hall meeting in the Oakton High School auditorium, fellow Fairfax residents will unveil and discuss the first draft of a new 12-point "Citizens' Agenda for Responsible Growth" — a plan for Fairfax's future that we are asking all citizens to help create.
The town hall, which runs from 7:30 to 9 p.m., will touch on certain hot issues, such as Tysons Corner rail and the coming of military expansion at Fort Belvoir. But the main goal of the Citizens' Agenda is to lay out broad citizen priorities for Fairfax. The agenda is nonpartisan and nonpolitical, and it is not directed at any specific officials.
This document targets four key areas: preserving our public infrastructure in the face of new development; properly enforcing increasingly complex developer promises; quality of life strategies to improve transit, schools and parks; and increasing citizen involvement throughout the process of considering new development.
Why is a Citizens' Agenda important, and why should you take the time to get involved?
First, decisions on development have a huge impact on your quality of life.
Second, I have found as chairman of the Providence District Council, one of the groups sponsoring the Oct. 3 town hall, that an educated community like Fairfax has an amazing wealth of fresh ideas that benefit everyone — when they are asked.
I invite you to look at the current draft of the Citizens' Agenda, at www.fairfaxcitizensagenda.org 
It has many common-sense ideas, such as requiring that all development proposals give specified estimates about the impact on roads and schools, so that informed decisions can be made.
In coming weeks, you can learn more, as the Connection editors have asked organizers of the Town Hall to discuss the key points of the Citizens Agenda in greater depth.
Most importantly, I urge you to join with us on Oct. 3, and also to take part in this important community discussion over the coming months.
Even those who don't have time to speak that night will be invited to write down your key priorities for addressing growth and improving our quality of life. Town hall attendees are being asked to take the Citizens Agenda back to homeowners associations to solicit their opinions.
Our goal is to return in February 2007, to ratify a true community vision for our collective future that we can present to current supervisors and to any candidates in the 2007 state and local elections.
There is a better way for Fairfax County to grow. But the key decisions can't be made by developers and county planners alone. We need you, your vision and on Oct. 3 your presence, to help chart a future we all can live with.