New Fairfax County Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn is off to a running start. He’s hired a staff of five—including one returnee from the Hudgins years and one of his Democratic Primary opponents, Shyamali Hauth. They appear to be a competent lot. He’ll need them. In his first weeks, Walter has been everywhere every day it seems—very unlike his predecessor who was low key and not one for attending every event where there were two or more potential constituents. He also speaks of, and is beginning to act on, new initiatives, getting to the substance of the Reston Supervisor’s job. In fact, in his first Board of Supervisors meeting, he sought and got approval from the Board to revisit and update the Comprehensive (Master) Plan for Reston, all of Reston, including the Transit Stations Areas (TSAs). He’s not only getting at a sore spot among Restonians, but also has chosen an initiative which will affect us all for the medium to long term.
Comp plans are supposed to be reviewed every 5 years, but rarely are. It is about 5 years since Reston’s current plan, a pretty controversial one, was approved. It took about 5 years to prepare this plan. Alcorn says he’ll get this one wrapped up in 12 to 18 months (wanna bet?). Crucial to putting together a plan that makes sense, and gets community acceptance, is assembling a working group representative of Reston while avoiding the extremes of being developer-driven or N.I.M.B.Y. (not in my back yard) driven. The last time around the working group was developer heavy. And, the developer contingent was well organized with goals in mind, while those selected to represent the community were citizens wanting to do the right thing but uncertain what that was and they were not organized. With the right community leadership this time, we might get a better product. Mr. Alcorn knows this. In fact, he has decided to chair the process himself—a courageous decision perhaps, definitely a risky one. The responsibility for results will be quite clear this time! If he makes it truly a community project, he can repair damage and provide great benefit to Reston for a couple of generations. This is potentially the defining work of his tenure.
He has announced plans for a major initiative to improve Reston’s pedestrian safety, a matter of concern in light of three pedestrian deaths in less than two years. Measures include more sidewalks and crosswalks, and specialized pedestrian signals and signage. We also may see pedestrian over- or underpasses sorely needed on major arteries such as Wiehle Avenue for both pedestrians and bicycle riders.
Like Ms. Hudgins, Alcorn has promised to continue to assign high priority to affordable housing. He cites a need to increase the affordable unit minimums required in new projects and to examine old, unused office parks and shopping centers as sites for new creative multi-unit developments. These concepts are in the early stages of planning, but IMHO merit the effort.
At a more micro, local level, a home-owners association in our district recently experienced a modest revolution in its Board of Directors election. Incumbents who’d controlled it for some time were soundly defeated. They were replaced with a younger contingent promising to clean up the organization’s finances and address overdue maintenance work. As is often the case in homeowner associations, transparency was also a major issue in the election. The new leadership is off to a good start, but it's not over. The old guard is not giving up. It’s fascinating to see governance in action at the HOA level and realize its similarities to other levels. This will be interesting to watch!