Is An Entertainment Venue The Best Way To Spend $92 Million In Added Reston Taxes?

By Terry Maynard
Reston

RESTON, VA: In recent weeks, the Reston Community Center (RCC), has called on Restonians to finance the building and operation of a Reston visual and performing arts center (RVPAC) on land proffered by Boston Properties. It has set up “public meetings” in mid-February and beyond to achieve that end.

The need for an RVPAC is far from clear, especially considering Restonians’ many other legitimate public needs. RCC has its own VPACs at Hunters Woods and Lake Anne and the high school has an auditorium. Within 10 miles of Reston, major performance and visual venues exist at Wolf Trap and its Barns, and the new Capital One Center (1,600 seat theater, a small “box theater”, and an amphitheater) at Tysons. A website of Washington area visual and performing arts centers shows that Hunter Mill District already has 19 percent of all the performance venues in Fairfax County, the most of any county magisterial district. Neighboring Dranesville and Sully districts add another 19 percent share to county venues. For a real night out adventure, Washington, D.C., has myriad performance and arts centers. The point is the visual and performing arts and entertainment of all kinds are readily available to Restonians now.

A 2019 “scientific” survey conducted by the University of Virginia on RCC’s behalf showed that that only 38 percent of the respondents were supportive or very supportive of an RVPAC financed only by Restonians. Moreover, that is 38 percent of the self-selecting 1,906 respondents out of 5,500 queried in the survey. In short, 3 percent of Reston’s 63,226 population were allowed to speak for our community in a survey designed to elicit responses that could be considered positive. That is hardly sufficient justification for pursuing a multi-million dollar initiative through added taxes on Restonians.

Nonetheless, RCC is proceeding with its public meetings to determine what Restonians want in their RVPAC — not whether they want one nor how much they are willing to pay. Trying to achieve dreams without first considering financial limitations is a recipe for fiscal disaster. In fact, if Restonians are to pay for the construction and operation of a VPAC, RCC needs to first determine how much Restonians are willing to pay for that “want.”

What is on the table is building a 60,000 square foot visual and performing arts center per Reston Patch. An extensive Google search of performance arts center design and build costs shows an extreme range of costs per square foot, current costs ranging from about $300/sf to $2,000/sf in one case. The range is largely attributable to the elegance of the venue and the extent of its ancillary facilities. At this point, expecting design, build, and equip current costs of $1,000/sf is a reasonable preliminary estimate for planning a well-fitted, but not ostentatious, VPAC. That means a Reston VPAC would cost an estimated $60 million to build — and, of course, more to operate.

This money would be raised through approval of a bond referendum among the residents of Reston STD#5. If approved, a reasonable bond interest rate planning assumption, one used by the county, for RVPAC would be 3 percent per year on a 30-year AAA general obligation bond. At a 3 percent per year interest rate, Restonians would have to pay an additional $3.1 million annually to the Reston special tax district ($91.8 million over 30 years), increasing current RCC annual $9 million tax revenue needs by one-third. RCC would almost certainly have to raise the STD#5 tax rate to carry that additional annual burden.

Is paying $91.8 million over 30 years for a visual and performing arts venue the best use of Restonians’ tax money? I certainly don’t believe so. In fact, at least three other important areas in Reston need tax money more:

• New Reston schools to accommodate the 20,000 added students planned to live in Reston in the next 30 years according to the Reston Master Plan and FCPS student yield models.
• New parks in and immediately around the intensely developing Reston transit station areas to give relief to residents and some legitimacy to the county’s urban parks policy guidelines. There are virtually no public parks for the 90,000 people planned to live there, and Boston Properties’ proffer specifies a park as an option to a VPAC.
• A new Reston Regional Library to replace the dilapidated, outdated and inadequate one at Town Center North.

I encourage all Reston residents to attend and participate in RCC’s upcoming public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 14 at RCC. You are supposed to RSVP online ahead of time. Let them know what you think should be Reston taxpayers’ investment priorities. After all, RCC is planning to spend $92 million of your money, not theirs.