Keep Reston Green: Preserve Reston National Golf Course

We in Reston have been defending the public, privately-owned Reston National Golf Course from development for 13 years. We have the ability to fight this because the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan for Reston clearly states that this golf course, and the other in Reston, Hidden Creek, have land use designations of private recreation use, more specifically to remain as 18-hole golf courses.

Both Reston golf courses were purchased by speculators in years past for far less than land would have cost if it were zoned for development. Now these gamblers wish to force the County into changes that will reap their speculation with huge windfalls and forever change the nature of the carefully planned community of Reston, as well as ruin two very popular 18-hole, walkable golf courses.

The current crisis is focused on Reston National, though what happens to one will affect the other. Reston National is a very popular public course and home to the South Lakes High School golf team. As a walkable course, it lends itself well to learning the game. The Learning Center at Reston National is considered one of the best player development golf schools in the country. A young golfer who grew up in a cluster that borders the course now plays D1 golf in college.

The course’s owners are pressuring Reston Association with a “take it or leave it” proposal to support 288 (or more!) new housing units. However, residential development isn’t permitted on this land, so the offer is meaningless. This appears to be a last-ditch effort to gain support for their Site-Specific Plan Amendment, which County staff has already recommended against advancing.

Why do developers keep trying to circumvent the settled zoning that protects Reston’s two golf courses as open green space? Money. Because land that is zoned for housing is priced much, much higher than what the developer paid for land that is zoned for recreation. Paying RA $8 Million -- or whatever amount might be theoretically “negotiated” which could be much less -- to be annexed? That still puts them way under what they would have paid if they had bought land that was meant to be developed. Rezoning even part of Reston National Golf Course would give the developer a huge windfall profit – and making Scott Plank and War Horse Cities and NVR, Inc. richer is not our community’s concern.

Now more than ever, Reston needs to keep ALL its remaining and dwindling open green space. With the arrival of the Silver Line, high-density housing with very little adjacent green space has gone up—as planned—near Reston’s two Metro stops. Reston has done its part to significantly increase the housing stock in Fairfax County through this construction. Reston has 11,000 units already with zoning approval but not yet built. Additionally, there are more than 600 units in the 10 SSPAs that are likely to move forward.

This open green space is good for us and good for the environment. Studies show that enjoying these long green vistas benefits not just our physical health but our mood, creativity, and memory. The large open green spaces of Reston’s golf courses mitigate air and light pollution and provide refuge to wildlife, including more than a hundred species of birds. Have you watched the Live Camera of the Peregrine Falcon family at Reston Town Center? The open spaces of both golf courses are very important for feeding this growing family.

The environmental benefits of Reston’s two golf courses are key to Reston’s rare status as a Biophilic Community.

The developers who want to reap windfall profits from a rezoning have dangled the idea of offering a piece of the golf course as a public park, but Restonians should not be fooled. The logistical and financial downsides of these vague offers are easy to enumerate. Parks by definition need to be public, bringing parking lots and traffic into established residential neighborhoods that are not suited to such encroachment. Public parks need to be maintained with public monies such as higher RA assessments or county taxes, money that is simply not available as our region enters a time of high economic uncertainty.

Remember: open green space, once lost, is gone forever. Respect the land use plan in our famous planned community, support our recreational diversity, and keep Reston green.