$45K Pledged By Lake Anne Plaza Property Owners To Pay Community's Share: Updated

Updated (Dec. 26 10:06 a.m.)

RESTON, VA — It appears the Lake Anne Rising may still go on, even though the condo association board that represents Lake Anne Plaza property owners did not commit to contributing funds to the $250,000 beautification project.

Instead, a group of Lake Anne owners have pledged to pay the $45,000 to cover the contribution that the condo association was being asked to pay by the Gupta Family Foundation (GFF). Attorneys for the parties involved negotiated terms of an agreement that the groups involved have not yet approved.

At a Nov. 18 community meeting, Margaret and Shashi Gupta introduced a proposal to beautify the plaza and pledged to provide a $25,000 grant from their foundation as seed money for the project.

One of the Guptas' requirements was that the Lake Anne of Reston, A Condominium Association (LARCA) commit to contributing $45,000 to the project. The LARCA board had until Dec. 1 to confirm that it was going to make the contribution or the whole endeavor would disappear.

LARCA President George Hadjikyriakou told Patch on Dec. 1 that while the board supported the Guptas' proposal it needed more time to review the 2022 budget, which is due at the end of the month. In addition, the board's lawyers needed to review the Guptas' offer to determine whether the board was allowed to enter into such an arrangement under its bylaws. In response, the foundation extended the deadline to Dec. 6.

While these negotiations were going on, a group of Lake Anne property owners had raised $33,000 toward the project. From the Guptas' perspective, LARCA only needed to commit to paying the remaining $12,000 for the deal to go through.

On Sunday, Shashi Gupta told Patch in an email that LARCA did not agree to pay the additional $12,000 in funding. Instead, the other Lake Anne property owners committed to raising the additional $12,000 to cover the $45,000 the Guptas were asking the board to pay.

"On the basis of this commitment, GFF was able to proceed with negotiating the terms of the agreement between LARCA and the Reston Historic Trust (RHT)," Shashi Gupta said, in an email. "GFF's and LARCA's attorneys reached agreement on Thursday and we are awaiting approval from the LARCA Board which we hope to receive promptly — as early this week as possible."

Hadjikyriakou said that an agreement has not been signed. Instead, the board is following the advice of its lawyer and allowing negotiations move forward.

"The LARCA attorney advised us to allow her to correspond with the Guptas and the RHT (Reston Historic Trust) in order to work out the parts of their original agreement which were in conflict with our bylaws," Hadjikyriakou said, in Dec. 24 email. "To this end, we are waiting for her to submit an updated version of an agreement to the Guptas with the boards approval to see if this project can move forward in accordance with our bylaws."

As soon as GFF has the LARCA Board's approval, it will move forward with the project, according to Shashi Gupta.

Under the agreement the Guptas originally proposed, the LARCA board would be able to appoint a representative to the five-person committee overseeing the project. LARCA would also have approval rights for the design of the Pyramid Plaza and signage.

"The issue was always proceeding with this project while remaining compliant and I accordance with our bylaws, this is what’s holding this back, not me or any of the board members," Hadjikyriakou said. "It’s strictly a legal issue and furthermore, it will now require that the any major improvement of cost greater than [$20,000] be approved by the membership and even more importantly from the ARB [Fairfax County Architectural Review Board] so that we do not forfeit any future qualification of grant money that plan to apply for as a historic designated site (as per Fairfax County and the ARB)."