Lawsuit Against Boston Properties Not On The Table For Reston Merchants ... For Now

RESTON, VA — Despite a recent victory in the courts by Reston Town Center merchant Jackson's Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge against paid parking, the Reston Merchants Association doesn't intend to jump into the legal fray just yet.

Aaron Gordon, owner of Red Velvet Cupcakery and a key figure in the push against ParkRTC, said in an interview with Patch that he met with about 15 other owners in the recently formed Reston Merchants Association a couple weeks ago and decided not to hire a lawyer to jump in on the Jackson's lawsuit, which resulted in a preliminary injunction against Boston Properties preventing them from charging customers parking in the Orange Garage who patronize Jackson's.

Gordon said the main reason for that is that Jackson's had a very specific lease that was different from everyone's else that specifically banned Boston Properties from ever making their customers pay for parking.

"They really negotiated that in," Gordon said. "They did a good job and I doubt any of the others have anything like that."

That means the Reston Merchants Association would have to file a lawsuit on "totally separate grounds." That's an expensive prospect for RMA, so the association is taking a wait-and-see approach to the Jackson's situation to see how it plays out before deciding whether to move forward with legal action.

"Jackson's got out in front, they've got more money than us small guys, and God bless them," Gordon said. "What we want to do is we want to see the results. We want to see if they win or lose. If they win, we feel like we've got a better case. We'll look at this again in March once we get more of an answer to that."

The next question at the meeting was how RMA would continue to fight paid parking. Gordon said he expected to get a mixed response from business owners, with some hesitating to continue a public push against paid parking, but "all but one raised their hands to continue to fight this both through public opinion," he said.

"Whether through a lawsuit or continuing to fight them internally, everybody was in favor except one, and that last person was more of a wait-and-see kind of an attitude," he said. "I was honestly shocked."

Gordon said he expects to continue to ally with other local activists opposed to paid parking, like Suzanne Zurn and the Reston Citizens Association.

"Whatever Restonians put together to fight it, we've already come this far, and I think we've made a big dent in policy," Gordon said.

He added that the decision back in May to roll back paid parking in the evenings and allow an hour of free parking during weekdays was a huge victory for them, if not quite enough in his mind.

"We feel like we got a nice victory," he said. "Without a doubt this is a David and Goliath type story, and we felt like we slayed Goliath to some extent. Not entirely, but we do feel like we came out somewhat victorious, even if this means me having to lose my store entirely. At least we feel like we, as Red Velvet, did something really good and the Merchants Association in general did something really good."

Image: Patch staff