'Rescue Reston' Supporters Swarm Government Hearing

Reston residents who are trying to save the Reston National Golf Course from development showed up at a government hearing on the matter Wednesday morning in a sea of yellow T-shirts to show their support for saving the green space.

The group showed up for a Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) hearing, where RN Golf Management, LLC, is attempting to push its interpretation of county zoning laws in order to develop the golf course land. (Read the BZA staff report here.)

David Burns, board member and vice president of Legal Affairs for Rescue Reston said Wednesday: “Rescue Reston is optimistic that after the BZA has fully considered the record presented at today’s hearing it will uphold the decision of the Zoning Administrator to maintain the Reston National Golf Course as open space. We thank the supporters who attended the hearing to help present the community’s views as well as over 5,300 petitioners. We also thank the Reston Association for fighting on behalf of its members for open space. Our members look forward to a positive outcome, and to being able to continue to enjoy the golf course as an integral part of our community.”

What will the future of the Reston National Golf Course be? There’s a tug of war going on over the green space. The owners (or unnamed developers behind them) want to presumably develop the land while the Reston Association and Rescue Reston want it to stay as is.

Rescue Reston and the RA held a “Rally to Save Open Space” recently at Hughes Middle School Cafeteria in Reston.

An online petition has 3,920 supporters as of Wednesday morning. You can sign it here. (The group says to feel free to leave a comment when you sign, it will help the cause.) Rescue Reston President Connie Hartke and founder John Pinkman recently appeared on the John Lovaas public affairs program, RESTON IMPACT. Click here to watch the interview.

Pinkman, a 35-year resident of Reston, says residents need to rise up and fight against the challenge to the county zoning of the golf course, so that the area doesn’t turn into “Pottersville” a la “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“If that golf course goes, it changes the promise we all made...” he said in the interview, noting that Reston was built on promises of being a planned community with green space. The owners of the golf course are challenging the zoning. “The county has already said ‘no, you can’t do this.’”

“We don’t know who the developer is for certain,” says Hartke. Pinkman has said he thinks the developers are Rockville-based Lerner Enterprises. Patch left a message asking if the company could clarify any interest it might have in the land. When asked about it, an employee did not say the company was not involved; she said she couldn’t say whether the company is involved.

Rescue Reston and RA support the Fairfax County Zoning Administrator’s determination that the 166 acres of the golf course stay as is: zoned as permanent open (recreational) space. “The Reston National Golf Course is more than a network of green open space and trails, it is an active recreational asset for the community,” RA has said. RA has also said they would be interested in possibly purchasing the golf course.

Timeline

• In early 2012, RN Golf Management, LLC, an entity which is majority owned by Wisconsin-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, filed a letter with the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning(the “P&Z”) asking for a ruling that the golf course land was zoned for residential development and was not subject to any restrictions that would prevent such development.
• On June 20, 2012, the P&Z responded that the property was restricted under the Reston Master Plan to use as “open space,” such as a park, nature center or golf course. Attorney for RN Golf Management requested an appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals, but after several delays they indefinitely deferred a decision on whether to appeal the county’s ruling in 2013.
• On Nov. 10, 2014, the attorney for RN Golf (Northwestern Mutual) requested a hearing date. The new date for the appeal is today, Wednesday, Jan. 21. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax. Board of Zoning Appeals meetings are also aired live on the county government’s cable TV Channel 16.

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PHOTO courtesy of Rescue Reston via Twitter; John Pinkman photo from video posted to Rescue Reston Facebook page