Shadow Over Reston

Mark and Jane Janeczko take a walk near Lake Anne in Reston in 2006. (By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)
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¿ Reston's extensive network of stream valleys -- the centerpiece of its thousand acres of open space -- has been ravaged by pollution and runoff.

¿ Thousands of homes hastily built during the early years of the post-Simon construction boom are headed toward dilapidation.

If Reston had the power to make decisions about its future, it could have tackled its problems before they reached the festering point. But Reston is basically governed from the Fairfax County government center 10 miles away. During Reston's early decades, this made sense. To give the dream a chance, the county created a "planned residential community" zoning ordinance. The ordinance gave Simon (and successor developers) almost absolute power to build what they wanted. But there is no longer one big developer who owns thousands of acres of idle land that have to be monetized.

Last year, the Reston Citizens Association, frustrated by the powerlessness of its own and other community organizations, launched a petition drive to make Reston a town. As a town, Reston would have the power to jump-start the long-stalled revitalization of Lake Anne and undertake other overdue initiatives. Governance would also permit Reston to use its strengths as the pioneer smart-growth community to find community-based answers to issues such as climate change and health care.

By October, Reston governance advocates, who now included Simon himself, had gathered 3,700 signatures, a remarkable outpouring. But Reston's two representatives in the General Assembly, Sen. Janet D. Howell and Del. Kenneth R. Plum, greeted this basic democratic exercise with chilly reserve.

Fairfax County Executive Anthony H. Griffin, choosing to speak on behalf of the supervisors to whom he is the nonelected chief courtier, said, "The Board of Supervisors does not appear disposed to Balkanizing the county."

Griffin, Howell and Plum are hoping that the Reston governance drive will fade away. They have no desire to deal with a new local leadership that actually has the power to do things, especially those that may be controversial. But if they get their way, what will happen to the Reston dream -- what's left of it?

-- Tom Grubisich

Washington

The author, who lived in Reston from 1967 to 2003, is co-founder of the Reston Connection and the Robert E. Simon Jr. Children's Center and was a recipient of the community's first Best of Reston awards.