Sunday, January 6, 2008; B08

Is the Reston dream dying? My heart and head have been wrestling with this question for a long time. My yes-saying head, I regret, is winning.

The Reston dream began with New York developer Robert E. Simon Jr. 45 years ago. Exasperated by suburban sprawl -- both professionally and as a commuting resident of a leafy Long Island suburb -- Simon set out to marry the best of the country and the city. His Reston, built on a 6,750-acre tabula rasa of woods and farmland in western Fairfax County, prefigured by more than a decade the "smart growth" movement.

Housing for people of all races, incomes, ages and lifestyles was Simon's revolutionary goal. His townhouse clusters -- the first ever outside of cities -- preserved open space and put it within walking distance of every resident's front door. A business district was set aside along the Dulles Access Road so Reston could be a job center instead of another suburban "bedroom."

By the turn of the century, Reston was a thriving community of 60,000 people and 30,000 jobs. Its town center, inspired by the urban grids and mixed uses of great U.S. downtowns, redefined suburban centers.

But deep shadows are darkening the Reston dream:

¿ Lake Anne Center -- Simon's crown jewel -- has deteriorated because of weak and fractured local leadership and a county government that moves as fast as a three-legged tortoise.

¿ The nature center that Simon promised shortly before he was ousted has finally progressed to the drawing board, albeit stripped of its "green" construction features.

¿ The regional library that was built 25 years ago is insufficient to serve Reston's digital generation.

¿ 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.