Marie Huhtala doesn’t consider herself a no growth politician, but was motivated to join the race for supervisor of the Hunter Mill district because she felt Fairfax County mishandled the now canned Wiehle Avenue development.
She believes that at 60,000 people Reston is built out despite the fact that Robert E. Simon envisioned Reston having 80,000 citizens. The Reston section of the Dulles Technology Corridor is composed of more parking lots than buildings, but Marie Huhtala considers that “dense.” While she may not want to be labeled as an anti-growth candidate, she appears to not want any new growth in Reston.
I emailed her a question about her views Transit Oriented Development, and she went on to use an entire paragraph to explain to me what TOD was. Of course since I asked her views and not for a definition I felt that she answered back in a condescending manner. We already have enough politicians that would rather beat around the bush on questions.
She also appears to not know about the current state of Southlakes. She says “School over-crowding is a direct result of too much density.” But Southlakes Highscool will have over 800 open seats when renovations are completed in 2008.
Why is Marie Huhtala running? It appears her main goal is to bow to the needs of anti-growth residents and prevent Reston from reaching it’s goal of diverse housing options, high density housing to maximize open space, and and it’s continued growth. If the people of Reston choose to elect a no growth supervisor, that’s fine, I just want to see a candidate with solid views.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Well, friend, you seem to be operating from a position of “mis” or “dis” information, I can’t tell which. Your remarks about Reston “is composed of more parking losts than buildings…” is simply an hyperbole and untrue. In fact the county’s official position is that there is insufficient parking to support TOD as well as commuters coming from the West. Furthermore, if your statement were true, Marie would never have entered the race. Let me explain the facts to you.
Marie entered the county race because the current supervisor was completely unresponsive to constituents when a developer provided a sealed and secret proposal to the county to develop the South Reston Park and Ride. Moreover, the design as best the public could tell, out patently out of keeping with the surrounding neighborhood. Marie was so disappointed with Supervisor Hudgins that she decided to enter the race. (The issues with Wiehle Avenue were not a motivator at that time.) It took a tremendous amount of work for her to stop that project from proceeding. And this community owes her a debt of thanks as the plan was hopelessly flawed from start to finish. True to form, the citizens have not had a chance to inspect the developer’s proposal, including environmental and traffic impact studies. I, for one, find this sort of behavior to be appalling.
As for Reston being built out, that is but one of the issues. You apparently have never read the master plan, because it quite clearly states that:
“the appropriate population for Reston has been considered by county planners within the framework of the total population growth expected for the county, and a figure of approximately 75,000 has been arrived at for the Reston Area.”
This statement has 2 important points. First the total population was to serve as a guide and not a mandate. You do not need to be a traffic expert to realize that with a population of 60,000 (using the county’s current estimate), the number of cars on the road grossly exceeds Reston’s ability to effectively and efficiently move these automobiles around. Second, Mr. Simon wrote that approximately 75,000 people will inhabit the “Reston Area,” but he never defines if this geographic area is limited to the boundaries of Reston, which area contentious, at best. Many parcels of land are not part of the original Reston plan, like the golf courses and parts of the RCIC. Given the state of the roads, increasing density would cripple Reston and several adjoining jurisdictions. The roads would simply be impassable.
With respect to schools, nearly every school in the area is operating out of trailers. Failing to recognize the direct causal relationship between density and an increase in the number of children in school is almost unbelievable. Area density is the primary driver of nearly all that is bad in Reston: over crowded schools, saturated roadways, high property prices, increasing taxes, and other similar pressures.
The means by which the county counts the population is in question as well. The assumptions that Mr. Simon used in the master plan to generate his projection appear to be inappropriate today. Given the problems that Reston is trying to overcome, I would suggest that county planners revisit the entire question of what the appropriate density should be. In recent years, Reston has been experiencing a growth explosion, meaning that while the 1980’s showed Reston in somewhat of a decline (i.e., aging population), today, there is a new families with young children, and the population is surging once more.
September 20th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I never said Reston had more parking lots than buildings. I said the Dulles Technology Corridor had more. I’m not positive about Hughes, but I know that Dogwood and South Lakes (both in my school district) have plenty of room.
And actually I have read the master plan to Reston. It says the town should have “A population of 75,000 by 1980.” Surely Simon didn’t imagine growth would stop by 1980?
November 5th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Do you know the entire history of Bob Simon? The guy is a sell-out. He once owned the Property which is now known as Reston, but he then grew tired of it and left, choosing to go on to own Carnegie Hall in NYC. Years later as Reston finally became a developing community built off of the hard work of many Citizens and Citizens Groups, Mr. Simon had a sudden change of mood and decided to come back to Reston. As soon as he arrived, he began a campaign pushing himself as the “Founder and Creator of Reston”. He also began to suddenly act as though he created everything this communty had, such as the Planning and Zoning, Constituent Representative Groups, and so on. In all reality, Bob Simon is the King there never was. Credit really is due where it belongs, Robert E. Simon did own the Property, and the Community did borrow its namesake from him, but at the same time, many others took it upon themselves to keep the dream of Reston alive while Simon was getting his kicks in New York. So please stop equating the Master Plan with Robert E. Simon, as he did have a hand in it, but he surely did not create it.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Do you know what the most densely populated area of Reston is? It is the Simon built Lake Anne village. His legacy is still their. And while Simon was gone many unfortunate changes happened to Reston, such as the north Reston community, which is indistinguishable from any other 1990s era suburban community. And this area which works well because of it’s density (but needs more people for it’s continued livelihoods), is opposed by Marie Huhtala.
Huhtala is running a one issue platform, and lacks the leadership abilities to make Reston a great place to live.