Reston Parkway Metro Station to Encroach on Targetville

Last night, the folks planning Metro's extension took time away from their busy schedule of extinguishing track fires and raising fares to come to Reston and talk about the second phase of the fancy Silver Line (apparently not the official color -- maybe the DRB sent the Metro Board a packet of earth-toned color swatches or something). Phase 2 of the As of Now Uncolored Line will extend from Wiehle Avenue through Dulles and into the particleboard wastelands of Loudoun County, assuming it's built in our lifetimes. If you missed all the fun, you can download the information packet about Phase 2 and maybe read it aloud to yourself or something.

For us, the big takeaway was that the Reston Parkway station, which will be sited to the west of the Toll Road intersection, is actually a bit further west than we thought -- west enough, in fact, to encroach on Targetville, Reston's most retail-focused homeless encampment. But the people that showed up for the hearing talked about other stuff, like growth and traffic and whatnot.

John Bowman, who co-chairs the Reston 2020 Committee of the Reston Citizen's Association was on hand reviewing the Phase 2 proposals.

"We [Reston 2020] understand the importance of the changes coming to Reston with the Metro and that the inevitable growth represents opportunities for our community as well as potential dangers," he said. "It is crucial that this growth is well planned and implemented in order to benefit both current and future residents, as well as developers and the business communities of Reston."

One concern of Reston2020 and many citizens is protecting the wetlands near the Herndon-Monroe Station.

Also in attendance was Joe Stowers, representing the Dulles Corridor Rail Association (DCRA), a non-profit membership organization formed to advocate rail in the Dulles corridor. DCRA advises decision makers on transit-related issues, including funding, operations, and station location and access.

"I'm here to strongly support rail moving ahead," said Mr. Stowers.

Alice Markham, a Reston resident who recently expressed her concern that traffic is going to get much worse before it gets better in a letter last week to The Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock, was also at the meeting.

"While my primary concern is with the Phase 1 Wiehle Avenue station, I have the same issues about traffic congestion around the other Reston metro stations," she said last night after giving her verbal comments to project staff.

Meanwhile, Rob Whitfield of the Dulles Corridor Users Group has sent the Airport Authority an "open e-mail" claiming, among other things, that it operates like a "third-world dictatorship." And we thought it was just the smoke-filled, frequently derailing trains that had that decaying feel!

The scope of the Public Workshop being held tonight in Reston is deliberately designed to limit information given to the public to design matters. The far greater cost and financial issues that will impact the public living and working in the Dulles Corridor are being withheld from public scrutiny - that's what you get when a Democrat Governor makes a deal with his Democrat buddies on the MWAA Board so that his union labor friends can suck a billion or more in hidden Davis Bacon construction contract cost "taxes" from hapless commuters.

A second public meeting will be held at 6pm Tuesday in Sterling. (Update: Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins is also sponsoring a community meeting on Dulles Metro at 7pm next Wednesday, Sept. 22, at South Lakes High School.)