Flower Power: RA Board Approves Environmental Guidelines for Future Development

The Reston Association board approved last week a sweeping series of environmental considerations that will transform Reston into a tree-covered, self-sustaining paradise, only with more midscale retail than Woodstock or Haight-Ashbury or wherever.

Actually, the considerations for future development and redevelopment projects, which were written by the RA Environmental Advisory Committee, are well-thought-out and reasonable. Which, of course, begs the question of whether developers will pay attention to them at all -- or if they'll just threaten to sue the RA if it attempts to hold their feet to the fire.

Among the considerations:

• Any new or redeveloped neighborhoods should include at least 33 percent open space. Does underground parking count as open space?
  
  
• Infrastructure should support development "now and for future generations."
  
  
• Reston's tree canopy, which was 38 percent in 2002, should grow to meet the countywide 45 percent goal by 2030 -- which should be no problem, so long as these count as trees.
  
  
• Commercial buildings should be built to LEED Gold standards, while residential multifamily developments should be LEED Silver. Neighborhoods should be built to something called "LEED-ND" standards, which presumably means that you can't place an industrial smelter in your back yard.
  
  
• Onsite energy generation should be considered where feasible. "RA should consider the sustainability value of such energy systems equally to the aesthetic and architectural criteria they already consider," the document states. Yay, we're burning our red mulch today.
  
  
• As always, the Dreaded Scourge of Reston, invasive exotic plants, should be strictly verboten.
  
  
• Any redeveloped project should be required to generate less stormwater runoff than the previous one. Which means you could build a 99-story mauvescraper in the middle of Lake Thoreau, and you'd be right as rain.

Good on the RA Board for approving these considerations. Here's hoping they, the DRB, and the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee actually try to uphold them.