Anyone Know A Good Roofer? Tetra Referendum Passes Narrowly

After arguably the most contentious Reston Association referenda in recent memory -- one which put those overheated Lake Anne residents and their underpowered jet-age air conditioning to shame -- we all are proud owners of a unique lakefront fixer-upper with some cosmetic repair needs. Anyone good with a hammer, and maybe HVAC ductwork and some load-bearing external trusses?

Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

There was both a high turnout and a narrow margin of passage in the Reston Association referendum to purchase the Tetra building.

The referendum passed, RA announced Monday night, and the association will now move forward to close on the purchase by late July.

According to RA’s official vote tally, 5,676 ballots were returned out of a possible 17,511 eligible households. There were 2,926 votes in favor of the purchase (52.9 percent). That’s just 323 votes more than the 2,603 that cast a “no” vote. There were 147 abstentions, which did not count in the vote tally.

The nearly 33-percent turnout was actually quite large for a RA vote.

The high turnout is surprising, but somewhat reassuring. We ultimately fell into the "reluctant yes" category -- concerned about the high cost (which the Washington Post "news-paper" finally got around to reporting the day before the referendum closed), but at least partially convinced that the bigger-than-needed contributions from Comstock and the concessions by the developer moved it from the "blatant ripoff" category to somewhere in the "considerably overpriced" category. More important, we were skeptical that any existing rules would actually prevent additional development. As recent events have shown us, this is Virginia, by gum, and no gumbmint is going to tell people wealthy developers what they can do with their property! (That's the HOA's job.) And we hope this policy of going to great lengths to preserve open space by the RA board continues (at least until it/we run out of money).

Speaking of which, along with an aging lakefront building, we're all also soon to be owners of a 10-year mortgage, the cost of which will be reduced by whatever revenue the RA can squeeze out of its new event space. Worried about what the extra costs of carrying that mortgage will do to your assessment? You might want to talk up the building as an ideal place for a wedding reception among your friends. Or if you really love Reston, maybe get divorced and hastily remarry so you can have your own reception there. Is that too much to ask?