Why the RA Board Needs to Re-Think the Lake Newport Soccer Stadium

My name is Eric McErlain and I've lived in Reston for 17 years. I'm the President of the Bayfield Station Homeowner's Association. Bayfield, along with Concord Green and Arbor Glen are the three clusters that are immediately adjacent to the Lake Newport Soccer Field.

On Saturday February 4th, I was surprised to discover via regular mail that the RA Board had scheduled a community meeting for the evening of February 8th to discuss a major overhaul of the soccer field. We were also surprised to discover that an application for the project will be submitted to the DRB only three weeks later, this when no one in my cluster has seen anything official about the proposal before last weekend.

While Reston Now has been covering the possibility of this project since last summer, this was the first time I had ever personally heard about the project and certainly was the first time I heard about it officially from the RA Board. What was more distressing was the fact that many of my neighbors who didn't live more than 50 feet across the street from me didn't get the same letter I did.

My neighbors and I didn't believe this provided sufficient notice for us to be able to comment intelligently on a project that includes new artificial fields, seating, concession stands, bathrooms, and LED lights that -- and I'm quoting Reston Now here – are similar to ones found in Yankee Stadium.

Last Monday night, I testified before the RA Board Operations Committee, and made a formal request that the Feb. 8 hearing be postponed. Thanks to the impossibly late notice, many of the affected residents, including myself, wouldn't be able to attend the meeting due to other commitments. Despite this reasonable request, the RA Board refused to cooperate.

But now, after Northpoint residents showed up in force at the Feb. 8 meeting, the tide is turning. Just yesterday, Reston Soccer informed me that they are asking the RA Board to delay the Feb. 21 meeting of the DRB. I'm glad Reston Soccer is coming around to the community's point of view, and I have an additional request. The RA Board should implement a 30-day "cooling off" period, after which the Board should hold another public meeting to completely reconsider the timetable for the entire project.

In the meantime, my neighbors and I will be watching the RA Board very closely. Ever since the letter from the RA Board arrived last week, my neighbors and I have been suspicious that the way may have already been paved for this project. Those suspicions only intensified just hours before Wednesday's community meeting when Reston Soccer announced that they had entered into an agreement with the Washington Spirit to run a training academy in Reston.

Running a training academy is a big endeavor and Reston Soccer is a small club that doesn't have a facility to host it. I had a conversation on Twitter with some Northern Virginia soccer fans, and they seemed to agree with my assessment.

In any case, while my neighbors and I weren't aware a week ago, we sure are now. We intend to ask the RA Board and Reston Soccer some tough questions about this project, and the candidates for the RA Board ought to expect the same.