RCA: A History Lesson

The Reston Citizens Association has been a fixture in the community for almost 45 years.  And yet, many Restonians don't know what RCA does, or even that it exists. 

For the benefit of newer and older Restonians alike, this week I'm going to step into the Wayback Machine and give you a tour of RCA's history.  Believe it or not, most of the things we love about Reston were shaped or influenced by RCA.  Surprised?  Read on!

RCA was founded by the citizens of Reston in 1968.  Bob Simon was no longer in charge of developing Reston, and RCA was founded to ensure that as Reston was built, the vision of Bob's founding principles would continue to guide us.  Since Reston was a new town, we didn't have a lot of the social and community institutions that older towns had.  So RCA set to work advocating for those institutions to be built or, in some cases, building them from scratch.

One such project was Reston's first commuter bus line, in the late '60s.  A lot of Restonians wanted to take the bus downtown, but there wasn't a line out here.  So RCA created one. RCA surveyed the community to find out their commuting needs, and then chartered express bus lines between Reston and downtown DC and Arlington.  This service was eventually supplanted by today's Fairfax Connector lines, but RCA was there to serve the community from the beginning.

Spurred by the desire to have greater citizen input on Reston's development, RCA founded the Planning and Zoning Committee, which still exists today.  The Committee allowed Restonians to have a say in all the major projects that have been built in Reston since, from the village centers to the Town Center to the Spectrum to Reston's network of pathways and underpasses. 

Throughout its history, RCA has fought to ensure that new development is pedestrian-friendly, maintains Reston's open and recreational space, and enhances the quality of life for our citizens, while adhering to Bob's founding principles.  RCA continues this work today through the Reston 2020 Committee, which is working hard to make sure that the development associated with the coming of Metro doesn't threaten the things we love about Reston.

In another attempt to build Reston's sense of community, RCA founded the Reston Festival.  Originally held at Lake Anne, the Festival was conceived as a celebration of Reston's founding, and included a variety of entertainment, arts and crafts booths, rides, and local and national VIPs in attendance.  RCA continued to sponsor and operate the Festival on its own until the late '90s, when it joined in partnership with RA and RCC to present the event.

As Reston matured as a community in the '70s and '80s, RCA expanded its efforts into a variety of areas.  RCA led the campaign to bring the ACCESS urgent-care facility and, later, the Reston Hospital to our community.  We sponsored Reston's first merchants association.  We persuaded the county to build South Lakes, Langston Hughes, Forest Edge, and Terraset schools ahead of schedule.  And we persuaded VDOT not to build the Fairfax County Parkway through the heart of Reston.

 Did you know that the Parkway was originally planned to run where Reston Parkway is now?  RCA stopped that from happening.  (If you think traffic's bad now, imagine how much worse it could have been!)  So many of Reston's institutions bear RCA's stamp, in some form or other.

In the late '80s, Reston's current State Senator, , was President of RCA.  During her term, RCA worked with the developers to make Reston Town Center as special as it is.  RCA also partnered with an HMO (now part of Kaiser Permanente) to provide affordable health care for local citizens.  Sen. Howell was also a champion of affordable housing during her term with RCA.  RCA is proud to claim Sen. Howell as an alumna.

Over the years, RCA's most well-known effort has been our ongoing campaign to make Reston an incorporated town.  RCA played an integral role in the referendum on town that Reston held in 1980.  After the referendum was defeated, however, RCA kept the campaign going.

RCA was a leading organization in the "Reston 2000" study, which examined a variety of ways to improve life in Reston, including a recommendation that Reston incorporate as a town.  Our most recent campaign began in 2005, when RCA began a town push that lasted over two years.  During our effort, we collected over 3700 signatures of Restonians supporting a referendum on town status.  When Reston is ready to demand more local control of our government, RCA will be right out front of the effort.

RCA's commitment to the community continues to this day.  In , I told you about some of the initiatives we're working on for Reston's citizens.  You'll be hearing more about those efforts in the coming weeks.

I hope this post has opened your eyes to the role RCA has played in making Reston what it is today.  Did I forget to mention your favorite RCA initiative?  Let me know in the comments.