It looks like Supervisor Cathy Hudgins is trying to quietly push through a proposal for a new community health club in Reston that would be built on the Brown's Chapel Park, utilized by the entire county, but finaned soley by the tax payers of small tax district number 5 to the tune of $150 Million.
Here is an email that has been circulated by Peter Greenberg, one of the residents of the community who has already suffered economic losses because the homes in their neghborhood are no longer marketable due to the proposed project:
All,
I’ve been reading all the emails between parties. First and foremost, I want to correct the record: For those of you who have inappropriately accused me of calm cooperation, I am hostile, and this IS very much a Not In My Backyard issue. But the backyard is not just Brown’s Chapel; it is Small Tax District 5, Reston Association, and Brown’s Chapel Park (not as someone who borders it, but someone who owns it through my stake in Reston Association). That is my backyard.
We all need to wake up to the economic, quality of life and environmental impacts of this $150,000,000.00 HEALTH CLUB we are being asked to pay for exclusively and unfairly.
As I get a 360 degree picture of the negligent decision making of our elected officials and employees at RA and RCC I’m shocked by the willful neglect that has already caused significant economic loss to the value of the homes in Newport Shores. I’m not sure that anyone would, with rational mind, purchase a home in Newport Shores cluster for any amount until the cloud of this 510,000 square foot $150,000,000.00 Health Club being built on it’s border is cleared up. I certainly wouldn’t touch it if I were a buyer. If you live in Newport Shores and think this can’t affect you in an economically significant way, you are gravely mistaken. If you work for RA or RCC and think what you are doing has no consequences or liability, you are gravely mistaken.
Further, Ms. Smyers has not answered my direct request for a detailed accounting of what has been spent on the study of the potential for this Health Club being built. Why, what is she hiding, and what right does she have to hide from us? We own RA. She has formed an “Executive Committee” to conduct RA’s business on this matter and the office building in private. I called Ms. Smyers evasive in my previous email and by refusing to answer anyone’s direct inquiry in a forthright manner, she proves me right.
Here is what I have learned since last writing, much of which I think people do not realize.
Let’s call this project what it is: A Subsidized Health Club - nothing more. If anyone wishes to do the homework, I’m willing to be proven wrong on one or all of the following points, but my research indicates the following:
· In 2008 RCC approached RA to form a joint venture to build a huge health club for use by all Fairfax County residents, but to be built in Reston.
· Representative Hudgins is behind the project and is quietly guiding the effort. Her motivation to stick her constituents in Small Tax District 5 with a $150,000,000.00 health club and destroy a beautiful park is a mystery to me.
· RA somewhere along the line not only agreed to participate, but also agreed to provide the land, pay for the building, pay the interest on the borrowed money, and pay IN PERPETUITY, all operating shortfalls.
· It comes at a time when the economy is in shambles and there is talk in Fairfax County of eliminating basic services. Perhaps that is why only we in Reston Small Tax District 5 will pay for this, because it is politically expedient. Is it illegal to tax a small group within the County for a County-wide Health Club?
· The project does not have 170,000 square feet of space, rather it has 510,000 square feet of space when rightfully including the parking structure.
· 510,000 square feet is 134 times as large as the largest surrounding home.
· It has a cost to the Reston Small Tax District 5 tax payers of roughly $150,000,000.00 over ten years as follows: $40,000,000.00 worth of land; $60,000,000.00 for the building; AT LEAST $36,000,000.00 in interest on the loan and the OBLIGATION to pay all operating shortfalls of the Health Club FOREVER!
· The tax is patently unfair because it asks a small group of taxpayers to pay for something that benefits the entire county. If the county and Supervisor Hudgins think this $150,000,000 Health Club is a good idea that the county should have instead of basic services, they should buy a piece of land and pay for it with County money (our money in that case too), with the approval of all County residents.
· All in Fairfax County will use the facility (in fact as much as 85% of users are likely to be from outside Small Tax District 5), but only Small Tax District 5 residents will pay for it.
· It destroys the value of all surrounding homes to the tune of not less than $250,000 per home once built. In fact, because of the cloud of this 510,000 square foot Health Club, homes in Newport Shores are likely no longer marketable at all. A tremendous amount of collateral economic destruction has already occurred. Are the board members of RA and RA itself responsible for that loss? Is Fairfax County responsible for that loss?
· It gifts to Fairfax County the most valuable piece of land belonging to Reston Association. A reasonable estimate of its commercial value is $40,000,000.00. We get NOTHING for the land except the right to pay for everything else. That is the worst real estate deal in history.
· It creates an enterprise that goes into direct competition with local businesses that Fairfax County taxes (thus creating a sort of a double tax on those businesses). In fact the planned Health Club will have dues and fees that are predatory to the businesses Fairfax County taxes because the usage fees will be subsidized by us. How will Sport and Health, Gold’s and the other compete with that? Seems like antitrust to me, but I’m no lawyer.
· The clearing of the forestation and the runoff going into Lake Ann, light pollution, and noise pollution have a material impact and degrade the local environment in a grossly disproportionate manner.
· The project is so egregious and toxic to those of us who live in Small Tax District 5 that the firm of Brailsford & Dunlavey http://www.facilityplanners.com/ has been hired to fight to have it approved, using our money to fight against us! This firm was successful in forcing the building of Baltimore Ravens stadium and the Cub Run Development. How do we fight people who spend our own money to fight us? How can we let RA do this to us?
If you live in Small Tax District 5 please send this to everyone you know who lives here also. Ask everyone you know to send emails to Supervisor Hudgins: hntrmill@fairfaxcounty.gov , and Robin Smyers (RA Board President): Rlsmyers@aol.com expressing your outrage at trying to make us pay $150,000,000.00 for a Health Club we won’t even use!
If you live in Newport Shores you have already suffered significant economic loss so please don’t just read all the emails, speak up!
To the elected officials copied here, please help: Supervisor Hudgins is trying to tax us unfairly and destroy the largest park in Reston solely at the expense of RA homeowners. We are small and she is powerful, we need help.
Thanks,
Peter
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