RELAC Referendum Result Revealed At Reston Association Meeting

RESTON, VA — Reston Association Board of Directors announced in a special meeting on Wednesday night that the referendum to repeal the portion the Reston covenants dealing with the the Reston Lake Anne Air-Conditioning Corporation cooling system failed.

In order for the resolution to pass, 229 people needed to vote in favor of revoking the RELAC provision. Only 165 of the 343 residents who received the ballot voted to revoke the system and 89 voted to keep the provision in the Reston governing documents.

Operators of the cooling system notified its customers in December that the 2023 cooling season would be the last year the company would be providing its services.

In response, the RA Board investigated ways to ensure that residents required by the Reston Deed to use RELAC would have a cooling system in place when the warmer weather started.

The board determined that repealing the portion of the Reston Deed that required those living in the residential Clusters on RELAC to use that service.

RA mailed out the ballots on Feb. 16, including the following language:

Do you agree that SectionVI.2(b)(15), Air Conditioning Units should be revoked thereby deleting the section of the Reston Deed in its entirety?

“Air Conditioning Units in any residential Cluster in which central air-conditioning serve is available to the Lot Line, no individual air-conditioning units of any type shall be permitted. This covenant may only be amended or revoked by at least a two-thirds vote of the Category A Members of all residential Clusters on the service.”

If the referendum had past, residents in the affected clusters would've been able install individual cooling systems for their homes.

"The board believed that this was everything we could do to try and facilitate a resolution," RA Board President John Farrell said, after the results of the vote were announced. "The board had encouraged people to vote 'yes' and the membership who are subjected to this covenant has spoken."

RELAC customers may apply for a medical exemption from the RA Covenants Committee before they submit a DRB application to install an HVAC system. With SectionVI.2(b)(15) of the covenants still in effect, properties without an approved medical exemption are prohibited from installing an exterior HVAC system.