Reston residents urge RA to help preserve RELAC cooling service as operator signals end of support

Several Reston residents used the association’s member-comments period March 27 to warn that the community chilled-water provider known as RELAC is again at risk and to ask Reston Association (RA) for help securing continued service or freeing homeowners from restrictive covenants.

Catherine Fay, a Reston resident, told the board the current operator reported it will not continue service and that a planned sale of the utility did not go through. She cited a recent staff report from the Virginia State Corporation Commission noting that the utility uses “dated cooling equipment that requires significant repair and is in short supply,” and that the owners have indicated plans to dissolve the business. “We are running into the same situation that we did last year of the homeowners not knowing where they stand two months before the cooling season begins,” Fay said.

Other comments confirmed residents’ concern about the system’s future and about the timing if service is interrupted. Several speakers asked the association to help the neighborhood negotiate with the owner or to release members from the covenant that ties them to RELAC so they can pursue individual air-conditioning options.

Michael Post, a Hickory Cluster homeowner and former cluster president who said he has worked on earlier RELAC transitions, told the board retrofitting hundreds of units with individual air conditioning would be “a huge estimated collective expenditure of more than $9,000,000,” and said many homeowners on fixed incomes could not afford that conversion on short notice. He urged RA to “be part of a solution” and to collaborate with stakeholders.

David McAfee, who identified himself as owner of Innovative Mechanical Systems and Precision Facility Engineering, said the RELAC machines are older but serviceable and that replacement parts remain available at the manufacturer. McAfee said the system can be operated this season and that, in his assessment, the chillers are not obsolete. “These chillers … are actually used a lot very widely down in Florida … and any equipment that was built in those days was pretty much built to last and be rebuilt over and over and over,” McAfee said.

Other residents, including Jenny Bridal and Wendy Quay, urged RA to coordinate with prospective operators and to work with homeowners to avoid last-minute disruptions. Bridal asked the board to “release us from the covenant so that we can make alternative arrangements in a timely fashion” if RELAC cannot be preserved; Quay said the system is “a really special part” of the neighborhood and requested association support for any operator that might keep it running.

Board members did not take formal action on RELAC during the meeting. RA staff and several members said they will continue to follow developments and to coordinate with county and state agencies where appropriate. The State Corporation Commission staff report about the acquisition/disposition application for the utility was cited by speakers as part of the public record.

Why it matters: RELAC supplies community-wide chilled water to dozens of homes in the Lake Anne area. If service stops and residents must install individual air-conditioning systems, the cost and timing could be substantial for many households; if the system can be continued with a new operator, the community’s built environment and property operations would be preserved.

What’s next: Residents and RA staff said they will continue outreach to potential operators and follow county and SCC filings; members asked the board to consider covenant relief if the system becomes nonviable.