Times Community Newspapers - Reston - 04/06/2005 - RCA to start selling town status to community
The Reston Citizens Association (RCA) is forging ahead with its project to make a compelling case for Reston becoming an incorporated town.

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Fred Pilot wonders whether this suggests we may see a "deprivatization" movement in which HOA residents would seek to convert their private governments into municipalities or special districts. Could be. Another explanation for such a trend, if one exists (not with Reston particularly, but other HOA-run neighborhoods) is a long-standing suburban tradition: defensive incorporation, meaning a neighborhood incorporating as a municipality in order to prevent being annexed by a nearby municipality, along with acquiring the full range of municipal powers. Tax base-seeking cities have been known to gobble up suburban unincorporated neighborhoods, which can be forestalled by that neighborhood becoming a city of its own. They keep their independence. Again, this seems not to be the reason for incorporating Reston. It isn't mentioned in the article at all among the "arguments for becoming a town" that you can find by scrolling down, and that section makes interesting reading on the limits of private government.