Thursday: Community Review of Master Plan Changes

Fairfax County will hold a community meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Reston Community Center Lake Anne to update residents and obtain feedback on the draft of the Reston’s Master Plan Phase 2 update.

The county has been working on Phase 2 since last summer, holding several community meetings to obtain focus on the vision for Reston’s neighborhoods and village centers for its next 50 years.

Fairfax County officials say the the current comprehensive plan, last updated in 1989, requires revision because Reston no longer has a master developer to update the plan for Reston; the plan for Reston has outdated elements; and with population expected to grow with the arrival of Metro, Reston is evolving as a community.

After nearly four years of committee work and revisions, the county Board of Supervisors in early 2014 approved Phase I of the Master Plan, which provides a framework for development in the areas surrounding Reston’s transit stations.

Key points of the latest draft:

Reston’s two golf courses are to remain as golf courses. This is good news for proponents of open space as the owners of Reston National Golf Course, the 166-acre public course in South Reston, are awaiting a Board of Zoning Appeals ruling on whether the course can be considered as residential for redevelopment. The BZA heard nearly six hours of testimony at a public hearing last week. It will rule on the appeal on April 15.

The updated land use map includes areas clearly marked as open space and recreational space.

Residential land use categories have been expanded from their current three broad categories (low, medium, and high density) to five categories to more closely reflect what has been built in the community, with the desired result of maintaining established neighborhoods.

The Reston neighborhoods section provides guidance to maintain the established residential neighborhoods. In the event of residential neighborhood redevelopment requests, more stringent redevelopment criteria have been established that go beyond the County criteria.

The village centers shall remain village centers. However, should a village center want to rezone and rebuild as something else, there is also specific criteria for that. That is good news for the ailing Tall Oaks Village Center, which was recently purchased by an apartment developer.

Environmental stewardship shall remain a key focus in Reston planning.

To see the entire draft, visit the Fairfax County website.

Photo: The future of Tall Oaks Village Center is one of the topics for the Master Plan Phase 2/file photo