Update: County Approves Land Swap at Reston Town Center North

The future of the Reston Town Center North area took a step forward last week when the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a land swap between the county and Inova.

The 49-acre site is currently a jumble of parcels owned by both the county and Inova. By authorizing the swap, the two will now be able to more uniformly align the parcels and begin redevelopment.

The approval includes the county’s acquisition of a the Reston Towne Green, a five-acre parcel from the Fairfax County Park Authority. In exchange, the park authority has rights to build a 90,000-square-foot recreation center in the area. It also ensures that Reston Town Center North will have a 2.6-acre public park in the center of the development.

The park authority agreed to the land swap in April.

According to the terms of the contract, if the Town Center North area remains undeveloped, the supervisors would reconvey the Reston Towne Green parcel back to the park authority.

The proposed redevelopment to the area, which runs from New Dominion Parkway to Bowman Town Drive and Town Center Parkway to Fountain Drive, includes replacing the Reston Regional Library and Embry Rucker Community Shelter, as well as building mixed-use (residential, a performing arts center, offices, retail, among other amenities).

The county recently held a Request for Proposals for developers on the first phase of redevelopment, on the blocks including the library and shelter.

Andrew Miller, Project Coordinator of the Public-Private Partnerships Branch of the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, said at a community meeting two weeks ago that development will likely take more than 10 years.

The goal now is to realign the land — some owned by the county (eventual blocks 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 in the graphic above) and the rest (eventual blocks 2, 4, and 6) by Inova, Miller said. Then there will be rezoning for the individual parcels when it is decided what to do with the land.

Phase 2 of redevelopment would include county-owned blocks 1, 3, 5 and 9. The county would like to see a new Health and Human Services building on that land, as well as housing and retail. Other ideas put forth at the meeting: a performing arts center, a fire station and transitional housing.

Inova owns the parcels with Sunrise Assisted Living and the Emergency Care Center. Inova has no immediate plans for redevelopment, a representative said.