Get an Update on Street Grid, Potential Transportation Tax Tonight

The Reston community can get an update on the planned urban-style street grid — and the potential of a special tax to help pay for it — at a community meeting Wednesday.

Join Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) for another in a series of discussions on the Reston Network Analysis from 7 to 9 p.m. at South Lakes High School.

Residents will be able to learn more about the analysis, which is evaluating the concept of urban-style grids of streets in the areas surrounding the Reston Metrorail Stations, also known as the Reston Transit Station Areas. County staff will give a presentation on the status of the Network Analysis and potential recommendations for the transportation network. Staff will also answer questions.

The Reston Network Analysis Advisory Group has most recently discussed Tier 2 mitigation (see presentation below). The group is looking at ways to reduce congestion and waiting times at traffic lights. The presentation points out some of the worst trouble spots in the Reston area. The goal is adding traffic lights and turning lanes, but patience is needed as the plan covers mitigation over the next several decades.

At a February meeting, Fairfax County officials said Reston is going to need more than $2.6 billion in transportation improvements to keep up with development and population growth in the next 40 years.

Officials said Reston roadway improvements (overpasses, widening, extensions, and interchanges) will cost $1.28 billion. Intersection projects will cost $65 million and the enhanced grid network will cost $1.28 billion, the report said.

In February, the word “special transportation tax” was also mentioned. The RNAG Advisory Group said money to pay for those infrastructure improvements may come from a wide array of sources. Among them: a transportation tax, but also developer proffers, taxes, bonds, federal transportation grants and state funding, as well as a potential county meals tax.

Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said a special tax district is just one of the “tools we are exploring in transportation improvements. We have done it with rail; we are doing it in Tysons.”

Tysons has had a special tax since 2013 to pay for transportation improvements there.

In addition to the meeting, the county has website to help gather comments from the community. If you are unable to attend meetings, you can still submit your comments on the project website.