Public hearing dates set for proposed shift of unbuilt housing from Reston Station

RestonNow.com May 24, 2023 at 1:31pm

Reston Row rendering (via LandDesign/Fairfax County) — Comstock’s planned Reston Row development (via LandDesign/Fairfax County)

Changes to Reston Station and Reston Row — mixed-use developments near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station — are barreling towards approval.

At a meeting yesterday (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion to set a July 25 public hearing date for the joint proposals, which would shift approved but unbuilt residential density from one block of Reston Station to Reston Row.

Reston Row is an extension of Reston Station, a nearly 10-acre development at the Metro station. Reston Row includes two office buildings that will be anchored by Puttshack, an indoor mini-golf destination, and VIDA Fitness.

A third building includes 93 condos over a JW Marriott, while an apartment building labeled Building D will be anchored by the restaurant Ebbitt House.

Comstock wants to shift roughly 165 units or 264,000 square feet of space that was not used in Reston Station to the Ebbitt House apartment building. Nearly 10,000 square feet of space would be dedicated for a roof deck on top of another building for Founding Farmers and a future building in a different block on the property.

“Critically, the Applicant is not requesting one single square foot of additional density over and above what was approved and is entitled to be developed when Reston Station and Reston Row are aggregated,” the application said.

The developer argues that shifting the residential density would allow it to deliver workforce dwelling units sooner “than it otherwise would have” and in a better location for the county’s residents, according to the application.

The Puttshack building is set to delivered December of next year, while Building D is expected to deliver in November 2026, according to a board matter introduced yesterday by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.

In the matter, Alcorn states that the changes shift density to a “more logical, Metro-proximate, and resident-friendly location at Reston Row.”

From a logistical standpoint, the two separate applications for the project can be voted on concurrently. The July hearing before the Board of Supervisors will be preceded by a June 28 public hearing by the Fairfax County Planning Commission.