A fall bazaar, which will feature a mix of craft jewelry, decor, candles, and homemade baked goods, is set for Oct. 13 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Christian Church (11400 North Shore Drive).
A silent auction will also take place during the event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is the second year the free event has taken place.
Family activities include Zumba by the YMCA, book readings for children and an activity led by Beloved Yoga.
Event organizers are no longer accepting applications from vendors. For more information, email [email protected].
Flickr pool photo via J0nathan
A new exhibition featuring the work of artists age 55 and above is coming to Reston next week.
The exhibit, “Young at Art,” opens on Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the showroom of Hunters Woods at Trails Edge (2254B Hunters Woods Plaza).
Attendees can meet the artists behind the event and enjoy local wines paired with desserts. RSVP by emailing [email protected] or by calling 703-708-4047.
Hunters Woods at Trails Edge is an independent living and assisted living facility expected to open by the spring of 2019. The $72 million project is the first Virginia location for IntegraCare.
Photo via Marion Myers
Aside from several stand-out pieces, there are a lot of art displays to explore around Lake Anne Plaza.
On Friday, Oct. 10, art historian Phoebe Avery will offer a walking tour of art around the plaza. The tour begins in front of Lake Anne Coffee House.
The event is presented by Reston Association and Public Art Reston. Registration is $5 for Reston Association members and $8 for all others. The tour will run from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Other tours are also planned by RA, including a newcomers’ bus tour on Saturday and a Hunter Mill Road historical tour on Wednesday, Oct. 17.
File photo
The Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival is coming to the Angelika Film Center and Cafe in Fairfax on October 18 through 28. Reston Community Center will hold a preview ahead of the festival with a screening of the documentary “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the CenterStage.
The documentary explores the legacy of lear’s 1970s TV sitcoms. Lear created and produced sitcoms, including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Maude. His shows explored social and political issues ranging from the Vietnam War, racial prejudice, sexism, and homophobia.
The 18th annual Northern Virginia Film Festival is presented by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. More than 12 films will be screened during the festival that explores Jewish life, culture, and identity.
The preview screening in Reston is free and open to all ages.
Photo via RCC
A decision on The Midline, a 1.8-million-square-foot development proposed near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station was delayed to Oct. 11 by the Fairfax County Planning Commission on Thursday (Sept. 27).
JBG Smith, EYA and Chevy Chase Land Co. are partnering to create a 17.5-acre development east of Wiehle Avenue and south of Sunset Hills Road with up to 1.2 million square feet of residential development, 260,000 square feet of office space and up to 250,000 square feet of retail.
The development team plans to design four blocks and has offered the county two development options. The first would include 1,058 residential units and 251,150 square feet of secondary uses and the second plan would include 1,098 residential units and 187,750 square feet of secondary uses.
The case is not yet docketed for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Photo via handout/Fairfax County Government
The Reston Multicultural Festival, presented by Reston Community Center and Reston Association, took place on Saturday (Sept. 22) at Lake Anne Plaza.
One of the community’s signature events, the festival celebrated diversity and culture in the area and featured arts, crafts, entertainment, food, and shopping. A naturalization ceremony was also part of the festival.
Photos courtesy Reston Community Center
Thousands of books are available for purchase this weekend during the semi-annual book sale by Friends of the Reston Regional Library.
The sale, which is located at Reston Regional Library, offers books for gently-used and good conditions books in a variety of sizes and genres, according to information provided by the Friends. Prices start at 50 cents. No children’s books will be offered at the sale.
The schedule for the sale is as follows:
- Thursday (Sept. 27): 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Friday (Sept. 28): 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Saturday (Sept. 29): 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Sunday (Sept. 30): noon to 3:30 p.m.
Cash, check and credit cards are accepted at the sale. Proceeds go to fund library materials and programs in the community. Friends of the Reston Regional Library is made up of nearly 100 active volunteers who donate over 10,000 hours a year to process donations, run sales and reach out to the community.
For more information about Friends of the Reston Regional Library and its book sales, visit its website or its Facebook page, find it on Twitter, call 703-829-5467, or email [email protected].
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Lake Anne Plaza will become a melting pot of culture this Saturday as the Reston Multicultural Festival kicks off on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Attendees for this free event can enjoy arts, crafts, food, entertainment, shopping and other family-friendly activities. The program is available online.
Reston Farm Market is also celebrating it’s one-year anniversary under new ownership on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the market. The celebration features a fall festival with games, moon bounces, train rides and pumpkin pies. Admission is $10 per person and admission for kids under ages two and under are free.
(Editor’s Note: This is just a limited list of all the events taking place in the Reston area this weekend. If you have an event you would like to ensure is listed on the website, be sure to submit it to our Events Calendar.)
- Enjoy free Zumba at Life Time Athletic (1757 Business Center Drive) today from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Zumba Pool Blacklight Party.
- The Herndon Homecoming Parade is on Saturday from 9:30 a.m to 2 pm. on Elden Street. This year’s theme is Big Top. Bring a chair and support the Hornets in downtown Herndon.
- On Saturday, you can also help remove what Reston Association calls an “English ivy overload” on RA’s open space by participating in the organization’s Habitat Heroes event. Volunteers will work in various areas near the Wiehle overpass from 10 a.m. to noon.
- A green screen photo booth will be on-site at Reston Regional Library from 2-4 p.m. You can take your picture by placing yourself directly in a story.
- The Northern Virginia Senior Olympics will hold a Twilight 5K on Saturday at 6 p.m. at South Lakes High School. Residents of Northern Virginia who are 50 years or older are eligible to sign up.
- On Sunday, channel the seven chakras or energy centers within your body with this mindful painting workshop at Rise Well-Being Center from 2-5 p.m.
- If you’d rather be out and about on Sunday, you can take part in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Reston Town Center from 2:30-4 p.m. Registration is free and there’s no minimum fundraising requirement.
- And the annual Reston Runner tradition is back on Sunday. Participants will run from Reagan National Airport back to Reston beginning at 7 a.m.
- Lake Anne Brewhouse’s Saturday morning beer run is on at 9:45 a.m. The taproom opens at 10 a.m. for pretzels, coffee and beer.
File photo via Reston Community Center
The second annual Runway to the Cure fashion show returns to Reston Town Center Pavilion (11900 Market Street) on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. The show, which features designer fashion, showcases breast cancer survivors from the regions as models and aims to share their experiences.
This year’s event will be emceed by Kristen Berset-Harris, the host of WUSA9’s Great Day Washington, who is also a breast cancer survivor. All breast cancer survivors are invited to attend for a free. All other attendees are encouraged to donate $25 in order to attend the event.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The event is run by Reston Runway to the Cure, Inc., a local non-profit organization run by volunteers.
Unlike last year, the show will happen in the evening in order to attract more attendees and make it a more social event, according to organizers.
“We are excited to bring back Runway to the Cure to showcase local fashions as a way to raise money to fight breast cancer and, more importantly, honor our models who are true inspirations, raise money for an important cause, and introduce some great fun and fashions to the community,” said Jane Abraham, owner of Scout & Molly’s boutique, the event founder, and Runway to the Cure board president.
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A hot police pursuit in the parking lot of Target earlier this week raised some questions from Reston Now readers this week.
According to newly released information from the Fairfax County Police Department, the incident involved a man suspected of stealing merchandise from the store at 12197 Sunset Hills Road.
Officers responded to the scene on Monday (Sept. 17) at around 7:59 p.m. in response to a Target employee’s report that a man was stealing from the store. The man was found changing his clothes inside a car.
When officers approached the car, the driver ignored them and sped away. After pursuing the car in the parking lot, officers lost sight of it. The car was later found abandoned in a nearby parking lot, according to the police department.
The incident is under investigation and no other information was immediately available. The monetary value of the stolen merchandise was not released.
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This is an op/ed submitted by Wheelock’s Dan Green and Steve Coniglio, the company’s local partner. It does not reflect the opinions of Reston Now. No development plans for Hidden Creek Country Club have been formally proposed to the county. If you wish to submit an opinion piece, email [email protected].
When Wheelock Communities purchased Hidden Creek Country Club in October 2017, we immediately recognized the special character of Reston and the need to include the community in exploring all the possibilities for the future of the private golf club.
From the day we purchased Hidden Creek, we have been open and honest about our intentions to work in partnership with the Reston community and club members to explore potential changes to the property that could provide the Reston community with additional public amenities, civic spaces, enhanced environmental benefits and new housing choices.
With that idea and Bob Simon’s Founding Principles of Reston in mind, Wheelock engaged the community by establishing a Focus Group to gain the perspective from a broad-based group of approximately 20 Reston residents that included representation from Rescue Reston, Reston Association, Reston Community Center, Hidden Creek Country Club members, nearby residents and other stakeholders in Reston.
We hired the best local firm, LandDesign, and a national land planning expert, John Sather of Swaback Partners, to work with the Focus Group. We gave both LandDesign and John Sather “free rein” to work with the group to ensure there were not any preconceived notions about the future of the property.
During the four interactive sessions, discussions centered on how the property could benefit the Reston community by creating significant public open space versus its current private use, providing public amenities to fulfill unmet community needs, rejuvenating the environmental condition of the stream areas and providing a mix of diverse housing, including the potential for senior housing and affordable/workforce housing.
We did a lot of listening during these sessions. We understand there is a group of residents that prefers Hidden Creek remain a private golf club available to its members. We also heard from the Focus Group the importance of public open space and the desire for this open space to be accessible to all Reston residents, not just the Hidden Creek Country Club members and those utilizing the portion of the Blue Trail that traverses the property. Improving the environmental condition of the land, removing the “road from nowhere” from the Comprehensive Plan and creating additional housing choices all were mentioned during this process.
Taking all this information, we challenged our team to think “big” on a special public element. In effect, we began by doing what few others do… we began by looking at public open space as the predominant part of the property.
At the final meeting of the Focus Group, the team presented a vision for a world-class, 100-acre Grand Park that the entire Reston community would be able to enjoy and shape. In creating this vision, our team examined other signature parks such as Merriweather Park in Columbia, Md., and Prospect Park in New York City. The vision presented included both passive and active recreational amenities, an indoor tennis facility, the Blue Trail and other trails providing community connectivity as well as cultural elements that adhere to Bob Simon’s Principals for Reston.
The Grand Park preserves more than 60 percent of the site as public open space. With additional trails and open spaces included within the development areas, as much as 75 percent could be open space. The remaining land would be planned for a variety of housing, some of which will help meet Reston’s needs for senior, workforce and affordable housing to continue Reston’s heritage of being an inclusive community. The exact number of homes has not been discussed as we are in a conceptual stage. However, we can say the housing, if approved, would be a mix of townhouses, single family and multi-family homes.
Reston is a place like no other. The Grand Park idea further reinforces that, making Reston one of the finest communities of our time.
We firmly believe in an open, public process and working in a partnership with the community to envision the future of the golf course. We look forward to continuing the discussion.
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A stinky situation on the Dulles Toll Road has resulted in a lane closure and a significant cleanup effort.
A garbage truck’s load of trash caught fire this afternoon, shortly after 4 p.m., prompting the truck driver to dump the burning refuse on the side of the westbound Dulles Toll Road near Wiehle Avenue.
The fire was extinguished and the effort to remove the charred garbage is now underway. According to WTOP, the ramp from Wiehle Avenue to the westbound lanes of the toll road are currently blocked.
I deleted the tweet, sorry pic.twitter.com/wPLu4ziVHW
— Chris Mc (@Vaphilly624) September 19, 2018
Quite a garbage situation. pic.twitter.com/cfnnGHHQFB
— Katherine (@scarletalphabet) September 19, 2018
This is an op/ed submitted by Rescue Reston’s North Course Committee. It does not reflect the opinions of Reston Now. No development plans for Hidden Creek Country Club have been formally proposed to the county. If you wish to submit an opinion piece, email [email protected].
Wheelock Communities, the Connecticut-based company that bought the Hidden Creek Country Club in north Reston, says it wants to build housing on 40 percent of the golf course land on almost half of the golf course that comprises the biggest part of north Reston’s open space. The land design firm that Wheelock is working with told a community focus group last month that Wheelock foresees building between 500 and 2,000 housing units in the open space.
Building housing on Hidden Creek golf course would violate the Reston Master Plan that is part of the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan, as well as require a change in the County zoning ordinance. The County has designated Hidden Creek as private recreational open space, specifically a golf course.
All of the Hidden Creek golf course needs to remain as private recreational open space, and here’s why: In this area, buying a house is almost always the biggest investment decision that any of us will make.
Because it is such a consequential decision, we homeowners count on the land-use plan to give us some confidence about what we can expect to see in our community over time. In fact, the Fairfax County website says, “The purpose of planning is to ensure that Fairfax County’s excellent quality of life will continue.” The Reston Master Plan Task Force’s goal was to guide the community’s growth and development for the next 30 to 40 years.
Why should one real estate development company that has had no connection to our community be able to make an investment decision that would undermine the individual investment decisions of many thousands of Reston households?
Allowing that would be counter to one of Robert Simon’s primary goals for Reston: “that the importance and dignity of each individual be the focal point for all planning, and take precedence for large-scale concepts.”
Building new housing where it’s not supposed to be–and losing 40 percent of north Reston’s planned open space at Hidden Creek in the process–would hurt Reston households. And it would hurt not just those who live in the Lake Anne/Tall Oaks district of Reston, but all Restonians who rely on the two major north-south roads through north Reston: Wiehle Avenue and Reston Parkway.
Attention, knitting lovers: Reston Community Center’s Knitting Circle will begin its fall session this month.
In this instructor-led group at RCC Hunters Woods, attendees will learn how to knit on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The series will run from September 17 through November 21.
Registration is $50 for Reston residents and $75 for all others.
Participants can share ideas on knitting projects and work on new or existing projects. Knitters at all skill levels are invited to attend. Registration is available online.
Photo via RCC
John Wasowicz, a county native and a former Arlington prosecutor, will bring his legal thriller, “Daingerfield Island” to Scrawl Books (11911 Freedom Drive) this coming weekend.
Wasowicz’s novel is about a DC-based defense attorney who represents a man falsely accused of murder near Daingerfield Island.
His book tour, which has included other locations along the East Coast, will come to the Reston bookstore on Saturday (September 15) from noon to 2 p.m. Wasowicz will meet readers and sign copies of the new book.
Photo via BrickHouse Books, Inc.
