(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors approved changes to several developments at its Tuesday (Dec. 4) meeting.

The board approved modifications to the Tall Oaks Village Center redevelopment.

Stanley Martin’s redevelopment plans to transform the Tall Oaks Village Center (12022 North Shore Drive) into a mostly residential neighborhood. The redevelopment is set to create 156 residential units, which include 42 two-over-two multi-family units, 44 single units and 70 multi-family units in two residential buildings.

It also plans to add nearly 8,500 square feet of retail and 5,800 square feet of office space.

The board approved the following waivers and changes:

• a 200-square foot privacy yard requirement for single-family units
• tandem parking for the two-over-two dwelling units to count towards the off-street parking requirement for multi-family dwelling units
• a modification for the required number of loading spaces
• a modification for the transitional screening and barrier requirements

At the time of the Board of Supervisors approval in July 2016 of the owner’s plan to redevelop the retail center into a mixed-use project,  the county was planning to continue Fairfax Connector bus service through the development. The Fairfax Connector has since decided to no longer provide bus service through the development.

The board greenlighted the Midline, a mixed-use project near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, that would bring 1.8 million square feet of development across 17.5 acres east of Wiehle Avenue and south of Sunset Hills Road. 

The development plan will add eight buildings across four blocks, including:

• an eight-story, independent living facility with 127 units
• an eight-story, 325-unit apartment building
• a 14-story office building
• an eight-story, 225-unit apartment building
• a seven-story, 218-unit apartment building
• a six-story, 39-unit apartment building
• a six-story, 70-unit apartment building
• 56 townhomes

The project will set aside 14 percent of the residential units for affordable housing.

The entire development also includes ground-floor retail in every building except the office and townhomes.

The county’s approval allows JBG and EYA to pursue two alternative development plans, based on how many retailers want to move into the new spaces.

The county also ok’d rezoning of a property by Sunrise Valley Drive and Reston Pkwy for a residential development of 145 multi-family dwelling units and office space on 4.31 acres of land.

Images and renderings via Fairfax County and Fairfax County Planning Commission

This story has been updated

Cloud computing company Appian Corporation will receive $4 million from Fairfax County for the company’s expansion and new headquarters in Tysons Corner.

The Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors approved the Development Opportunity Fund grant from the Commonwealth at its meeting on Tuesday (Dec. 4).

The funds will pay for the leasing, improvements, equipment and operation of Appian’s Tysons Corner facility (7950 Jones Branch Drive), which is expected to lead to 600 new jobs there.

News of the company’s move from Reston to Tysons first broke in April.

Currently, Appian is headquartered at 11955 Democracy Drive, Suite 1700 in Reston Town Center.

Fairfax County competed with another jurisdiction for the expansion of Appian’s headquarters, according to county documents.

As part of the grant, Fairfax County must provide a local match which will be in the form of the Lincoln Street project, a roadway improvement which is already planned and funded in the county budget. The road improvement was identified by coordinating with the Fairfax County Department of Transportation.

Additionally, the county will provide an estimated funding of $288,000 from the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority will monitor Appian’s performance metrics agreed upon for the grant funding, updating the Office of the County Executive annually on the number of jobs and capital investment achieved during that time.

Photo via Appian/Facebook

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors disagreed about community input on contentious proposed zoning changes, before authorizing public hearings early next year on the changes at their meeting today.

The proposal, which would increase the population density in Reston, has sparked a backlash from community groups, including the Reston Association, Coalition for a Planned Reston and Reston 2020.

County planning officials have argued that the change is needed to put into action Reston’s Master Plan, which allows for future growth over the next 40 years.

Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust vented frustration at the Dec. 4 meeting that Reston residents have not heard back from the county regarding the public hearings for the zoning proposal.

In response to Foust’s concerns, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said that locals have had plenty of opportunities to get the desired information.

County officials began small workgroup sessions hosted by the Coalition for a Planned Reston, a grassroots organization, and the Reston Association in July to discuss the controversial plan.

“Yes, there are some questions that people have,” Hudgins said. “Those questions have been answered before or are not relevant to this.”

Hudgins stressed that consideration of the proposed zoning changes is moving forward because of the work, including 13 follow up meetings since May and regular meetings with the Reston Association, already done.

Hudgins praised the “noble” staff for answering community questions.

Braddock District Supervisor John Cook said that verbal responses from staff to locals are not enough, adding that the community would benefit from written questions and answers available online.

“I don’t think it’s enough to have oral questions,” Cook said. “Not everyone can get to public meetings.”

Cook added that community input must have limits. “It’s fair to have a cut off date for questions,” he said.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission has 100 days from the referral — the staff report published Dec. 4 — to take action on the zoning proposal. The Board of Supervisors authorized public hearings on the zoning changes for 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 and at 4:30 p.m. on March 5.

“The clock starts today,” Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay said.

https://twitter.com/FairfaxMemes/status/1069993011189288961

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors is expected to authorize public hearings on two controversial proposals and consider several developments at its Tuesday (Dec. 4) meeting.

The board is anticipated to authorize public hearings on proposed zoning changes that would increase the population density. The hearings would take place at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 and at 4:30 p.m. on March 5.

The zoning amendment would increase the maximum population per acre in the Planned Residential Community (PRC) district from 13 persons to 15. Dwelling units per acre would increase from 50 units to 70 near Metro stations.

The Coalition for a Planned Reston, Reston 2020 and the Reston Association have raised concerns with the proposal, expressing worries about the exemptions given to developers with proposals that do not conform to the Reston Master Plan and a lack of infrastructure to support an increased density.

The board is also expected to authorize a public hearing at 4 p.m. on Jan. 22 to consider adding chinchillas, hedgehogs and hermit crabs to the county’s list of commonly accepted pets.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission scrutinized health and safety concerns for the three animals at its public hearing last Thursday (Nov. 29).

For developments, the following are expected:

• a decision on Woodfield Acquisitions’ redevelopment of Roland Clarke Place that would add a 308-unit residential complex just south of the Dulles Toll Road
• a public hearing on changes to previously approved development conditions for the Tall Oaks Village Center townhome project by Stanley Martin
• a public hearing on the Midline, a mixed-use project near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station

The board will also consider endorsing non-regulatory guidelines for developments in Reston Transit Station Areas and will receive a presentation on the annual financial report for the 2018 fiscal year, along with an update on the Economic Success Strategic Plan.

Reston-based Appian Corp. may receive approval from the board for a $4 million grant from the Commonwealth for an expansion.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Photo via Fairfax County Government/Facebook

Reston-based Refraction is eyeing larger office space in the area in preparation for an expansion that will add 800 jobs in the next five years.

Currently located in Reston Town Center, Refraction plans to use a portion of the recent $1 million investment from Fairfax County toward securing new office space.

The county’s Board of Supervisors approved the use of the economic development funds yesterday (Nov. 20) for the company’s expansion.

Founded in 2014, Refraction (11911 Freedom Drive, Suite 850) is a coworking community for startups and high-growth companies. The “innovation hub” provides educational programs, along with networking and mentoring events. Currently, more than 55 companies are a part of the Refraction community.

Esther Lee, CEO of Refraction, said conversations about the move started a few months ago. Refraction wants to keep its Reston roots in order to strengthen the area’s “innovation ecosystem” by encouraging companies in its coworking space to stay and add new jobs.

A report by the Brookings Institution last year found that the D.C.-area has had the biggest loss of digital tech jobs in a five-year span compared to 50 other cities with large digital employment.

Lee called the report “alarming” and said she wants to see Refraction take an active role in boosting job growth in the region. “We want to grow the future Googles and Amazons of the world,” Lee said.

Refraction is looking to move to an office space in Reston that it roughly 25,000 square-feet in the next three to six months, she said, adding that finding a new location, receiving tenant approval and signing the lease all take time.

Refraction is working with Boston Properties to find another space in Reston Town Center.

The move to the larger space affects the launch of the Refraction’s apprenticeship program it is currently developing with the Northern Virginia Community College.

The apprenticeship, which is supported by the funding from the county, train workers for startups and high-growth companies. The goal is to launch the program early next year, Lee said.

“Lots of companies have a hard time hiring people with the right skill sets,” she said. “Many kids coming right out of college haven’t had startup experience.”

Photo via Refraction/Facebook

(Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 1 p.m. to correct information from a Fairfax County press release that incorrectly said the Board of Supervisors approved the project on Nov. 20. The board held a public hearing and decided to defer a decision on the redevelopment until their Dec. 4 meeting.)

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on yesterday on Woodfield Acquisitions’ redevelopment of Roland Clarke Place.

The hearing came days after the Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously approved a series of proffers for the redevelopment last Thursday (Nov. 15). The county’s board is set to make a decision on the redevelopment at their meeting on Dec. 4.

The development would replace a vacant, two-story office building at 1941 Roland Clarke Place with a 308-unit residential complex just south of the Dulles Toll Road.

The seven-story apartment building would be about a mile between the Wiehle-Reston East and Reston Town Center Metro stations. Plans for the building include two interior courtyards, an outdoor pool, seating on a third-floor patio and a 409-space, eight-level parking garage behind the building. About one-third of the new development is slated to remain as open space.

The existing office buildings on the site were constructed in the early 1980s. In 2008, the redevelopment of the buildings was planned into three new office buildings, but the plan was never implemented.

Nearby, two other residential developments are happening along Sunrise Valley Drive. On the east side of Roland Clarke Place, Sekas Homes is building a townhouse community. On the west side, Toll Brothers is adding 54 townhouses in its Valley and Park development.

Photos via Fairfax County Government

This story has been updated

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is asking for $550,000 in state grants to fund two pedestrian safety projects in Reston.

The county is seeking $385,000 to add a pedestrian refuge island and flashing beacons to an existing crosswalk across South Lakes Drive at the eastern intersection with Tanbark Drive near South Lakes High School. The second project would add a pedestrian refuge island and rapid flashing beacons to improve safety at an existing crosswalk at Bluemont Way and Discovery Street for $165,000.

In late October, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to request funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian Safety Action Plan grant program, which funds targeted improvements in areas with the potential for pedestrian crashes.

If the state awards funding to the county, county staff will draft project administration agreements with state transportation officials. The funding proposal for Reston is part of a $2.6 million request to the state. VDOT will notify jurisdictions about projects that have been selected for funding this month. Construction on approved projects is expected to begin in April, with a completion date of December 2019.

Construction is intended to happen on an expedited schedule in order to get “maximum return” on limited funding, according to state officials. As a result, projects that require right-of-way or easement acquisition, roadway widening and the replacement or relocation of curb and gutter will not be considered by the state.

File photo

Tolls on Fairfax County Parkway — The Fairfax County Department of Transportation wants to know how you think the county should manage traffic and congestion on the parkway. One option is adding HOV lanes and express or toll lanes. [Fairfax County Government]

Roland Clarke decision delayed — At a meeting today, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will defer a decision on a proposal by Woodfield Investments to demolish a two-story office building and replace it with a multifamily building at 1941 Roland Clarke Place. [Fairfax County Government]

Gift cards, anyone? — Reston Association is offering RA gift cards ahead of the holiday season. [Reston Today]

All 19,000 — That’s the number of mail-in absentee ballots that haven’t been returned yet, so get yours in the mail as soon as possible. If ballots arrive after 7 p.m. on Nov. 6, they won’t be counted. [Fairfax County Government]

Photo by Jami Ojala

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved the redevelopment of Lake Anne Fellowship House, a 240-unit project that offers affordable housing for seniors.

County officials and the development team called the approval, granted on Tuesday (Oct. 16), a win for seniors seeking affordable housing in Reston. For years, community partners and Fellowship Square Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and maintains the current buildings, have contemplated ways to replace the aging buildings with a new facility.

All affordable units, currently distributed between two aging buildings built in the 1970s, will be replaced with a new 240-unit building along North Shore Drive near the intersection with Village Road. The eight-story apartment building is 200,000 square feet and includes a garage. The plan also adds 36 market-rate townhouses to the west side of the property that will help finance the construction of senior housing.

Lake Anne’s current tenants will stay in their apartment during the two-year construction of the new building. After residents move, the old buildings will be torn down and converted into townhouses.

“The residents are excited and they are looking forward to a brand-new facility,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, adding that the addition of townhouses “brings in another neighbor to the community to coalesce with this current group of citizens and those that will come in the future.”

The project is led by Fellowship Square Foundation and the Community Preservation and Development Corp., a nonprofit real estate developer. The development team navigated through many difficult issues to bring the project to fruition, including preserving the number of affordable units and maintaining housing for all current tenants, according to Lynne Strobel, representative of Fellowship Square Foundation. A previous partnership with Novus Residences failed to gain traction in 2004.

The need for the project intensified recently as subsidies from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development expired or will expire within the next five years, Strobel said. The current buildings were also becoming difficult and costly to maintain, she said.

The units offer different levels of affordability, with the first tier beginning at 50 percent of the area median income or about $41,050 per person. The plan also includes eight publicly-accessible parks and transportation improvements. The development team plans to dedicate land for the future alignment of Village Road, which will include a new northbound lane, an eight-foot-wide raised median and 10-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road.

Michael Scheurer, a Fellowship Square Foundation board member, said the redevelopment effort was complicated, difficult and serves as a growing number of aging residents in Reston in need of affordable housing opportunities. The foundation has another 220-unit affordable senior housing project that is undergoing renovations.

“You can see that we have a longterm and substantial investment in the community,” Scheurer said.

Photos via handout/Fairfax County Government

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors appointed three members to Reston Community Center’s Board of Governors Tuesday (Oct. 16).

Incumbents Lisa Sechrest-Ehrhardt and William G. Bouie were appointed to the board alongside newcomer Richard Stillson. Sechrest-Ehrhardt had the most votes in this year’s preference poll with 1,426 votes. Stillson had 1,221 votes while Bouie had 1,194 votes. Other candidates were Gerald Zavala (1,036 votes) and April Tan (755 votes).

Three-year terms for the newly-appointed members begin on Nov. 5. Zavala, who unsuccessfully ran for a board seat, will leave the board after serving for six years, including four as treasurer.

RCC offered the following background information about the new members:

William G. Bouie has served on the RCC Board since 2003, and served as the Board Chair from 2006 until 2008. He is also the current chair of the Fairfax County Park Authority Board, and vice chair of the Board of Directors for Public Art Reston. He has served in formal and informal roles in many other community organizations, including the Wolf Trap Associates Board of Directors, Reston Hospital Board of Trustees, Reston Little League, Reston Youth Baseball, Reston’s YMCA Board of Management, Friends of Reston and the United States Olympic Committee’s Project Gold, among others.

Lisa Sechrest-Ehrhardt has served on the RCC Board since 2012. She is a professional social worker and diversity trainer. In addition to her experience as a former RCC employee, Lisa and her family have participated in numerous RCC programs as patrons. Her experiences as an educator and communicator have focused on celebrating diversity and engaging community members of all backgrounds.

Richard Stillson is a 46-year Reston resident and longtime International Monetary Fund staffer. He was the first president of the advocacy group Reston 2020 and was former chair of Reston Association’s Lakes Committee. He has been active at RCC as an instructor of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) courses.

RCC is governed by a nine-member board that is appointed by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors after residents and businesses of Small District 5 note their preferences in an annual poll. The board is responsible for key oversight functions, including strategic planning, community relations, fiduciary oversight and policy administration.

Logo via Reston Community Center

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote on a plan to add a residential component to Reston Arboretum on Oct. 16.

Pulte Homes Corp. seeks to rezone the property from industrial uses to planned development commercial, which would allow the property to be used for office and residential uses.

The proposal calls for 44 single-family attached residential units and a parking garage. A four-story office building, which was built in 1998, will remain on the property. The site has been marketed as within walking distance from the Herndon-Monroe Park & Ride and the future Herndon Metro station.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the project, with one abstention. The project is located at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive and the vote is docketed for around 3:30 p.m.

Photo via Google Maps

County officials seek to proceed with construction of the Soapstone Connector, a major road extension between Sunrise Valley Drive and Sunset Hills Road, amid concerns the path of the half-mile extension would disturb potentially historically significant buildings on Association Drive.

On Sept. 25, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to support the county’s proposed route for $169 million project because buildings on Association Drive are not likely eligible a historical designation on the national register. The board’s approval responds formally to a Virginia Department of Historic Resources letter that urged the county work with the Fairfax County Architectural Review Board (ARB)  to determine if the buildings on Association are historically significant.

Earlier this year, the ARB raised concerns that the 1916 Association Drive and ten office buildings on Association Drive could be eligible for National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The county’s environmental assessment of the property did not concur with the ARB’s analysis.

Construction of the connector, which will create a new crossing over the Dulles Corridor, is not anticipated to begin until after 2023.

Tom Biesiadny, director of the county’s transportation department, said the county was ready to pitch its proposed route in January when concerns about the historical significance of the buildings arose. After direction from state officials, the department consulted with boards, agencies, property owners and developers to determine how to proceed. Two historic studies commissioned by architectural historians offered conflicting opinions on the historical significance of the buildings, which served educational associations.

If the state’s historic resources department determines the proposed route of the Soapstone Connector impacts historic resources on the site, county officials will need to mull additional alternates to avoid disturbing any historic resources. But county officials hinted the overall discussion on the impact of possibly historically significant buildings was largely moot because the entire office park is slated for potential redevelopment as a mixed-use project. Reston’s comprehensive plan was amended in 2014 to allow high-density development in the area and property owners have long expressed eagerness to proceed with redevelopment.

“I think you’re looking at an uphill climb to preserve this area as a district,” said Frank Selden, director of the Fairfax County’s Department of Planning and Zoning.

Biesiadny also said the future road connection would run through the building on 1904 Association Drive, which is not likely of historical significance. The building that is likely historically significant is 1916 Association Drive and lies on the opposite side of where the connector would run through.

The board indicated overall support of the project, which it formally approved several years ago. Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said the connector was desperately needed to manage traffic generated by additional redevelopment and development.

“This would be an additional north-south crossing of which we have two that are already congested and [are] desperately in need of an alternative,” Hudgins said. She also suggested the county and the developer could acknowledge the historical significance of the buildings through other means.

An attempt to defer the vote to the board’s next meeting failed.

“This is not something that hasn’t been vetted and worked through,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.

Although the state transportation department is procuring a consultant to design the Soapstone Connector, design work cannot begin unless state officials are aware of the final road alignment.

Photo via handout/Fairfax County Government

The expansion of RTC West, JBG Smith’s mixed-use project less than quarter-mile walk from the future Reston Town Center Metro Station, is getting closer to final approval. The Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously approved the project, which adds up to 576 multifamily units, 700,000 square feet of office space and 1.4 million square feet of new development to the existing office park, on Thursday night.

The developer plans to embark on a multiphase expansion for the area, which is bounded by the Washington & Old Dominion Trail to the North and Reston Town Center Parkway to the east, over the next several years. The site is currently home to three six-story office buildings, two parking garages, and retail tenants like Cooper’s Hawk Winery, Nando’s Peri-Peri and honeygrow.

A timeline for the project is pending approval.

If approved and built, the project will add another mixed-use component near the future RTC Metro Station. RTC West is next to the recently approved Reston Gateway project. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote on the project on September 25.  The site design incorporates the future Town Center Parkway underpass that would connect Sunset Hills Road to Sunrise Valley Drive through a tunnel under the Dulles Toll and Access Road, according to the application.

Hunter Mill District Planning Commissioner Frank Carter said the county worked with the developer to address several issues, including the distribution of workforce dwelling units. The project will provide affordable units at 80, 100 and 120 percent of the Area Median Income. Parking will not be assigned to each residential unit. In order to simplify the process, Carter said affordable units will receive parking at 70 percent the price of parking for market-rate units. The entire project is expected to provide around 2,900 parking spaces for residents and employees. 

Carter said that if parking works like the parking in RTC, the arrangement should be sufficient. The site plan accommodates 57 on-street parking spaces, encouraging people to use other ways of getting around other than cars.

The plan, which includes 3.4 acres of open space, is as follows:

• Buildings 1, 2, and 3: Existing six-story office building with retail on the ground floor will remain. 
• Building 4: A one-story freestanding restaurant, Cooper’s Hawk Winery, will remain.
• Building 5: A new eight-story office with 160,000 square feet, including 10,000 square feet of retail.
• Building 6: A new 22-story office building with 396,000 square feet, including 16,000 square feet of retail.
• Building 7: A 20-story residential building with 293 multi-family units.
• Building 8: A new 22-story residential building with 283 multi-family units. This building wraps the north facade of a second parking garage.
• Building 9: A new seven-story office building located on top of a current parking structure.
• Building 10: A one-story freestanding restaurant located on the common green.

A new right-only entrance from southbound Town Center Parkway at the north of the property line will be added to the development. The site itself will contain existing internal streets with on-street parking. Other planned improvements include a new westbound, shared right-turn lane and a five-woot on-road bicycle lane on Sunset Hills Road. A five-foot wide bicycle lane will also be provided on Town Center Parkway.

Photos via Fairfax County Government

This is an op/ed submitted by Terry Maynard, co-chair of the Reston 20/20 committee. It does not reflect the opinions of Reston Now.

Reston’s future lies largely in the numbers that define the county’s plan for Reston’s transit station areas (TSAs)–the areas roughly within a half-mile of each Metro station.  The results of looking at those numbers are shocking, but not really surprising.

The Board of Supervisors-approved Reston Master Plan calls for 44,000 dwelling units (DUs) in Reston’s TSAs, virtually all of which will be high-rise (“elevator”), high-density DUs–condos and apartments.  

County planning assumes 2.1 people will live in each high-rise, high-density DU.

Put together, that means a potential population of 92,400 people in Reston’s station areas.   That’s without any affordable housing “bonuses” or development waiver approvals or other uncounted DUs or people, a frequent fact of life in Fairfax County.  

When the Reston Master Plan Task Force was working on a new plan for the station areas, the county provided several different numbers for the actual acreage of the study area.  These ranged from 1,232 acres (1.925 square miles) to 1,683 acres (2.630 square miles) of land in Reston’s TSAs.  The county provided no explanation for the range of values.

Dividing the number of people by the acreage, the resulting number is somewhere between 55 and 75 per acre.  On a square mile basis, that Reston TSA density is between 35,200 and 48,000 persons per square mile (pers/SM). 

According to Wikipedia, Manhattan has a density of 26,403 pers/SM.  That makes the planned population of Reston’s TSAs at least one-third denser than and potentially nearly twice as dense as Manhattan is today.  

Wikipedia adds that Manhattan’s residential density “makes it the densest of any American municipality with a population above 100,000.”  And Reston’s TSA population may well exceed that 100,000 number if the county continues its bonus and waiver giveaways to developers.

I don’t think anyone who lives in Reston thinks that two square miles of super-density in Reston’s TSAs cutting through the middle of our community is consistent with any definition of preserving, much less improving, Reston’s quality of life. And the county has no meaningful plans or means to meet the infrastructure requirements of this population or the needs of the surrounding Reston community.