A year after being approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the plan for a mixed-use development on Reston Town Center’s last undeveloped parcel is going back for revisions.
Boston Properties’ plan for Blocks 4, currently RTC’s 251-space surface parking lot, will go before the county planning commission on Sept. 30 and the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 6 for public hearings on small changes to the project.
Rich Ellis, Boston Properties’ Vice President of Development, says the application involves a minor design modification to one of the two residential towers planned for Block 4. The design change will not alter the total unit count or retail square footage, he said.
In summer 2014, the Supervisors approved Boston Properties’ plans, which include include two high-rise residential buildings with up to 549 units and nine levels of underground parking, for the surface lot at Fountain Drive and New Dominion Parkway.
Boston Properties purchased the six-acre site in 2013 and then changed the zoning from office space to residential.
Boston Properties will move the office part of the development to Block 5, where the current FedEx/Kinkos and Ann Taylor are now located, with additional office space above.
The plan calls for turning that three-story retail/office building into a 17-story building with 276,788 square feet of office space and 7,800 square feet of ground-floor retail. The building would also have four levels of underground parking.
The residences will feature one tower standing 19 stories tall and the other 21 stories tall. There will be up to 25,100 square feet of ground-level retail space and an additional 20,000 square feet of retail that would be partially located underground.
At the base of the 21-story tower will be two-level townhouse units, stacked three high. Each ground-level unit will have a terrace along New Dominion Parkway. Five levels of residences will also wrap around the parking structure. The complex will have its own pool.
Along President’s Street, the developers plan open space with outdoor dining areas and a pedestrian connection from the buildings to a proposed park along Reston Parkway. The park will feature a yoga deck, lawn and public art space.
As one of the proffered conditions for construction, which is expected to begin late this year or early in 2016, the developers will have to meet Fairfax County requirements for tree preservation.
Boston Properties will also have to build road improvements such as left turn lanes from Reston Parkway, New Dominion Parkway and Fountain Drive. Sixteen percent of the housing units will be set aside as workforce housing.
The board also in 2014 approved a reduction in parking of 22 percent (up to 192 fewer spaces) because of its proximity to future mass transit. The planned Reston Parkway Silver Line Metro Station is a half-mile away.
Block 4 and 5 development will flow into other approved high-density development nearby.
The Spectrum, a low-rise strip mall located just across New Dominion Parkway, has been approved for redevelopment into 774,879 square feet of non-residential use and 1,422 multifamily residential units in seven new residential buildings. The new area will feature a hotel, and Harris Teeter is the only retailer expected to remain under the current plan.
Additionally, part of the Spectrum will wrap around the planned 23-story office tower at 1760 Reston Parkway. That building, which will contain retail and 18 stories of offices, was approved by the supervisors in 2012.
Photo: Block 4/5 Residential Development Proposal/Credit: Fairfax County
Reston Association’s Board of Directors has sent a letter to county officials saying that the new plan for Tall Oaks Village Center “falls woefully short of meeting even minimum standards sought for a village center.”
The Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) purchased the aging village center in December and plans to redevelop the space — which is only 16 percent occupied — into a variety of housing with a small amount of retail.
JAG has not filed any permits or plans for the redevelopment, which will not need rezoning under new Reston Master Plan rules.
The company has held three community meetings. In the first two last April, the plans were not well received by community members, who said if proper management was in place, retail would thrive.
At the most recent meeting, in June, JAG officials came back with an amended plan featuring 150 rather than 154 homes (a variety of townhomes, 2-over-2 townhouses and condos), about 7,000 square feet (up from 3,000 SF) of retail and additional open space.
But the lack of a community gathering space and open space remains an issue for Reston Association, RA President Ellen Graves said in an Aug. 6 letter to Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and Planning Commission member Frank de la Fe.
RA says JAG should follow Urban Land Institute guidelines for the importance of public plazas in planning for the new Tall Oaks.
Those guidelines state a successful public realm is one where “commerce, social interaction, leisure time activities may mix easily in an attractive, pedestrian-friendly outdoor setting. … The public realm should allow for the integration of the people, the place and the larger community.”
Says RA: “The current Jefferson Apartment Group redevelopment plan does none of the above. In all its iterations, the plan falls woefully short of meeting even minimum standards sought for a Village Center in Reston. The existing elderly housing residents [at Tall Oaks Assisted Living] should be supported in the Village Center’s design, amenities and uses. An amount and mix of commercial uses sufficient to serve the surrounding neighbors should remain.”
See the entire letter below.
RA Letter Re:Tall Oaks by Karen Goldberg Goff
Photo: Rendering of redeveloped Tall Oaks/Credit: JAG
The developer of The Harrison, the recently built 360-unit apartment buildings at Reston Parkway and Temporary Road, is planning another luxury building just next door.
Renaissance Centro says it has plans to build 110 to 120 luxury condos at 1801 Old Reston Ave. That address, at Reston Parkway, Old Reston Avenue and Temporary Road, is currently an office building.
Renaissance Centro owns the 29,300-square-foot, four-story office building. Residential development on the site would require a rezoning from commercial to residential. No rezoning application has been filed.
Reps from Renaissance Centro did not return calls, but a glimpse at the company website shows a little of what it eventually plans.
1801 OLD RESTON AVENUE
LUXURY CONDOMINUM UNITS
197,000 SQ. FT. | 110-120 UNITS1801 Old Reston Avenue will be an infill multi-family project adjacent to Reston Town Center. The future building will be within walking distance of the new Silver Line Metro station at Reston Town Center, feature direct access to the W&OD Trail network and all the rich amenities that Reston has to offer. The project will feature well-appointed units and elegant amenity areas.
INTERIOR FEATURES
Grand Lobby
Resident Lounge/Party Room
Fitness Center
Rooftop Amenity Package (subject to final design and programming)
Renaissance Centro, based in Bethesda, Md., already has quite a presence on that stretch of Reston Parkway from Sunset Hills to Temporary Road. In addition to The Harrison, the company built Carlton House and Stratford House across from Reston Town Center.
Photo: 1801 Old Reston Avenue(left) and The Harrison
Reston Kabob has closed its doors after 13 years at the Reston International Center’s Convenience Center off of Sunrise Valley Drive.
The local favorite’s last day was July 31. The business owners said in early June it would be closing on that date in order to make way for The JBG Companies’ new mixed-use development, which will begin construction soon.
The Shojas family, owners of Reston Kabob, will still operate their other nearby restaurant, Grill Kabob, 905 Herndon Pkwy.
Reston Kabob was the last business standing in the development. Chili’s closed late last year. A Wells Fargo bank shuttered last summer. And Reston Kabob’s neighbors, 7-Eleven and a dry cleaners, in its small strip, left a few months ago. Popeye’s, in a free-standing building across the parking lot, will remain.
The development has taken on somewhat of a ghost town quality, with large weeds springing up through the concrete in the parking lot.
A JBG representative said recently that the Chili’s building will likely be razed in the next 60 days.
JBG is planning the second phase of its Reston Heights development, which will include a six-story residential building, a 15-story residential building, a five-story building that incorporates a parking garage with residences and retail space; and a 10-story building that mixes office space, parking and retail space.
Read more about the development in this previous Reston Now story.
The 23-story tower on Reston Parkway is still expected to dominate Reston’s future skyline, but developers are waiting on a major tenant before beginning construction.
The $210 million building — which was controversial when it was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2012 — will replace a five-story office building at 1760 Reston Parkway.
At 330 feet tall, the new office building will be more than 100 feet taller than One Freedom Square at Reston Town Center, currently Reston’s tallest.
Developer Akridge, which has partnered with RTC Partnership LLC to construct the building, said last winter that the plan is to sign a major tenant for at least 150,000 of the building’s 420,000 square feet before starting construction.
Akridge reps were at Reston Association’s Design Review Board meeting on Tuesday, where it showed small design modifications. The lead architect is HOK, who will work in collaboration with original architect The Polleo Group, Akridge Vice President of Development David Toney said.
Waiting for a tenant would be a lot less risky than proceeding “on spec” as developers say. While office space at Reston Town Center is 100 percent leased, space more than one-quarter of mile from a Metro station is not as hot.
Verity Commercial Real Estate said in a 2014 report that within a quarter-mile of Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, vacancy rates were as low as 11 percent in 2011 but were more recently hovering around 25 percent.
The vacancy rates within the half-mile radius have stayed somewhat steadier: 12 percent vacancy rate in 2011 to a rate of 15 percent in the last year.
The 1760 building will be about eight-tenths of a mile from the future Reston Town Center Metro Station, which is expected to open in 2019.
Planned building amenities include a large rooftop plaza, floor-to-ceiling glass, 9.5-foot ceilings, five levels of screened parking above street level, ground-floor retail and about 18 floors of office space.
In September of 2012, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins called the project an example of world-class design.
“This will stand as a stark example of what world-class design is called for in the principles of Reston,” said Hudgins. “We will not have to remain in the sameness of heights and density as a measure of world-class design.”
Some of Reston’s citizens were not as complimentary, citing the scale of the building and traffic concerns, among others. Opponents of the project called it “incompatible with Reston.”
Critics of the project included Reston Association and the Fairfax County Planning Commission staff, which said the building was out of scale with its surroundings.
The building was approved by the supervisors anyway. The current building, which houses a title agency and dentist office, among others, was zoned Planned Residential Community in 1978 and is under no height restrictions.
The proposed density of 4.08 Floor-Area Ratio on the 2.36-acre property is actually less than several surrounding buildings or proposed buildings, representatives for RTC Partnership pointed out at the time.
Looking toward the future, the building might not seem so out of proportion, though. Across the street are the new 14-story Harrison residential buildings. And coming eventually: major development at adjacent Town Center North and the Spectrum.
Town Center North — the area from New Dominion Parkway to Bowman Town Drive and Town Center Parkway to Fountain Drive — is planned for a mixed-use district, with renovated or relocated space for the Reston Regional Library and Embry Rucker Community Shelter, as well as offices, hotels, a performing arts center and at least 1,000 new residences.
Fairfax County is currently accepting Request For Proposals from developers seeking the project.
The Spectrum, currently site of strip retail, will eventually be seven new residential buildings, a hotel and 774,879 square feet of retail and office.
Photos: Renderings of planned 23-story tower/Credit: RTC Partnership
Fairfax County is now taking developer ideas to redevelop the area known as Town Center North.
The county has issued a Request For Proposal (RFP), which will run through Aug. 20. The county says in the RFP it is seeking to develop a public-private partnership as it seeks to redevelop the first phase of the project.
Those two parcels are about seven acres of the 49-acre space, which is currently owned by Inova and the county. The area runs from New Dominion Parkway to Bowman Town Drive and Town Center Parkway to Fountain Drive.
Eventually, redevelopment will stretch from New Dominion Parkway to Baron Cameron Avenue and will encompass a town green.
The county envisions a mixed-use district, with renovated or relocated space for the Reston Regional Library and Embry Rucker Community Shelter, as well as offices, hotels, a performing arts center and at least 1,000 new residences.
The Fairfax County Park Authority also plans to build an indoor pool and recreation center at Town Center North. Park Authority Board Chair Bill Bouie said earlier this year the rec center would primarily be funded with bonds, including an $87.7 million bond in 2016 and an $88 million bond on the ballot in 2020. He said the park authority would seek developer proffers to help pay for the facility. Typical proffers are around $800 per residential unit, he said.
Homes and apartments in Town Center North will be part of Reston Association, RA officials said in a news release.
Hunter Mill Supervisors Cathy Hudgins will hold a community dialogue on the future of Reston Center North July 29, 7 p.m. at the North County Government Center, 1801 Cameron Glen Dr.
“The timing of the community dialogue is important to inform the process for the long-term future,” Hudgins said in a statement.
“Fairfax County staff will outline the immediate work, answer community questions about the process and timing of the redevelopment effort. Participants have the opportunity to identify critical needs that should be addressed in the redevelopment of the County owned property, as well as the larger site. It is important to continue the conversation on how best to maintain a vibrant and livable community for all.”
There will be an additional community meeting on Sept. 19 at Reston Community Center Lake Anne.
The former American Press Institute headquarters may be a future housing development.
Vienna-based Sekas Homes has submitted a Fairfax County rezoning application for the property located at 11690 Sunrise Valley Drive. The company seeks to change the parcel from industrial to Planned Residential to construct 37 urban-style single family attached dwelling units, as well as parking and recreational amenities, the application says.
The existing office building and surface parking will be removed, the application said.
Access will be provided via a single full movement access point off of Roland Clarke Place and the development will be served by private streets and alleyways, the applications said.
The building was occupied by API from 1972 until 2012, when the organization merged with the Newspaper Association of America. The modernist building designed by architect Marcel Breuer was sold for $5 million in 2013.
The building site is adjacent to JBG’s Reston Heights, which contains two hotels, the Mercer Condos and offices. Further expansion of Reston Heights is set to begin soon for the parcel that formerly contained Chili’s Bar & Grill.
The expansion, approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2013, will have a six-story residential building, a 15-story residential building, a five-story building that incorporates a parking garage with residences and retail space; and a 10-story building that mixes office space, parking and retail space.
JBG recently announced that 24-Hour Fitness will be an anchor tenant.
Meanwhile, there also may a big new development in the works for the south access point of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station.
CESC Commerce Executive Park, L.L.C. has filed a rezoning application for 1850 Centennial Park Drive, 11400 Commerce Park Drive and 11440 Commerce Park Drive to rezone from Industrial District to Planned Development Commercial (PDC).
Those office buildings are located on the south side of the Dulles Toll Road from the metro station. There is direct access from a stairway between the office buildings and the toll road.
The applications calls for approximately 500 new dwelling units, a hotel with approximately 175 rooms, a new office building of approximately 400,000 square feet, and “complementary retail/active uses integrated into the ground floor to enrich the pedestrian experience.”
The property owners say two existing office buildings will be retained (totaling 356,496 square feet of office space). The application also includes an option to convert the proposed hotel to multifamily residential, and the proposed new office building to multifamily residential and/or hotel.
That development would be one of several in the immediate vicinity of the Metro station. Comstock’s 528-unit BLVD apartments at Reston Station will begin leasing later this year. Construction has recently begun on a project by The Bozzuto Group and Chuck Veatch at Sunset Hills Road and Reston Station Boulevard that will bring 421 units. Developer JBG has also filed a rezoning application to turn an office building at 1831 Wiehle Av. (Sunset Hills and Wiehle Avenue) into 504 residential units.
API building/Credit: Showcase.com
The Reston Association Board of Directors voted unanimously on Thursday to add Comstock’s BLVD residences to the association, potentially paving the way for other new buildings to become RA properties but at a different assessment structure.
Under the new model, the association will receive an initiation fee and/or proffers from developers.
Residents will not initially have to pay RA assessments. BLVD, which will begin leasing 540 units at Reston Station this fall, is built in Reston’s former industrial corridor and is not required to join RA. Also, it will have extensive on-site amenities, so residents should not require all of RA’s membership benefits.
Comstock has agreed to pay $300,000 of an expected $650,000 in proffers to RA as an association initiation fee. Comstock’s payment will go towards the refurbishment of the Tetra Building, which RA is in the process of purchasing for community space. Comstock will get naming rights to the building for 10 years.
BLVD will offer to residents optional RA recreational packages, which will give residents access to RA pools, tennis courts and camp priority, for $350 annually.
When and if the building goes condo, residents will pay 50 percent of the RA full-member assessment (currently $642 annually), according to RA and Comstock’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Those members will still have to pay an additional fee for RA recreation access, RA CEO Cate Fulkerson said.
BLVD will not be under the guidelines of the RA Design Review Board. Its design guidelines were already approved by the county as part of the initial plans in 2010.
The upcoming Bozzuto residential building, which will have 421 units across Reston Station Boulevard from BLVD, will also likely be added to the association in the same manner, Fulkerson said.
Along with bringing new revenue into the association, adding former industrial corridor properties to RA will help create a more unified Reston, she added.
“With the Silver Line spurring new mixed use development in those areas, we believe it is important to bring the corridor properties into our organization to make one Reston,” said Reston Association CEO Cate Fulkerson. “More than anything, so that the people who are coming into our community have a sense of place, that they belong to all of Reston and are not separated or treated differently.”
The board also passed a motion to begin adding future corridor properties using a list of eight options recently adopted by RA.
Tall Oaks Village Center owners Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) will present a revised look at plans for the space on June 22.
JAG, along with Fairfax County Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, is hosting and open house at 7 p.m. at Reston Community Center at Lake Anne, 1609-A Washington Plaza.
JAG, which purchased Tall Oaks for $14 million last December, held two community meetings in Reston in April. Representatives showed plans to replace the increasingly vacant shopping center with 154 residential units (townhomes and condos) and a small amount of retail.
The proposal was not well received by Tall Oaks-area residents, who would prefer the village center be preserved as a retail center, including a grocery store anchor. There is an online petition asking JAG to keep Tall Oaks retail.
The 25,000-square-foot grocery store space — formerly a Giant and then two different international groceries — has been vacant for nearly five years.
Land use attorney Mark Looney said at the previous meetings that there was almost no interest in Tall Oaks among retailers.
Looney predicts Tall Oaks, which had a nearly 90-percent occupancy rate in 2007 and currently has a 13-percent occupancy rate, will be 6 percent occupied by early 2016.
Meanwhile, Reston Master Plan Phase 2, recently approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, says developers do not have to get a Comprehensive Plan Amendment in order to redevelop Tall Oaks as residential.
Rendering of new Tall Oaks residences/Courtesy Jefferson Apartment Group
While the Silver Line is having an impact on how younger workers get to Reston, it is not necessarily expected to attract them to live in Reston.
That is what several real estate developers said at a forum “The Future of Reston and Herndon” organized by e-news company Bisnow in Reston on Tuesday.
The Silver Line opened its first phase last July, and Wiehle-Reston East, the end of the line until Phase 2 opens in 2019, immediately became one of Metro’s highest-traveled stations. Metro officials say people are taking public transportation both to Reston and from Reston to other workplaces in Arlington, Tysons Corner and D.C.
But they still can’t take Metro around Reston, which is what Millennials (people ages 18 to 35) want.
“A lot of people are saying ‘this is it’ when talking about the Silver Line,” said Greg Trimmer, Principal with The JBG Companies. “But JBG’s position is the Silver Line is not really the panacea. It is a great thing to have, but it is really a commuter line. It presents some challenges as well. People are not going to take the Metro three stops to get some lunch. We will see people taking it 5 or 6 stops to get to a job.”
JBG has four mixed use projects under development: Reston Heights, RTC West, 1831 Wiehle Ave. (in application process) and at Fairway Apartments. There are also multifamily developments either planned or under construction at Wiehle-Reston East (Comstock’s BLVD and the new Bozzuto/Charles Veatch building) and Lake Anne/Crescent (Lake Anne Development Partners), among others.
Several panelists said the residents of other recently-built residential buildings such as The Harrison and The Avant are trending older.
“We are seeing a huge boom in multifamily construction,” said Trimmer. “But the population of millennials in Reston has actually dropped. We are seeing growth in Reston in people in their 40s and 50s and retirees.”
Trimmer said if Reston properties try to compete with buildings in the District “it is not a fight Reston is going to win.”
Said Randall Scott, Principal, Coretrust Capital Partners commercial real estate: “We view Reston as a new town, edge city type place. In our experience, millennials will gravitate to an urban core such as D.C. initially. It remains to be seen whether they will stay there or be where there are open spaces and great schools eventually. Our view is we will get terrific inflow and outflow on the Silver Line.”
The Silver Line, has, however, been a great work perk, even after just 10 months.
Reston was planned all along to be a transit-oriented community, with offices and residential, an urban-style town center and walkability. That puts it ahead of the game when it comes to Tysons Corner, said Sonny Small, CEO of Renaissance Centro, which built the recently-opened The Harrison apartments. The Harrison is also seeing older residents, many of whom are moving from other properties such as single-family homes within Reston.
“The Silver Line is a fabulous amenity,” he said. “Reston has the original bones already. The interesting part will be how neighborhoods other than Reston Town Center evolve.”
Tony Womack of Tishman Speyer commercial real estate said he has clients looking at Reston office space that were not looking here prior to the Silver Line.
“The younger workforce can get out here,” he said. “Older executives are already out here.”
Photo: The Avant apartments at Reston Town Center
(Updated 11:20 a.m. Monday with quote from Reston Kabob owner)
Reston Kabob, a locally owned restaurant in the Reston International Center’s convenience center on Sunrise Valley Drive, will close its doors at the end of July, employees said.
The restaurant is the last remaining tenant at the convenience center located at 11844 Sunrise Valley Dr.
The 7-Eleven located two doors down from Reston Kabob closed its doors on May 31, and Sunrise Cleaners, located next door, also recently closed.
The departures are not a surprise as the area is slated for a massive redevelopment. Chili’s Bar & Grill across the parking lot closed late last year, and a Wells Fargo Bank branch has been empty since last August.
Reston Kabob’s Masoud Shoja says the restaurant is talking to dh are in talks with property owner JBG about possibly returning once the project is complete.
“It’s more likely than not we will return,” he said. “However, the projected completion date is set for 2017-2018 and a lot can happen from now until then.”
The Shojas will still operate their other nearby restaurant, Grill Kabob, 905 Herndon Parkway.
Developer The JBG Companies is planning the second phase of its Reston Heights development, which will include a six-story residential building, a 15-story residential building, a five-story building that incorporates a parking garage with residences and retail space; and a 10-story building that mixes office space, parking and retail space.
The plan includes 145,000 square feet of above-grade retail, 100,00 square feet of below-grade retail, 428,225 square feet of office and 498 residential units.
No construction start date has been announced.
Plans call for a 15-story addition to the Reston International Center office tower, though JBG sold the building to American Real Estate Partners for $35 million February of this year.
JBG first had a plan for the area approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2008. That plan featured 498 residential units, 245,000 square feet of retail and nearly 430,000 square feet of office in six buildings.
In the newer plans, approved by the supervisors in 2013, the numbers are similar, but the design has changed to better engage with the surrounding environment.
Only the stand-alone Popeye’s will remain as a holdover from current tenants.
There will be an entrance to the development from the Reston Parkway side, something the area currently lacks.
In a presentation to the Reston Association Design Review Board in 2013, Cunningham Quill Architects and Olin, a landscape architecture firm, said they were seeking a design that engages with the landscape and connects with the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station via bike and foot paths.
The new plans will also be harmonious with the adjacent Reston Heights project, also built by JBG. That includes the Westin Reston Heights hotel and the Mercer Condominium, as well as office space.
Reston is about to undergo a major residential development spurt. That is why Reston Association is proposing a new model for adding properties to the association that could have some residents paying half as much as current members in annual assessments.
RA CEO Cate Fulkerson presented some of the details at RA’s regular board meeting last week. The changes come as RA is in the process of adding Comstock’s BLVD apartments at Reston Station, the first of what will likely be several new multifamily developments added to RA.
BLVD, which will begin leasing later this year, will have 540 units. It will be the first residential development in the area along the Dulles Toll Road that was formerly zoned industrial. Since no residential development was there before, properties will be new to RA’s jurisdiction.
“Currently, new or existing properties along the corridor do not fall within RA’s jurisdiction (RA covenanted land) therefore assessments from those residences are not collected by RA,” says a statement by RA. “Those properties also do not fall under RA’s design guidelines and could potentially create an appearance of ‘two different Restons’ if the properties are not properly maintained.”
Under the new model, developers would have the opportunity to join RA. The association would receive an initiation fee and/or proffers from developers in exchange for RA providing certain services such as overseeing the future administration and design review process of the properties, RA says.
Because much of the new development, including BLVD, will have on-site amenities such as swimming pools, RA would reduce the assessment fee to half the amount paid by full members of the association. The 2015 assessment fee for full members is $642.
Fulkerson said new RA members in the former industrial corridor area would not have the same access to RA amenities that full members possess, but would benefit from various RA services.
“While all of the details have not been worked out yet … the key point under consideration has to do with services more than amenities,” said Fulkerson.
Fulkerson said all residents, regardless of whether they are members or not, have access to Reston Association’s pathways, open spaces, ball fields and other public amenities. The services RA would provide to new members are administrative in nature, such as design guideline oversight.
“Members who receive the half-price discount would not qualify for the reduced rates that full members get on things like tennis and pool passes,” she added. “We feel this is fair to both our existing members and any potential new members. “We also don’t anticipate providing reduced camp or other programing rates for members who are receiving the lesser assessment rate.”
By adding new properties to RA, the association would have greater control over the design guidelines of the properties. The new assessments and initiation fees would bring revenue to the association and allow the new area to become part of “one Reston,” says RA.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved changes to the Reston Master Plan that will provide guidelines for any changes to village centers and neighborhoods as Reston moves into its second 50 years.
The changes, commonly called Reston Master Plan Phase 2, ensure that future residential and commercial growth will be concentrated in the Town Center, the Transit Station Areas and the Village Centers; and the Vision and Planning Principles created in Phase 1 should apply to the whole of Reston.
Phase 1, which set standards for development close to transit centers at Wiehle-Reston East and Reston’s future Reston Parkway Metro Station, was approved by the county in early 2014.
Some of the vision and planning principles for both: that Reston place an emphasis on diversity of housing, affordability, walkability and the role plazas play as community gathering spaces.
Reston Association CEO Cate Fulkerson, one of a handful of speakers at the public hearing portion of Tuesday’s meeting, requested that a sentence be added “Reston has always been a place where nature is valued and protected.”
“This summarizes the most important characteristic of Reston and needs to be incorporated,” she said.
Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins agreed, and suggested that it be added to a prominent place at the start of the final document.
Hudgins had some questions for county planning staff at the meeting. One of the questions centered on whether St. Johns Wood, the garden apartment complex owned by Bozzuto, can redevelop without a comprehensive plan amendment. Read More
The former Reston Mini-Storage site, as well as the small commercial strip in the 11400 block of Sunset Hills Road have been razed in order to make room for the construction of apartments.
The tear-down has been happening the last two weeks and crews are working their way through the giant pile of bricks, steel and other debris.
The tenants had been moved out last year in order to make way for the construction. The five-acre parcel goes from Sunset Hills to Reston Station Boulevard, just across from Comstock’s BLVD Apartments at Reston Station, as well as the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station.
Reston developer Chuck Veatch, owner of the property, is working on the project with The Bozzuto Group.
The parcel was rezoned from Industrial to Planned Mixed Use Residential in 2010. A 421-unit building with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail has been approved. See the county staff report for more details on the project.
Isaac Newton Square, the aging office park at Sunset Hills Road and Wiehle Avenue, could have a future as a residential neighborhood, according to Reston Master Plan Phase 2 recommendations.
“This area represents an opportunity to create a new residential neighborhood organized around a local-serving park,” Fairfax County planners say about the office park in the Master Plan Phase 2 draft.
The complex of low-slung office buildings, which includes Reston Sport & Health, Reston Montessori and KinderCare among other offices and businesses, is in walking distance of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station and backs up to Hidden Creek Country Club’s golf course, as well as the W & OD Trail.
According to the Master Plan Draft, which will be voted on by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on June 2, Isaac Newton Square is planned for up to 2.0 FAR (Floor Area Ratio), a mark of medium density.
Here is what the draft says about Isaac Newton Square, which was built in the 1960s and 1970s:
The opportunity exists to achieve the Residential Mixed Use goal of 75 percent residential uses for the larger area if Isaac Newton Square redevelops in accordance with Plan guidance.
It is planned for up to 2.0 FAR with a residential and hotel component on the order of 90 percent of new development (approximately 3,200 units of the 4,600 units in the Residential Mixed Use area).
In light of the older, very low-density buildings, surface parking lots and undeveloped areas in this business park, a shift to a residential focus for this area can be achieved.
Residential buildings should front on tree-lined streets and be designed with inviting street level facades. This area represents an opportunity to create a new residential neighborhood organized around a local-serving park. This area should also be considered as a potential location for an athletic field to meet the need for the TSA.
In addition, development along the W&OD trail should be oriented and designed in order to create connections to the park property. This regional asset should be assimilated as much as possible into the development pattern in order to create a more urban fabric for the park property. This would include plazas, greens and other public gathering spaces abutting the park property.
Careful attention to design is necessary to maintain safe passage for through trail users and should be coordinated with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
Isaac Newtown Square currently contains many vacancies, according to commerical real estate listings. It is managed by Lincoln Property Company. Thus far, there are no plans in the works to transform the commercial area.
Phase 2 of the Master Plan will be a guiding document for Reston’s village centers and neighborhoods as Reston grows in the future. Phase 1, which sets guidelines for high-density areas near Reston’s transit centers, was approved by the Board of Supervisors in early 2014.
Isaac Newton Square/file photo
