Reston Citizen

Fairfax County is again looking for proposals to develop the surface parking at the Wiehle Avenue park and ride lot. The current idea is to build office and retail space, on the 9 acre site. There is no residential component, because land covenants forbid residential development adjacent to the Dulles Toll Road.

Fairfax County predicts companies will move to Reston because of the metro extension. The County has issued a request for proposals, with the goal of partnering with a private developer. Preference would be given to companies using a minimum of government support.

The developer of the project would be required to maintain a 1:1 of current parking. This would in part be achieved by utilizing the VDOT Wiehle Park and Ride. Buses would also be moved temporarily to that lot.

The Silver Line’s first phase terminates in Reston at Wiehle Avenue, and should be complete by 2013.

JBG, the company that owns the Reston International center, and two other nearby buildings has plans to build an 18 story residential tower, along with 4 shorter office and residential buildings.

The companies initial plan calls for 498 units spread between four buildings. Each building would also have ground level retail. The office building would be 10 stories, and include 210,000 square feet of space. Presumably the buildings would require demolition of the strip mall and standalone Chilis, and be constructed on the cleared land.

But there is community resistance, as the Reston Connection is reporting. A member of Restons Planning and Zoning committee has called the design, “A monstrosity.” He added, “You want to develop this site as dense as you can and make a lot of money,” he told JBG. He also says, “The project does not meet Fairfax Counties transit oriented design (TOD) principles , because the development is across the street (Reston Parkway) from the station entrance.”

But JBG has proposed building additional bike/pedestrian connections, which would probably be in the form of an overpass, as is common in Rosslyn, another successful TOD community. Stephen Cerny, another Planning and Zoning member seemed to appreciate JBGs additional improvements saying, “I’m eager to see what you come up with here,” referring to the fact that JBG will build many affordable units, as opposed to giving the county money to do that.

Kettler, a prominent developer in the DC area has completed the interior construction of it’s Midtown North lofts. The development is part the three condominium towers at the Reston Town Center. The condos offer up to 2500 square feet of space. Prices range from $400,000 to $1.6 million.

“In combining the solitude and spaciousness of a private home with the sophistication of an elegant hotel, we are eager to offer our residents a special kind of living. The Midtown North is an intimate, high-end community that focuses on giving each of our homeowners a distinct space they can call their own,” said Jamie Gorski, Chief Marketing Officer of Kettler.

This is the final phase of the current residential development. This brings the total amount of units at the complex to 952 units.

Sprint Nextel has a sprawling complex of property, from Reston Parkway to Fairfax County Parkway. But I want to concentrate on the core part of their property, the section bordering Reston Parkway and the Dulles Toll Road.

This part of the corridor is ripe for development. Firstly has wide open space, and any new development would not result in lost of open space except for the ugly and sprawling surface parking. The Reston Parkway metro stop will be right across from them, and would be great spot for a Reston Town Center like development to occur. There aren’t many singe family homes that might feel disturbed either. In other words it is perfect.

But Sprint appears to continue building it’s ugly and inefficient 5 story office buildings. They could be building ten story office and residential buildings with ground level retail, and the ground retail aspect would work well as the land is relatively flat there. But even if Sprint did not follow the Fairfax Counties newly implemented Transit Oriented Development (building walkable communities near transit stations) standards, there still is hope. Older and even uglier one and two story buildings have been demolished on their property.

This is also an important issue county wide. With property already seeing increases around proposed metro stations, many developers have started building in this prime real estate. For instance the property near the Reston International Center has recently gone more dense and walkable. But it seems the new buildings will lack ground level retail (think Reston Town Center, or Lake Anne). The county needs to implement special areas that not only encourage, but require developers to follow TOD standards.

Do you think Sprint should diversify development on it’s property? Or should it remain of surface parking lots and copy and paste architecture?