Fairfax is moving forward with a huge development north of Reston Town Center

Fairfax County is redeveloping the space that the Reston Regional library and a homeless shelter sit on, just north of Reston Town Center. Last week, the project’s second phase got the green light after the county and a private owner agreed to a land swap.

The boundaries of the fifty acre area are Reston Hospital on Town Center Parkway to the west, Fountain Drive to the east, Baron Cameron Avenue to the north, and New Dominion Parkway to the south. It’s adjacent to the Spectrum shopping center, whose mixed use complex was approved in 2013.

The current area will be divided into nine blocks, with a central park of more than two acres. The county will handle redeveloping six of the segments, which include the current library, homeless shelter, and other county services. The Reston Citizens Association (RCA) published a suggested plan for a larger library that incorporates the current Embry Rucker Community Shelter site (which would be relocated to one of Fairfax’s blocks). The RCA’s voice carries some weight, but the final decision is Fairfax County’s.

Already underway with the first phase of the project, the county will be accepting approved developer proposals for blocks 7 and 8, where the Reston Regional Library and the Embry Rucker Community Shelter currently sit. The hope is to add mixed-use elements, such as a coffee shop adjacent to the library or transitional housing. The county closed a developer qualifications request for proposals on August 20 of this year; the second RFP will ask the pre-qualified teams for public-private development proposals.

Thanks to a land swap with a private owner, Fairfax can move forward

To ensure that Reston and the county are not without services like the North County Human Services Building and Reston District Police Station, Fairfax is doing a 1:1 land swap with Inova, a nonprofit healthcare system, which owns part of the land. Fairfax County is actually exchanging Fairfax County Park Authority land, which is the blocks that Inova will develop.

The land swap was approved by the Board of Supervisors at a September 22 meeting. This approval will allow Fairfax County to develop all their portions independently. Once this change of ownership is finalized, Fairfax County will be able to start Phase 2 of the redevelopment.

Inova has not determined what it will do with its blocks (2,4 and 6) which currently contain the freestanding ER center, Sunrise Senior Living, and the recently closed Cameron Glen Health and Rehab Center.

Residents want current services to be there in the future

After a meeting to gather community feedback in July, the Reston Citizens Association published a white paper stating its concerns about the project. At a similar meeting Saturday the 20th, residents again voiced concerns about the marginalization of the library and homeless shelter. They were worried that both facilities would be downsized. Many county libraries have added more digital services, which require less space, but attendees argued that Reston Regional has a large base of printed book readers.

One resident noted that Fairfax County approved a $10 million bond to improve the Reston Regional Library in 2012. None of the county representatives at the meeting said how that money would be used in the scope of Phase 1. My table mate felt that the public-private partnerships have tended to favor the wants of large developers, which aren’t always in the best interest of Reston citizens.

Another concern was that the project wouldn’t have enough affordable housing. Andrew Miller, Project Coordinator from the Public-Private Partnerships Branch of the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, said that any housing developments would be subject to Fairfax County’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Program.

Each individual block will go through its own zoning and development approval process. Miller mentioned that the Fairfax County Park Authority is contributing five acres to the project, and may want to use the 90,000 square feet of its development rights to add a RECenter. The Block 9 project is owned by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority and “would be rezoned and redeveloped separately at a future time.”

For future information on this development, please visit fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/restontowncenternorth.