Paid Parking at Reston Town Center Postponed Until 2017

RESTON, VA — Boston Properties' move to end paid parking at Reston Town Center won't happen in 2016 after all. The developer has opted to bump the rollout to January 2017 in the midst of public backlash against the move.

"Reston Town Center today announced its plans to delay the activation of its paid parking initiative until January 2017," reads a Sept. 7 statement from Fallston Group, which represents Boston Properties. "Reston Town Center had been scheduled to fully activate both ParkRTC and LiveSafe, two integrated digital parking and mobile safety technology apps, next Monday, September 12th. However, after continuing to meet with tenants, listen to customer concerns and comprehensively assess the roll-out timing, Reston Town Center decided to postpone paid parking activation until January 2017."

Reston Town Center will proceed with activating the LiveSafe app on Oct. 1 to provide users with an "opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology in a substantive manner," but there will be no paid parking this year.

"The postponement will allow additional time to educate customers about Reston Town Center’s long-term paid parking policies and technologies," the statement continues. "Reston Town Center will continue its outreach efforts and work toward achieving a greater level of understanding and comfort among its customer base, while moving toward a seamless paid parking transition in January 2017."

Peter D. Johnston, Boston Properties’ Executive Vice President for the Washington, D.C. Region, added in the statement that Reston Town Center "remains committed" to the app.

"The digital parking and mobile safety integration is an enormous step in advancing both of these historical and very worthwhile goals," Johnston said. "We will continue to invest in the Reston community through world-class facilities, family-oriented events, top brand attractions, innovative technologies and nonprofit donations. A safe, family-friendly environment is always our top priority,” said Peter D. Johnston, Boston Properties’ Executive Vice President for the Washington, D.C. Region."

RTC's announcement earlier this summer that it would end paid parking was immediately met with anger from locals who complained both about the high fees they would now have to pay for parking in order to shop and work at Reston Town Center, as well as concerns about how much private information the app would gather and potentially expose to hackers.