How To Plan For Reston's Ultimate Population

RESTON, VA —When Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn first introduced his board matter calling for an examination of the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study in January, his intention was to tackle many of the big issues that have come up in recent years regarding development in Reston.

"What this has meant has been a lot of interest in the community about where Reston is going and in the longterm, how much development should come to Reston under what conditions and also, what is the longterm character of Reston from a built environment standpoint," Alcorn said, during a Thursday morning press briefing."

In his board matter, Alcorn outlined nine areas of focus for the Reston community to consider as it examined and made recommendations for updating the comprehensive plan. These included looking at population thresholds, affordable housing, pedestrian and bicycle access to Silver Line stations, transportation improvements, and how to encourage diverse ownership/management of properties.

Just as public meetings were set to begin in March, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the county's process and those meetings were put on hold. Despite this challenge, the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study Task Force has conducted four virtual public meetings since May. The public can participate live and view archived meetings on YouTube. Alcorn said he hoped to have the task force process wrapped up by the middle of 2021.

In discussing the need for the plan study, Alcorn acknowledged that most of the initial planning of Reston was based on the master plan Robert Simon created when he established the community in the 1960s. It's only been in the last decade or so, as Reston has undergone redevelopment, that comprehensive plan language has been updated.

On Thursday, Alcorn hosted a virtual press conference to answer questions about the task force and the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study.

QUESTION: What has the task force focused on in its initial meetings?

ALCORN: We've begun talking about the very interesting issue of Reston's ultimate population. Currently in the comprehensive plan, there is no population for Reston's future, Reston's build out, if you will. That's something that, up to this point, has been an attempt to deal with in the PRC (Planned Residential Community) zoning ordinance. And one of my hopes through this process is that, because the PRC zoning ordinance does not cover all of Reston, it covers most of the area of Reston and outside of the transit station areas, we need to have a more comprehensive guide on Reston's population that covers all of Reston, including the TSA (Transit Station Areas).

What are you targeting in regards to developments around Reston's TSA?

What we'll likely be focusing on is how to make sure that those projects that do come in around the Metro station that haven't come through yet, or, and this is going to be the more common case, properties that have already been rezoned but will come back for modifications based on either the mix of use or a tenant or a hotel or whatever market activity is going on out there. We want to make sure that when these projects come back through the process, that they're building a good design, consistent with transit oriented development principles, that they ... aren't just cramming a bunch of suburban style development into these newly urbanizing areas. Also we want to make sure that the community facilities that are necessary to really build that community are in place. So, we want to make sure that there are places for the community to go. This includes a number of amenities that I think are important to make these areas attractive for people to live and also to work.

Many Reston residents are not happy with the Boston Properties' parking restrictions in Reston Town Center or planned public spaces that are actually owned by private entities, who may impose restrictions there. How are these lessons being used to inform the task force's work?

We need to have the discussion about public versus private open space. We've gone pretty far down the road of, if you will, privatizing our open spaces. We've certainly seen that in Reston Town Center and to certain extent we've seen it around the Wiehle Metro. Whether or not that makes sense in the long run for the public, I'm not sure. It certainly provides a less expensive way of maintaining those open spaces for the public, so I get that. I absolutely get that. But there are some longterm questions there. Also, I think going through this discussion what we'll ultimately see is even where we have development proposals coming through the rezoning process or the PRC plan process or whatever zoning related process, I think we're going to have better guidance on private, open space and what type of public activities should be allowed there.

Moving forward with new development, there may be more parking garages proposed. Is there a sense that you would be able to create some parking that was not totally in the control of the property owner or that there was a consideration for residents or some other process?

There is a public role in parking policy and not just when a development is approved, but there should be a public role in making sure that our communities are viable and sustainable, across not just to keep our wonderful office tenants happy, but also to take into consideration our restaurants and our retail tenants. It's a balancing act. That's what local government is all about. This is why we have elections. I want to make sure that the overall public interest is included in it. It may mean maybe even public ownership potentially of some of our parking facilities.

What are you envisioning in the comprehensive plan study when it comes to promoting more affordable housing?

Is there anything we could do on our inclusionary zoning policies, but actually we're really talking there about the workforce development unit policy, which is being reviewed countywide. We'll definitely look at that and is there Reston-specific language or guidance on workforce development units? We'll be looking at that. The other piece, and this is ... where do we need to put language in the comprehensive plan to facilitate retaining existing communities that provide market-rate, affordable housing? In other words, what kind of language do we need to come up with so that it's not just a question of tearing down communities and then rebuilding them and including some affordable housing in those communities? Where can we learn from Arlington? Where can we learn from other jurisdictions that have had massive gentrification of some of these areas so that these communities can continue, but with new investment in their infrastructure?Basically how can we put in place the guidance so that these communities can continue and thrive for another 40-50? That's the challenge.

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