Interim Agreement On Bowman Towne Court Project Approved By FCHRA

RESTON, VA — Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority approved the county's interim agreement with Foulger-Pratt Development, LLC to build a new Reston Regional Library and adjacent affordable housing development in the Reston Town Center North area.

Ten commissioners, including Chairwoman C. Melissa McKenna, voted to approve the signing of the agreement during FCHRA's Thursday night meeting at the Fairfax County Government Center. Commissioner Kenneth Feng, who represents the Springfield District, abstained.

On Sept. 15, a large number of community activists and residents of Reston came out to voice their opposition to the Bowman Towne Court project at FCHRA's public hearing about the interim agreement. Some said it was too much density for the location. Others complained that Foulger-Pratt had not been transparent enough about the full scope of the project and there hadn't been an opportunity for public review.

In presenting the project to the commissioners Thursday night, Anna Shapiro, the deputy director for real estate finance and development Fairfax County Housing and Community Development, described the interim agreement as a preliminary step toward a potential partnership between the county and the developer.

"What that allows us to do is to really do a full community engagement process to discuss the project concept and only after that would we move on to transfer of the portion of the land from the board, as well as the development of the land-use proposal," she said. "It would also allow us to negotiate the full partnership in developing a comprehensive agreement on the property."

The transfer of land refers to 1.56-acres of the 8.44-acre county-owned property containing the North County Governmental Center and the Reston Police Station. The project site also includes a 2.89 parcel owned by FCHRA at the intersection of Bowman Towne Drive and Town Center Parkway in Reston. The property currently contains 30 townhomes of affordable housing.

Once the final development agreement is in place, the Board of Supervisors and FCHRA would transfer the combined 4.45 acres to Foulger-Pratt.

The developer will work with Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn's office to develop the community outreach program. This includes engaging community stakeholders, including "the existing Bowman Towne Court residents, residents in surrounding neighborhoods, Reston Association, Reston Town Center Association, Reston Town Center North Public Facilities Community Task Force, Reston Planning & Zoning, and the Reston Design Review Board," according to the interim agreement.

Sarah Selvaraj-D'Souza, the president of the Reston Association Board of Directors, attended Thursday night's FCHRA meeting. She later sent Patch this statement on behalf of the board:

"Reston Association welcomes the opportunity to work with Fairfax County and its Redevelopment and Housing Authority on the proposed affordable housing and library project in the Reston Town Center North (Cameron Green) area. As this property is on RA-covenanted land, the RA board along with our Design Review Board would like to be involved as early as possible to ensure the design and architectural aspects of the project meet the expectations of Reston’s long-standing goals to integrate new development into the larger Reston area, and create new opportunities for community engagement and social interaction."

Amy Ginger, the county's deputy director of operations, told the commissioners that her office already has a meeting planned for early November with the residents of the 30 affordable housing units on the proposed project site. Since the neighborhood is a Rental Assistance Demonstration property, the resident engagement would need to be robust in order to meet HUD requirements.

"The 30 residents there will have a right to return," Ginger said. "We will have to guarantee them a right to return and they'll be able to make their choice whether they'd like to come back."

The interim agreement the commissioners voted only the first step in the review process not the final concept, which might not look exactly like Foulger-Pratt's original proposal.

"That's really the major part of that community engagement to make sure that we hear all the voices to really assess it and make sure that we are going to be consistent," she said. "Then there's a whole land-use process, which will allow an additional community engagement portion to play out to discuss the density, discuss all those issues, and make sure that it's appropriate for the site."

In October 2021, Fairfax County received an unsolicited proposal from Foulger-Pratt under the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act to redevelop two county-owned properties to offer "a variety of educational, workforce development, and civic resources," according to the proposal.

Information about the PPEA proposal came to light at the end of March, when the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development issued a Notice of Receipt with a Request for Competing Proposals on March 17, with a deadline of May 16. At the time, few details were released about Foulger-Pratt's unsolicited proposal. In fact, the name of the developer was not made public until July.

The county was required to solicit competitive proposals in order to avoid the PPEA being a sole-source process, because that would preempt a public review.

The call for proposals in March sought competing plans to redevelop a 4.45-acre site at the intersection of Bowman Towne Drive and Town Center Parkway in Reston. The site was made up of two parcels of county-owned land.

On July 26, the county notified Foulger-Pratt that it had been selected as the developer for the project. The only other proposal submitted for the project was from Norton Scott.

The county deemed Norton Scott's proposal "non-responsive," because the submission addressed a separate property and not the FCRHA-owned property that was identified in the request for competing proposals, according to Ben Boxer, marketing and outreach manager with FCDHCD.

Related:

Fairfax County Rushed Reston Library Redevelopment Process: Developer