Reston Performing Arts Center Decision Delayed 6 Months: Alcorn

RESTON, VA — Fairfax County residents will have more time to weigh in on the decision on whether or not to build a 60,000-square-foot visual and performing arts center at Reston Town Center.

"The Department of Planning and Development yesterday approved a request from Boston Properties on a proffer interpretation, basically to extend the deadline for when the county has to choose amongst the two options in the proffer for the approved development," Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn told Patch on Tuesday afternoon.

As part of the next phase of development at Reston Town Center (Block J), developer Boston Properties has a proffer agreement to provide a space for the performing arts center.

The county had until the end of July to decide whether it was going to use the space for the performing arts center or a park. The Board of Supervisors can also require Boston Properties to provide a ball field somewhere else in the county.

"Those are the choices in the proffer and most of the work has been going down the pike of the arts center," Alcorn said. "But this gives the opportunity for more public comment and input on what decision folks think the Board of Supervisors should take."

A 2019 survey conducted by the Reston Community Center determined that two-thirds (68 percent) of the residents who responded were interested in having a larger performing arts center in Reston. In addition, 80 percent said they were somewhat supportive of RCC operating the arts venue if it were built by a developer, with 68 percent saying they were supportive or very supportive.

When it came to financing the arts center, 56 percent of respondents said they were supportive of RCC financing the building of the new arts center through a bond issue. This broke down as 14 percent very supportive, 24 percent supportive, and 18 percent somewhat supportive. The remaining 32 percent of respondents were not supportive of the bond issue as a means of financing.

Since February, RCC has been hosting a series of meetings to solicit public feedback about the performing arts center. On June 28, RCC released the Reston Arts Center Feasibility Study, which looked at the different types of performance and other arts resources that could be built on Site J. The study did no identify any funding sources for the center.

Several members of the public criticized the lack of information about the project's financing. Patch published a letter to the editor last week by Reston resident Terry Maynard, who said the performing arts center wasn't needed.

"I am certain that I don't want to spend the extra money each year on taxes to have a Reston VPAC built and operated on the Reston community's dime, and I doubt that many of your readers do either," he wrote. "This is especially true when Reston has so many more important needs, not just amenities, such as schools, urban parks, and a renewed regional library."

One of the reasons Alcorn asked Boston Properties for the extension was allow the public to have more time to ask questions about the project and provide feedback.

"I'll be holding at least one town hall meeting on this topic in the fall," he said. "I want to review all the materials from RCC and other sources and other materials provided by community members on the potential arts center."

How the performing arts center will be financed was a point of debate at Monday night's meeting of the task force charged with updating the county's plan that governs development in Reston.

Related: How Much Will Arts Center Cost Reston Taxpayers?: Letter To The Editor

Since the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study Task Force interim recommendations were released in February, county staff has been reviewing the recommendations to bring the language in line with county planning best practices and procedures.

Starting on May 16, the task force began meeting again to review county staff's recommendations, hammer out the differences, and vote on the final language for each of the study's 12 topic areas.

The arts center was mentioned only once in the public facilities portion of the task force's recommendations that were released in February:

"A location for a proposed Reston Performing Arts Center is identified, pending identification of a funding source from County-wide or private entities."

That language was unchanged after county staff returned its markup to the task force on June 6.

But, over the last week, the language the task force was considering was updated to identify RCC as a funding source:

"A location for a proposed Reston Performing Arts Center is identified adjacent to the Reston Town Center Metro station, pending identification of a funding source which could include Fairfax County, private entities and/or RCC."

Related: Reston Plan Study Task Force To Weigh Initial Feedback On Recommends

Before Monday night's meeting, the reference to RCC had been removed and updated with new language:

"A location for a proposed Reston Arts Center is identified adjacent to the Reston Town Center Metro station, pending identification of capital project financing resources from Fairfax County, other public (state, federal, local incorporated) entities and private sector contributions. Similarly, operator identification will be required."

Task Force members debated for about an hour Monday night on whether to include the new language or go back to the original passage that didn't identify a specific funding source. Several people said that language identifying a specific source of funding shouldn't be part of the comprehensive plan.

Since the task force had questions about other parts of the public facilities section, members voted to delay a decision for a future meeting.

Alcorn agreed that the comprehensive plan task force was not the right place to talk about funding for the arts center.

"All financing decisions will come to the Board of Supervisors," he said. "It's not an RCC decision. It's the Board of Supervisors."