Reston Plan Study Expanded Amid Concerns By Some Fairfax Supervisors

RESTON, VA — Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to expand the scope of the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study based on recommendations from the county's Department of Planning and Zoning.

"In order for the range of recommendations to be considered, the goal is now to formally expand the scope of the plan amendment to include these topic areas for consideration as part of the proposed comprehensive plan amendment process," Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said, introducing the motion at Tuesday's board meeting.

The supervisors approved the following additions, which were introduced by Alcorn:

• The application of community health strategies specific to the future growth of Reston
• Workforce development and the application of workforce development strategies critical to Reston’s future
• Revised guidance, as appropriate, related to heritage resources
• Revised guidance, as appropriate, related to the application of economic development strategies in Reston
• The appropriate land use and density of the Village Centers
• The appropriate land use and intensity of the redevelopment of Reston Town Center North
• The appropriate land use and intensity of parcels associated with 1810, 1825, and 1850 Samuel Morse Drive and 11111 Sunset Hills Road.
• The appropriate land use mix for the Roland Clarke Place Residential Mixed-Use Section within the Wiehle Station Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) District’s South Subdistrict.

Alcorn noted that several of the additions are still in discussion with county staff, task force leaders, development industry representatives, planning commissioners, and interested members of the Reston community.

Two of the additions are currently being reviewed as part of the county's Site-Specific Plan Amendment process and may be addressed as part of the comprehensive plan study or as part of SSPA, according to Alcorn.

"What we're really trying to do here or what I have been told that we need to do is make sure that these items are within the authority of possibly being included in a plan amendment," he said. "This is still going very much to the planning commission and there's still community meetings."

Alcorn first proposed the study of the county document governing future development in Reston on Jan. 14, 2020. Since then, a task force made up of community members conducted 58 meetings and met with county staff to come up with a final draft plan.

"The results of these conversations and collaborative efforts was a new draft comprehensive plan guidance for Reston," Alcorn said. "The draft was shared with the board at the Oct. 4, 2022 land-use policy committee meeting with the planning commission for their workshop on this topic, which was held on Sept. 29 2022."

While voting to support Alcorn's motion in terms of it being an administrative action, several supervisors voiced their concerns about some of the items included in the study's expanded scope.

"I recognize that there is a uniqueness perhaps to Reston that is not shared by some of the other areas in the county," Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross said. "But I'm also very concerned that I would not want to see this particular list as a template for doing comprehensive plans in other parts of the county, because I think it will strangle opportunity and I think it will give our staff just an overload of work."

Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk agreed with Gross that Reston was unique and that it made sense to him that some things needed to be differentiated.

"As we think about this issue of diversifying our commercial tax base, as we think about really positioning the county in a different way, this could be a template for that as well," he said. "I think the work that's been done by this committee can be instructive and informative on the policy plan as a whole. I don't look at it in the opposite. It's accretive. It's going to be a way for us to maybe source and consider the future police plan for the future."

Sully Supervisor Kathy Smith, who chairs the board's development process committee, was the supervisor who spoke out most forcibly about Alcorn's motion.

"Policy issues like equity and community health belong in policy plans," she said. "We authorize that to happen. I have a concern, and I want to make sure I say it publicly, that by authorizing those two areas, I don't want to create a situation where we are in conflict with the policy plans that we're going to develop. I think that succinctness and putting things in the right place is important in the comprehensive plan and so redundancies of policies into the area plans could be difficult."

Alcorn also introduced the following updated working timeline for the Reston Comprehensive Plan Study:

Jan. 26: Planning Commission Workshop

• Staff variations from Task Force recommendations discussed
• Work sessions scheduled if needed

Mid-Feb: Staff report

March 30: Planning Commission Public Hearing

April 26: Planning Commission recommendation

May 9 or 23: BOS public hearing and vote