Sports Field Vs. Performing Arts Center: Reston Community Weighs In

RESTON, VA — Toward the end of Tuesday night's virtual town hall meeting about the proposed performing arts center in Reston Town Center, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn asked Planning Commission John Carter to share his thoughts about the evening's discussion.

"The costs are daunting," he said, referring to the $58 million the Fairfax County Feasibility Study estimated it would cost to build the performing arts center. But, he added that the costs could be done for half of that amount depending on the type of facility the county decides to build.

"This is a great location, right next to Metro," he said. "We certainly would like to hold on to that, I would think."

Holding onto the property and doing something with it is probably the one thing everyone who spoke at Tuesday night's meeting could agree on. Would it be used for the performing arts center or would the county choose to have an athletic field built somewhere else in Reston instead?

As part of the next phase of development at Reston Town Center, developer Boston Properties has a proffer agreement with the county to provide space for a performing arts center. The parcel of land, known as Block J, is located at the Sunset Hills Road and Visionary Way intersection, which is a short walk from the newly opened Reston Town Center Metro Station.

Related: Small Tax District #5 Not Solely Responsible For Funding Arts Center

The county has two choices for how Block J can be used, according to a release from Alcorn's office:

"One athletic field that could be located elsewhere – either on Park Authority property (Option 1), on top of the 'Freedom Garage' also owned by Boston Properties (Option 2), or to give the Park Authority funding to build a field somewhere else in the Reston area (Option 3). All of these sub-options are detailed in proffer 34. Or,

"A community-based performing arts facility to serve Reston and Fairfax County of up to 60,000 gross square feet in 'Block J' of the approved development on Sunset Hills Road, as detailed in proffer 36."

Tuesday night's town hall was the second hosted by Alcorn meant to gather public input on what recommendation he should bring to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors about Block J in January.

Ruth Ann Pinkman, president of The Reston Chorale, spoke in support of the performing arts center during Tuesday's town hall.

"Block J location is ideal and economically advantageous to the county for a number of reasons, " she said. "It's proximity to transit certainly makes it desirable."

People coming to the arts center would be interested in many of the amenities nearby, including a hotel and restaurants, according to Pinkman.

"We would just again encourage the county to think about the future," she said. "While we can fill it with 'X-number' of people today, that will grow. We want it to be something attractive not only to our local, community-focused organizations like ourselves, but professional organizations that come from out of the area."

While several people said they weren't necessarily opposed to the arts center, they would prefer Block J be used for something different or they supported the sports field option.

Moira Callaghan asked her family before the meeting what they wanted. Her two children, ages 15 and 18, are avid soccer players and voted for a sports field.

"I asked them if they could explain why and they said that the area was saturated with performing arts and arts facilities," she said. "My husband said a lot of communities needed an arts facility, but Reston is not one of them."

Acknowledging that Block J was probably too small for a large sports field, Terry Maynard suggested the land could be used for a small park, possibly with pickleball courts.

Much of the early opposition to the performing arts center stemmed from the concern that residents of Small Tax District #5 would be solely responsible for the construction and operational costs of the center.

At an Oct. 4 town hall meeting at South Lakes High School, Alcorn stated that the performing arts center would be county-owned and paid for through bond funding.

"General obligation bonds are paid back by the entire county, the entire full-facing credit of the county's $4 billion-plus general fund," Alcorn said, in October. He repeated that message Tuesday night.

"If it's a general obligation bond and then it's built from that, that's probably a minimum of 10 years, probably longer," he said. "So, we're talking about future costs for that. There is currently no bond referendum that's been passed for this type of facility."

The original deadline for Fairfax County to notify Boston Properties of its decision on the proffer was the end of June, but developer agreed to push that back six months to allow more time for public engagement.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has until the end of January to decide whether it wants a new sports field or to use Block J for a performing arts center.