Task Force Begins Process Of Planning For Reston Town Center North

RESTON, VA — Monday night's inaugural meeting of the Reston Town Center North Task Force got off to an inauspicious start, as several task force members questioned whether they were the right people to be making decisions about future development in Reston Town Center North.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn introduced a motion at a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting last April calling for the formation of a task force to collect public input on a planned development of the 47-acre site.

The area of focus is bound by Baron Cameron Avenue on the north, Fountain Drive to the east, the library property on Bowman Town Drive to the south, and Town Center Parkway to the west. The property is broken up into nine plots of land owned by Fairfax County Inova Health Care Services, Inc. and a central green space.

Alcorn also asked Kate Hanley, the former chairwoman of the board of supervisors and a Hunter Mill resident, to lead the task force.

Task force membership was made up of representatives of the communities surrounding the Reston Town Center North property:

• Avalon/Crystal Cove - Bianca Moskaltis
• Edgewater at Town Center Condominium - Rhonda Mefferd
• Court Cluster Association - Courtney Thomas
• Edgewater at Town Center Cluster and Cluster Association - Paul Curtin
• Bowman Towne Court - April Bradley and Sandra Barksdale (alternate)
• Oak Park Condominium Association - Fran Hudson
• The Paramount Condominium - Kris Dabadie
• West Market Community Association - Alex Gonski
• Savoy - Patricia Vives
• Midtown Condominium Association - Simone Nathan
• Midtown North - Eric Miller
• Signature - Christiana Beradi
• Stratford - Kate Hanley (task force chair)

The Reston Comprehensive Plan Study, which started in January 2020, is entering its final stages this spring. A Fairfax County staff report is expected later this month and a public hearing before the Fairfax County Planning Commission has been scheduled for March 30.

The board of supervisors voted on Jan. 24 to expand the scope of the plan study to include the identification of the appropriate land use and intensity of the redevelopment of RTCN.

According to materials presented at Monday's meeting, RTCN's redevelopment would include the following elements:

• Reston Regional Library
• Embry Rucker Shelter and Supportive Housing
• Human Services Center
• Affordable Housing
• Fairfax County Park Authority Recreational Facilities

In the proposed comprehensive plan, the RTCN area is planned for mixed-use redevelopment for "medical uses, hotel, residential, affordable and workforce housing, along with civic uses including athletic, educational, office, library, and supportive retail uses," according to meeting documents.

The comprehensive plan also includes a central green as part of the RTCN development to provide an outdoor performance or gathering space for the entire Reston community.

Alcorn told task force members that Fairfax County Public Schools might need space to build a future elementary school depending on how much residential development is added to the Reston Town Center area. For that reason, he encouraged task force members to include a site for a school in their deliberations on which county facilities should be planned for RTCN.

"There's one fundamental thing I'm looking for you all to provide in your assistance and guidance," Alcorn said. "That is what should go on the county-owned property? What belongs together? What should be long-term? What should be short-term?"

Of the facilities under consideration, Alcorn said there was a critical need for a new regional library, as well as expanded capacity for the homeless shelter.

"As you work through the list of community facilities that are needed, you should start thinking about what might go where? What makes sense to go there?" he said. "That sort of thing. I'd also encourage you to be thinking about anything that may be missing from that list."

Some of the task forces members said they didn't feel qualified to be making these types of land-use decisions and that it would be better to have urban planners study the proposals and suggest changes.

Alcorn and Hanley said that land-use experts would be taking part in future meetings to answer their questions so that they could make informed decisions. They were also encouraged to review the draft comprehensive plan before the next meeting, which is scheduled for March 6 at the North County Governmental Center.

In forming the task force, Alcorn told Patch that he wanted membership to be limited to representatives from communities directly impacted by future development on the RTCN property. He did not want to include other entities who might have a stake in the development of the property.

"We are definitely concerned about the development in RTC North and we believe it will be impactful on the Reston community," said Sarah Selvaraj-D'Souza, president of the Reston Association Board of Directors.

Selvaraj-D'Souza told Patch a few days before the first task force meeting that Alcorn had declined the RA Board's request to include a representative of its Design Review Board on the task force. Any residential development in the RTCN property would fall within the scope of the DRB.

"This area has civic uses that are being proposed as well," Selvaraj-D'Souza said. "RTC North will definitely be of interest to all Restonians, not just the surrounding neighborhoods that they have currently on task force, but also our RA membership at large."

In addition, RA signed a memorandum of understanding with the county to ensure that the central green space would remain as part of the development.

"It would we'd be more efficient to include DRB early on in the conversation so you can move the process with forward with DRB's input versus coming to us after the task force is done and then having to go through the DRB feedback," Selvaraj-D'Souza said. "Efficiency-wise it makes more business sense. RA definitely has a strong interest in what's happening in RTC North."