Reston’s major facelift started last year but there is more coming.

By Lynn Norusis

At a Jan. 24 meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a location for a Reston Arts Center to be located near the intersection of Sunset Hills Road and Town Center Parkway.  This is a project that has been in the works for a handful of years and is being developed by Boston Properties as part of their Reston Next project.

A new task force was put into place and had the first meeting in January. The dubbed Reston Town Center North Task Force’s first meeting focused on redevelopment on several parcels of land north of Reston Town Center, an area encompassed from 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.

Projects include a new Embry Rucker Shelter, facilities for services and permanent housing, and a new Reston Regional Library. Foulger-Pratt Development, LLC proposed to redevelop the 4.45-acre project site to build a 350-unit affordable housing development on land owned by the board of supervisors and the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority. This project includes the new library.

Reston has been working on the overall Comprehensive Plan and, as of January included the following additions:

• The application of equity elements, consistent with the OneFairfax Policy, for Reston’s future planning and development.
• 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.

Lake Anne is also getting into the mix of revitalization with Fairfax County denoting $300,000 towards a revitalization project that will be started off with the consulting firm Streetsense initiating the envisioning phase that will look at future branding, marketing and future development of the 44-acre spot in Reston.

For more information on development happening around Northern Virginia, check out our development updates page. We focus on a different area in Northern Virginia each month.

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