First pieces of Reston’s Isaac Newton Square development in the works

The first and smallest pieces of a massive new neighborhood near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station are formally in the works.

At a Reston Planning and Zoning Committee earlier this month, Peter Lawrence Company and development partner MRP Realty said they plan to introduce a final development plan for mostly townhouses and stacked units at Isaac Newton Square.

The 32-acre project was approved in October 2019 for 2.8 million square of development, 2,100 residential units, 300 hotel rooms, office space and roughly 69,000 square feet of retail.

Since then, the project has been in-the-works, with the latest elements comprising only a small portion of the massive project. Townhouses oriented towards each other are planned on blocks W2, N1, and N3.

 At the July 18 meeting, land use attorney Andrew Painter noted that the overall project could take decades to complete. 

The site is bounded by the Washington & Old Dominion Trail on the south, Hidden Creek Country Club on the west, and Wiehle Avenue on the east. The development team plans to work around the natural contours created by mature willow oak trees that have been on the property for more than 60 years.

“That has been absolutely critical to us because that is the significant element of this future neighborhood,” Painter said.

The county approved up to 175 multi-family units for the easternmost corner of the site. An assisted living facility was the initial idea, but Painter said the development team has dropped that concept in favor of just 24 stacked townhouses.

“The status of assisted living and continuing living care after the pandemic is not in a good place at all,” he said.

That block is the smallest in the overall development plan. The proposal for blocks W2, N1, and N3 is in line with what the county originally approved in 2019.

The developers plans to submit a final development plan for the first pieces of the community over the next few months.

“When push comes to shove, we just can’t build everything that we got approved for,” Painter noted, reflecting on the overall development.