Fairfax County supervisors agreed to give a developer more leeway in what residents can have access to a planned senior living apartment complex at Reston Station development.
The Board of Supervisors voted 10-0 yesterday (Tuesday) in support of Comstock’s request for a second option on the future age-restricted building to be located on a 4.22-acre site at 1831 Wiehle Avenue.
Part of Reston Station’s Midline district, the parcel currently is home to an aging office building, which will be razed later this year to make room for redevelopment.
Under proffer conditions approved for the Midline project in 2018, the developer would’ve been required to provide independent living services to residents of the site. With the board’s approval, Comstock retains that option, but it could also build age-restricted apartments instead, allowing units to be rented without the same level of accompanying services.
In either case, the developer has proposed 127 units for adults 55 and older.
The change, which was supported by both county staff and the Fairfax County Planning Commission, would allow Comstock to address changing market conditions, as more seniors are eschewing bundled services like meals and programming that come at independent-living facilities, opting instead for a-la-carte living.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said the board’s action would have no impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
“It’s more a technical change,” he said. “This doesn’t change anything related to the number of units.”
The development plan also calls for an additional 33 units with assisted-living services, as well as 25,000 square feet of retail space. There is no change to those development conditions.
Overall, the building will rise eight stories and contain approximately 207,000 square feet. The parcel is located on the east side of Wiehle Avenue, north side of Reston Station Blvd and the south side of Sunset Hills Road.
Comstock has agreed to fund a high-visibility crosswalk at the intersection of Wiehle Avenue and Reston Station Blvd, along with sanitary-sewer improvements.
The lone speaker at the public hearing preceding the Aug. 26 was Christopher Offen, a resident of the Reston Station townhomes who serves as president of its homeowners’ association. He voiced concern about the adequacy of parking availability once the entire Reston Station development is built out.
“I don’t see a lot of evidence there is going to be sufficient parking,” he said.
Alcorn asked staff to convene a community meeting on the issue of parking there, and obtained a commitment to participate from Comstock representatives.
The Midline development plan calls for 1.8 million square feet of new construction, including the senior living facility, apartments and an office building, across 17 acres near the Wiehle Metro station.
Originally a collaborative effort of JBG Smith and EYA, which anticipates starting work on a planned apartment building sometime this year, the project partly changed hands in 2022 when JBG Smith sold the two parcels at 1831 and 1861 Wiehle Avenue to Comstock.
