The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) is starting to test the waters on an initial concept for its plan to replace and expand on Reston’s Crescent Apartments.
Now more than a decade in the making after a previous push to revitalize the Lake Anne area stalled, the redevelopment will prioritize preserving the property’s status as a valuable affordable housing site, while also better integrating it with the surrounding community, according to FCRHA Associate Development Director Thor Nelson.
After outlining the county’s goals for the Reston Association (RA) Land Use Advisory Committee last night (Tuesday), Nelson and other staff will present the project at a community-wide workshop at 6 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) in Reston Community Center’s Lake Anne facility (1609-A Washington Plaza).
“Critical is we want to make sure this project has a great deal not only of community feedback and input, but [to] start conversations about how we can connect this project better with larger Reston,” Nelson told the land use committee.
Built in the 1960s when Reston was getting established as a planned community, the garden-style apartments at 1513 and 1531 Cameron Crescent Drive have aged to the point where they’re no longer suitable as affordable housing.
While the property remains “very safe” to inhabit, none of the 181 existing units are accessible to people with disabilities, seniors and others with mobility challenges, and despite having two or three bedrooms, the apartments also “don’t meet family needs currently,” Nelson explained.
The extent of the upgrades needed to bring the existing buildings up to current code standards means that a renovation would ultimately cost as much as a full demolition and rebuild. New buildings would also create “a clear opportunity” for improvements, including more energy efficient utilities and enhanced resident and community services.
Redevelopment seeks to enhance affordable status
Building on a study completed last year to establish a vision for the Lake Anne Commercial Revitalization Area, which includes the Crescent Apartments and nearby village center, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized FCRHA in January to begin pursuing a redevelopment of the 16.49-acre Crescent property, which the county has owned since 2006.
When asked what will make this redevelopment succeed when past attempts have collapsed, most recently in 2015, Nelson responded that FCRHA will take a more focused approach, working only within its own parcel rather than a larger overhaul of the Lake Anne area.
It will also adhere to existing planning and zoning guidance, reducing the time and money a future developer partner will need to spend getting approvals from the county.
“We’ve done a lot of analysis upfront to look at the numbers,” Nelson said. “… We’re not just banking this on one strategy. When we get responses [from prospective developers], that’s something we’ll evaluate, the strength of their proposals based on the feasibility study we’ve already done.”
Under the current Reston Comprehensive Plan, last updated in 2023, the Crescent Apartments site can host 900,000 square feet of development, including up to 750 residential units — a four-fold increase.
Aiming to double the number of income-restricted units, FCRHA is proposing to mix affordable units with market-rate ones, which Nelson said will enable the county to target lower income levels than if an all-affordable project would allow. Right now, the apartments include 150 units for households earning 60% of the area median income (AMI) or lower and 71 units for those earning at or below 30% AMI.
According to Nelson, occupancy of the apartments declined last decade, when residents anticipated a more imminent redevelopment, but over the past five years, the property has consistently been fully or almost fully occupied.
“Because of the location, it’s a very sought-after property,” he said.
This time, the county intends to take a “building-first” approach, phasing construction so that none of the existing residents are displaced. The new buildings would be constructed on open space, allowing residents to move into their new units before the existing ones are demolished.
Expanded Reston Community Center space proposed
In addition to providing more housing, the project’s goals include improving the pedestrian connections between the Crescent Apartments and the rest of Lake Anne, and providing additional services and amenities. Discussions are underway with Reston Community Center (RCC) to move its Lake Anne operations there.
With the lease for its current site in the village center expiring in 2039, RCC leaders have been exploring options in recent years to expand the facility’s capacity. The Crescent Apartments project could deliver a roughly 30,000-square-foot space for the center, which would be responsible for building out the provided shell.
“The goal is to use this to not only expand programming, because they’re at capacity with their facility, but also bring in more partnerships with other community-based organizations,” Nelson said. “This is the key piece for us — to make this kind of a community center and connect our residents with other users of RCC. One problem heard so far is residents feel disconnected … so we help this can be part of that solution of helping to bring them into the community at a greater capacity.”
Some members of the RA Land Use Advisory Committee questioned whether moving RCC would conflict with efforts to encourage more activity and foot traffic at Lake Anne.
“I think [RCC] can be a draw to get people going to Lake Anne. When you remove that, you almost have competing forces … When you go to one, you’re not going to walk to the other necessarily,” committee chair Michelle Kimmel said.
Committee members also raised concerns about relying on the special tax district that funds RCC to pay for the new community center and stressed the need to provide adequate parking for both residents and visitors.
“I think we feel there’s a lot of positives for Reston as a whole, for RCC and our residents in terms of enabling this to happen, but clearly, it has a lot of after-effects and impacts that we have to manage,” Nelson responded, confirming that the development will need to include some form of “structured parking.”
While committee members seemed to support a redevelopment in concept, they expressed skepticism of the site’s ability to accommodate the scale of housing contemplated by FCRHA. Members also suggested a “complete overhaul” might be needed to make the surrounding streets, including the six-lane Baron Cameron Avenue and a still-tricky pedestrian refuge on Village Road, safe and accessible.
Sample images in Nelson’s presentation showing what the development could look like drew some criticism as out of step with Lake Anne’s more suburban, Brutalist character.
“I don’t see Reston as being a bastion of urban design,” committee member Bob Petrine said. “It will remain suburban, and the development that’s been done recently has largely been in the [Transit Station Areas] along the toll road, which is much more urban in theory than this. Just quadrupling the size of the development, I think, is going to be an enormous challenge.”
After tomorrow’s community workshop, FCRHA will use the feedback it’s received to craft a request for proposals that will be shared at another public meeting in January before getting released to developers in February.
County staff will then review the submissions and share three or four finalists with the community for input, possibly next summer. Any development plan would still need to go through the county’s review process, including public hearings before the planning commission and Board of Supervisors.
Given the Lake Anne Village Center’s historical significance, as recognized by its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, Hunter Mill District Planning Commissioner John Carter urged county staff to prioritize “design excellence” as a criteria for judging potential developers.
“The world is looking at this. They’re looking at Lake Anne to see what will happen,” Carter said. “So, the world is going to be judging this and how it turns out.”
