Fairfax County staff are prepared to allow housing on an aging office property near the Wiehle Metro station in Reston with the expectation that the future developer will also deliver some transportation improvements.
The county’s planning commission will hold a public hearing tonight (Wednesday) on a proposed comprehensive plan amendment that would pave the way for Lofts at Reston Station builder Pulte Group to redevelop three low-lying office buildings at 1810, 1825 and 1850 Samuel Morse Drive with stacked townhouses and condominiums.
The draft amendment would add an option for the existing offices on the 5-acre site to be replaced by residential development with a floor-area ratio (FAR) of 1.4, the equivalent of 158 units, according to a staff report released on March 18.
The proposed FAR — which reflects a development’s intensity based on the total floor space compared to the amount of buildable land — is slightly lower than the 1.0 recommended for the area by the updated Reston Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in September 2023.
“The proposed development with additional multimodal connections is consistent with the residential community character of the area and supports transit ridership,” the staff report says, noting that the area is becoming increasingly residential with Faraday Park to the south and the partially built Midline at Reston Station neighborhood to the west.
Pulte’s development plans, which are also being reviewed by county staff, have changed multiple times over the years, Brian Winterhalter, a land use attorney for DLA Piper, recounted to the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee in February.
As it was wrapping up construction on the Lofts at Reston Station condominiums at 1825 Michael Faraday Drive, the developer submitted a proposal to the county in February 2019 for 90 multifamily and townhouse units in place of the Austin-Weston Center for Cosmetic Surgery (1825 Samuel Morse) and Society for Nuclear Medicine (1850) buildings.
Several revisions later, including a nomination for the county’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment process in 2022, Pulte’s latest plan for the Lofts II at Reston Station envisions 46 stacked townhouses and 112 condos in place of the three Samuel Morse office buildings, which were built in the 1980s and would be demolished if the project is approved.
Featuring two bedrooms each, the condos are spread across three buildings with five or six stories over parking garage podiums, while the townhouses total four stories. At least 12% of the homes, or roughly 19 units, will be designated as workforce dwelling units (WDUs) reserved for households earning up to 70%, 80% or 100% of the area median income, per a draft proffer agreement.
“While the higher density residential development closer to the Metro stations will tend to be rental units, lower density areas a bit farther from the Metro station, such as the location of the Property, provide significant opportunities to achieve for-sale workforce dwelling units near the Metro Station,” Winterhalter wrote in a statement for Pulte’s rezoning application.
Transportation improvements recommended
In addition to providing just under half an acre of publicly accessible park space, the development would enhance Reston Station Blvd and Sunset Hills Road with 8-foot-wide and 9-foot-wide sidewalks, respectively. Pulte’s plan also shows a 5-foot-wide bicycle lane and a 7-foot-wide landscaping panel on Sunset Hills but indicates they would be installed “by others.”
The developer will construct a portion of an Easterly Road extension from Reston Station Blvd with a 6-foot-wide sidewalk and 7-foot-wide landscaping panel on the eastern side, but the remaining section connecting the road to Sunset Hills would be left to others.
Winterhalter told the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee that he has been discussing the possibility of coordinating construction of the road extension with a representative for Bognet Construction, which has filed a separate application to redevelop the adjacent office building housing Northern Virginia Community College’s Reston campus at 1821 Michael Faraday Drive.
“I’m optimistic that there is a resolution … to be agreed upon by the owners on both sides of the lines for the ultimate implementation of that road,” he said.
The Easterly Road extension is one of the transportation improvements that the plan amendment proposed by county staff says should be provided with any residential development on Samuel Morse Drive.
The amendment also recommends improving access by adding a marked crosswalk on Sunset Hills Road at the Reston Station Blvd intersection and “providing safe, comfortable and low stress connections” for active transportation users, including an east-west pedestrian path and connections to the Metro station to the west and Washington & Old Dominion Trail to the east.
County staff suggested that the sidewalk on Sunset Hills Road in particular “could be improved in several ways.”
“Widening the existing sidewalk and adding a buffer between the sidewalk and the road would make the facility more comfortable for pedestrians and cyclists,” the staff report said. “Introducing street trees between the sidewalk and curb would create a more inviting and visually appealing environment and provide shade and thus encourage use of the corridor.”
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation proposed a shared-use path and other improvements on Wiehle Avenue, but those would likely be tackled outside of Pulte’s project. FCDOT finalized an updated vision for Wiehle last year after a multi-year study of potential options for making it safer and more accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
Residents raise parking, traffic concerns
While most of Reston Station Blvd east of Wiehle has on-road bicycle lanes, including the Lofts II frontage, the segment along the original Lofts condos still hasn’t been marked for bike lanes, according to Adam Rubinstein, who spoke at the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee meeting on Feb. 23 as a member of the building’s board of directors.
“I’ve asked Pulte to stripe it, and they said, ‘Well, we will before we turn the road over to [the Virginia Department of Transportation],'” Rubinstein said. “But that could be years away. In my opinion, they need to stripe it right now, not five years from now, whenever the road gets turned over to VDOT.”
Rubinstein and Hunter Mill District Planning Commissioner John Carter also warned Pulte against seeking an exemption from the county’s loading space requirements.
When the first phase of the Lofts was approved in 2016, the county granted Pulte a waiver allowing the developer to forgo providing loading spaces for moving trucks.
In addition, there has been an issue with delivery and rideshare vehicles blocking the roadway or double parking “because there’s no place for them to go,” Rubinstein said, comparing the conditions to roads in New York City.
“I really am concerned about … not having short-term parking, no delivery places. Everything is just so tight in there,” another resident, Jean Lee, agreed, suggesting that a block of four townhomes proposed along Sunset Hills Road should be replaced by additional parking.
There’s no indication that Pulte will seek another waiver for loading spaces, as the only one requested in its application is for a deviation from tree preservation targets. Its plan shows three designated loading spots, and under the proffer agreement, tenant moving activities would be scheduled outside of peak weekday travel periods and waste pick-ups.
Another resident, Barry Steinberg, expressed frustration with the Reston Station Blvd and Wiehle intersection, worrying that more residential development will worsen existing congestion and safety challenges.
Winterhalter acknowledged his concerns but noted that the road isn’t finished yet, in part because most of the Midline at Reston Station development hasn’t been constructed.
“At some point, it will be finished, is what I’m saying,” Winterhalter said.
“I hope I live that long,” Steinberg replied.
Following tonight’s planning commission public hearing, the proposed Samuel Morse plan amendment is scheduled to go to the Board of Supervisors on May 5. If it’s approved, Pulte’s rezoning application is then slated to face a planning commission public hearing on May 13.
Pulte anticipates being able to start “moving dirt” by the third quarter of 2027 at the earliest, with construction likely taking about two years, Pulte Group entitlements manager Donald Hughes told the committee.
This story was corrected to clarify that the waiver for the Lofts at Reston Station project was for loading space requirements, not short-term parking, which currently isn’t mandated in Fairfax County.
