Just a few years after approving a new comprehensive plan for Reston, Fairfax County officials are taking a closer look at the future of development in a swath of Reston East currently dominated by older office buildings.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors directed staff on April 14 to expand a planning study that initially looked at individual office properties south of the Dulles Toll Road to instead include an entire subdistrict from Upper Lake Drive to Hunter Mill Road.
“This has been underway and part of the plans with staff for more than a year,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who represents Reston and requested the change. “So, this formalizes plans that have been really vetted with the community and staff for some time.”
Adopted in September 2023, the Reston Comprehensive Plan provides guidance related to the types and intensity of development that should be allowed in the area, the infrastructure and public facilities needed to support that growth, equity, open space preservation and other priorities.
Even as it approved the new vision for Reston, which had last been updated in 2015, the Board of Supervisors acknowledged that additional tweaks would be coming.
Recommendations for the long-planned Reston Town Center North development were released that November, and the comprehensive plan’s adoption triggered studies of 10 different Site-Specific Plan Amendments (SSPAs) submitted by property owners and developers in 2022.
The county’s SSPA process allows members of the public to nominate individual properties for land use changes. During the 2022-2023 cycle, the Board of Supervisors accepted 10 nominations for sites in Reston, and studies of another five were authorized last June from the 2024-2025 cycle.
Five of the proposed plan amendments focused on parcels in the area identified as the Reston East Sub-District South of the Dulles Airport Access Road. Located along Sunrise Valley Drive, the area is currently developed with two to five-story office and industrial buildings and planned “to retain its employment activity focus.”
However, the developers behind the SSPA requests are all asking the county to allow residential development on the nominated properties:
- 1893 and 1897 Preston White Drive: seeks a development mix that’s 60% to 80% residential
- 1835 and 1851 Alexander Bell Drive: seeks up to 20 dwelling units per acre, replacing two “largely vacant,” four-story office buildings with townhomes
- Parkridge I (10800 Parkridge Blvd): A residential townhome development would replace the two-story office building, whose current tenants include the Social Security Administration.
- Parkridge III (10701 Parkridge Blvd): Owner Phoenicia Real Estate Holdings proposes redeveloping the 7.19-acre office building site with multifamily residences and/or townhomes.
- Parkridge IV (10690 Parkridge Blvd): Replaces a six-story office building constructed in the 1980s with housing, which could involve repurposing the building, adding multifamily or single-family attached residences, or a combination
Rezoning applications with more detailed development plans have been subsequently submitted to the county for both the Preston White Drive and Alexander Bell Drive properties.
With the Board of Supervisors’ vote earlier this month, county planning staff will now study all of those locations as well as 24 additional parcels in the sub-district at the same time, ensuring their development potential is considered in a wider context rather than piecemeal.
“All these properties are facing the same issues. They could possibly all benefit from updated plan guidance,” a staff member from Alcorn’s office told FFXnow.
In addition to reviewing whether to allow housing in the sub-district, the study will look at the overall density and intensity of development, along with the area’s transportation needs and road network.
No community meetings or public hearings have been scheduled yet, since the Reston East planning study is still in its early stages, according to a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development.
