The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved a redevelopment plan that will result in 57 townhouses ringing the circa-1899 A. Smith Bowman House at 1850 Old Reston Avenue in Reston.
The 10-0 vote on July 14 allows the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association and developer EYA to move forward on the proposal, which replaces a pre-Covid plan for two new office buildings. The association, which owns the property, had intended to transform the 5.2-acre site into a new headquarters campus.
Since the office expansion was approved by the county in 2019, “the need for office [space] has substantially decreased,” said Andrew Painter, a land use attorney representing the development team.
“This office project is no longer feasible,” he said, adding that “the existing office buildings on the property have reached the end of their useful life.”
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, whose district includes Reston, said the community dodged a bullet in ending up with housing, rather than an office building on the site, which is bounded by Old Reston Avenue, the Washington & Old Dominion Regional Trail and Stratford Park Place.
“Ultimately, this is a much better site design and fits much better into the community and that part of Reston,” Alcorn said prior to the vote.
The project will maintain the existing Bowman House property, also known as Sunset Hills. It is one of just three remaining properties from the late 19th and early 20th century in what had been known as the town of Wiehle until 1901.
Noting that another of the three properties recently had been damaged in a storm, Alcorn said it was more important than ever to preserve what was left of pre-Reston history.
“We’re down to just a couple of structures left from that era,” he said.
Painter said the historic home might be retained in its current office use, or it could be converted to a single-family home or neighborhood clubhouse. A nearby gazebo and historic retaining wall will also remain.
Seven of the new townhouses will be reserved as affordable housing. There also will be two parklets on the property that will be accessible to the general community.
The redevelopment proposal had won support of the Fairfax County Planning Commission, and was supported by county staff.
A resident of the nearby Stratford Condominiums was the lone speaker at the public hearing preceding the vote, voicing concern about the project’s scale and its impact on neighbors.
Alcorn acknowledged the comments but said the development team and county staff had worked with the community on areas of concern. He praised the collective “diligence in working through a number of issues.”
A. Smith Bowman purchased 4,000 acres of farmland in the late 1800s, eventually owning more than 6,000 acres that evolved into a major distillery operation after the end of Prohibition.
In the early 1960s, the Bowman family sold its holdings to Robert E. Simon, who used the land to form the nucleus of Reston.
Decades before Simon conceived of Reston, another visionary — Dr. Carl Wiehle — attempted to create a community on the north side of the Washington & Old Dominion rail line.
His goal was to find like-minded, health conscious individuals to enjoy what were then bucolic surroundings nearly untouched by development.
The Virginia General Assembly granted his town a charter in 1989, but Wiehle’s death at age 54 in 1901 ended the effort.
