Fairfax County planners are willing to facilitate the relocation of a Reston Community Center satellite facility into a planned redevelopment of a Lake Anne apartment complex.
At its Sept. 9 meeting, the Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend approval of a comprehensive plan amendment to expand the amount of non-residential uses allowed on the Crescent Apartments property more than tenfold.
The 16.5-acre site at 1513 and 1531 Cameron Crescent Drive is currently occupied by a 181-unit apartment complex that serves households earning 60% of the area median income or less.
Last year, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors transferred its decades-long ownership of the property to the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which hopes to partner with a private developer to replace the existing complex with a modern structure and additional units.
The current comprehensive plan — the county’s nonbinding guiding document for land-use decisions — designates the area for up to 750 residential units, but only 2,000 square feet of non-residential use.
The amendment under consideration would increase the planned non-residential uses to 30,000 square feet without affecting the residential units. The calculation does not include an existing gas station on the property, which would remain in place.
The non-residential space is expected to host a relocation of a nearby auxiliary facility of the Reston Community Center. The primary facility is on Colts Neck Road in the Hunters Woods Village Center, but there’s a small facility on Washington Plaza adjacent to Lake Anne.
RCC officials have said that although the lease for the Lake Anne facility runs for 13 more years, its services have outgrown the space, and they are looking to relocate.
The existing Crescent Apartments were constructed in the 1960s. They are safe, but are outdated and do not meet accessibility requirements.
Four people spoke at a public hearing before the Planning Commission’s vote and raised concerns about the potential residential density and increased traffic from a larger, relocated community center. A fifth speaker supported the proposal and the potential for increased housing.
The residential component of the development was not under consideration at the Sept. 9 meeting, commission chair Phil Niedzielski-Eichner stressed.
“All these other considerations — traffic, parking, the availability to accommodate density — all those questions get asked if that parcel were ever to come in with a rezoning,” Niedzielski-Eichner said. “And that is an opportunity to speak to the housing density at that time. But this particular action is related specifically to non-residential [and] has nothing to do with the residential.”
County staff noted that the comprehensive plan amendment does not include any specific development proposal. Concerns about traffic and accessibility would be addressed as part of a future zoning proposal.
The Board of Supervisors is slated to hold a public hearing on the proposed amendment at its meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m.
