Town of Herndon courts feedback on area near Metro station primed for redevelopment

With the Herndon Metro Station now fully operational, the Town of Herndon is positioning itself to chart the future of a 94-acre area surrounding the station.

The town is working with a five-firm consultant team to determine how that transit-related growth area (TRG) could change in the coming years. The outcome includes a TRG study that will provide long-term visioning for the town.

Most recently, the town and consultant team are courting public feedback on the future of development in that area. The 10-minute survey asks a series of questions on what new activities and buildings respondents would like to see within the TRG area.

Anne Curtis, a spokesperson for the town, told FFXnow that information from the survey will guide the teams’ work as they develop future visions for redevelopment. Right now, the area is mostly composed of low-rise office buildings and surface parking lots.

“All factors are being considered including public input, information from the current property owners, input from the Town Council, Advisory Committee, Architectural Review Board, Planning Commission and work by the consultants including existing site analysis, infrastructure capacity, roadway capacity and traffic generation, and real estate market analysis,” Curtis wrote in a statement.

The study includes several firms, which are led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The town expects the visioning process to continue through the late winter and early spring, with additional opportunities for input, Curtis said.

An exact project timeline was not immediately available, but the town does intend to develop the plan — which started in the spring of this year — within 18 months.

The study comes at the request of property owners within the TRG, who agreed in 2021 to pay up to $500,000 for a consultant to develop a small area plan that will provide a conceptual vision for future development. The Herndon Town Council approved the agreement in October of 2021.

This is not the first plan to address development near the Herndon Metro Station — a planning process that has been ongoing for decades.

For example, in 2008, the town moved to switch its comprehensive plan’s land use classification for non-residential areas around the station from service and industry-oriented uses to a more mixed-use, transit-oriented focus.