An expansion that would more than double the size of the Lofts at Reston Station has secured Fairfax County’s approval, but not everyone was convinced the project is ready to move forward.
At its July 14 meeting, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved home builder Pulte Group’s rezoning application for a second phase of the condominium development, which opened in 2019 with 44 units at the corner of Reston Station Blvd and Michael Faraday Drive.
To the east of the existing neighborhood, the proposed Lofts at Reston Station II would replace three low-rise office buildings at 1810, 1825 and 1850 Samuel Morse Drive with 158 homes, including 112 condos across three five- to six-story buildings and 46 stacked townhouses in one four-story building.
The development will feature approximately 20,900 of publicly accessible park area, including a central park with a playground, and 20 workforce dwelling units reserved for residents earning up to 70%, 80% or 100% of the area median income.
“This is what I would call a split decision,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said prior to the vote, referring to the conflicting recommendations of the Fairfax County Planning Commission, which supported the application, and his office’s Reston Planning & Zoning Committee, which advised denying approval.
While few outright objected to the prospect of the Samuel Morse Drive office buildings getting redeveloped with housing, residents who testified at the July 14 public hearing criticized Pulte’s management of the original Lofts and recounted frustrations with past construction experiences.
Among other issues, existing Lofts residents described the availability of parking as inadequate, made worse by the lack of a dedicated loading space. The county waived its loading space requirements for the project when plans were approved in 2016.
They’ve also taken issue with Pulte not striping Reston Station Blvd, leaving a gap in the street’s on-road bicycle lanes, and what they say is sluggish snow removal service.
Adam Rubinstein, vice president and treasurer of the Lofts at Reston Station Condominium Association board, accused Pulte at the July 14 public hearing of not reaching out and being unresponsive to concerns raised by residents and the Reston P&Z Committee.
Recalling issues with getting Pulte to fix carpet that had been incorrectly installed in the original Lofts, he unfavorably compared the company’s outreach efforts on the proposed expansion to those of JB Properties, which is seeking to redevelop an adjacent aging office building at 1821 Michael Faraday Drive with housing.
“Pulte has been difficult to work with and does not seem interested in being a community partner,” Rubinstein said. “The only thing they’re interested in frankly is their profit. Pulte can do better, should do better and needs to do better.”
Christopher Cummings, secretary for the condo association, urged the county to require that Pulte clean the Lofts I building after it finishes construction.
“We already had two construction projects where we had significant accumulation of dirt and dust on our balconies, on our window screens, on the exterior of the building,” he said. “You basically couldn’t open windows because the dust would even get inside, and I think it’s fair and reasonable that Pulte be held to account on this issue.”
In a proffer agreement with conditions of the county’s approval, Pulte agreed to take steps to keep dust from leaving the construction site and to contribute $5,000 to the condo association so it can hire a power washer for the Lofts I building.
However, Cummings noted that the proposed dust management plan doesn’t address debris that winds up on neighboring properties, and Rubinstein argued that Pulte should pay the “actual cost” of any clean-up, up to $10,000, instead of imposing an amount in advance.
When questioned by Alcorn, DLA Piper senior land use planner Kelly Posusney, who represented Pulte, defended the developer’s commitments to managing dust and working with the community during construction as “pretty robust.”
“There’s a lot of oversight. There’s a lot of checking in with the surrounding community as well as your office,” she said, adding that the developer will try to limit construction traffic onto Easterly Road and direct crews to Samuel Morse Drive instead.
According to Posusney, discussions are still underway between Pulte and other developers in the area to establish a snow removal consortium after Rubinstein expressed skepticism that the group will ever exist.
Under the proffer agreement, Pulte would be required to remove snow itself or ensure the consortium of developers takes care of it within 24 hours after snow stops falling.
“Lofts I is not one of the people that are going to be party to the agreement, so the people that are party to it are working out the logistics and who’s going to fund it and how it’s going to work, so it’s in process,” Posusney said. “There’s every intention that [the consortium] is the way they’re going to handle it.”
In response to the complaints about missing loading spaces for Lofts I, Pulte striped three parking spaces to serve as a loading area, but residents say it’s not large enough to accommodate moving trucks and took away valuable parking spots.
Lofts I resident Christina Liesegang testified that the neighborhood’s parking is “already maxed out,” noting that it’s a “hassle” to back out of the provided garages due to their size and the narrow alleys between buildings.
“If we’re going to go from 44 units to 250 units, it’s going to be challenging,” Liesegang said. “I just ask the board to delay this, not cancel it, but delay it until there’s some more details ironed out by Pulte and that we have larger and more functional garages, adequate garage maneuvering areas, loading zones that actually work and more parking overall.”
Alcorn acknowledged the concerns raised during the public hearing, agreeing in particular that the county and developers really need to “get a handle on the parking along Reston Station Blvd.” But he declined to postpone a vote on the project, which has been in the works since 2019.
“I also very much appreciate staff for working through all of these many, many issues,” Alcorn said. “I wouldn’t say this is a perfect application, but I think the responsiveness of the applicant to the requests has been reasonable.”
