Fairfax County officials are on board with the idea of redeveloping Lake Fairfax Business Park in Reston into a large residential neighborhood.
After a public hearing on Tuesday (Aug. 25), the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to its comprehensive plan to allow up to 1,250 residential units with supporting retail on the commercial property at 1780 Business Center Drive.
Located off the Dulles Access Road and near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, the property has seven office buildings, six of which are completely vacant, while the other sits at 40% vacancy with a lease expiring next year. It also has a Lifetime Fitness gym, Homewood Suites hotel, Reston Montessori School and a data center.
EYA Development has a pending request to rezone about 49 acres of the 88-acre property from industrial use to planned residential mixed-use development.
The proposed two-phase development would have 1,017 homes and 27,900 square feet of retail and amenity space. The residential development would consist of 385 multifamily units in one building, 132 condominiums across three buildings, 289 traditional townhouses and 211 stacked townhouses.
While the gym, hotel, school and data center aren’t part of the rezoning, they were part of the comprehensive plan amendment, which covered the entire business park. The amendment to the comprehensive plan — a guiding document for county land-use decisions — opens up the whole property to mixed-use development.
Mark Looney, a partner at Cooley representing EYA, said the original comprehensive plan amendment nomination was submitted in 2022. Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn noted that it originally only looked at the area targeted by the rezoning application.
“Stepping back and looking at the broader area makes a lot of sense from the Comprehensive Plan standpoint,” Alcorn said.
Looney told the Reston Association board of directors at a presentation on July 23 that housing financier Fannie Mae used to be a large tenant at the business park, but departed several years ago for a consolidated space at Reston Town Center, putting it closer to a Metro station in anticipation of the Silver Line expansion.
Alcorn said commercial uses are clearly no longer a viable option in the development.
“In my opinion, redevelopment as opposed to developing over green spaces is much more appealing,” he said. “Abandoned office buildings are really bad for the community and I want to avoid that.”
The rezoning will be heard by the Fairfax County Planning Commission on Sept. 23 and presented to the Board of Supervisors on Nov. 17.
