Reston Regional Library is slated for a complete renovation as part of the overall redevelopment of Reston Town Center North.

But after the potential RTC North developer unexpectedly withdrew from the project last year, Fairfax County is now looking at making some interim upgrades to the library at 11925 Bowman Towne Drive. The improvements are expected to extend the building’s lifespan for the next seven to ten years.

“While the planned future Reston Regional Library is still in the land acquisition and design phase, this brief and necessary refresh will enhance library visitors’ experiences and complete important facility modernizations to ensure that it remains useable, clean, and safe for the duration of the building’s lifespan,” Fairfax County Public Library Deputy Director Kevin Osborne told FFXnow.

According to a permit application, the library’s bathrooms will be demolished, removing the existing floor, tile, toilets, toilet partitions and lighting. The renovated bathrooms will be up to county standards, including automatic flush toilets, LED lights, hand dryers and drinking fountains.

The redesign is also intended to minimize “unwanted behavior” by removing doors and improving lighting.

FCPL also plans to replace the library’s front and rear entry carpet. LED lighting is planned throughout the building to reduce the library’s energy costs and increase its light levels.

There’s no established timeline yet for when construction might begin, and Osborne noted that the scope of the interim renovations might change.

RTC North’s redevelopment lost steam when developer Folger-Pratt pulled out from the project in February 2023. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors then created a task force to come up with a new plan and asked the county executive to expedite a land exchange with Inova Health System to move the project forward.

Inova owns parcels in RTC North that are currently developed with an emergency room, the North County Human Services Center and Sunrise Senior Living.

The redevelopment project will replace the library and the Embry Rucker Shelter, which will be supplemented by affordable housing. The RTC North task force released a plan in November that also recommended sites for a future school, athletic field and recreation center.

During a media call last week, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn reported that county staff and Inova “are working to start pulling together the documentation” needed to submit a zoning application for the redevelopment.

Designs for the new homeless shelter and library will be shared with the task force for feedback, he pledged.

“That’ll be the next step, but there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes,” Alcorn said. “Frankly, I’m pushing the county because our new shelter and that permanent supportive housing couldn’t come too soon, and the library, that’s important as well.”

A grocery store that is a subsidiary of the third-largest retailer in Mexico is set to open soon in Reston.

El Super, a supermarket that also includes a restaurant, will open at 11503 Sunrise Valley Drive in Suite 10, according to Fairfax County permits. The building in the Sunrise Valley Center commercial park was previously a Fusion Dental.

The location is expected to open sometime within the next four or five weeks, a company representative tells FFXnow.

Part of Chedraui USA, whose other brands include Fiesta Mart, El Super opened its first store in California in 1997. Since then, the company accumulated 64 stores operating in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

The venture into Northern Virginia is a first for the company, which is a subsidiary of Mexico’s Grupo Commercial Chedraui.

The grocery store sells Latin American products, including fresh bread and tortillas from in-store bakery, and it has a full-service meat department. The in-store restaurant sells items like chile relleno, shrimp fried rice and pupusas.

Image via Google Maps

A total of 461 residential units will take the place of two vacant office buildings on Worldgate Drive in Herndon.

The Herndon Town Council unanimously approved the redevelopment proposal from Boston Properties on March 26, allowing a five-story apartment building on the western half of the property along with a two-floor parking garage, four-story townhouses and two-over-two stacked residential units.

The project will be located at 13100 and 13150 Worldgate Drive and has been under review by the town for almost two years.

The 10.4-acre site will be accessed from an entrance on Wiltshire Lane and a new right-in only entrance along Worldgate Drive. The development itself includes a street grid of private streets and alleys.

A new trail that is accessible to the public will provide a missing link to the existing trail network that connects Elden Street to the Herndon Metro station.

Two public bus stops will be relocated and upgraded with shelters, benches and trash cans. The stop along Elden Street will also have a bus pull-off bay to minimize the impact on traffic.

Lisa Gilleran, director of the town’s department of community development, told the town council that the housing development will have a significantly lower impact on traffic than the office buildings would if they were fully leased.

“Although they are empty right now, if they were to have tenants in them, [it] would actually create a much more significant traffic issue than the proposed development,” Gilleran said.

A traffic study found that the development is expected to reduce traffic by 1,448 daily trips during peak hours compared to the existing office use.

Boston Properties successfully sought a 15% reduction in the number of parking spaces required for the multi-family building, which will have 359 units. The 49 planned townhouses will be 20 and 22 feet wide for end units instead of the required 22 feet and 24 feet for end units.

David Gill, a land use attorney representing Boston Properties, said the company is excited to create a gateway community in the Town of Herndon.

“We think Worldgate has had a lot of challenges as the office market has changed under its feet,” he said.

Councilmember Donielle Scherff urged the developer to continue to conduct its due diligence as the project moves forward, drawing specifically from her experience with Boston Properties shifting Reston Town Center from free to paid parking.

“I hope that everything that happened in Reston will shed a different light with how you handle Herndon,” she said.

Sean Sullivan, the company’s vice president of development, responded that “lessons have been learned from Reston so we take that to heart.”

The townhouse portion of the project will have 35 visitor spaces allotted on the street. Garage parking is set aside for the multi-family building, whose visitors will receive a temporary key. Bicycle parking, including public racks on the street, will be provided.

An arts-inspired Earth Day celebration is coming to Reston Town Center.

Organized by the Reston Town Center Association and Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, the inaugural event on April 20 will feature a variety of activities, including a special art installation at the Mercury Fountain Plaza by Arkansas-based artist Danielle Hatch.

The installation, called “All Is in Motion, Is Growing, Is You,” is inspired by Reston’s origins and founder Bob Simon’s vision of community building.

“Art often serves as a lens to help us understand the world around us, and artists have the unique ability, through their work, to spark conversation around contemporary issues, including the earth, land, and environment,” Tephra ICA Executive Director and Curator Jaynelle Hazard said. “This collaborative event with RTCA presents a special opportunity to celebrate reverence for the natural world and the impact that art and artists can have in shaping sustainability.”

Hatch is expected to build on the installation with a performance during the Tephra ICA Arts Festival, which is scheduled to take place at Reston Town Center in May.

Other festivities include:

• Curator-led tours of the “Pressing” exhibition at Tephra ICA
• An environmentally themed concert with George Mason University professor Victor Provost’s steel pan ensemble
• Afternoon art activations in Reston Town Square Park, such as poetry readings, a meditative sound bath, plant repotting and rehabilitation, printmaking workshops, community composting and face painting
• A free screening of the documentary “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” with an introduction and post-film Q&A led by GMU professor Jeremy Campbell

The movie screening is sponsored by and will be held at Reston Town Center’s LOOK Dine-In Cinema (11940 Market Street).

RTCA Executive Director Robert Goudie says the Earth Day celebration aligns with the association’s desire to promote “art experiences that both enrich and educate.”

“We always welcome the chance to partner with Tephra ICA, a content leader in the DMV,” he said in a statement. “With support from Reston Community Center, ArtsFairfax, George Mason University, and LOOK Dine-In Cinemas at Reston Town Center, we think we have something that will capture the imagination and bring forward the importance of this day in a compelling way.”

An opening ceremony is set for 10 a.m. The event is free and open to all.

Paving and re-striping season has descended upon Fairfax County once again, ushering in a series of public meetings later this month on proposed projects that include bicycle lanes and improved crosswalks.

Hundreds of miles of roadway will be repaved and re-striped by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) as part of the program throughout the state.

“VDOT and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) use this program as an opportunity to increase driver, bicyclist and pedestrian safety with road and crosswalk improvements while minimizing the financial investment in restriping work,” FCDOT says on its website.

The first meeting kicks off next Monday (April 8) at 7 p.m. for the Franconia and Mount Vernon districts.

In the Franconia District, bicycle lanes on Oakwood Road between Van Dorn Street and Crown Royal Drive are proposed, along with crosswalk improvements at Terrapin Place and at the Crown Royal Drive and Founders Hill Place intersection.

The Mount Vernon District is slated for:

• Bike lanes on Laurel Crest Drive between Silverbrook Road and Douglas Fir Drive
• Bike lanes on Old Mount Vernon Road between Drews Court and Maryland Street
• Crosswalk improvements at Laurel Crest Drive and Paper Birch Drive

The Hunter Mill District’s meeting on April 9 will focus on Center Harbor Road in Reston, where bicycle lanes are proposed between Wiehle Avenue and Reston Parkway, and crosswalk improvements proposed at the Sundial Road intersection.

The Providence District meeting is set for April 10, with bike lanes proposed on Anderson Road between Birdwood Avenue and Magarity Road. A Capital Bikeshare station is also proposed near the intersection of Anderson Road and Dartford Drive.

Meetings for the Braddock, Mason and Springfield Districts are slated for April 11. Braddock is expected to have the following projects:

• Bike lanes on Heming Avenue between Heming Place and Braddock Road
• Crosswalk improvements at Heming Avenue and Hogarth Street
• Crosswalk improvements on Heming Ave at Elgar Street and Axton Street

Springfield is only slated for one road restriping that would add crosswalk improvements on Center Road and Garden Road.

The Sully District has the most proposed changes, which will be discussed at a meeting on April 23 at 7 p.m.:

• Bike lanes on Walney Road between Westfields Boulevard and Westmore Street
• Bike lanes on Field Encampment Road between Golden Oaks Lane and Centrewood Drive
• Crosswalk improvements on Field Encampment Road at Cider Barrel Circle and St. Germain Drive
• Crosswalk improvements at Compton Village Drive and Bradenton Drive

Paving begins in the spring and concludes in November. Exact dates for each project will be available 10 days before work is expected to begin.

Work hours are usually limited to outside of rush hours, although residents can expect work vehicles in their neighborhood during the project.

Links for each web meeting are available on FCDOT’s website, along with dial-in information.

Reston residents will soon get a chance to share their thoughts on a proposed name change for the Shadowood Recreation Area.

Reston Association plans to host a town hall meeting in early May after its Board of Directors voted last week to defer the initial date of April 15.

Area residents are seeking the name change to the recreational area, which includes a swimming pool and tennis courts, in order to clarify that the pool is open to all RA members, not just Shadowood Condominium residents.

With the results of a board election set to be revealed this month, RA board president John Farrell said at a meeting last Thursday (March 28) that conducting the town hall while new members transition to the board would be an “uncomfortable moment.”

The delay, which was approved by the majority of the board, was criticized by board member Margaret Perry, who noted that neighbors have been seeking the name change for several years.

“The Shadowood neighbors have been asking for that name change to happen for years and so, I think to continuously put it off and put it off is at this point once again ignoring member requests to at least go in and see what can be done and get it moving,” she said.

Farrell emphasized that a similar request to change the name of the facilities at 2201 Springwood Drive was ultimately voted down in 2011.

“This group of people who are interested in this have already had their day in court. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to give them another one,” Farrell said, adding that the date change would delay the timeline by three weeks.

In addition to the town hall workshop, RA plans to launch an online survey to gauge feedback on the name change.

RA CEO Mac Cummins said the hope is to line up the proposed name change — if approved — with the reopening of the Shadowood pool this year. The renovation project shifted to a new phase last fall and is expected to be complete in time for the upcoming summer pool season.

RA is also exploring a name change for Lake Audubon, but a meeting on the proposal was unexpectedly cut short due to a health emergency.

Water and sewer rates are set to increase as part of the Town of Herndon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025.

Released on Friday (March 29) by Town Manager Bill Ashton II, the proposed budget leaves the real estate tax rate unchanged at $0.26 per $100 of assessed value, though bills are still expected to go up due to rising property assessments.

However, the water service rate is set to increase from $3.47 this year to $4.08 per 1,000 gallons of water consumption in the next budget year, which starts July 1. The sewer rate is set to increase from $8.27 to $8.93 per 1,000 gallons of water consumption in fiscal year 2025.

The changes were spurred by higher supply and treatment costs that have affected the region, the Town of Herndon said in a press release. Town staff have been examining potential increases since 2022.

Ashton emphasized that the state of the economy calls for “fiscal prudence.”

The Proposed FY 2025 Budget allows for continuation of the programs and services valued by our residents and businesses, as well as funding for new initiatives such as previously deferred public works projects as well as work on the town’s Comprehensive Plan, a document that guides our present and future in such elements as land use, transportation, historic areas, community service facilities, public buildings and utilities.

The quarterly service charge for water per bill will be $16.34 under the proposed budget. An additional fee of $6.94 per 1,000 gallons would be charged for all water consumed during peak use periods that’s in excess of the average consumption for the preceding billing periods.

The overall $74 million budget package increases spending by 19.9%. If approved, funding would go toward employee pay raises, increased pension and retirement costs, and capital projects, among other expenses.

Notable initiatives for the coming year include the Herndon Police Department’s plan to re-introduce a dedicated traffic section with motor officers “to enhance roadway safety through education and enforcement.” A second part-time parking enforcement official will be hired to help address parking violations.

“Overall, these changes reflect the town’s commitment to maintaining and improving its infrastructure, public safety, and recreational facilities for its residents,” the budget document says. “These budget changes also demonstrate the town’s responsible financial management and dedication to providing quality services to its community.”

The budget is officially adopted on June 30 following a series of meetings, including public hearings on the proposed budget on April 9 and April 23. Both meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the Ingram Council Chambers.

Horse enthusiasts will once again get a chance to enjoy the Annual Horse Expo at Frying Pan Farm Park’s Equestrian Center.

The event, which is set for April 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is open to all and will include equestrian demonstration, a variety of horses in a Parade of Breeds, speeches by expert speakers, and businesses offering horse-related products and services.

“This featured event is for everyone — experienced riders, beginners, and anyone who loves horses or hopes to become a rider,” the Fairfax County Park Authority said in a press release.

Pony rides are also available for $10, though pre-registration is required. Registration for the overall expo is free.

This year’s expo features new and additional vendors onsite as well as new topics for demonstrations and speakers, such as trailer safety, equine entertainment and liberty training, according to FCPA spokesperson Roberta Korzen.

The equestrian center is a public facility in Frying Pan Farm Park (2709 West Ox Road). It offers rental events, horse shows, trailer-in schooling options and short-term stabling. It also features two full-size outdoor riding rings and a rally field.

A tent encampment housing between 20 and 35 individuals in the woods between Inova’s emergency room and Sunrise Assisted Living Center in Reston may soon fold.

Fairfax County officials hope to open up a temporary overflow shelter in a government building in the Reston Town Center North area to accommodate the people who’ve been living in the tents.

“No Trespassing” signs are set to go up around the encampment, which is located on county property, in the coming weeks, as the county’s hypothermia shelters close their doors for the 2023-2024 winter season on Sunday (March 31).

The Reston encampment is the largest one in the county, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn. Cornerstones — the nonprofit that runs Reston’s Embry Rucker Community Shelter — and its outreach teams plan to discuss their options with residents as the transition is phased in over the coming weeks.

“It’s really an unmanaged campground,” Alcorn said yesterday (Wednesday) in a call with media. “You know, if you walk through and talk to people, that’s really how its functioning at this point. So, I have concerns about, frankly, the safety of the folks living there now and the personal safety.”

Many details of the overflow shelter, including when it will open and how many people it can fit, remain to be determined, but it’s intended to help wind down activities in the encampment that has occupied the hill for years.

In some cases, neighbors have complained about the encampment, though data on how many police calls have been placed wasn’t immediately available.

According to Alcorn, there have been issues at the Reston Regional Library and reports of break-ins in some of the surrounding communities, but he cautioned that it would be “unfair” to attribute all incidents to the encampment.

Sunrise recently put up a fence around their property, creating a buffer between their property and the encampment.

Alcorn said he asked staff for an “effective and humane” plan for winding down the camp. He emphasized that its future is already in limbo because that property and the rest of Reston Town Center North are slated for major redevelopment. Plans call for a new Embry Rucker shelter and a new library, though an earlier agreement with a private developer fell through.

The encampment first began as a handful of tents but has since grown substantially. Reston Strong, a local nonprofit organization, began offering support to the area, providing food, tents and other supplies.

The organization launched a Neighbors in Tents campaign in 2022 to raise awareness about homelessness in Fairfax County. A temporary tent community was set up in front of the North County Governmental Center (1801 Cameron Glen Drive) as an alternative after the county’s hypothermia and COVID-19 emergency shelters closed for the season.

The organization called for permanent solutions to address homelessness in the county, which saw a 10% increase in people experiencing homelessness from 2022 to 2023. The results of the county’s most recent point-in-time count — an annual survey of the number of people without housing — are expected to be released in May.

Reston Strong says it welcomes the plans for a temporary overflow shelter to assist “our most vulnerable residents,” but it still has “many unaddressed concerns and questions.”

“We have not received answers from the county about when the shelter will be ready or if there is enough capacity for the Hill residents and those already in hypothermia, but we have been told via a letter from Supervisor Alcorn that no trespassing sign will be posted and we are not allowed to set up new tents,” Reston Strong organizer Sarah Selvaraj-Dsouza said. “The Hill will be closed in the near future for the planned land swap with Inova. We are hoping for a timely resolution that meets everyone’s needs.”

Alcorn said the logistics of the overflow shelter are still being ironed out.

News of a plan to clear the encampment comes as the county’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority prepares to implement a $20 million agreement that will provide housing for those in need, specifically individuals with serious mental illnesses.

Starting in May, the county will receive 300 new supportive rental assistance vouchers for residents over three years and three new staff positions to manage the program.

Alcorn says both initiatives are the beginning of important steps to addressing chronic homelessness.

“It’s going to make a big dent in the problem,” he said of the voucher program.

Fox Mill Road will be closed at the beginning of next month to allow for a pipe replacement.

Virginia Department of Transportation crews are replacing a drainage pipe, prompting the closure between Pinecrest Road and John Milton Drive in Herndon on Monday, April 1 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Individuals who need to access properties along Fox Mill Road will still have access, but drivers will not be allowed to go beyond the point where the pipe is being replaced, which will be located roughly at 2516 Fox Mill Road near Pinecrest Road.

“Through traffic will be detoured via Pinecrest Road, Viking Drive (Route 5340) and John Milton Drive back to Fox Mill Road. Drivers are asked to follow posted detour signs,” VDOT said in a press release.