A new rental community for older adults has officially opened its doors in Herndon.

Brightview Senior Living opened its 46th community at Dulles Corner (13700 Magna Way) this month. The 196-unit apartment building is part of a project with a library, fitness studios, pub, movie theater, salon and art studio, along with an outdoor garden area with a covered porch.

Doug Dollenburg, president and CEO of Brightview Senior Living, said the placement of the Herndon location follows a trend of embedding senior living communities into the larger community.

“Innovation Center Station is a $1B+ investment with the intent to offer a thoughtful live, work and play neighborhood in a convenient location,” Dollenburg wrote in a statement. “With Brightview in that mix, it provides residents and their families a truly multi-generational experience. Vibrancy and socialization are at the core of Brightview’s method; and this location ensures residents can stay active and involved beyond the walls of Brightview.”

The Herndon location is the company’s fourth in Fairfax County, joining facilities in Great Falls, Fair Oaks and Annandale.

It includes a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care rental apartments. The units are available with no major entrance fee, according to the company.

(Updated at 12:05 p.m.) Fairfax County planners agree that proposed development changes to the Innovation Center area are a top planning priority in the county’s ongoing Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process.

At a meeting on Thursday (March 9), the Fairfax County Planning Commission voted to preliminarily place the Innovation Center Transit Station Area (TSA) in the top tier of the county’s SSPA work program, which sets the framework for the county’s review of comprehensive planning studies and plan amendments.

All three nominations in the Innovation Center TSA seek more density and more residential uses than originally planned.

Dranesville District Planning Commissioner John Ulfelder said the area is need of closer examination and focused work by the county.

“This is an important area now that the Silver Line is open and operating,” Ulfelder said. “We really need to play close attention to it as soon as possible in order to make it viable and to maximize the appropriate uses there.”

The current SSPA cycle kicked off with applicants submitting about 70 nominations last year. Ones formally accepted for review by the Board of Supervisors in December are now being screened and evaluated.

In a white paper released earlier this month, county staff organized the nominations in three tiers, with the top tier featuring those located in key development areas and identified as the highest priority for staff resources and timing.

So far, areas flagged as Tier 1 priorities include Fair Lakes, the Franconia triangle between Beulah Street, Franconia Road and Grovedale Drive and the Innovation Center TSA north of the Dulles Toll Road.

In the Innovation Center TSA, Peterson Companies is seeking the county’s permission to add 500 apartment units — a mix of which would be affordable — and a possible child care center at 13500 Dulles Green Drive. The project, called Innovation Center, would also include a county-owned parcel.

The Innovation Avenue plan for 2214, 2205, and 2210 Rock Hill Road seeks to boost the intensity of development near the former Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) office building and remove limits on the percentage of residential and office uses in the mix of uses.

A similar development called Rock Hill seeks to switch the development plan to mostly residential uses near the Innovation Center Metro station.

All three applications would be the focus of a combined study, according to staff.

The complexity of the proposed plan at Rivana at Innovation Station — which includes Loudoun County — requires close study, said Hunter Mill District Planning Commissioner John Carter.

Franconia District Planning Commissioner Daniel Lagana emphasized the county’s need to continue collaborating with Loudoun County as planning moves forward, particularly coordination within the existing and future road networks.

Lagana said he was pleased to learn that coordination is ongoing.

“When something happens in the city of Alexandria…we sort of kind of pay the price and I’m sure kind of vice versa,” Lagana said.

Of the 75 nominations submitted for review in October, 68 have moved forward for evaluation. The planning commission has a final workshop on March 23 and a mark-up session on the work program planned for March 29. The program will face a final vote by the Board of Supervisors on April 11.

The development team behind four parcels of land on Rock Hill Road in Herndon want to see more housing on the nearly 24-acre site near the Innovation Center Metro station.

DWC Holdings and Origami RE Growth GP have filed a Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) — an ongoing process for exploring changes to Fairfax County’s comprehensive plan — to increase the amount of housing on the site.

“Given the uncertain future of the office market, the proposed amendment is essential to ensuring the development of the property in a manner that achieves important county goals and capitalizes on the region’s substantial investment in the Silver Line,” the Oct. 21 application said.

Currently, the county’s plan calls for one of two options for the site: either a mixed-use development with housing, offices, hotel and retail uses, or a project with all of the above except residential uses.

The applicants want to go with the first option, increasing the site’s development intensity. That would up the floor area ratio (FAR) within a quarter-mile of the Metro station from 2.8 to 5.0 and 1.6 to 2.5 FAR within a half-mile of the station. In total, the change would mean a 3.75 FAR for the property.

The development team also wants eliminate the county’s desired proportions for the mix of uses on the site — a move they argue is “critical” to enhance the “flexibility” of the property and maintain a development that encourages rail ridership.

“The proposed amendment will not only support the County’s important place-making and transit ridership goals, but also provide additional, much needed housing opportunities,” the application states.

The proposal suggests that county and Virginia Department of Transportation officials explore vacating their existing Innovation Avenue right-of-way to “seamlessly” integrate the development into the Metro station.

The proposal also says a “significant” but unspecified number of affordable or workforce dwelling units would be included.

The proposal is one of several moving through the SSPA process. The county plans to host a series of community meetings on the applications.

Of the 75 proposals the county received in the fall, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors selected 70 to move to the screening phase.

At 13, the Hunter Mill District has the most accepted proposals, most of which expand residential development in transit-oriented areas.

Residents can also submit comments online.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission will review the nominations in public workshops next month and in March. The nominations will move forward for formal study in a Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program.

A board vote is anticipated in the spring.

A cycle path to the Innovation Center Metro station is circling closer to construction.

Roughly $4 million in federal funding was secured for the project, which will include a cycle path from Sunrise Valley Drive to Innovation Metro Station, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced yesterday.

Funds were designated in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations bill, a $1.7 trillion spending package that must be adopted by midnight tomorrow (Friday) to avoid a partial federal goverment shutdown.

The upgrades are part of the county’s Active Transportation Program, which covers non-motorized methods of travel and aims to reduce vehicle traffic.

The changes to the four-lane boulevard, which also has additional turning lanes at various intersections, would connect to existing bicycle and pedestrian paths, notably the Fairfax County Parkway Trail, FFXnow previously reported.

“This project will provide significantly improved access to several Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail Stations and high-density transit-oriented development near the Metrorail Stations and activity centers,” said a statement breaking down the funds designated for Northern Virginia.

Other projects also fit the bill in Fairfax County.

Among them is a neighborhood job and entrepreneurship research center for teens and young adults in the county’s community centers. The centers will offer teens and young adults career readiness skills, job training and leadership programs, according to the release. That project is expected to cost $2.1 million.

In Springfield, the Northern Virginia Community College’s Medical Education Campus will receive $2.2 million to grow its nursing program. Funds will also go towards buying computerized manikins and other technology to supplement clinic training for nursing, respiratory therapy and EMS students.

Other cyclist-related improvements include $1 million for bicycle and pedestrians upgrades near the Vienna Metrorail Station in Oakton. The project is targeted to the area near the station and Oakton High School.

A complete list of secured funds is available online.

A major mixed-use development near the Innovation Center Metro station could see some tweaks, if Fairfax County approves changes requested by developer Pomeroy Companies.

The applicant behind Aurora Station at Dulles is seeking more flexibility in the previously approved residential makeup in eight planned land bays on nearly 21 acres of the 39-acre property, which is bounded by Frying Pan Road, Sunrise Valley Drive and Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.

Overall, nearly 1.6 million square feet of residential development is proposed at 13710 Frying Pan Road in Herndon, along with 438,000 square feet of non-residential uses, according to an application submitted on Dec. 9.

Specifically, the developer wants to swap the previously approved land use for one area currently approved for an independent living facility in Land Bay C with 50 residential units. The square footage allotted for that facility would then be shifted to another area — Land Bay F.

Pomeroy is also seeking more flexibility for Land Bay B, whose upper area was approved for 64 townhouses while the lower was approved for 24 townhouses or one multifamily building. Now, the company wants the option of another 93 side-by-side townhouses or 98 stacked townhouses for the upper area and three multifamily buildings for the lower area.

“The options proposed for Land Bays B and C of the approved development further the application’s conformance with the Comprehensive Plan recommendations for the Property and will implement the County’s vision for development in the Dulles Suburban Center,” Scott Adams, a land use representative from McGuire Woods, wrote in a Dec. 9 statement.

Notably, the application doesn’t propose any increases to the development’s maximum densities under the original rezoning. In total, the plan calls for a little over 1,000 residential units, retail and commercial development.

First approved in 2019, the conceptual development plan was one of two developments that Pomeroy had in the works at the Innovation station. The developer also partnered with CRC Companies on an adjacent One Sunrise Valley project, which could add up to 1.5 million square feet of residential and retail development as well as the site for a new, public elementary school.

The Aurora application has not yet been accepted for review by the county.

The cold and rain didn’t dampen enthusiasm for the opening of Metro’s long-awaited, $3 billion Silver Line Phase II.

Yesterday marked the much-anticipated public opening of the 11.4-mile extension of the rail line from Reston into Loudoun County. Along with six new stations, this marks the first time that locals can take a train to Dulles International Airport.

Over multiple ribbon-cutting ceremonies throughout the chilly, wet November day, local officials touted the debut of the line as a “game-changer” and a “new era” for western Fairfax County and the D.C. region as a whole.

“It really is the establishment of a new identity for the Dulles corridor,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said at the new Reston Town Center station. “Now, what we’re going to see is the Dulles corridor tied together with transit in a way that was really never anticipated…We are in a new era.”

Riders, too, recognized what this could mean for the region and their daily travel.

“It’s going to change my life,” Raj Paradaar told FFXnow while riding the extension’s first passenger-filled train heading westbound. He lives in Ashburn and works near the Reston Town Center station, so he plans to ride the Metro most days.

Inside the Innovation Center station, commuters came and went, including a United Airlines flight attendant headed to work at Dulles. He lives in an apartment building across the street from the new station, along with a number of other flight attendants, FFXnow was told.

“That’s where we live,” the United Airlines flight attendant said pointing outside. “And that’s where we work…Honestly, taking a train is just much easier.”

Other riders said the extension won’t significantly affect their day-to-day habits, but they agreed it will make getting to the airport simpler.

Franconia resident Terry Rice, clutching luggage, happened to have a trip to Italy scheduled on the extension’s opening day. While planning, she realized that Dulles Airport was now only a train ride away.

“It may not change my life, but it’s going to make my life much easier,” Rice said.

Pulling into Reston Town Center station, the first stop on the new line. pic.twitter.com/83JP2LwMQh

— Matt Blitz (@WhyBlitz) November 15, 2022

During yesterday’s ceremonies, officials tried to make clear that the Silver Line extension’s impact is anticipated to go beyond simply being a link to the airport, reiterating a message that many have been saying for years.

“We have within our grasp…the ability to completely reinvent, reimagine [this corridor] as mixed-use development, as transit-oriented development, as environmentally friendly, as improving quality of life, as reducing carbon emissions, and as restoring choices for people who live in Northern Virginia,” said newly reelected Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11) at a ceremony outside of the Innovation Center station. Read More

Add another Silver Line Phase II ribbon-cutting to the list, with the Town of Herndon planning its own celebration on Wednesday (Nov. 16).

On the extended rail line’s first full day of service, the town will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Herndon Metro station. The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. at the entrance of the station at 585-A Herndon Parkway.

Newly re-elected Mayor Sheila Olem, State Senator Jennifer Boysko, and Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust are all scheduled to speak. Members of the Herndon Town Council are expected to be in attendance as well.

The ribbon cutting will also feature music from the Herndon High School band.

This ceremony is just one of several events coming next week to commemorate the opening of the long-delayed, three billion-dollar Silver Line Phase II.

On Tuesday (Nov. 15), the line will officially start running following an opening ceremony at Dulles International Airport. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to be in attendance as Silver Line Phase II officially starts services at the Washington Dulles International Airport station.

Metro will be giving away “Wonka-style ‘Silver Tickets‘” as well as pennants to commemorate the opening.

Then, at 2 p.m., the Fairfax County Department of Transportation will hold its own ceremony at the Innovation Center station. Another ribbon-cutting will follow at the Reston Town Center station at 3:30 p.m.

After opening day, the Town of Herndon will have its own celebration the next morning on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

FCDOT is also planning a family day at the Innovation Center station from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19. Attendees will be able to learn about the transit, walking and bicycling options at the station while enjoying music, food trucks and other activities, according to an event flyer.

Free parking for that event will be available in the station’s garage.

For riders who want to be on the inaugural train, the first eastbound train going to D.C. is expected to depart the Ashburn station at 1:54 p.m. However, the deadline to nab a ticket by entering Metro’s social media and email contest is fast approaching at 5 p.m. today.

The first full-length westbound trip traveling from Largo to Ashburn is scheduled to depart Downtown Largo at 12:51 p.m., arriving at Wiehle-Reston East at 2:02 p.m. before proceeding on the new section of the line.

The final piece of a massive mixed-used project near the Innovation Center Metro station is officially on track for approval.

At a Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting on Nov. 2, the commission unanimously gave developer DSVO Dulles approval to complete the development of just under three acres of mostly undeveloped land at 2310 Dulles Station Blvd.

The proposal is the last remaining undeveloped portion of the larger 58-acre Dulles Station development.

The applicant’s land use representative Mike Van Atta, a land use planner with the firm McGuireWoods, said the proposal was an “appropriate end-cap” for the overall development.

The plan includes a mixed-use apartment building with 510 units and seven stories. roughly 21,000 square feet of open space is proposed on the site, which would be flanked by townhouse-style units on either side of pedestrian mews. Retail is proposed on the ground floor of the building.

“It’s also the final piece of the puzzle for the completion of Dulles Station,” Van Atta said.

The developer elected to move forward with one of two separate development options for the building, which was previously approved in 2017 for either a mid-rise or high-rise building. The latest proposal favors a mid-rise building.

The approval came after discussion about the implication of the development on area schools.

Braddock District Commissioner Mary Cortina asked staff and the developer to examine if and how the county school system is prepared to handle students generated by the overall project, adding that the latest approval could bring at least one classroom full of elementary school students to the system.

“It would be good to know that we’ve committed to take a look at where we stand elementary school-wise,” Cortina said.

Hunter Mill District Commissioner John Carter also questioned why the development plan calls for single ramps instead of double ramps for pedestrians as they enter and exit the development.

Referring to challenges with pedestrian connectivity at The Boro in Tysons, Carter said that single ramps don’t do an efficient job of managing traffic.

“It sends people right out to the intersection with no regard to which way the traffic is coming,” Carter said.

He conceded that, while this was a “small point,” the overall application was “well worked out.”

Dranesville District Commissioner John Ulfelder noted that the overall application was consistent with previous approvals, the county’s zoning ordinance, and comprehensive planning documents.

“I like the straightforward applications. This one is,” he said.

Developer Peterson Companies is seeking Fairfax County’s permission to build hundreds of affordable apartments near the innovation center Metro station.

The Fairfax-based company would construct 500 units on its own land and a county-owned parcel at 13500 Dulles Greene Drive, according to county documents.

The proposal is through the Site-specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process, which is used to review proposed changes to land use designations for specific sites in the county’s comprehensive plan. The process for applications — known as nominations — is currently underway.

At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust pushed a board matter that confirm the board’s consent for the application — which is a required part of the SSPA process since the proposal involves land owned by the county.

The board will formally vote on its consent of the application on Dec. 6.

Foust emphasized that the board’s vote was not an approval of the project, noting that the applicant “understands that this motion will not prejudice the consideration of the nomination in any way, and that the consent of the Board should not be construed as a favorable recommendation.”

Currently, the comprehensive plan calls for a commuter parking facility in the immediate area, but Foust noted that a 2,100-space commuter parking garage has already been developed on the south side of the Dulles Toll Road.

The project would be surrounded by the Dulles Green apartment community to the north, Reflection Lake to the east and the toll road to the south.

Some portions of the county-owned parcel are in resource protection areas.

Applications materials requested by FFXnow were not immediately available, according to the county.

A county spokesperson said that no zoning action has been filed for the project yet.

“We anticipate an SSPA proposal was submitted,” Crystal Santos said. “Staff is currently reviewing [the] submission.”

A 356-unit, seven-story apartment building is taking shape near the Innovation Metro station. 

Makers Rise, which is on just under 4 acres of land at the intersection of Dulles Station Blvd and North Side Street and South Side Street, is set for completion in July 2023.

With the expected launch of phase two of the Silver Line this fall, the development team, which includes real estate company Crimson Partners, is hoping to implement new signage and way-finding tools in the area.

Originally, the developers didn’t anticipate including the residential development in any comprehensive signage overhaul. But they now say the current, nearly 20-year-old signage is not appropriate “for the use, scale and quality of the mixed-use building,” according to application materials submitted on Aug. 9.

“The Property contains multiple street frontages yet is located along a neighborhood-scaled street that carries limited vehicular traffic, and as such demands high quality and high visibility signage, which is proposed in this package,” the application states. “The anticipated opening of the Innovation Metro Station heightens this need as new potential residents, retail patrons, and visitors begin to utilize this transit-oriented development.”

The building also includes 5,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

Makers Rise (2311 Dulles Station Blvd) is one of the first buildings that will be constructed as transit-oriented development near Innovation Center Metro station.

The sign proposal includes changes related to the building, retail, parking and loading. 

The building is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2023. As a result, temporary leasing banners are planned to attract prospective tenants, customers and residents. Artwork is planned along South Side Street near a public gathering space.

Once completed, the building will include a range of housing, from studios to two-bedrooms with dens. Co-working spaces, courtyards, a swimming pool, fitness center, pet spa, and club room are also planned, according to Arlington-based CBG Building Co.