With development starting to pick up in the Spring Hill area, the need to protect some of the last remaining natural green space in Tysons has taken on a new level of urgency.

Acknowledging the potential threat, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn — who represents Tysons west of Route 7 and north of Route 123 — will create a community task force to determine the best way to preserve Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Valley, also known as Tysons Forest.

“The Task Force will provide a forum for discussion and recommended action to maximize the ecological benefits of this green corridor while maintaining appropriate access by us humans,” Alcorn said in an announcement at yesterday’s Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Encompassing over 40 acres of wooded land, Tysons Forest extends from the Ash Grove historic site down to the Tysons Towers apartments. It includes Raglan Road Park (8590 Raglan Road) as well as the stream valley park.

The area was dubbed “Tysons Last Forest” by residents who banded together in 2013 to halt plans for a road through Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Valley Park.

The county’s Tysons Comprehensive Plan emphasizes that the Old Courthouse Spring Branch and Scotts Run stream valleys “should not only be protected from development and infrastructure impacts, but be restored and enhanced.”

However, the plan also envisions “substantial redevelopment” for Tysons West to transform an area currently dominated by auto dealerships and offices into a mixed-use, transit-oriented district with “significant office, residential and retail components, as well as arts and entertainment uses.”

While that development mostly hasn’t emerged yet, the parkland is already close enough to human activities that a potential deer hunt last year was deemed too risky.

The plan proposes developing “multi-use trail and other passive recreational facilities” at Old Courthouse Spring Branch park, while considering athletic fields or other “local-serving recreational uses” at Raglan Road Park.

No changes to that plan will come from the new task force, which isn’t intended to address development in the area, Alcorn told FFXnow.

“Rather it is a task force of representative property owners along the stream valley to discuss management and ecological enhancement of this green corridor that forms the border of Tysons,” he said. “Some of the area has already completed stream restoration but there is as of yet no coordinated plan for the stream valley that lies between the Dulles Toll Road and Gosnell Road.”

According to Alcorn, the task force will be community-led and include representatives of property owners and other “community partners.” He said the other county supervisors and their staffs are also welcome to participate.

The group will convene this fall and is expected to wrap up its work in early 2024.

“It’s actually going to be a fun exercise to see how those ecological assets could be built upon and used for the broader community,” Alcorn said.

Alcorn’s full announcement is below: Read More

(Updated at 5 p.m.) The final phase of the economic visioning of the Lake Anne area is nearing.

At a meeting today (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors opened up a request for an additional $200,000 for the third phase of the project.

Consultant Street Sense is wrapping up the first phase of the Economic Visioning Study for the Lake Anne Commercial Revitalization Area. The study intended to build community consensus on a path forward for the area.

(Correction: This story previously said the study’s first phase wrapped up this spring, as indicated by a project timeline, but the Hunter Mill District office says it’s just now finishing.)

“We sought an economic vision that was aspirational, grounded in market realities, and able to strengthen the economic viability and sustainability of the area,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn wrote in his board matter. “There was extensive participation by the Lake Anne community to shape the economic vision through a combination of focus groups, an online survey, and several in-person workshops and meetings.”

So far, the plan suggests a concentration of new apartment units on the Crescent property at 1527 Cameron Crescent Drive, added cultural attractions, a parking structure, a centralized green space, connections from the Crescent site to Lake Anne Plaza via a new park, and the restoration of a tunnel to the east side of the area.

Street Sense kicked off the visioning study in mid-February with focus group sessions, followed by several community meetings and workshops. The study came at the request of Alcorn, who sought to build consensus on the economic vision for the area.

In the second phase of the project, Streetsense will work with individual property owners and determine their willingness to take part in implementing the economic vision.

During the final phase, Streetsense and sub-consultants will investigate options for implementation in a more comprehensive manner.

“This information will provide landowners and the county with a clear understanding of options and allow all stakeholders to construct an actionable plan for realizing the economic vision,” the board matter states.

The final phase is expected to kick off in the first quarter of next year. The funds could be allocated this fall via a carryover adjustment from the fiscal year 2023 budget.

The years-long process to overhaul the Reston Comprehensive Plan will take a little longer than expected.

At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting today (Tuesday), Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn announced that changes to Virginia’s laws regarding public notice and hearing requirements will push public hearings on the long-running update to the plan into September.

“It’s an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the statutory amendments, but we want the county to move forward on all these matters in a manner that leaves no doubt about the soundness of our public hearing process,” Alcorn said.

Underway since 2020, the Reston Comprehensive Plan update lays out the county’s vision for the 6,750-acre area’s development, touching on everything from transportation to density recommendations for the transit station areas and village centers.

The proposed draft was shaped by county staff and a community task force convened by Alcorn in 2020. During a planning commission meeting in June, some residents criticized the county for releasing a supplement to the draft plan less than 24 hours before the public hearing.

The statutory changes will also affect the timeline for the work of a task force studying development and other related issues in the Reston Town Center North (RTC North) area, along with the approval of Reston’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) applications.

Alcorn said he hopes that the SSPA process will pick up in the fall following the adoption of the Reston Comprehensive Plan.

New rules adopted by the Virginia General Assembly require notices of ordinance amendments or land use applications to be published no more than 14 days before the items are intended to be adopted or passed.

Local boards must take a final vote on items following a public hearing or advertise another public hearing, when action will likely be taken. Notice for those hearings must be published no more than two weeks before the planned vote.

The board must also advertise land use applications or ordinance amendments in a local newspaper no more than 14 days before the items are intended to be adopted.

All public meetings and meeting documents must be posted at least three days before the meeting. Similar changes apply to planning commissions in the county.

The county is in the midst of taking a special look at several major redevelopment applications and land use changes. Other applications throughout the county are being considered as part of a separate work program.

The change allows for more opportunities for public feedback on the Reston Comprehensive Plan, Alcorn said. An additional planning commission public hearing is slated for July 19 before the plan goes to the board for a hearing on Sept. 12, according to Alcorn.

Other processes impacted by the new laws include comprehensive plan updates for the Pan Am Shopping Center in Merrifield, which has been proposed for redevelopment, and special exception applications. Loudoun County and other neighboring jurisdictions were also affected.

Alcorn said the move was undertaken “out of an abundance of caution.”

That means the public will now have at least four more chances to provide input on the plan. Along with the hearings before the commission and board, Alcorn plans to hold a town hall on July 27 at the North County Government Center and a virtual meeting ahead in August ahead of the September hearing.

Alcorn said he plans to distribute a mark-up of the plan before the board’s vote on the proposal.

A previously approved plan for the redevelopment of the former Fannie Mae campus in Reston is once again headed before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for a vote on an expedited timeline.

At a board meeting on Tuesday (June 28), Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn successfully passed a board matter to move the application from developer Wheelock Capital for an official vote by the board as soon as possible.

The plan includes 74 townhouses and eight two-over-two units on the 28-acre property, which is currently developed with an office building that was once home to mortgage company Fannie Mae. The building would remain undisturbed by the plan.

In a 9-1 vote, the board approved the project in August 2022, but the approval was voided when the applicant “missed a payment deadline associated with its buyout obligations under the Dulles Rail Tax District,” according to Alcorn.

“As Board members may recall, this rezoning permits the construction of townhouses in lieu of another high-rise office building on the site,” Alcorn’s board matter states. “The rezoning was negotiated extensively with the community and county staff, and if ultimately built will provide a number of environmental and public benefits.”

The applicant also received the county’s permission to process its site plans — which have already been under review for several months — concurrently with the reapproval of the overall project.

The residential units will be located on the northern end of the property. Existing access points off of American Dream Way will be realigned, and two additional access points will be added to serve the residential development.

A private road system and connections to Reston’s trail system are also proposed. A new sidewalk will be constructed along the Sunset Hills Road frontage to the property, as well as a modified intersection at Sunset Hills and American Dream Way.

While the board matter doesn’t specify a date for the vote, the county’s zoning applications database indicates that a Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting has been scheduled for Sept. 13, and a board public hearing will follow on Sept. 26.

(Updated at 8:30 p.m.) Several people have reported the sighting of a bear near Home Depot in Reston.

In a tweet, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn warned residents of a bear sighting near the hardware store at 1651 Reston Parkway. A representative for Alcorn’s office said the Reston Police District received several reports.

Sgt. Earit Powell with Animal Protextion Police said it is likely the same bear that was seen in McLean over the last week and a half is in the Reston area.

The bear has not showed any threatening behavior but has been getting into trash and bird feeders, Powell said.

“We are also directing people to contact the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline at 855-571-9003 to report sightings and any conflicts with bears. This helpline is operated by the DWR and USDA Wildlife Services,” he added.

Another individual told FFXnow they saw a bear on Temporary Road.

Cameron Perez told FFXnow that she called 911 when she spotted the bear earlier this morning.

“I was coming back from work around 9:20am in the crossing light of Temporary Road and North Shore is the new traffic light that was installed recently,” Carmen said. “It was a black juvenile bear.”

Resident Matt Sweeney says he saw the bear in the Browns Chapel Park area this morning, posting videos on NextDoor that showed the animal crossing a road and lumbering through woods.

“It happened at around 8:05am at Browns Chapel,” he told FFXnow. “I first saw it on the paved trail running parallel to Baron Cameron [Road].”

There have been a number of reported bear sightings in Northern Virginia this month, including in McLean and Arlington. It’s unclear whether these have been the same animal or different ones.

My office has heard that a bear 🐻 has been seen in Reston near Home Depot. The bear hasn't shown behaviors that indicate a public safety threat. Call Virginia Wildlife Helpline 855-571-9003 to report sightings. https://t.co/XZwpKwLcis#Reston #HunterMill

— Supervisor Walter Alcorn (@WalterAlcornFFX) June 28, 2023

(Updated at 4:40 p.m. on 6/29/2023) Tysons could have a community center all of its own within the decade.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement yesterday (Tuesday) committing the nonprofit Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to building the future Tysons Community Center as part of its Dominion Square West housing development near the Spring Hill Metro station.

Located at the base of one of two planned residential high-rises at 1592 Spring Hill Road, the community center will feature a “full-size gymnasium, sensory and recreational spaces, multigenerational and community meeting rooms, fitness rooms, a kitchen, and administrative offices,” along with an outdoor courtyard, county staff said in a summary for the board (page 664).

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, whose district includes the southwestern quadrant of Tysons, trumpted the center as “a big deal” not for future Dominion Square residents, but for the whole area, which he said has “a dearth of public facilities.”

“It’s going to be a major asset,” Alcorn said before the board voted on the agreement. “…I know NCS has been engaging with other communities in the area about programming and how the community center’s going to be a benefit to the broader community, which is just fantastic. I’m a little bit over the moon on this one.”

Under the agreement, APAH will develop the 33,000-square-foot, two-level community center. The property will be owned by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority and operated by the county’s Neighborhood and Community Services.

Replacing an auto dealership parking lot, the Dominion Square development will provide 516 units to residents earning 30% to 70% of the area median income. Fairfax County’s AMI for a family of four in 2023 is $152,100, per county staff.

APAH intends to construct both 20-story buildings concurrently, thanks to a $55 million grant from Amazon, which was secured in part by the community center’s inclusion, Alcorn said.

APAH says it anticipates simultaneously starting construction on the northern Building 6 and Building 5 to the south — which contains the community center — in December 2023, putting the overall project on track to be completed in November 2027, as shown in a schedule submitted to the county.

(This article previously cited incorrect dates for the beginning of construction.)

The agreement notes that the schedule is “preliminary and subject to change.” An APAH spokesperson confirmed that the construction timeline hasn’t changed since the schedule was developed on June 6.

Conditions for the community center include a ground-floor entrance at the corner of Boone Blvd and Spring Hill Road separate from the access for residents, along with a designated drop-off area and a courtyard.

It will also get 75 parking spaces reserved for employees and visitors in a planned below-grade garage with 427 spaces total — 65 of them available to either community center users or residents.

During yesterday’s meeting, the board approved a 17.2% reduction from the 516 parking spaces that the county’s zoning ordinance requires for the development.

The county had explored allowing a 29.3% reduction, bringing the number of spaces down to 365, but none of the potential nearby, off-site parking options “penciled out,” according to Alcorn.

“In this part of Tysons anyway, we have the interesting conundrum of an over-abundance of parking, but it’s privately owned and wrapped up in development approvals and sometimes other uses that aren’t fully using those parking spaces,” he said, adding that he and supervisors John Foust (Dranesville) and Dalia Palchik (Providence) are pursuing “some longer-term leads for public parking” in the area.

According to a provided budget, the community center will cost an estimated $38.8 million, over $34 million of which is for construction.

Fairfax County is looking into adjusting its signage rules to allow for brighter and bigger electronic signs.

Casey Judge with the county’s Zoning Administration Division presented the proposed changes during a Board of Supervisors land use policy committee meeting on May 16.

The changes include increasing the maximum brightness for nonresidential districts to 300 nits (a unit that measures the brightness a sign is emitting) at sunset. Current regulations require electronic signs to automatically dim to 40-100 nits at sunset.

The changes also includes requiring sign permit applicants to submit sign specifications.

In addition, the three existing application processes that the county currently has for nonresidential areas could be consolidated into one process.

“This does mean that all sign applications would go to the board for approval rather than the current [comprehensive sign plans],” which only need to be approved by the Fairfax County Planning Commission, Judge said.

Proposed modifications for electronic display signs with special exceptions include increasing the number, height, and size of freestanding signs, allowing building-mounted electronic display signs, and increasing the brightness to 600 nits.

Last May, while discussing the matter, county staff told the committee that the existing rules are old and that businesses wanted to be more competitive. Judge also suggested that easing the application process could be helpful to businesses.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, the committee’s vice chair, questioned how the county is handling the convergence of “what’s a sign and what’s a display.”

“These things that we have traditionally dealt with as signs are being used in other means, or for other purposes,” Alcorn said.

Judge said a standard has been added that focuses on traffic safety and overall placemaking effects as part of the electronic display signs.

“I do hope that that standard can help guide our staff when they’re making that analysis to ensure that we’re looking at size and location, more so than the content in making our recommendations,” Judge said.

Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw questioned the proposed increase from 100 to 300 nits, which he called pretty significant.

“That’s really in response to research looking at other jurisdictions that have much higher nit level limitations and it allows for those higher definition screens that we’re seeing,” Judge answered.

Judge said the county is seeking authorization and public hearings later this year.

Fairfax County staff have released their final word on a draft version of the Reston Comprehensive Plan, a guiding document for holistic community planning that was last updated in 2015.

Released yesterday (Wednesday), the staff report shortens and tweaks the first version of the plan, which was developed by a Reston Comprehensive Plan task force, a 31-member group convened by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn in 2020.

In response to concerns raised by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, staff’s recommendations for the plan tighten prescriptive policy language in the first proposal and condense several separate sections into one chapter on planning for the new town of Reston.

“This chapter of the proposed plan does not break new policy ground, nor is it prescriptive,” the report states.

In the report, staff noted that their version of the plan aims to maintain the existing residential densities in Reston’s village centers, removing the option of housing in non-residential portions. Any changes would require another amendment to the plan.

The proposal also aims to preserve existing market and affordable housing in Reston — although that language is an encouragement, rather than a mandate.

The idea of biophilia — a designation given to communities that protect and cultivate nature while creating deep connections with the natural world — is also emphasized in future planning and development in Reston.

As alluded to during previous discussions in April, the latest plan includes a chapter called “Planning a New Town” that combines the principles of equity, community health and economic development under an umbrella chapter instead of separate ones.

“I am looking forward to reviewing the staff report to ensure that it includes the essence of goals from that Board Matter three years ago. Last updated in 2015, the Reston Comprehensive Plan is the guiding document for land use and development decisions in Reston,” Alcorn wrote in his weekly newsletter to constituents.

The task force’s initial version drew consternation from the board, which saw it as overtly prescriptive and an overstep of what the county can require by law. The board also worried it would set a precedent of establishing separate principles of community health and equity for one community within the county.

The staff’s version of the report also departs from the task force’s version on several key points.

The task force sought to remove an exemption in the plan that removed ground-level retail located in office, hotel and residential buildings from calculations when determining how much a developer should pay into the county’s housing trust fund. Read More

Changes to Reston Station and Reston Row — mixed-use developments near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station — are barreling towards approval.

At a meeting yesterday (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion to set a July 25 public hearing date for the joint proposals, which would shift approved but unbuilt residential density from one block of Reston Station to Reston Row.

Reston Row is an extension of Reston Station, a nearly 10-acre development at the Metro station. Reston Row includes two office buildings that will be anchored by Puttshack, an indoor mini-golf destination, and VIDA Fitness.

A third building includes 93 condos over a JW Marriott, while an apartment building labeled Building D will be anchored by the restaurant Ebbitt House.

Comstock wants to shift roughly 165 units or 264,000 square feet of space that was not used in Reston Station to the Ebbitt House apartment building. Nearly 10,000 square feet of space would be dedicated for a roof deck on top of another building for Founding Farmers and a future building in a different block on the property.

“Critically, the Applicant is not requesting one single square foot of additional density over and above what was approved and is entitled to be developed when Reston Station and Reston Row are aggregated,” the application said.

The developer argues that shifting the residential density would allow it to deliver workforce dwelling units sooner “than it otherwise would have” and in a better location for the county’s residents, according to the application.

The Puttshack building is set to delivered December of next year, while Building D is expected to deliver in November 2026, according to a board matter introduced yesterday by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.

In the matter, Alcorn states that the changes shift density to a “more logical, Metro-proximate, and resident-friendly location at Reston Row.”

From a logistical standpoint, the two separate applications for the project can be voted on concurrently. The July hearing before the Board of Supervisors will be preceded by a June 28 public hearing by the Fairfax County Planning Commission.

The most recent update of Reston’s draft comprehensive plan got a kudos from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors earlier this week.

At a land use policy committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday), board members said the latest version of the plan — which has been under the pen for nearly two years — averts the prescriptive policy language put in place by a community task force that created the first draft of the new plan roughly two years ago.

An official staff report is expected next month, followed by a June 14 Fairfax County Planning Commission public hearing and a board public hearing on July 11.

As discussed last month by the planning commission, the latest version by county staff focuses on supporting guidance in existing county policies, avoiding language that could be seen as establishing new policies.

New planning principles of equity, community health and economic development were consolidated into a chapter on the “new town” of Reston instead of getting separate chapters.

Franconia Supervisor Supervisor Rodney Lusk said he was particularly pleased with the guidance on economic development for Reston, which says support for housing, businesses, education and access to Metro’s Silver Line stations is key to maintaining the area’s “unique community and business climate.”

But Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said he was unsure if there was anything particularly unique about Reston that warranted guidance.

“I’m not sure why Reston feels like it has to take a position on that. It doesn’t seem to be anything particularly unique,” Foust said.

He added that economic development guidance for a particular area could open up other area plans to similar updates when the guidance should simply be applied countywide.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who initiated the review and held dozens of meetings with the community task force, said he wouldn’t support the new plan if he didn’t feel it was an improvement over Reston’s current plan.

Alcorn also asked staff to create a chart that depicts significant issues and concerns.

“Overall, I want to make sure we balance this in the right way, because I don’t want to dumb down Reston’s comprehensive plan,” Alcorn said.

County staff noted that they tightened up language in the task force’s version of the plan.

Providence District Supervisor Dahlia Palchik said she was pleased the new plan is now “going in the right direction.”

“This is in a much better place,” she said.