News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

It's Baaaaaacck: Fairway Apartments Proposal Reportedly Slouching Back For Another Try

Like an earth-toned creature from a horror movie, the Fairway Apartments redevelopment proposal is apparently slouching towards a second date with planning officials, who used terms like "overwhelming" to describe the initial proposal. Those plans initially called for more than 900 "high-end condominiums" in a mauvescraper and assorted low-rise units on the site of the current garden apartments on North Shore Drive.

Last fall, developer the Fairfax County Planning Commission opted to indefinitely postpone consideration of the project. According to our BFFs at Reston 2020, JBG is now planning to submit a new proposal to the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee next month, the first step down the road to eventual approval. It'll definitely be interesting to see if JBG has taken the myriad criticisms of the original proposal to heart and come up with a new approach that is more in keeping with the neighborhoods around it.

Replacing an aging complex of garden apartments isn't the worst idea in the world--far from it. Planners were right to voice concerns about the scale of the project, which JBG did little to do to accommodate in the first go-around. Other groups were equally justified in criticizing the impact on affordable housing, which the company shamelessly tried to eliminate altogether from the proposal. We'd actually be excited to see a proposal that strikes a balance between higher density and the character of the surrounding neighborhoods.

And that also has lots and lots of these signs:

11 comments:

  1. As the original Tea Partier once said:

    Tear Down This eyesore (liberty taken) and get RID of yet another festering haven of Hudgins' minions.

    Let the market work -- and get the govmint's sticky hands out of our pockets!

    High-end condos are a good thing -- maybe those who delude themselves into believing that the asymmetrical shoe boxes their "architect" created 50 years ago (in a absinthe-drunken stupor no doubt) will finally chop down some of the hideous trees surrounding their decaying domiciles and let some disinfecting sunshine in.

    Maybe if there was some decent housing here, Sarah Palin might take a flat and hunt that darn emu and some coyotes and some foxes...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh that is just SOP -- go in with 10 times what the developer wants. "Negotiating" then begins, the developer throws in a few "proffers" and there you have it--the developer gets what he originally wanted and live goes on.


    Development in Fairfax County.

    I mean look, we had to get Lake Anne, didn't we, just to get the real Reston!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't care what anybody says, those decrepit garden apartments have more Reston soul than the proposed travesty will ever have. I say "Let'em stay!", even if that means more votes for Hudgins.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ first anon -- hear, hear!

    The "character of the surrounding neighborhoods" (and the quality of Lake Anne Elementary) would be GREATLY IMPROVED if they got rid of those apartments and accidentally-on-purpose forgot to build any "affordable" housing on the site.

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  5. And let's not forget about the trailer trash 'hood that's masquerading as a school yard.

    Now just how did those not-so-attractive trailers what with their overhead wiring no less, get approved by the omnipotent, architect-infested RA DRB??

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is it just me or do they look like maggots all lined up?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Survivalist in an Architecturally Designed Brutalist StrongholdJanuary 28, 2011 at 11:47 PM

    NPDB (7:52, 2:17)

    "Breadsticks,"

    "stupid fat tea party face,"

    "stupid fat tea party face,"

    Breadsticks,"

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOL---I will have you know that we are not stupid.

    We do respect your right to have your opinion, as that is, of course, nothing more than that -- an opinion.

    Your chatter is obtuse at beast and most indicative of your, shall we say, "situation."

    We are members of Mensa International (which, ironically, is open to women as well. You can google it and perhaps you can join too.

    The Tea Party rocks. We have and will continue to donate the maximum amount we legally can to the Party and bring some reason and discipline to government at all levels -- especially here!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Survivalist in an Architecturally Designed Brutalist StrongholdJanuary 30, 2011 at 9:50 AM

    NPDB,

    Are you trying to assert that because of your alleged Mensa membership you are some kind of genius? If so, then either you lied on your application, or they are admitting idiots these days.

    Irony does not mean what you think it means.

    And as to your cohorts, pictures speak louder than misspelled words:

    http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-tea-party-signs.htm

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anon 9:50

    Thank you for the humour, I mean humor, this morning. Priceless.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a wacko!

    Must be the radon seeping from that unsealed Brutalist decaying concrete....

    Irony? Who cares about irony. That's SO 20th century!

    Now let me go watch some New Kids on the Block --- long live the 80s!

    ReplyDelete

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