News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Day The Containers Died: Fairfax Approves Spectrum Redevelopment, Dooming Purveyor of Empty Boxes Before It Even Arrives

Not surprisingly, Fairfax County's board of supervisors has given final approval to the long-planned redevelopment of big box (and soon to be bookstore-free) nightmare Reston Spectrum.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the plans for redevelopment of Reston's Spectrum Center, ensuring that the Reston of the future will have Reston Town Center-like development from the Dulles Toll Road (and future Metrorail station) to Baron Cameron Avenue.

"This plan coming in gives the community a picture of what the Town Center core will be and subsequent development that will take place," Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said at the BOS public hearing.

We're torn on this one. On the one hand, Spectrum was always intended to be a temporary blight development prompted by the downturn of the early 90s, much as Fair Lakes never wound up being the promenade of high-end retail it was originally envisioned to be. Also, midrise bollardy goodness belongs near the rest of the stuff in the Reston Town Center corridor, as opposed to in established neighborhoods elsewhere in Reston. It'll even look low-scale compared to the mauvescraper that it will surround. But on the other hand, whither the Macaroni Grill?

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TICK.

On the bright side, it's nice to see that we've contributed to the lingua franca of Reston development.

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Call us sentimental (and vaguely obsessive) fools, but we'll set the Macaroni Grill Doomsday Clock(tm)(R) to zero the day they raze the yet-to-be-built Container Store, the end.

13 comments:

  1. As we see once more, the BoS doesn't really give a rat's butt about the current residents of Reston.

    Hmmm. Maybe if Bulova and crew were each given a MG breadstick suppository....

    It is time for A CITY Called Reston.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are salivating so profusely, they had to hire additional staff just to mop up several times a day.

      Delete
    2. Sounds like a good business plan for the new Reston Speculum Center.

      Delete
  2. If I were going to open a business in Reston, I would seriously consider doing it in one of those large shipping containers -- like the fireworks guys do. That way, you would simply drag it to a new location when the inevitable happens and they start bulldozing everything around you.

    You could also stack them, and they would pretty much fit in with the look-and-feel of everything else in Reston. You have to think inside-the-box to make it here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonJanuary 9, 2013 at 1:12 PM

      Buffalo:

      The Container Store would be the perfect candidate for this!

      Delete
    2. Peasant:

      A Container Store inside a container filled with containers -- I'm liking it!

      Delete
  3. Where are the Harris Teeter shoppers going to park? It looks like the new buildings will be right up against the front door of the supermarket.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Underground parking situated below the building directly south of Harris Teeter.

      Delete
  4. That part of Reston is supposed to be TOD oriented. You won't drive there. You'll take the bus, the Metro, you'll walk or ride your bike there.

    Right. As if waistline challenged Reston Boomers can actually walk any farther than the distance from their front door to their car door.

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  5. And once again, Cathy Hudgins (who I have always voted against) stood up for Reston...not.

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  6. I think it beats what we already have there, now that the public fascination with big box retailers has cooled. On the other hand, it is a big step towards the further Tysonization/Ballstonization of Reston.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'll take a BestBuy and a Mac Grill over a gazillion new apartments with a gazillion new cars any day of the week.

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  8. I don't think you understand, Convict. Apartment and Condo dwellers are the perfect residents. They are rich, pay high taxes, but don't have cars or children. At least that's what the planners think. Problem is, with the current cost of housing, people in apartments *do* raise children and own cars, which require *gasp* infrastrcuture and school investments.

    ReplyDelete

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