News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

D-Day: County Supervisors Approve Bollard-Intensive Reston Master Plan For Real, Transit-Oriented 96-Story Hooters Now Inevitable

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has now officially approved changes to the Reston Comprehensive Plan, the fruit of four years of work by the Reston Master Plan Task Force With an Unpronounceable Acronym (¶) that was given a D by the Reston Citizens Association. The world may be run by C students, but its planned communities are apparently guided by the projects that brought their GPAs down to solid Ds.

(Insert obligatory Hooters joke here.)

Give us some good blockquote, BFFs from Reston Now:

The plan allows for a business/residential ratio of 50/50 within a quarter-mile of the Metro stations. The area from one-quarter to one-half mile would be slightly lower density and 75 percent residential.

The plan allows for the construction of 22,000 new residential units, more than 8 million square feet of new office space, 2 million square feet of new hotel space and 700,000 square feet of additional retail. Reston could see more than 30,000 new residents with the development.

The areas beyond a half-mile from transit would be largely unchanged, though they will be addressed by the task force in the future

Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said at the supervisors’ hearing Tuesday that the task force has “worked smartly, organizing committees, bringing in talent and land use experts.”
Hudgins voted for the comprehensive plan, but two county supervisors did not -- Pat Herrity and Michael Frey, who said they were concerned that there isn't money to fund all the needed transportation needs that will come with all that bollardy goodness, as well as how all the new development will mesh with the rest of the county. Silly rabbits, the board has pledged to "develop an inclusive process to prepare a funding plan for transportation improvements!" Those bridges across the Toll Road and sidewalks and underpasses and whatnot are all as good as built.

Now that the plan has been approved, the folks who voted for it must be held accountable for ensuring that their "process" actually results in "funding" so we don't wind up in perpetual "gridlock," the end.

9 comments:

  1. In other news half of Reston is now suddenly for sale. You will be able to grab for peanuts a mauve-colored townhouse with no parking and enough grass up front that using scissors for maintenance just becomes impractical.

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  2. Welcome to the Concrete Canyon, Reston.

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  3. From Pat Herrity's newsletter:

    Reston May See a New Tax District

    At yesterday's Board of Supervisors' meeting, the Board voted 7 to 2 to approve a new master plan for Reston. I voted against the plan because yet again, I believe the plan ignores our priorities when it comes to where developer contributions are spent. Not too dissimilar to the Tysons plan, this plan results in over $700M in transportation needs that come with the increased density. It is my fear that just as we did in Tysons, these requirements will be funded by a new tax on the residents and businesses in Reston. I believe that much more of these transportation requirements should have been funded by developer contributions from the increased density instead of many requirements in the plan. A new tax district in Reston, coupled with already rising tolls on the Dulles Toll Road, will adversely impact the residents and businesses of Reston. This is something that could have been avoided if we had focused more of our developer contributions on transportation.

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    Replies
    1. ...or kicked the developers' teeth all the way back to Tyson's where they (insert f-word, past tense) up everything and everyone.

      It is time for a new three lettered acronym organization in the spirit of our concrete proletariat brothers from New Europe who won their freedom, ok for about 50 years, before the capitalist pigs took it all away.

      Welcome to the RLA!

      You have just been drafted!

      Delete
  4. There will be "funding": You and I will get to pay an extra property tax, just like Tysons to stand in traffic and use crowded Reston recreational facilities.
    Enjoy!

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  5. That sounds wonderful. Will we see politicians "retiring" and then come back from "retirement" to start getting fat paychecks from the developers they so dearly sponsored?

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  6. Hudgins speaks with forked tongue.

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  7. Thomas Paine in the AssFebruary 13, 2014 at 2:32 PM

    Relax, everyone. Cathy's got our back.

    There, I feel better already.

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  8. Does this new development, which I assume will be filled with hipsters and assorted other cool people, mean we get a bigger Whole Foods?

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