Will the American Dream (Way) Remain Reston's First Gated Community? We Don't Know, But It Gave Us The Chance to Use A Decade-Old Meme

 

Hey, remember that time when a developer was going to build a mixed-use townhouse community on the site of the former Fannie Mae campus on American Dream (heh) Way, and in the true spirt of that phrase they decided to make it a gated community, which was so antithetical to the Reston's immaculate vibes that county planners recommended denying the entire project, but it was ultimately approved by the board of supervisors, in part because the developer said the gated access was needed to ensure the nine-story office building on the property would attract a tenant?

Yeah, that was awesome. Anyhoo, we've all watched the office building being slowly torn down over the past few months, and now the developer is requesting a rezoning application to build another 100 or so townhomes on the site.  Give us some good procedural zoning blockquote, BFFs at Fairfax Now:

The county board’s decision to allow residential development on the site came despite objections from some residents and county staff, who took issue with Wheelock’s insistence on retaining a secured gate limiting access to a portion of American Dream Way. At the time, the property owner said the gate was necessary to draw tenants to the office building, which it still hoped to lease out... According to the application, Wheelock spent over $10 million since 2020 to maintain the approximately 400,000-square-foot office building, even it had “no prospect for re-tenanting.”

Sure, demand for office space has shifted in recent years, and there are a ton of shiny new BASE-jumping launch points trophy-class office towers around town. But that means county officials will demand that Wheelock remove the gates from the community as a condition of approving this request, right? 

Right?

COMPUTER, EXECUTE TIRED_OLD_MEME.BAT: