http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR2010011404525.html
Development is also planned for Reston between Sunset Hills and Sunrise Valley Drive between Hunter Mill Road and Centerville Road. There are currently twenty development plans on hold for projects proposed for Reston. Most call for higher density. The changes to the county’s comprehensive plan which will guide redevelopment are being considered right now by the Dulles Corridor Special Study Task Force appointed by Supervisor Cathy Hudgins.
The county wants to urbanize Reston to create a commercial and residential mixed-use corridor similar to Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston and Tysons. Arlington has a complex grid of roads to move traffic in their station areas. Reston has only two north-south bridges that connect north and south Reston, Wiehle Avenue and Reston Parkway. Because of that restriction of roadway connectivity, we have been told by our County Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and Dulles Corridor Rail Association President Patti Nicoson that people will need to walk in a redeveloped Reston. Is this a workable plan? Imagine your life without the use of your automobile. Some of the basic assumptions about the level of density proposed for Reston need to be examined very carefully.
In addition to a Dulles Corridor with 20,000 additional residents, our shopping centers or “village centers” will also be redeveloped with much higher density to include 500 new residential units at the site of each shopping center. I was told by a planner at the county DPZ that the footprint of each shopping center will be expanded to absorb contiguous neighborhoods which will also be redeveloped at the higher density. We are being told to anticipate 40,000 new residents in Reston.
Urban designer and landscape architect, Guy L. Rando, and I have another vision of what Reston can become. In our “Citizens’ Reston Master Plan, Dulles Corridor—Specific Planning Principles” (attached below) we propose that much of the land in the Dulles Corridor be retained as green open space with trails connecting the entire corridor to the trails in Reston and also connecting to Town Center. At the current time under the Covenants and Restrictions for the Reston Center for Industry and Government (RCIG), open space of 50% is mandated. We are requesting that 33 1/3% of the corridor be retained as open space and that 20% be with soil bedded in the earth with native vegetation to create continuity with north and south Reston.
There is an excellent reason to retain this open space. The 40,000 new residents will need recreational parkland. Our developer, Robert E. Simon, Jr., provided us with open space and parkland when he developed Reston. The developers who redevelop the Dulles Corridor need to provide the new residents with parkland in the corridor itself.
There is no more open space in Reston. Reston Association Common Lands are the private property of the homeowners. Should our woodlands be clear-cut to provide parks for new residents who may not be added by deed to Reston Association? Even if they do become members of Reston Association, the only land available for recreational parkland for such a large number of people is in the corridor itself. By the county’s own guidelines each resident needs 0.00148 acres of parkland. 40,000 people will need 60 acres of parkland. There are 760 acres of land in the RCIG.
The riparian areas (our stream valleys) were put into protective easement when the Mitigation Banking Instrument was signed by Reston Association and the Friends of Reston to restore our streams. Those lands are permanently protected and under the jurisdiction of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Virginia Dept of Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, and US Fish and Wildlife. These protected areas must remain natural and may not be altered. They may not be cleared for parkland.
Mr. Rando and I drove the entire length of the Dulles Corridor between Hunter Mill Road and Centerville Road. We drove in every office park north and south of the Toll Road. Much of the land is covered with only a thin layer of asphalt (parking lots) and it will be easy to return it to green space with parks, plazas, pathways that connect the entire corridor to serve the new residents of the mixed-use communities that will be built there.
Air rights development over the Toll Road itself should be encouraged to provide additional vehicular and pedestrian bridges from north and south, but a significant portion of the land of the Dulles Corridor itself needs to be returned to green open space and preserved.
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CITIZENS’ RESTON MASTER PLAN, DULLES CORRIDOR
(Please see Planning Principles by Robert Simon, Terry Maynard, Dick Rogers, John Lovaas, Gerald Volloy (Draft ARCH Issues Bulletin 2010-1), Mike Corrigan.
SPECIFIC PLANNING PRINCIPLES
1. Measurable qualitative criteria based on community values and specific guidelines for the quality of life.
2. World class design. Example: Boston Properties in Boston—Prudential Center.
3. 33 1/3% open space (currently 50% under RCIG covenants) with 20% as soil bedded in the earth with native vegetation. Parkland will be provided for residents on site by developer.
Task Force to create a definition of open space that reflects the culture of Reston. Open space will not include cement sidewalks (except for plazas and pavilions), parking spaces, public roads, private roads, driveways, or roof areas of buildings. Open space will be green and open to the public. It will allow passive and active recreations. It will include bodies of water, i.e., ponds, streams, and unpaved or porous paved pathways.
Portions of green space in corridor will be naturescaped to provide natural areas for new residents and to provide a continuity of experience of nature throughout the entire community of Reston.
4. FAR 2.0 at station and over the Dulles Toll Road with air rights. 1.5 FAR for remainder of corridor. 50 units/acre high density.
5. No building height limits on the south side of Sunset Hills between Reston Pkwy and Wiehle or over the DTR with air rights. 22 story limit elsewhere in corridor.
6. Complete separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
7. If RCIG deed vacated, then all properties come under RA DRB review.
8. Climate-controlled space with galleria, pavilion. Art trail in RCIG from stations directly connected to Town Center art trail and to existing trails.
9. Living green roof technology, cleaned water and clear air standards. Gold LEED standard.
10. Green buffer 150 ft wide along Sunrise Valley Drive adjacent to residential neighborhoods (counted as part of open space).
11. All parking will be underground.
12. All development plans include affordable and workforce housing. No redevelopment of existing residential neighborhoods in areas contiguous to stations.
13. School building standards uniform across district.
14. All transportation infrastructure must be adequate and in place before additional development commences.
CITIZENS ADVISORY WORK GROUP #1
Guy L. Rando
Reston, VA 20190
Kathy Kaplan
Reston, VA 20191
kwkaplan@aol.com
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