Your support is needed at a community meeting this evening (Monday) at 7PM in the North County Government Center to discuss the massive redevelopment proposed at the southeast corner of Wiehle Avenue and Sunrise Valley Drive.
TF
Cornerstone is proposing three new buildings on this property, to
include a 29-story residential building, a 14-story commercial building,
and an 8-story residential building; the two smaller buildings
currently on the property will remain. The 29-story and 14-story
buildings will dwarf the neighborhoods at this intersection, as they
are immediately across the street from single family homes and multiple
townhouse clusters.
If
approved and built, this development will house over 2,600 new
residents and employees, overwhelming an already-packed Sunrise Valley
Drive. There simply are no/no road
improvements that could even remotely address this increased level of
traffic density. Eastbound traffic on Sunrise Valley is already so
backed up in late afternoon that it's nearly impossible to turn out of
the Upper Lake Drive on either of its intersections with SVR. (Upper
Lake is a horseshoe-shaped road.)
TF Cornerstone has invited all affected neighbors to a community meeting on Monday, August 26 at 7 PM at the North County Government Center community room (1801 Cameron Glen Drive in Reston. If you know of other individuals or
groups who would be interested in engaging on this proposal, please
feel free to forward this post to them.
https://liquidfiles.cooley.com/link/Z0X56q7bKVVyOMTQpI0ni6
https://liquidfiles.cooley.com/link/Gex8fsJlSpT3PxZmSVGGZb
https://liquidfiles.cooley.com/link/Gex8fsJlSpT3PxZmSVGGZb
In
addition, there are two posts on Nextdoor by Upper Lake neighbors who
met with RA and with TF Cornerstone's land-use attorney that provide
additional background info for you (see links below). It is useful to note that one of my Upper Lake neighbors replied
on Nextdoor that she had never gotten a notice from TF Cornerstone about
this meeting.
Sadly, this meeting was an EPIC FAIL. IT was NOT what the neighborhoods adjacent to and/or affected by this project wanted or expected. The form of the meeting was a typical "check the box" open house with plan drawings on easels surrounding the room and developer 'experts' standing around to answer concerns. INSTEAD people wanted a sit-down presentation of the project by the developer and then an opportunity for the community to have a dialogue about perceived problems. People were furious and not shy about expressing disappointment. An open house was a sure way to raise ire and get a good, angry crowd at the scheduled up-coming FFX Co. Planning Commission hearing in September.
ReplyDeleteNOTE To developers: Restonians are sick of these open house meetings where NO opportunity is given for group discussions. Reston is now over-developed given our existing infrastructure. Life is changing for the worse due to inability to traverse our town. When whole neighborhoods are trapped and locked out of our street grid due to too much traffic clogging streets, anger is the result.
In Reston, OVER 10,600 NEW dwelling units have been approved in the TSA or Dulles corridor since the formerly commercial-only area was opened up for residential development. We are experiencing grid-lock all over Reston even though many already approved projects have not yet been built! Many MORE are in the pipeline. We have limited choices for traffic infrastructure improvements given VERY limited access to funding and actual space to build them.
All over Reston, existing residents and successful commerce are suffering due to poor planning allowing too much density in a small area. The Metro is NOT a panacea for all transportation woes but was instead used as the excuse for allowing huge densities for developers. Extending Metro's Silver Line to Loudoun County will NOT cure our problems.