Increasing the Reston Population Cap One Way or Another

With the new Reston Master Plan now in the books, the County now is proceeding to consider ways to increase the population allowed in Reston to open up development options to meet the plan's ambitious goals.  The County effort is in its early stages, but the County Board has set January 2016 as the month in which it will decide on a new Reston zoning code, with or without additions to permitted population.  So far, we are unaware of any public outreach by Supervisor Hudgins or the County staff to discuss the process, the options, or anything else about the likely zoning change between now and January next year.  This being a County election year, we don't expect to hear anything soon.

At this time, Reston has a 13 person per acre cap (maximum allowable density) on the community's population.  With some 6,300 acres of area covered by Reston zoning, that works out to about 81,000 people allowed in Reston.  Right now, Reston population sits at about 60,000 (the US Census American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimate for 2013 was 59,333).  The Reston Master Plan, while offering no specific maximum at full development, suggests future population could exceed 100,000.

We do know, however, that the County zoning staff has discussed Reston zoning from documents we acquired from the Fairfax County website.  Still, we don't know who it has met with to discuss re-zoning, but we offer below the two documents below from early this year that (a) show how the zoning calculations are made (Powerpoint presentation) and (b) an outline of the options that are available.  We are pursuing more information from the County staff that we will share with you.

   Reston Density Presentation--DPZ by Terry Maynard

   Zoning Ordinance Amendment Options by Terry Maynard

We believe it is time for Supervisor Hudgins and the County staff to engage the Reston community in a dialogue about the forthcoming Reston zoning decision.