Staff Report Finds Many Faults with Fairway Redevelopment

The Fairfax County Planning Commission  will later this month revisit a planned
proposal for redevelopment of the Fairway Apartments complex.

The board tabled the issue earlier this year after it reviewed the plans by developer
JBG to turn the 18 three-story apartment buildings with 348 units into four multifamily buildings, 69 townhouses and 951 units.

An extensive staff report completed in July by the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning shows that the DPZ is in the same column as the Reston Association and the Reston Citizens Association in asking Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins for denial of the Fairway project.

The planning commission will revisit the subject Sept. 22. If approved, it will then go to the County Board of Supervisors for further discussion.

The staff report says that the proposed development – which  add an estimated 1,000 people to the population – "will dwarf and overwhelm the surrounding neighborhood."

"Staff does not believe that development at the high end of the density range as
proposed with this plan should be achieved on the subject site due to the significant
change in character and the resulting impact on surrounding development," the report stated.

Developers told the county they envisioned the revitalized Fairway neighborhood as
a residential nucleus that can serve "as a development node to define and strengthen the corridor between Reston Town Center and Lake Anne Village Center."

The staff report disagrees, calling the Fairway area – located at Wiehle Avenue,
Reston Parkway, Fairway Drive and North Shore Drive – as a transition area, one that would be  inappropriate to try and develop as its own village center.

The staff report points out that the buildings would overwhelm the current
neighborhood as well as stress the stormwater management and water main usage.

"Staff does not find that the proposed development has been designed to achieve
the stated purpose and intent of the [planned residential community] District," the report says. "One of the objectives is an orderly and creative arrangement of all land uses with respect to each other and the entire community.

"Instead, this proposal appears to have been designed to achieve the maximum amount of density on the site, without any regard for transition or impact
upon its surroundings."

Criticism of the proposal goes beyond the structures themselves.

John Lovaas, a member of Reston 2020, a committee of the Reston Citizens
Association, says Fairway is one of the few remaining affordable housing
communities in Reston.

"Families will lose where they live," he said. "The county would required JBG to set
aside 12 percent of units for affordable housing. Twelve percent of 900+ units is 130
units. Reston would still be losing 220 affordable units."

in a July letter to Hudgins, requested that the county
require JBG to conduct a significant traffic impact study to see how the
redevelopment would affect parking, and traffic, particularly around nearby Lake
Anne Elementary School.

Traffic remains on ongoing concern. One of the main criticisms by the RCA, RA and citizens, is that Fairway will not be very close to Metro stations that will open atWiehle Avenue at the Dulles Toll Road (in 2013) and at Reston Town Center.

Paul Thomas, RA vice president and a member of  Reston's Master Plan Task Force, says
he supports more high-density residential being built in Reston, but he wants to see
high-density housing tied to a village center and assurances that the infrastructure
could handle the development.

Fairway, he says, is too far from Lake Anne Plaza, as well as Reston Town Center, to
be considered part of either neighborhood.

"I recognize redevelopment makes sense there," said Thomas. "But I am not a fan of
density more than a half-mile from the Metro. Ultimately, we will need a circulator
bus system that works. That would essentially make the distance smaller."