Lake Anne | Fairfax County Revitalization

RA Targets Critical Property Owners in Covenants, Rail Campaign
From the Times Community Newspapers
By Lise Hausrath Simmons
June 15, 2005

A breakfast meeting was held June 10 at the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce to enlist help in the ongoing project to change the Reston Center for Industry and Government's (RCIG) covenants to permit mixed-use development at future Metrorail stops along the Dulles corridor.

According to Milton Matthews, executive vice president of the Reston Association, a “diverse group” of 40 to 45 people attended the meeting, where they were asked to try to persuade what Matthews called “critical property owners” in the RCIG to vote yes on changing the covenants.

Owners of commercial and some retail property in the RCIG are bound by property covenants that stipulate requirements for design, maintenance and use of the property. Those covenants do not currently permit residential development.

This effort is critical to the future of Reston since, without a covenants change, the planned Wiehle Avenue Metrorail stop, at least, could not be part of a mixed-use development that includes commercial, retail and residential space.

It also is critical to Fairfax County, which, in May 2001, changed its comprehensive land-use plan to permit the mixed-use development that it says will be needed at Wiehle Avenue and, perhaps, at future rail stations at Reston Parkway and Monroe Street in Herndon.

Unless the covenants are changed, the Comprehensive Plan cannot take effect for RCIG properties “because the covenants take precedence,” according to an RA fact sheet handed out June 10.

The RA has been working, along with the Dulles Corridor Rail Association and others, to try to get the critical mass needed from RCIG property owners to make the change.

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) has also weighed in in favor of the change, and a letter expressing his support was referred to at the meeting, said Marcia McAllister, communications director for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

About 750 acres of land comprise the RCIG, explained Marjorie Krueger, a part-time staff person at the RA who has worked almost exclusively on the covenants project for the past two years.

She said that, to date, the owners of 68.1 percent of that acreage have voted yes to change the covenants.

RA Communications Director Karen Monaghan noted that a yes vote representing 90 percent of the RCIG property is needed for the change to be approved.

The county's land-use plan permits higher density development in Metrorail station areas provided it also includes residential uses, such as apartments, condominiums and hotels.

The county is heavily promoting the need for residential development to be included in the mix, as part of what some have called a “smart-growth” agenda.

It would allow people who live in the RCIG to walk or bike to work, retail stores and public transportation. In addition, office users could walk to local restaurants and shops without having to get into their cars and, thus, could reduce traffic.

In March, the county issued a request for proposals from developers who might be interested in jointly creating a mixed-use village center on at least nine acres around the future Wiehle Avenue rail station site.

The county owns that nine acres, but a total of 17 acres near the station have been identified by county supervisors for high-density, transit-oriented development.

A mixed-use project for the site cannot go forward without that critical “yes” vote from the RCIG.

Krueger has been working as a member of an RA task force devoted to this project for at least the past two years, but she will be leaving the RA and the area in two weeks, she said.

As part of a last push, Krueger, with Monaghan's help, pulled together the list of invitees to the June 10 breakfast, where the covenants project was discussed.