Lake Anne | Fairfax County Revitalization

Reaching Consensus Next Step in Lake Anne Renewal
From the Times Community Newspapers
By Lise Hausrath Simmons
March 23, 2005

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D) hopes that a public "charrette," scheduled for May, will bring consensus among Reston residents and affected property owners about what approaches to take with the revitalization of Lake Anne Village Center.

Talking to an audience of more than 150 people, Hudgins explained plans for the next steps in the Lake Anne revitalization process at a March 16 open meeting she called at Lake Anne Elementary School.

The meeting's prime purpose was to give a consultant, hired by Fairfax County to study the village center's economic needs, the opportunity to share findings with the community.

The village center, Reston's first and considered its historic heart, is 40 years old and showing signs of age.

While the retailers and restaurants there have loyal followings, their business is poor in the winter months, and the owners are basically living paycheck to paycheck, said Eduardo Faubert, owner of the Jasmine Cafe and a recent head of the merchants association there.

The consultants' study, conducted by Basile, Baumann Prost & Associates Inc. and issued March 9, argues that retail sales at the center will continue to decline and jeopardize the village center's long-term health if nothing is done to bring new life and more people to Lake Anne.

It recommends a range of actions that could be taken to revitalize the area, starting with increased marketing and leading up to major redevelopment of the center and surrounding property, including land now owned by a Lutheran church and the 181-unit Crescent Apartments.

Crescent serves people of low to moderate incomes and is one of the few moderately priced apartment complexes remaining in the community.

The consultants suggested replacing Crescent's existing rental units with the same number of moderately priced condominium units, while adding some market-rate condo properties. This would bring more people to Lake Anne, thereby boosting sales and center businesses.

Community questions

Members of the audience peppered Jim Prost, the consulting firm's principal, with questions about the report.

Reston founder Robert E. Simon Jr., who owns some commercial property at Lake Anne, took issue with the consulting firm's suggestion that the Crescent site be redeveloped, saying, “Let's leave Crescent alone. That's a very successful project.”

Simon, who owns the property housing the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne as well as retail space and a Hispanic market next door, urged the county to condemn the center's parking lot as well as the stand-alone convenience store and office building on the lot's rim.

This would require the county to acquire the property from the current owners, then sell it to developers, all in the name of the public good, explained professional planner and longtime Reston resident Pat Kane.

People in the audience seemed relieved that the report did not recommend major development at the historic plaza surrounding the lake.

Prost said the consultants realized through their research and talking with merchants and other “stakeholders” at the center that no one wants to see the quaint, European character of the village center changed.

Expand density but maintain character

Reston should “take advantage” of that special character, Prost said, while adding that the master plan for the area has always provided for higher densities near the village center.

For example, up to 50 dwelling units per acre could be built at the Crescent Apartments site, which would add more population density to the area and more potential customers for village center businesses, Prost said.

Under a “modest infill” approach to revitalization, the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church site could be developed, adding 44 condominium units (20 dwelling units per acre), with seven of them “affordable” under county guidelines, Prost said.

On the extreme end of the continuum, 110 residential units could be built at the church site (93 market-rate and 17 low-to-moderate income), Prost said, while adding that the Crescent Apartments site could yield 825 residential units, 181 of them “affordable.”

The most ambitious “master plan realization” option would also call for a mixed-use development of office and retail space where the parking lot, convenience store and the Association of School Business Officials building now sit.

The Reston Association could build a new headquarters there with a small amount of retail space on the ground floor and structured parking added, he said.

This master plan option would boost retail sales at the center the most, by an estimated 69.1 percent, Prost claimed.

Maintaining the spirit

Whatever the course of action the Reston community decides to take, the consultant stressed that the Reston “spirit” needs to be maintained, while balancing growth and preservation of the historic area.

Jack Webb, a Reston resident since 1970 who said he uses the Lake Anne RCC a lot even though he lives near Hunters Woods, stressed that Restonians do not want a “big-box” store approach taken to revitalizing Lake Anne.

“I think it can be improved by making better signing and marketing,” said Webb, a retired architect and urban planner.

The next step in the process is for a charrette leader to be picked and for public meetings to be held in an effort to reach consensus among Reston residents and affected property owners, Hudgins said.

She said she hopes a leader could be picked within the next eight to 12 weeks.

In response to Simon's recommendation to condemn part of the property, Hudgins said “the county is not here to say we're going to condemn anything.”

The idea of the county exercising “eminent domain” is “premature” until we “reach more conclusions” in the community, she told the crowd.

The consultant's study is available online at http://www.fcrevit.org/lakeanne.main.htm