Graphic credit: Washington Post. (Click for more legible image.)
The financing and politics of the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project may be a fiasco, but Phase 1 of the construction does seem to be coming in on schedule and on budget, and the imminent roll-out of Silver Line service is prodding hoped-for redevelopment around the Metro stops. The Washington Post provides a broad overview of the activity taking place around the Wiehle Ave. station on the eastern edge of Reston, which is scheduled to open in 2013.
The $750 million Reston Station is under construction by Comstock Partners. The mixed-use project — 500,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, a 200-room hotel and 900 luxury residences — is being developed above and around the Metro station. The facility, being developed in a public-private partnership with Fairfax County, will include a commuter park-and-ride facility, a transit bus depot, 23,00 commuter parking spaces and several hundred additional parking spaces for the retail establishments being constructed above the Metro station.
Meanwhile, the owner of a mini-storage facility is applying for permission to rezone and redevelop his property into more homes and office space.
Having thoroughly botched development around the Vienna and Dunn Loring stations with commuter parking lots when the original Metro system was built, Fairfax County is determined to get the development right this time around. The Post compares plans for the Wiehle station to the highly successful development in Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, which provides for significant density immediately around the stations and step-down densities to surrounding neighborhoods.
The planning is not yet complete. Writes Frederick Kunkle: “After more than two years of planning, a task force of county staff members, residents and property owners is still working on guidelines that would dictate the redevelopment around the new station, including an urban grid, parks and more residential and commercial development.”
Still, the evolution of thinking in Fairfax County does represent a step forward toward more functional human settlement patterns.
Meanwhile, re-development of the area around Wiehle Station has been slowed by the uncertainty created by Loudoun County’s indecision on whether to proceed with Phase 2 of the Silver Line. If Loudoun opts out and Phase 2 is never built, the Wiehle Ave. station will mark the terminus of the Silver Line, which could make it a magnet for commuters from the outer suburbs and alter how re-development should take place.
The Post article sheds no light, however, on a pressing question: What pace of re-development will market conditions support, especially given all the new office, retail and residential space that Metro will spur in nearby Tysons Corner? With the Obama administration constraining defense spending and Republicans threatening to throttle non-defense spending, growth projections for the Washington area generally and Northern Virginia specifically are far less optimistic than they were when planning for the Silver Line began.
— JAB
