Picturesque, charming and booming in the summer, the Lake Anne Village Center will soon be under the microscope of a group of consultants tasked with creating guidelines for redeveloping the revitalization district.
Fairfax County will hire a team of architectural consultants this month to develop “design guidelines” that will shape any future redevelopment of Reston’s oldest village center.
Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) will appoint six to eight members of a community-based technical advisory panel, members of which will be announced later this month, to work hand-in-hand with the consulting team.
The Reston Community Reinvestment Corporation (RCRC), a group leading Lake Anne’s revitalization efforts, the Reston Association and Reston’s founder, Robert E. Simon, will be allotted a representative on the panel, according to Goldie Harrison, a staffer in Hudgins’ office.
THE CONSULTANTS will work closely with the advisory panel to draft design guidelines that reflect the findings from the Lake Anne economic report, focus groups and charrette — all completed last summer.
At an RCRC meeting last Thursday, June 8, the RCRC board discussed how the working relationship between the consultants and the advisory panel should work and how to best determine its representative for the panel.
The RCRC board will communicate through email correspondence next week before nominating its representative for the panel, according to Kurt Pronske, president of RCRC.
“My gut feeling is it should be someone from Lake Anne,” said Howard Green, treasurer of RCRC. “It might be appropriate to give [that criterion] special attention.”
General criteria for the advisory panel include technical experience in planning, engineering and architecture, as well as local knowledge of Reston.
“I hope one of the six has landscape design experience,” said Phil Tobey, vice president of the RCRC.
PRONSKE SAID the consultants’ end product should look like a similar county-funded report produced in McLean, “A Vision for the Future.” Through a request for proposals, the county selected a team of consultants to create the report, which includes renderings of guidelines for buildings, lighting, public spaces and parking.
The RCRC board also discussed the status of Reston’s residential density cap of 13 persons per acre and how it might affect redevelopment at Lake Anne.
The county reported last week that Reston’s density is currently at 11.68 persons per acre, which allows for an additional 4,106 high-rise residential units.
“This is very serious stuff,” said Simon, RCRC board member. “We’re establishing a precedent for the next 50 years.”
Board members anticipated a change in the ordinance to allow greater residential density. “All of this is leading up to a change in the ordinance,” said Pronske.