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Forum by Patrick F. Kane
06/29/2005
There is interest and discussion by many people regarding the future of Lake Anne Village Center, which is in visible decline. The plaza at Lake Anne has always been a critical focal point of Reston, for both social and historical reasons. I am a professional community planner who has specialized in revitalization of entertainment-oriented commercial areas in communities throughout the country. Fairfax County’s Web page (www.fcrevit.org/lakeanne ) identifies my previous studies regarding Lake Anne.
I have had a personal interest in the Lake Anne Village for several decades and have a number of definitive thoughts regarding the process of revitalization for the Village Center. Also, my family has urged me to share these thoughts as my contribution to the future of Lake Anne, my community.
Since these thoughts do not easily lend themselves to the space limitations of focus groups or sound bites, I will present them in two separate parts. In this first one, I will offer some history and profile the existing situation and the constraints.
Following the recent Lake Anne charrette, these two columns, hopefully, will serve as a framework for further educated discussion.
Lake Anne's place in Reston
Lake Anne Village Center is the starting point for the New Town of Reston, Va. The plaza served as the showroom where the ideas and commitment to innovation and quality were presented.
More importantly, the plaza and the initial businesses were places where the institutions and organizations that make Reston a functional community were born.
Card tables in front of the grocery store recruited people for teams, community theater and political objectives, as did the checkout lines in the stores. Space was even made available for even the “common ground,” where social interaction was not only supported but often precipitated.
Reston and Lake Anne Village have served as a model for large-scale development throughout the country. Townhouses above retail and mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented villages, eventually a town center (which is de rigeur nowadays for all new real estate developments), all have become real estate marketing terms, which had their real meaning in the Lake Anne Village Center of Reston.
Just as Lake Anne has served as a model for innovative development, now that it has aged, it can again serve as a model for innovative revitalization of large-scale, planned communities with privately owned spaces in common use.
Lake Anne is like a puzzle. To make it work more efficiently, someone needs to have control of a number of the pieces because reinvestment in each piece will generate value to the other pieces. It is unlikely that any single piece has enough economic potential on its own to justify the type of reinvestment that will be needed.
The plaza itself and adjoining buildings shall remain intact, albeit incidental improvement should occur. All new development will be on the perimeter and should not encroach visually on the basic original plaza and surround.
New development areas
The potential location for new development could be described as components of four quadrants of development that would each have a mix of activities to collectively establish the critical mass of activity within the Lake Anne Village. The quadrants would act like pedestals to support the central jewel.
The pieces of the puzzle include: Lake Anne Office Building, Washington Plaza Baptist Church, Lutheran Church and a significant portion of LARCA (Lake Anne of Reston Condominium Association).
The parts of LARCA needed are: at a minimum, the plaza itself, common parking and enough residential and all of the nonresidential uses to ensure the ability to control the condominium association.
The principal assets of Lake Anne Village Center are the lake itself and the plaza with the surrounding architecture and design innovations. Neither of these two assets is visible from the access roads or from the parking lot where the activity that brings the greatest number of visitors is located.
These ideas were described in a proposal to the merchants titled “quick fix”: entry way will be identified with a sailboat hull and a farm wagon. The sail will have Lake Anne Village Center’s name on it. Scripts for story boards will be developed, describing the historic innovations. The story boards will be positioned to lead visitors from the farm market into the plaza.
Control and responsibility of a renewed center
To achieve successful revitalization, it is essential that a single entity or combine have control and responsibility for management, repair and improvements of the plaza, public parking and a related walkway segment of Lake Anne Village Center. This single entity has to have significant economic interest to assume the responsibility of control and management.
Control and responsibility now rest with LARCA. The burden of this quasi-public space is, therefore, assumed totally by the members of the condominium. The Reston Association has made contributions in the past, and the county made a significant contribution when the physical structure of the plaza was upgraded about 10 years ago.
1. Visibility: Visibility improvements are needed to identify the existence of the village center from the adjoining thoroughfares, particularly Route 606 and North Shore Drive.
2. Accessibility: Also needed is a significant increase in the amount of easily accessible, off-street parking. Pedestrian circulation to and within the plaza, crossing North Shore and Route 606 should be provided.
Provisions must be made for off-street loading and delivery that does not impede internal circulation.
Effective mass transit will be needed to more directly work with the anticipated Metro expansion, and a control mechanism will be needed to prevent commuters from occupying spaces needed for visitors.
Revitalization plans
Vitality and sustainability of the village center require enough commercial uses to serve existing and future residents and office workers, including stores that meet day-to-day needs.
There also needs to be more residents to support the businesses. Retail uses require a sufficient critical mass of 100,000 square feet of interrelated and mutually supportive businesses and/or a major draw such as a supermarket or other major activity, such as something offering entertainment and recreation.
Currently, the plaza has space for 40,000 square feet of retail space.
A method is needed to manage the mix and establish synergy and cooperative marketing. And office uses should be expanded to further generate potential customers for the plaza’s commercial uses and restaurants.
A mechanism is needed to ensure adequate and equitable responsibility for maintenance, improvement, architectural control and management of the plaza, the docks, the connecting paths and the common parking.
In addition, significant pressure will be placed on any or all new residential developments to make significant provisions for worker housing. The mix between subsidized and unsubsidized will require delicate balancing. The residents will be necessary to provide a source of employees for the village businesses.
Conversely, methods and opportunities that celebrate the cultural diversity of people who visit, do business or live in the Lake Anne Village area would be valuable contributions to the community.
There should be a reduction of condo fees to be more comparable with commercial CAM (common area maintenance) fees for commercial and residential areas. And procedures should be established to sensitively discourage the congregation of individuals who are perceived by potential visitors to be threatening.
Ideally, all new development units would have a view of the lake available. No building should be built that limits or constrains existing vistas. Visible roof surfaces would be free of debris and treated with decorative surfaces or natural materials (green roofs).
©Times Community Newspapers 2005
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