A place called Reston, has been the largest real-estate and human investment than any core area in the country. Unfortunately, they have made some capital sins in the process. Its reputation is for a planned community; unfortunately it has not made provisions for planning. The master plan in place is now 40 years old and is missing some major elements. A significant one is the lack of consideration of the airport access road as a toll road which totally changed the nature of Reston. Prior to the toll road opening, approximately 1 million square feet of non-residential land had been sold. In the following year, the absorption was 10 million including the beginning of the high-tech industry which led to Reston being referred to as the “E-capital” of the country where some of the “E” are AOL and its cousins. The initial plan assumed that Reston would offer a place to live, work and play, but the residential component did not keep place with the job development. This led to Reston becoming out of balance. More diversified housing choices is clearly needed.
Authority to revise the master plan was granted to the Developer and its varied successors. Following the departure of the last successor Terabrook, said that they had passed this torch to Reston Association (RA). However, no one can produce any documentation to support this transfer. Unfortunately, updating the master plan would be a considerable investment of time and mind which is not within RA’s capability. This would also exclude the interest of the Town Center who are not part of RA. The importance of this becomes even greater when consideration is given to the arrival of a Metro Extension through Reston. Given the impact of the toll road, the arrival of the train will have a mega impact. This will be further compounded by the convenant restriction prohibiting residential use on the land adjacent to the toll road and R.O.W. (Right Of Way) of the train.
A fundamental support of the cost of the rail is the increase it generates in adjoining real estate developments. The tyson’s study recommended that each station have an adjoining 1 million square feet of use. The lack of attention to the master plan also extends to some of the major real-estate developments that did not make provisions for responding to changing conditions. Therefore no reinvestment planning budgets have been in place. One area this manifests to the judgment of Reston’s reputation is the Lake Anne Village Center. An element of greater concern is the lack of a management plan for Quasi public space referred to as the “Lake Anne Plaza” and a number of smaller areas contained in clusters and the other Village Centers which lack gathering places. The need to update and revise the master plan should occur within the context of a comprehensive plan review, although land use is only one part of this plan as is transportation, public facilities, social and health service delivery, and intergovernmental relations.
A number of initial projects in Reston were described as Office parks and campuses which sadly lacks characteristics of either. A greater concern was the lack of connectivity for vehicles and pedestrians creating traffic impact.
The next section will give credit to the features to the elements of Reston that deserve emulation which have been used by people throughout the world as they study the qualities of Reston. It’s been a great place and still can be.
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