Testosterone Replacement Therapy in Reston, VA

A three-year-long planning effort has culminated in the adoption of a new comprehensive plan for Reston.

At a meeting yesterday (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an overhaul of the Reston Comprehensive Plan, setting into place new guidance on affordable housing, community health, equity and other issues.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn kicked off the overhaul of the plan in January 2020. After more than 50 task force meetings with community stakeholders, county staff and county officials pared down a task force’s draft into a revamped plan. Some called it ambitious, while others worried it was too prescriptive.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said the plan safeguards existing neighborhoods, while bolstering transit and positioning Reston as a major economic development center in the county.

“The adoption of the Reston Comprehensive Plan Amendment is a momentous achievement for Reston, ushering in a new era that ensures Reston’s continued success,” McKay said.

Unlike the previous plan, the new plan includes dedicated principles that define Reston as a new town. Those principles include community health, equity, preservation of neighborhoods and affordable housing.

Alcorn thanked Hunter Mill District Planning Commissioner John Carter for his work in producing the final proposal.

“After much deliberation by the Planning Commission and my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, I am proud to say that Reston has an updated comprehensive plan that is much more than a land use document,” Alcorn wrote in a statement. “It is also a blueprint for the next phase of what Reston has always been – an inclusive community that values our green open spaces and a vibrant economy.”

Alcorn said the plan aims to maintain Reston’s fidelity to founder Robert E. Simon’s original vision while meeting today’s challenges.

“This plan and process proves that even in times of the highest levels of community concern and anxiety about growth and development, this is a consensus community plan. Focusing growth around Metrorail is not only possible, it is the reality in Reston,” Alcorn said.

At yesterday’s meeting, supervisors continued to massage language in the plan.

For example, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross argued that it was unrealistic for the plan to say the future relocation of Reston Regional Library should not impact service.

“The community will anticipate that its going to be smooth sailing,” Gross said, adding that “disruption” is an in inherent part of the process.

Several pending issues may be ironed out in future updates — including the approval of several applications for zoning changes in Reston.

Alcorn introduced several follow-on motions. Two topics — community health and equity — may be explored in a future update to the county’s overall plans.

Alcorn directed the Fairfax County Park Authority, Reston Community Center, Reston Town Center Association and Reston Association to develop a strategy for the long-term maintenance and upkeep of community facilities in Reston.

He also asked staff to improve safety at Sunrise Valley Drive and Fairfax County Parkway, as well as along Reston Parkway from the Dulles Toll Road to Sunrise Valley Drive.

The planning commission also wants the county to develop and implement design standards for better pedestrian and bicycle access to Metro stations.

TYSONS, VA — With a decline in commercial tax revenue looming, Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon), the majority leader of the Virginia Senate, has been a strong advocate for building a casino in Tysons.

"When you see commercial office buildings in this county selling at a third of the price they did five years ago," Surovell told the audience at Supervisor Dan Storck's (D-Mount Vernon) annual district meeting on Feb. 10. "We have a big commercial property tax crunch in this county, which is why one of the things you heard about was a Fairfax casino this year in Tysons."

Patch first broke the news last September that Comstock Holding Companies, a Reston Station-based developer, was seeking to build a casino somewhere on the Silver Line outside of the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County. To support this effort, the company created its own political action committee and donated more than $1.2 million to the campaigns of candidates running in state and local elections.

State Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) introduced bills during both the 2023 and 2024 general assembly sessions that, if passed, would give the board of supervisors the authority to put a referendum on a ballot. Voters would then get to decide whether a casino should be built in Tysons. The 2024 bill was held over in committee until the 2025 session.

On Tuesday morning, Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill released his Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal, which included a suggested 4-cent increase in the residential real estate rate. One of the reasons he gave for the one-penny increase was a drop of 16.16 percent in the commercial real estate tax revenue in FY 2024 and an estimated 15.58 percent decline for FY 2025.

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To offset this decline in tax revenue, Surovell pointed to the MGM National Harbor Casino in neighboring Maryland as an example of a possible new revenue stream for Virginia.

"They see over a billion dollars a year in table game revenue going through there every year," he said. "When we studied this five years ago in Fairfax, they said the most valuable casino opportunity in Virginia is in Tysons, and that's one of the reasons I supported that casino and Tysons would save everybody in this room about $500 a year in property taxes, because the revenue was generated off of tourists, not for people out of the state and people coming to visit."

Patch reached out to Surovell by email to confirm which study he was referring to that singled out Tysons as the "most valuable casino opportunity" in Virginia. He responded that he was referring to the Gaming in the Commonwealth report that the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission released in 2019.

The JLARC report was created to study the impact of awarding casino licenses to five economically strapped localities in the state. While the report included a scenario in which a casino in Northern Virginia would generate $155 million and employ an additional 3,200 workers, it did not specifically identify Tysons as the location of that casino.

Nowhere does the word "Tysons" appear in the 2019 JLARC report nor do any other specific localities from Northern Virginia — not Fairfax, Arlington, Prince William, Loudoun and Fauquier counties nor any cities in the area, such as Alexandria, which are typically included as part of the region.

Patch contacted Senator Marsden by email last week, asking why Tysons was chosen as the location for the casino. No response has been received.

After the Reston Association met with Marsden in January, he agreed to amend the language of SB 675 to ensure that any of the three Reston Metro stations were not included as possible sites for the proposed casinos. The only Silver Line stations that fit were Tysons, Greensboro and Spring Hill.

Marsden had previously identified the abandoned Exclusive Automotive Group lot at 8546 Leesburg Pike near the Spring Hill Metro station as the proposed location for the casino.

The old car lot happens to be located next to the Tysons The View development, which was owned by Tysons Development LLC. That company is a partnership between Saudi Arabian businessman Khaled Juffali and the Clemente Development Company, which was founded by the father of Comstock CEO Christopher Clemente.

One of the rationales Surovell has given as a reason to build the casino in Tysons was for Fairfax County to identify different revenue streams in order to diversify its tax base.

During a business conference hosted by Bisnow last Thursday in Reston Station, Comstock Chief Operating Officer Tim Steffan was asked what Fairfax County leaders could do to improve the development process, while making sure they "don't kill the golden goose?"

"I think they should be open-minded as it relates to revenue sources, given the tremendous hit they're taking in the commercial office space," Steffan said. "The tax base has decreased. How can we make up for that? Right now, you need to think about how you can do that. If they don't come up with alternative revenue sources outside of doubling the taxes on our houses, the golden goose is going to be in trouble."

Andrew Pavord, a resident of Providence District, told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that studies have show that most casino revenue comes at the expense of other local businesses.

"Casino tax revenue is a substitute for tax revenue lost from local businesses that lose customers to the casino. A recent Federal Reserve study recognizes that substitution effects may be so powerful that they overcome gaming revenue, leading to negative net revenue for both the state and the county. If you don't believe that just look at Maryland's $2 billion deficit. Casinos have not solved Maryland's fiscal crisis."

Although enabling legislation in the Virginia General Assembly for the proposed Tysons casino is on hold until next year, a group of Fairfax County citizen activists wanted local leaders to know that the was not dead and still presented a risk to the community.

"We look to our elected officials to protect us from special interests who believe money can overpower common sense," said Denis Hayes of Reston. He and Pavord joined other members of the No Casino Coalition voiced their opposition to the proposed casino, during the public comment portion of Tuesday's board meeting. "We look to you to stop downstate officials from dictating what is best for Fairfax. We look to you to send a message that Fairfax is not for sale."

The citizen activists who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting listed a number of reasons why Tysons was a terrible place to build a casino. Not only would it add more cars to an area already known for its traffic congestion and negatively impact the three schools located near the proposed casino site, but it would drive away businesses that have contributed to Tysons' thriving economy.

Read testimony of No Casino Coalition members:

Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

RESTON, VA — Executives representing five Northern Virginia construction and development companies offered suggestions to Fairfax County leaders on how to improve the development process. The suggestions came during a panel discussion about Reston and Herndon's residential, office and retail markets that took place Thursday morning in Reston Station.

The panel was part of a Bisnow-sponsored event looking at the future of development in Reston and Herndon. Comstock Holding Companies hosted the event on the 12th floor of the first building that will be delivered as part of Reston Station's second phase.

"The Dulles corridor is one of the key gateways to the Washington, D.C. Reston and Herndon cannot rest on their laurels and just on their geographic proximity," said panel moderator Andrew Painter, a shareholder at Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh.

Wrapping up the discussion, Painter asked the five business leaders on the panel for suggestions they would make to Fairfax County leaders about how they could improve the development process, while making sure "we don't kill the golden goose?"

Tim Steffan, Chief Operating Officer, Comstock

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

"I think they should be open-minded as it relates to revenue sources, given the tremendous hit they're taking in the commercial office space. The tax base has decreased. How can we make up for that? Right now, you need to think about how you can do that. If they don't come up with alternative revenue sources outside of doubling the taxes on our houses, the golden goose is going to be in trouble."

Juan Manuel Segura, Director of Innovation, Securiport

"We needed their help with our transition here to Reston, so I sought that kind of leadership on that front. Just making sure that everything that they do does support companies like ourselves, who come into the area and take advantage of all of the amenities that are being developed, but also have access to Dulles and Reston."

Stephen Wilson, President, SCG Development

"Maybe a more collaborative approach to parking, particularly in these high density locations, right? Any developer is trying to at least provide enough parking that will match with the market. However, in 20 years, those ratios are going to change, right? So it suggests to me to create a garage that can be torn down and converted into an alternative use, rather than having every site on its own support enough parking today.

"We get pressure from county staff, on the one hand, to reduce parking beyond what the market really needs. On the other hand, zoning is kind of conflicting with that message, because we're consistently, just in our world, we're overdelivering on parking demand. So I'm thinking more of a collaborative county-sponsored approach to that."

Ken Houle, Vice President, TF Cornerstone

"It's always easy to dump on the government, but I actually think Fairfax is a really, really well-run county. The professional staff, I was really impressed with them throughout the process. The one thing that would be helpful for everyone is to speed up the process. I don't know how much they can do to speed it up, but speeding it up would help us a lot."

Aakash Thakkar, Chief Acquisitions Officer, EYA

"It's fair to say there's a housing, maybe not affordable housing, but an affordability building crisis. We're bringing all these great jobs to Reston-Herndon. I think there's a need for much more housing, much more quickly to keep costs down and a range of housing for what folks need. ... Let's work together. Let's get the right types of projects that have the vision that county leaders are looking for, and let's move it as quickly as possible through the process so we can get them up, built and do it all over again."

Tatte Bakery & Café in Reston opened its doors November 29, welcoming diners eager to try the acclaimed baked goods and eclectic cuisine. The restaurant that offers an all-day breakfast menu is located in the heart of Reston Town Center, next to the fountain and across the street from the ice skating rink, in the former home of Chico’s.

“It’s just kind of exciting that they opened a new bakery and coffee shop,” says diner Caroline Green, who lives in Reston Town Center.

The sunny, glass-enclosed shop is the second location in NoVA for Tatte Bakery & Café and its 11^th overall in the DMV. Tatte’s other Northern Virginia location is in Clarendon.

“I’m a big Tatte fan,” says Michael Lagana, from Herndon, who tapped away on his laptop while he ate his breakfast. “Ever since I found out they were moving into Reston, I’ve been checking pretty religiously to see when they would open.”

Guests can order baked goods, quiche, egg dishes, sandwiches, tartines, soups, and more. The Boston-based baker offers weekend brunch as well, with not just the usual suspects on its interesting menu.

“I’m a big fan of coffee and pastries, so when we saw this place was popping up I thought, ‘We gotta make sure we get there on day one,’” says Reston resident Andrew Bannecker. “I was in Boston the other day and had it for the first time and I was like, ‘Oh, I cannot wait for it to open in Reston.’”

Guests can order at the counter and take food to go or dine in. White subway tile encases the walls and a mosaic tile floor design adds appeal to the minimalist décor.

“I love the food, I love the service, I love the vibe,” says Lagana. “I love this sort of, like, retro early 20th century, kind of European New England fusion — it’s really great.”

Tatte is open daily, and accepts order online for pickup, in the restaurant, or through DoorDash. 11910 Market St., Reston Town Center

For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine’s Food newsletter.

RESTON, VA — Christopher Clemente, president and CEO of Comstock Holding Cos. Inc., discussed the future development in Reston Station, Reston Town Center, and Loudoun Station in an interview published Friday by the Washington Business Journal.

"Everybody’s concerned about the financial status of Metro," he told WBJ's Caitlin Lyons. "But there are ways they can solve it, I think. It’s going to take all the leaders of the three jurisdictions to set aside their differences and their individual objectives to collaborate on a solution. It’s a horrible situation that Metro’s in right now, and the pandemic certainly made it worse, but it wasn’t rosy pre-pandemic either. There’s still much to do."

When asked about the future of Reston Station, Clemente answered that it should be built out. He envisioned a day — hopefully, in the not too distant future —when Reston Station and Reston Town Center connected.

Read the Washington Business Journal's full interview with Comstock Holdings CEO Christopher Clemente.

"If you go west, from the buildings that we have here, there’s old properties, old buildings that were built 30 and 40 years ago, many of which are obsolete," Clemente told the WBJ. "They’re all surrounded by asphalt, parking lots. They’re all going to get redeveloped by somebody, whether it’s Comstock or somebody else — I don’t know — but as that happens, from the sky, you won’t know the difference between Reston Town Center and Reston Station. It will be one large integrated employment center."

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Patch reported in September that Comstock was planning to build a casino at or near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station.

Related:

Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Holding Cos. Inc.'s proposed casino at the Wiehle-Reston East Station at Silver Line Casino.