Boston Properties had requested a reduction of the minimum parking requirements for the new development under construction near the future Reston Town Center metro station. Reston Now reported Friday that Supervisor Walter Alcorn has declined to bring the request to the County Board of Supervisors for a vote.
The initial phase of the development includes two office high-rise buildings, a hotel, and a 600 unit residential skyscraper, all with ground-floor retail uses. The parking podiums for the office buildings are both completed; the parking reduction would have applied only to the hotel and residential building, which have not yet started construction.
Under the proposed conditions, dedicated parking for the hotel’s rooms would no longer be required, resulting in a reduction of 284 parking spaces. Parking for the residential building was to be reduced from 825 spaces to 540 spaces. The primary justification for these parking reductions was the anticipated completion of the metro station prior to the completion of the first phase of the development.
Seeing as the urban core of Reston is still in its infancy, it might seem premature to limit parking for the multifamily residential to fewer than one space per dwelling unit. And what about parking for hotel guests and retail patrons? Even considering the nearby metro station, amenities within walking distance are minimal, and this will not change too much in the next five years.
As a condition of this parking reduction, Boston Properties proffered a “permanent parking and access agreement” that would have allowed guests and residents to park in at least 65 percent of the office parking spaces, much of which has been or will be constructed under the entire site, including where the hotel and residential buildings will stands. The parking uses are also such that the owners believed the peak parking uses would not overlap—meaning that many office spaces will clear out on nights and weekends, which are prime retail hours. In addition, the amount of office parking is above the required zoning minimum. Boston Properties had hopes that these factors would mitigate the need for parking at Reston Gateway.
How would this have affected construction? The already constructed office parking would not be affected. The development plans for the hotel did not include any above-grade parking. But the residential building is planned to have above grade parking.
The block D multifamily residential building was initially designed with up to twelve levels of parking; seven above ground and five below. However, the approved PRC Plan shows parking level floor plans only up to the fifth level of the building with significantly fewer spaces. Would the parking reduction have reduced parking even further? If so, the design of the building might have changed from the planned 44 stories—which may end up being the tallest building in the D.C. area—to something a few stories shorter. Alternatively, they might have planned small changes to the massing of the building that would not change the planned height. These sorts of changes will not be made public, so what would have happened is anyone’s guess.
This decision is likely to contribute to the ever-increasing automobile congestion in downtown Reston. While Reston is presently a car-centric community, there is an increasing need for traffic in and around the Town Center to be mitigated through measures that encourage alternative modes of transportation, and the parking reduction would have presented an incentive for this kind of change. After all, Boston Properties still must deal with a half-dozen parking garages that struggle to fill on a regular basis.
At neighboring Halley Rise, Brookfield Properties has been experimenting with a driver-less circulator at their development just a few blocks away, and as density continues to increase downtown, similar options become more and more appealing.
It’s possible that Supervisor Alcorn entertains a parking reduction request at some later point. In his statement to Reston Now, he said, “Let’s see how the parking demand looks after the first phase of the project is completed and occupied, then whether there is adequate parking capacity will be a much less theoretical question.” Hopefully such a change to the development does not arrive too late to encourage the development of alternative modes of transit at this critical point in Reston’s urban development.