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After some revisions by the Town Council and Planning Commission, Herndon’s Metrorail area station plan will be going back to Vanasse Hangen Brustlin’s consultants for more in-depth study.

On Friday, Jan. 21, the Council and Planning Commission met with landowners and property managers in the study area. Afterward they worked to merge Area Plans 1 and 2, which the town and residents have been discussing, to come up with the next version of the plan.

Kay Robertson, senior planner for the town, said the major thing that happened during the discussion was reducing the size of the study area.

During Friday’s meeting, the Council and Planning Commission decided it would be best to address the area closest to the station first. This was in response to landowners’ feedback that it is those areas that are most likely to redevelop first.

The original study area included the land along Herndon Parkway from Van Buren Street to Spring Street, but the study area will no longer include the properties between Victory Drive and Fairfax County Parkway (see purple area on Google map).

Floor area ratio, or FAR refers to the square footage of the building in relation to the lot, and is a measure of how dense a piece of land may be. For example an FAR of 1.0 would mean the square footage of the building would be the same amount as the square footage of the lot of land it sits on.

On Friday Herndon’s officials decided transition the floor area ratio from highest, near the toll road, to lowest, near the residential areas. Robertson said the FAR is consistent with the Area Plans 1 and 2 that have been considered, but is more refined. The FARs in each area now step down from 4.5, to 2.5, to 1.5 to 0.7. (See Google map for a visual of these steps down.)

At this point the consultants will go back to retool the plan. They will complete traffic and economic studies and create new visual aids to go with the revised plan and new study results.

Robertson said the traffic study will be able to look at the impact the kiss-and-ride will have on traffic to the station area. She said the town will be completing its own study to see what the impact of the development will be on Herndon’s water and sewer system.

The economic study will eventually help town officials decide what mix of uses should be developed, including how many housing units and how much retail, office and hotel square-footage there should be. Robertson said there is no intention for destination retail because the town would rather not compete with surrounding retail and the downtown.

Robertson said the town will continue to look into what level of density is needed to spur redevelopment by the landowners as well as get things the public would like to see, such as bike lanes, sidewalks and plazas.

During the Friday meeting town officials also decided to start the process to approach Fairfax County and the Virginia Department of Transportation to begin a discussion on how the interchange at Fairfax County Parkway and Spring Street might be improved.

The town will receive the next version of the plan in the spring and another public workshop is likely to happen in early summer with the revised plan. Comments on the current plans will be accepted through Jan. 28.

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From the Herndon Planning Commission's Monday, Jan. 24 work session: 

During Monday night’s Planning Commission work session the discussion on Metro continued with Kay Robertson, senior planner for the town, recapping the changes made to the plan at the Jan. 21 meeting.

Robertson said the planning commission and council agreed that development will occur over a long period of time so the planning will be focused around the area closest to the Metro station. She said the portion of the study area that is now excluded from the study will be addressed in the comprehensive plan but not at the same level of detail.

The Planning Commission discussed making additional changes, such as giving the piece of land at the southeast corner of the intersection of Van Buren Street and Herndon Parkway a 2.5 FAR, rather than a 1.5 FAR.

Commissioner Paul LeReche said he feels its important to build the road connection to the north of Herndon Parkway, or the new Herndon Parkway, as soon as possible.

Commissioner Kevin East said the town should plan to add the new Herndon Parkway when traffic necessitates it. He said he isn’t ready to accept that the town can’t maintain the integrity of the Herndon Parkway.

LeReche said once the town finishes the Metrorail Station Area Plan it will be stuck with whatever traffic appears, so it should be addressed now.

Commissioner George Burke said he questions the need for a kiss-and-ride. He said it encourages traffic and usage. He said the nicer you build the kiss-and-ride the more traffic will come to the area to use it.

East said if the town doesn’t create a kiss-and-ride its an invitation for trouble, because people may try to stop along Herndon Parkway or in other nearby parking lots to drop people off.

The Planning Commission liked the idea of creating a checklist of things the kiss-and-ride would need and asking the adjacent landowners for ideas on how to achieve things both the town and landowners want.

The Commissioners agreed that no matter what there should be some sort of pull off along Herndon Parkway for Metro passengers by 2016.