Dulles Chamber Hosts Town Hall on Metro

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce played host to a panel of Metro and development experts on Wednesday night for a Metro Town Hall.

The meeting took place in the Council Chambers in downtown Herndon. Participants included Bill Lauer, a developer with Tetra Partners, Joe Ritchey, a commercial Realtor with Prospective Inc., Kevin East, chairman of the Herndon Planning Commission, Lisa Merkel, vice mayor of the town of Herndon, and Shane Murphy, a real estate attorney with Cooley LLP.

Murphy discussed what’s happening all along the Dulles Corridor as Rail to Dulles is being constructed and planned. He said the Dulles Airport Metro station will be above ground, and they currently expect the full rail line to open in the summer of 2017.

Murphy said this is the biggest infrastructure project to be created in the area since the Capital Beltway, and it will change the landscape of commuter patterns. He said Tysons Corner, with its four stations, is slated to become a multimodal hub of transportation, and Fairfax County is planning for a walkable community.

He expects there will be a lot of housing built in Tysons Corner because there are currently 17,000 residents in the area and 100,000 jobs. He said housing is needed there and expects it to sell quickly.

The Reston Master Plan Special Study was focused on the Wiehle and Reston Parkway stations and has been meeting for well over a year, Murphy said. He said Wiehle will have a parking facility, but Reston Parkway will not.

In Herndon, the south side of the station, where the Herndon-Monroe Park and Ride sits currently, will serve as a parking facility, while the north side in the town limits will have pedestrian access, Murphy said. He said much of the development south of the station will be residential, while the north side will be small but dense.

The Route 28 station near the Center for Innovative Technology is being handled mostly by Loudoun County, but Fairfax County and Herndon have provided some input. He said they plan to construct residential units first, and then add commercial uses, such as offices and hotels.

Murphy said the general pattern seems to be walkable communities that get people out of their cars. He said this will help reduce congestion and people are happier that they can reach many places without a vehicle.

Herndon Planning Commissioner East said the town initially approached Metro with two concerns. The first was how would the town have access to the station and what would it look like.

The second concern was safety for those who may try to stop on Herndon Parkway to drop off or pick up passengers, since no kiss-and-ride or parking facility was planned for the town of Herndon side.

Those concerns grew into a bigger study of the entire area, he said. Since then the town has been looking at and planning for beyond when the Metro opens in 2017, he said.

The town of Herndon is planning for a development that has the highest density buildings closest to the toll road and gradually decreasing the density as development approaches the town’s residential neighborhoods. To read more about the town’s plans, .

Herndon Vice Mayor Merkel said she and former Herndon Town Councilman Richard Downer would like to see the town begin to that could take them directly to the station. The bus would traverse the Herndon Parkway.

The biggest issue with a circulator is how to pay for it, Merkel said. She said this is why the town needs to plan now to be able to get its residents a bus system later on after the Metro is open. She said Fairfax County supervisors Cathy Hudgins and John Foust have been supportive of their proposal.

Laure, of Tetra, said Metro doesn’t work without linkage and Herndon’s plan, as well as the circulator bus system, are good ones. He said the parking garages at Herndon-Monroe and Wiehle are projected to fill up by 6 a.m. and Herndon will need a bus route to get its residents to the Metro.

Lauer said what Herndon needs is a revitalized downtown area. He said the last time he was in the downtown at 8:30 p.m. the only places open were the bars and restaurants. He said it’s important for the town to work to infuse energy, residential and commercial properties in the downtown.

Ritchey said the Reston Town Center and Reston Parkway area will continue to be the urban core of the town center, which has gained international recognition for its mixed-use strategies. He said the center is outperforming the rest of the market and fetching higher rents than buildings just minutes away.

Planners and developers intend to continue to build the Reston Town Center up, with densities between 3-5 FAR, Ritchey said. He said it will be the most multimodal station on the line. He said they look to construct an area that is high-rise, high end and urban mixed use.

Lauer said he sees the trend of working from home continuing, especially now that Congress is getting involved and government agencies are getting on board, so companies may be looking for smaller spaces that are flexible.

Town hall attendee Alan Hansen, who is director of architecture at DBI, said Herndon’s plans that were discussed are all solid and studied. He said it will be crucially important for the town to create the connection from the downtown to the Metro, but also make sure the route there and back is filled with great things as well.

Les Zidel, a Herndon resident, was concerned with housing and people changing jobs and commutes.

Lauer said housing is critical and right now the trend in the market is for apartments. He said housing is an important part of the equation.

Murphy said at the end of the housing bubble many apartments were being converted to condos, creating a shortage of apartments, which is why rents have been increasing so much in the area recently, and will continue to.