Urgent! Two Upcoming Meetings on Tall Oaks Village Center Development

Please attend one or both meetings:

• The Reston Planning and Zoning Committee is meeting on October 19th at 7:30pm at the South Lakes High School cafeteria
• The Design Review Board meeting is on October 20th at 7:00pm at the Reston Association

Jefferson Apartments Group (JAG) has submitted their redevelopment plan for 154 residences in the Tall Oaks Village Center to the county.  Tall Oaks Village Center is just seven acres in size.

Their plan is not consistent with the Reston Master Plan guidance on Village Centers nor does it satisfactorily address community concerns expressed by the RA Board of Directors and the Tall Oaks community. Shortly before his death Robert Simon came to some of the public meetings and to express his unhappiness with JAG’s plan.

In a letter to Supervisor Hudgins concerning JAG’s plan, the RA Board made a straightforward declaration: JAG’s plan “falls woefully short of meeting even minimum standards sought for a village center.” In fact the submitted JAG plan falls short in just about all, if not all, of the areas of Tall Oaks community’s concerns as expressed at multiple meetings with the developer.

We need as many people as possible to attend the next two meetings to provide a united front and try and stop JAG’s current development plan for the Tall Oaks Village Center.

Please try to attend and bring as many supporters of the Village Center concept as you can. See you there.

Tall Oaks Petition

Retain Tall Oaks as a Village Center and protect our community

WE ALL WANT DEVELOPMENT – SMART and BALANCED

The current plan for the re-development of Tall Oaks is to basically create a new cluster.  The developers want to add 154 new homes with only 5,000 square feet of open space and 8,500 square feet of retail space (the equates to 2-3 small businesses). Currently, the occupied retail space (Fur Factory, Kumon, Paradise Nails, Pho 75, Mama Wok, Cleaners, Veterinarian, and Piasanos) is close to 20,000 square feet, according to Jefferson Apartment Group.

Tall Oaks community needs and deserves a Village Center with retail that we can walk to and green space where the community can gather.  A balance of residential and retail in a plaza-like setting would be a good compromise.

Let Reston Association know you are in support of a mixed use Village Center.  Ample retail on bottom and residential above.

Support this petition at Change.org

[Reston Now] What’s in Store for Tall Oaks?

Empty Tall Oaks

The new owners of Tall Oaks Village Center are offering Reston residents two upcoming chances to see what changes they have in store for the nearly vacant center.

Tall Oaks Development Group, a division of the Jefferson Apartment Group of McLean purchased Tall Oaks in December for $14.3 million.

The Jefferson Apartment group has developed more than 18,000 rental units in 10 states, including Virginia.

Locally, the Jefferson Apartment Group has developed, among others, the Residences at the Fairfax County Government Center, Tellus in Arlington, The Asher in Alexandria and the Jefferson at 14W, a seven-story, mixed-use luxury development in Northwest DC.

Jefferson representatives, who did not return phone calls Wednesday, will hold meetings April 23 and 27 at 7 p.m. at Reston Association headquarters, 12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.

You can read the rest of the article at Reston Now