Reston National Golf Course development plan left out of one 2025 Fairfax County review, but could move forward in another

by Gene Powell, Staff Writer

Reston National Golf Course redevelopment has been a source of contention for years. See the Opinions section for details. Photo by Benjamin Burgess.

A two-option proposal to develop the 168-acre Reston National Golf Course was left out of a 2025 county-wide development review process in a June 10 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors vote. But a 14-acre part of the proposal could move ahead under a different county review process.

The board vote ends any review – for this year– of the course development options under the county’s comprehensive planning program titled SSPA. But Reston National owners filed an alternative request June 5 with the county, using a different zoning and development review process, asking to proceed with a proposal to build 288 residences on 14 acres of the course.

The supervisors voted 10-0 to approve a variety of county-wide projects for comprehensive review in 2025, but not the RNG proposal – rejecting a June 4 recommendation by the county planning commission to include the golf course residential development proposal in the SSPA review.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who represents the Reston area, opposed adding the course to the SSPA program. He cited a long-standing pledge to oppose residential development of the course without approval from the community to consider a change in the course. In a series of public hearings on the RNG project, a sizable majority of those speaking opposed development.

Course owner War Horse Cities, of Baltimore; and developer NVR of Reston, advanced a “two option” proposal for the SSPA program: One option would have allowed residential housing on 86 acres of the golf course, while designating the remaining 80 acres as open space for a park or other public use. The open space would be deeded to the county or the private Reston Association homeowners’ group. The course opened in 1970 as Reston South Golf Course.

The second option – now the sole active proposal – would renovate and redesign the existing 18-hole golf course while building an estimated 280-plus townhouse units on 14 acres. The course owner, listed on the alternative “PRC” review proposal as Virginia Investment Partners, maintains the smaller tract already is zoned for residential housing and that “option two” can move forward under the alternative review process. Some county officials and opponents of residential development already question whether such an alternative approach will meet legal review.

After the vote, Alcorn noted his 2019 pledge was renewed in 2023, and added: “I want to thank the hundreds of Hunter Mill residents that attended one or more of the SSPA meetings, sent in emails, called my office, or otherwise engaged in this process — you have been heard.”