For more than 40 years, Lake Anne Fellowship House has provided affordable housing for seniors in Reston.
The redevelopment plans for a new Lake Anne House approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 16 ensures these 240 apartments will remain affordable for the next 30 years.
The plans call for replacing all the existing apartments with a new, more modern building along North Shore Drive near the intersection with Village Road. The plan also includes 36 market-rate townhouses that will help pay for the construction of the new apartments.
Redevelopment will occur in phases to allow Lake Anne’s existing tenants to stay in their apartments. When completed, they will move to the new building, and the two older apartment buildings on site now will be torn down.
The project is a partnership between the nonprofit Fellowship Square Foundation, which owns and operates Lake Anne House, and the Community Preservation and Development Corporation, a nonprofit real estate developer.
“This effort has been complicated and very difficult,” said Michael Scheurer, a Fellowship Square Foundation board member. “But we are confident that we have the right program and right partners in place to ensure that affordable housing for seniors at Lake Anne is in place for years to come and does so with a development plan that also benefits the entire Lake Anne community.”
County officials say the project aids with the revitalization of Lake Anne Village Center.
“By bringing in the additional residents, I think it brings in another neighbor to the community to coalesce with this current group of citizens and those that will come in the future,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins.
Today, two, 1970s-era buildings make up the Lake Anne Fellowship House at 11448 and 11450 North Shore Drive. These buildings will be replaced with an eight-story, 200,000-square-foot, “H”-shaped apartment. The building will be located on the east side of the nearly six-acre property, and the new townhouses will be located on the west side of the apartment building.
The apartments will be available for people 62 or older or who are disabled. Under the redevelopment plan, apartments will be offered at different levels of affordability, starting at 50 percent of the area median income—or about $41,050 per year for an individual.
The project offers eight, new publicly available parks, and it will make transportation improvements. The development provides 40 percent of the site as open space, including more than six-tenths an acre in parks.
Lake Anne House will also dedicate land for the future realignment of Village Road. The county’s Comprehensive Plan envisions this road to be rebuilt to offer better views to Lake Anne Village Center and Washington Plaza. The recommendation for the realigned road includes adding a new northbound lane, an 8-foot wide, raised median and 10-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road.
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