| Downtown:
A People's Place |
| There are as many hopes and plans for downtown Herndon as
there are people, it seems. During a recent meeting between
Herndon town staff members, consultants, the Downtown Business
Council, the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce, residents
and others, it was clear that whatever happens, the hope is
to have it happen sooner than later. |
| We've all watched downtown Herndon languish for many years.
With the exception of the Herndon Municipal Center, the library,
an office building on Pine and Station streets and the redevelopment
of a block on Station Street, all other development has stalled. |
| Part of the problem is parking, but the biggest reason,
it seems, is that government policy and not the natural order
of the marketplace is trying to dictate what happens in downtown
Herndon. |
| For instance, in the case of the old abandoned Citgo station,
the redevelopment of which was turned down by the Herndon
Planning Commission, is under government policy rules that
state, "...retail uses should dominate (and) residential uses
may be appropriate, and office uses should be restricted to
upper stories. Proposed uses are listed as all uses permitted
in the Planned Development‰Mixed Use District except townhouses,
motels, hotels and inns." |
| Developers wanted to build the Herndon Commerce Center in
place of the Citgo eyesore. The applicant wants to rezone
the quarter-acre site from Central Commercial District, to
PD-MU and has agreed to purchase 83 spaces in the town's public
shared parking program to meet the zoning requirement for
parking of the site. |
| The property is designated as "adaptive area" in the Herndon
2010 Comprehensive Plan and is "eligible to be rezoned, subject
to guidelines in the Comprehensive Plan." |
| Therein lies the rub. What is "adaptive area" and what does
government know about the retail market? It was clear that
the developers knew that if retail‰in 1,200 square-foot parcels‰was
put on the first floor, the project would fail. If that site
is truly an "adaptive area" then the Planning Commission should
have been more open minded about the possibilities for its
use. |
| The application now goes before a Herndon Town Council public
hearing on March 12 where the council will decide the fate
of the Citgo site. |
| The problem of downtown Herndon doesn't begin or end with
the Herndon Commerce Center (the Citgo site), rezoning or
redevelopment. The problem starts with what we all want the
downtown to be, or not to be. It is our downtown, after all,
not the downtown business owner's, not the consultant's, and
certainly not the government's or politician's downtown. It
belongs to the people‰except for the parcels that are owned
by individuals. |
| It is my observation that what Herndon residents want is
a good looking downtown with plenty of open space, a place
to play, listen to music, a place for festivals and concerts,
and a lively place filled with things to do and places to
eat and relax. If retail and residential spaces fit into that
scenario, all the better. |
| The Cultural Arts Center, possibly planned for downtown,
would fit well into what the public would like to see. The
Cultural Arts Center Advisory Committee is holding a public
forum workshop March 6 from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Herndon Council
Chambers, which would be a good time for the public to air
its views. |
| It also is my observation that what developers and businesses
want in downtown Herndon is a place where market forces, not
hard-line government policies, dictate the scope of the development
and redevelopment projects. |
| Herndon town government should adopt a "hands-off" policy
in determining the future of downtown Herndon, and let the
marketplace, and the residents, decide. |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
