In Part 1 of the Reston Observer’s four-part series, Supervisor Walter Alcorn walks through the county process step by step. Along the way, he says exactly where he stands on the one document the entire Reston National application rests on.
Links to all cited sources can be found at the end.
On September 23rd, The Reston Observer published the first episode of its new podcast: an interview with Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, hosted by Ed Abbott and John Lovaas. It opens a four-part series on the Reston National Golf Course applications. The lineup is Alcorn, me, Jessie Williams of Rescue Reston, and Mark Looney, the applicant’s attorney.
Most of the episode is civics: what a Comprehensive Plan is, what a PRC Plan is, who votes when. The interview was recorded before the Planning Commission hearing moved, so the September dates he mentions are now November 4th.
About three minutes of it are not civics. The applicant’s case rests on a 1966 zoning approval. Alcorn describes the key piece as what he believes is “a handwritten note that says mid-rise residential,” on plans that “don’t have the current roads on there.” His verdict: “I did not find the information they provided to be conclusive that they had the zoning to do this.” And later, plainly: “I don’t buy that.” The supervisor who will make the motion on this case has said on the record that he does not believe the zoning exists.
The full series I published is here, click below to view the full podcast.
THE FOUNDATION, IN HIS WORDS
Alcorn describes the applicant’s argument this way: when the golf course was approved after 1968, the master developer and the county “neglected to change these 11 acres,” skipped a step, and went straight to site plan. So, the argument goes, the 1966 zoning never changed and still applies.
He looked at the documents. He could not find Wiehle Avenue where the plan put it. He called the boundaries “arbitrary lines from 1966, which I don’t think prove that they have zoning.”
That lines up with what the governing records show. The 1970 and 1971 development plans that built this neighborhood assign a unit count to every residential parcel. The golf course has none. It is labeled permanent open space. The approvals that govern this land are C-135, C-203 and C-281, and 1,123 units were approved, with about 1,137 built between 1974 and 1978. I walked through those filings in Three Applications the Press Missed and put them into the county record in my August 6th submission.
Click any map to enlarge. Source: Fairfax County Public Library, Archives and Records Management.
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C-135 Development Plan, Sheet 3 of 5, April 1970. 443 townhouses, 300 garden apartments or 450 hi-rise and/or mid-rise apartments, and the golf course labeled permanent open space. The mid-rise option was built as Southgate Condominiums. |
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C-281 Development Plan, Sheet 3 of 5, April 1971. 140 townhouses, 112 and 128 garden apartments, and the south golf course labeled permanent open space. |
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C-135 Sheet 1, April 1970. Stamped received by the Division of Land Use Administration April 23, 1970, amending the preliminary plan for B-555. |
1,123 units approved. 1,137 built. The golf course carries no unit count on any of them.
The mid-rise entitlement is on the April 1970 plat. The parcel along Reston Avenue reads “300 garden apts. or 450 hi-rise and/or med. rise apts.” It was built as Southgate Condominiums, 300 garden units. That option was on the plan, it was used, and the parcel it applied to is fully built.
Land that still carries B-555 zoning does exist nearby. About 14 acres on the south side of South Lakes Drive, held by the Fairfax County Park Authority, carry it today. The county assesses that land at roughly six times the golf course per acre. The county’s own assessor values B-555 land as developable. It has never valued the golf course that way in more than 50 years.
The acreage claim hasn’t held still either.
The Moving Acreage
What was claimed, what was filed, and what the applications now reach.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Acres described in the interview | about 11 |
| Residential acres in the original filing | 14.7641 |
| Residential acres in the revised filing | 14 to 16 |
| Golf course acres touched by the applications (2 of 3 lots) | 130.0997 of 166.1136 |
| Units proposed | 288 + 18 ADUs = 306 |
| Proposed density, original filing | about 20.7 per acre |
| Surrounding clusters, per county staff | 6 to 12 per acre |
| Residential acreage added since the interview | 3 to 5 acres |
11 acres, then 14.7641, then 14 to 16. The residential claim has moved three times, and the applications reach 130 of the course’s 166 acres.
Source: Reston Observer, Part 1 (September 23, 2026); Fairfax County case files RZPA-2025-HM-00034, RZPA-2026-HM-00007, RZPA-2026-HM-00008; icare.fairfaxcounty.gov.
A plan that can’t find Wiehle Avenue is being asked to outrank the three approvals that built the neighborhood around it.
The question remains: where are these 11, 14 or 16 acres on the county zoning maps?
STEP THREE, BEFORE STEPS ONE AND TWO
Alcorn is candid about where the review stands. County staff is reviewing a PRC Plan “where the applicant claims they have the zoning, which is very much in question, whether they actually do have the zoning or not.”
The county already answered the sequence question. Its June 20th, 2012 determination says redeveloping this land requires a Comprehensive Plan amendment first, then a Development Plan Amendment, then a PRC Plan. The applicant filed the third step. Alcorn declined to initiate the first in 2022, and the Board declined to add it to the work program in 2025.
His condition for that first step hasn’t changed since 2019: he will not initiate a Comprehensive Plan change “unless communities surrounding the golf course ask me.” The owners tried to get that support and didn’t. The PRC Plan route is the path that doesn’t need it.
He also explains why PRC Plans exist in Reston: so a site gets laid out around “existing structures, existing topography, treed areas, neighbors.” His point is that nobody designing from today’s ground would start from a 1966 drawing. I made the precedent case in One Reston Golf Course. Five Precedents.
Staff is being asked to review the roof before anyone has agreed the foundation exists.
HE EXPECTS A COURTROOM
Alcorn says it directly: “To me, it looks like they are setting up a court fight.” He adds that “Virginia is a property rights state,” that landowners have won development rights in court before, and that “there’s always a risk in court.” He believes the county’s case would be sound, and that it is worth defending.
Two more data points from the interview. In about six years on the Board, he has seen one district supervisor’s land use motion fail, a child care case in Mount Vernon. And even in the best case for a developer, site plan and permits add at least a year, and realistically “several years” before anything is built.
The Planning Commission is not bound by him. In 2025 it recommended advancing the owners’ plan amendment nomination, and the Board declined at Alcorn’s request. November 4th is a genuine vote, not a formality.
November 4th produces a recommendation.
The record built before it is what a judge would read.
WHAT THIS MEANS
If you live on or near the course. Alcorn named it himself: homes here have picture windows onto the fairway because the course and the homes were designed together. That is an equity question, not a scenery question. The numbers are in Who Pays and Who Profits, built from 812 county tax records. The homes are only part of the filing. The applications also include a lit driving range, night golf and a restaurant, laid out in 306 Tiny Condos Was the Headline.
If you support more housing in Fairfax County. Nothing in this interview is anti-housing. It is about which document governs. Governed Growth means housing that arrives through the Comprehensive Plan, not around it.
If you live anywhere else in Fairfax County. If a 1966 note can override approved development plans here, it can be tried on any planned community in the county. These applications make two zoning claims at once: a right to build homes on 14 to 16 acres, and a right to “enhance” the golf course across two lots totaling 130 acres. Only a third lot of 36 acres is untouched. Precedent set here reaches well past the homes. That is why the survey below is open countywide.
If you want to weigh in. Written testimony that cites the governing approvals by number carries further than general concern. County staff publish their report about two weeks before the hearing, around October 21st for November 4th, which means it is being written now. Comments that reach staff before then can shape the recommendation; comments after it respond to a decision already framed. Send yours by mid-October. Ask staff to hold the applications to the Comprehensive Plan, and cite C-135, C-203 and C-281 by number.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Planning Commission public hearing: Wednesday, November 4th, 2026, 7:30 p.m., Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax. Reference all three case numbers in any comment: RZPA-2025-HM-00034, RZPA-2026-HM-00007 and RZPA-2026-HM-00008.
Ask for three things by name:
- A written staff finding on whether the 1966 approval survives C-135, C-203 and C-281.
- An explanation of the acreage and how the residential claim moved from about 11 to 14.7641 to about 16.
- A statement on sequence explaining why the review is proceeding without the Comprehensive Plan amendment the 2012 determination requires.
October 15th, YIMBYs of NoVA meetup with the development team at Founding Farmers, Reston Station. The event listing describes the course as publicly owned land of 80-plus acres. It is privately owned land operated as a pay-to-play public course. Walk it without a tee time and you are trespassing. The course is 166.1136 acres. These applications cover 130.0997 of them, leaving 36.0139 untouched. If you attend, ask the development team the acreage question. Real questions move this further than slogans on either side.
Parts 2 through 4 of the Reston Observer series feature me, Jessie Williams of Rescue Reston, and applicant attorney Mark Looney. Alcorn’s office also posts hearing notices in his weekly newsletter, available on the Hunter Mill District page.
Fairfax County: Your Voice on Zoning and Open Space
This survey is open to anyone in Fairfax County who cares how zoning and open space decisions get made. It takes a few minutes. Results feed my analysis and the county record.
A 1966 note can start a conversation. It shouldn’t be allowed to finish one.
If you own on or near the course, I can show you exactly what is filed next to your address and what it means for your equity. Email Me.
Michele Hudnall
Real Estate of Northern Virginia | Equity-First Real Estate Strategy
Life Long Northern Virginia Native | 25-Year Reston Resident | HOA Board President, Whitney Park East | South Lakes Drive
[email protected] | 703.867.3436 | RealEstateofNVA.com | @realestateofnva
I help Northern Virginia buyers and sellers make smarter decisions with local market analysis, strategic guidance, and real-world context, not hype headlines.
Disclosure: Michele Hudnall is a licensed real estate agent in Virginia. This post represents her personal analysis and good-faith opinion as a Reston resident and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Full disclosure at RealEstateofNVA.com. All analysis and opinion are my own and based upon local, real-time data. Please consult with a financial or legal professional as required.
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SOURCES
Based on the Reston Observer’s September 23rd, 2026 interview with Supervisor Walter Alcorn, certified copies of the C-135 and C-281 development plans from the Fairfax County archives, the three pending case files, and Fairfax County real estate assessment records for the golf course parcels. Acreage for the revised filing is shown as a range because the applicant’s figures have changed between submissions.
SOURCES: All Publicly Accessible — No Subscription Required
Reston Observer, Episode 1, September 23, 2026: youtube.com/watch?v=ZYe9E0etHsU — All Alcorn quotes in this post; timestamps 5:47–6:14, 7:13–9:50, 12:39–18:30, 18:38–19:25, 22:03–22:31, 25:07–25:41.
Fairfax County Planning Commission — RZPA-2025-HM-00034, RZPA-2026-HM-00007, RZPA-2026-HM-00008: fairfaxcounty.gov/planningcommission — Hearing schedule and case filings; acreage and unit counts.
Fairfax County Zoning Administrator determination, June 20, 2012, and approvals C-135, C-203, C-281: as cited in Governed Growth. What I Filed With Fairfax County. — Required sequence and governing development plans.
Fairfax County Public Library, Archives and Records Management — C-135 and C-281 development plans (1970, 1971): Certified copies; unit counts by parcel and permanent open space designations.
Fairfax County real estate assessment records: icare.fairfaxcounty.gov — Golf course parcel acreage: 166.1136 total; 130.0997 across the two lots in the applications.
FFXnow, September 27, 2022: ffxnow.com/2022/09/27/alcorn-shuts-door-on-possibility-of-redeveloping-reston-national-golf-course/ — 2022 Comprehensive Plan decision.
FFXnow, June 11, 2025: ffxnow.com/2025/06/11/push-to-redevelop-reston-national-golf-course-for-housing-suffers-major-setback/ — Planning Commission recommended; Board declined 2025 SSPA nomination.
YIMBYs of NoVA, October 15 meetup listing: actionnetwork.org/events/reston-golf-course-development-community-meetup-testimony-prep — Event details and site description.
Real Estate of NVA — Reston National Golf Course series: realestateofnva.com/tag/reston-national-golf-course
