Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors approved Lofts II at Reston Station on July 14, 2026, by a 10-0 vote. The rezoning lets Pulte Home Company replace three low-rise office buildings on Samuel Morse Drive with 158 homes: 112 condominiums in three buildings and 46 stacked townhouses. Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn made the motion, and Supervisor Rodney Lusk seconded it.
We first wrote about Lofts II in June, when the Board hearing was set for June 23. The Board pushed that hearing back three weeks, and the approval came in July instead. The homes are approved and the site design is set. Pulte has said construction will not start before mid-2027.
The Board approved 158 homes on July 14 after a three-week delay
The Board adopted the plan amendment that allows housing on the site, SSPA 2023-III-11UP, on May 5. Before that change, the county’s Comprehensive Plan called for office, industrial, institutional and mixed uses at 0.5 to 1.0 FAR. FAR, or floor area ratio, compares a building’s total floor space to the size of its lot. The amendment added an option for residential development up to 1.4 FAR on these three parcels.
The Planning Commission opened its hearing on May 13, then deferred its decision twice, to June 3 and then to June 10, while Hunter Mill Commissioner John Carter pressed Pulte on the complaints coming from Lofts I owners. On June 10 the commission voted 8-0 to recommend approval, according to the Planning Commission’s action record. The same night it approved the final development plan, the detailed site design that governs what gets built.
The Reston Association’s Planning and Zoning Committee, which advises the county but has no vote, recommended denial. Its members voted 8-2, with two abstentions, on June 15, FFXnow reported, after criticizing the architecture, the lack of green roofs and the playground.
The Board deferred its own hearing from June 23 to July 14. Six speakers testified in July, and the Board’s meeting summary lists the topics the Board discussed afterward: stormwater, green roofs, access to active recreation, architecture, community outreach, loading zones, parking, trip generation, a contact person at Pulte during construction, and the Easterly Road, snow and dust proffers. Supervisors approved the rezoning subject to proffers dated June 19, 2026.
“I wouldn’t say this is a perfect application, but I think the responsiveness of the applicant to the requests has been reasonable,” Alcorn said, according to FFXnow.
Pulte will build 112 condos and 46 stacked townhouses on five acres
The site covers 5.0 acres along Samuel Morse Drive, south of Sunset Hills Road and north of Reston Station Boulevard, about half a mile east of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station. Three office buildings from 1982, about 48,000 square feet in all, stand there today with surface parking around them. All three come down.
Land Design Consultants drew the approved plan, and the county’s April 29 staff report, filed with the case record, describes it building by building:
- Two condominium buildings face Reston Station Boulevard. Building 2A rises four stories and Building 3A five stories, each above a one-level parking garage.
- A third condominium building, 3B, runs along the east side of the site, also five stories over the garage.
- Four rows of stacked townhouses fill the northern and western parts of the site, labeled 1A through 1D. Building 1D fronts Sunset Hills Road.
- A shared garage under the three condo buildings holds 163 spaces. Each stacked townhouse has its own ground-floor garage, 46 spaces in all, and a few dozen surface spaces sit mostly behind Buildings 2A and 3A.
The overall density comes to 1.39 FAR, including bonus density earned through the workforce housing commitment.
Private Street A runs east to west behind the condo buildings. Private Street B follows roughly the line of today’s Samuel Morse Drive and keeps a full-movement entrance on Sunset Hills Road. Easterly Road, along the western edge, connects the site to Reston Station Boulevard.
Twenty of the homes are set aside as workforce housing
Pulte’s proffers commit at least 12.78 percent of the homes as workforce dwelling units, which works out to 20 of the 158. Workforce dwelling units are homes sold or rented at controlled prices to households earning up to a set share of the region’s area median income, or AMI. If the homes are sold, the 20 units are divided among households earning up to 70, 80 and 100 percent of AMI.
Our count of Reston’s affordable and workforce housing shows where the existing income-restricted homes sit today.
The proffers also commit Pulte to four other contributions:
- Schools: $14,956 to Fairfax County Public Schools for each student the development is projected to generate, paid before site plan approval and adjusted each year.
- Recreation: at least $2,400 per unit, excluding any affordable dwelling units, spent on recreation facilities for residents, with any unspent balance paid to the Fairfax County Park Authority.
- Athletic fields: $1.72 per square foot of new floor area to the Park Authority for active recreation in or near Reston.
- Transportation: a transportation demand management program, run by the owners’ association once Pulte leaves, with an annual budget reviewed by the county’s transportation department. These programs aim to cut car trips through transit incentives, bike parking and similar measures.
Six small public parks add up to almost half an acre
Lofts II includes 56,964 square feet of open space. Of that, 20,909 square feet, just under half an acre, takes the form of six urban parks open to the public from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. under easements Pulte will grant the county:
| Park | Approx. size | What the proffers call for |
|---|---|---|
| Central Pocket Park | 6,098 sq ft | Lawn, playground with two pieces of equipment, ping pong and chess tables, cornhole, public art |
| Corner Park South | 4,356 sq ft | Lawn, seating, shade structures |
| Promenade | 3,485 sq ft | Walkway linking the two eastern corner parks |
| Corner Park West | 2,614 sq ft | Passive recreation, seating, landscaping |
| Corner Park North | 2,614 sq ft | Lawn, seating, shade structures |
| Pocket Park | 1,742 sq ft | Passive recreation, seating, landscaping |
All six parks will carry Morse code interpretive signs, a nod to the inventor the street is named for. Each park has a deadline tied to the building next to it. Central Pocket Park and Corner Park North go in before the first residential use permit for Building 3B, the county’s sign-off that a building can be occupied.
One Reston Association committee member called the Central Pocket Park playground “the most sparse, sad playground I’ve ever seen,” FFXnow reported. County staff also asked for three more crosswalks through the park spaces, which Pulte did not add.
Lofts I owners won commitments on dust, snow and striping
Owners at the original Lofts at Reston Station, which opened in 2019 with 44 homes, told the Planning Commission and the Board that the builder had left them short on parking and loading space, slow on snow removal, and covered in dust from earlier construction.
“We already had two construction projects where we had significant accumulation of dirt and dust on our balconies,” resident Christopher Cummings told the Board, according to FFXnow.
The proffers answer those complaints with four commitments:
- Dust control. Pulte must run a dust management plan during construction, with wash racks, regular watering and covered trucks, and keep adjacent streets clear of mud and debris at the end of each workday.
- Power washing. The June 5 proffers offered the Lofts I association $1,000 to hire a power washer. The Planning Commission deleted that paragraph on June 10. FFXnow reported in July that Pulte ultimately agreed to contribute $5,000 for power washing the Lofts I building.
- Snow removal. Pulte says it participates in a snow consortium of nearby property owners that clears the private streets, including Reston Station Boulevard and Easterly Road, until the state accepts them as public roads. The Planning Commission tightened the wording so that Pulte either plows itself or makes sure the consortium starts within 24 hours after snow stops falling.
- Reston Station Boulevard. Pulte will build an 8-foot parking lane, an 8-foot planting strip and an 8-foot sidewalk along its frontage, and stripe those improvements, before residents move into the last of Buildings 2A and 3A.
Lofts I residents also described their parking as inadequate, made worse by loading spaces too small for moving trucks, FFXnow reported. “If we’re going to go from 44 units to 250 units, it’s going to be challenging,” resident Christina Liesegang told the Board. The Lofts II proffers require parking that meets the county’s zoning minimums on site, unless the county later approves a parking reduction.
The north end of Easterly Road still depends on the neighbor
About 175 feet of Easterly Road already exists in a temporary form off Reston Station Boulevard. The county plans to extend it north to Sunset Hills Road along the western edge of Lofts II, past Lofts I and then the office building at 1821 Michael Faraday Drive. Easterly Road improvements led the list of items the Planning Commission sent Pulte back to resolve when it deferred its vote on June 3.
The proffers split the road where the Lofts I and 1821 Michael Faraday properties meet:
- South of that line, a stretch of about 175 feet, Pulte will build Easterly Road to its full, final design before residents can move into any of the condo buildings.
- North of the line, about 330 feet, Pulte will grade its side of the right-of-way when it builds the adjacent townhouses and post signs marking Easterly Road as a future street. If the neighbor starts construction first, Pulte builds the full road section, provided the neighbor pays for its half. If Pulte reaches site plan approval first, it pays Fairfax County $182,000 toward building the road later.
The neighboring owner, JB 1821 Michael Faraday LLC, has applied to replace that building with 92 homes: 20 stacked townhouses and 72 multifamily units. Its Planning Commission hearing, once set for September 30, now sits on the county’s calendar for March 17, 2027. Until that project moves, the north end of Easterly Road stays unbuilt.
As of the Planning Commission vote, Pulte had not adopted four staff recommendations: wider planting strips along Sunset Hills Road and Easterly Road, street trees along Sunset Hills Road, the three extra crosswalks, and public access easements over all sidewalks. Staff still found the application consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
Construction is unlikely to start before the third quarter of 2027
Pulte still needs site plan approval and building permits, and demolition of the three office buildings comes before any of that work shows. In April, Pulte entitlements manager Donald Hughes told the Reston Association’s Planning and Zoning Committee he expected construction to start “by the third quarter of 2027 at the earliest, with construction likely taking about two years,” FFXnow reported. On that schedule, the buildings would be finished around 2029.
The stretch between Sunset Hills Road and Reston Station Boulevard is turning residential
Lofts II joins a run of housing projects on former office land around the Wiehle-Reston East station. Faraday Park and other townhouse and apartment communities sit to the south, and Lofts I sits to the west. The 1821 Michael Faraday Drive proposal would add 92 more homes beside Lofts I.
Across the station, the county is now weighing three redevelopment proposals west of Wiehle Avenue, including the Commerce Metro Center plan and the Toll Brothers townhomes on Association Drive. Office tenants keep arriving at the same time, among them Booz Allen’s new headquarters and Carfax at Reston Station.
The county’s plan places Lofts II in the Reston East non-transit-oriented district, planned for less intensity than the blocks beside the station. Pulte’s architectural sheets label the three multifamily buildings as condominiums.
Buyers should read the proffers before signing on new construction
Lofts II will add 158 condos and stacked townhouses within walking distance of Metro. Any buyer considering a phased community like this one should ask three questions before signing:
- Who maintains the streets? At Lofts II, the owners’ association maintains the private streets permanently and its share of Easterly Road until VDOT accepts it as a public street. That cost lands in monthly dues.
- What did the builder promise, and by when? Proffers tie each park, road section and streetscape to a specific permit. Ask the sales office which ones are done and which are still pending when you buy.
- How did the earlier phase go? The Lofts I testimony gave the county a detailed record of follow-through problems. Talk to current owners in any community where you are buying into a second phase.
Workforce units carry their own rules on income limits, resale prices and how long the price controls last. Fairfax County’s Workforce Dwelling Unit program explains the application process.
Sellers nearby face construction first and more neighbors later
If you own near Samuel Morse Drive, Michael Faraday Drive or Reston Station Boulevard, the next few years bring demolition, dust and truck traffic, followed by 158 new households and, if the neighboring project wins approval, 92 more. New inventory nearby will compete with resale listings for some buyers. It also brings finished streets, sidewalks and six public parks to a block that has been parking lots and office buildings for four decades.
A listing that goes on the market before demolition starts avoids competing with a construction site next door, and one that goes on after the parks and streets are finished can point to them. We track these schedules closely and can help you weigh the timing for your own home.
If you are thinking about buying into one of the new communities near Reston Station, or you own nearby and want to understand how the pipeline affects your home’s value, reach out. We sell homes across Reston and Herndon and follow every one of these cases from filing to groundbreaking.
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