Living in Tall Oaks and the Uplands, Reston: A 2026 Neighborhood Guide for Buyers

Tall Oaks and the Uplands sit on the east side of Wiehle Avenue, between Baron Cameron Avenue and the Reston Metro corridor, with Lake Fairfax Park along their southeastern side. Together they hold about 1,580 homes, not counting apartment complexes, from one-bedroom condos built in 1972 to houses finished this year. In 2026 they sold for anywhere from $220,000 to $3.2 million, according to Bright MLS.

The two neighborhoods share a park and, for nearly every home, a ZIP code, 20190. The Uplands is mostly 1960s and 1970s townhouses and single-family homes on quiet loops. Tall Oaks is denser and more varied, with two large condominium communities, four townhouse clusters and the 156 homes that replaced the old Tall Oaks Village Center between 2019 and 2023.

The Uplands runs from Baron Cameron Avenue to Lake Fairfax Park, and Tall Oaks sits below it

We draw the Uplands with four edges: Baron Cameron Avenue on the north, Hunter Mill Road on the east, Wiehle Avenue on the west and Lake Fairfax Park on the south. North Shore Drive crosses Wiehle from the Lake Anne side and continues east as Ring Road, which loops through the middle of the Uplands.

Tall Oaks begins just south of the Uplands. Wiehle Avenue is its western edge. The southern stretch of North Shore Drive leads east off Wiehle into Bandit Loop, the site of the old village center, and the neighborhood runs south from there through the Bentana Woods townhouses to the Chestnut Grove condominiums. Below Chestnut Grove, the Lake Fairfax Business Center and the Reston Station towers belong to Reston’s urban core rather than to either neighborhood.

Lake Anne is the closest neighborhood to the west, across Wiehle Avenue. Our Lake Anne neighborhood guide covers the clusters on that side of the road.

Tall Oaks lost its grocery store in 2007 and rebuilt its village center as 156 homes

Tall Oaks Village Center opened in 1974. Architect Rick Collins of Collins and Kronstadt designed it to face inward, with 16 shops and three offices, and its planners expected most customers to walk there from the surrounding clusters, according to the Reston Museum. A Giant grocery store anchored it from opening day.

Giant left in 2007. Two international grocers tried the space after it, and neither lasted long; the last of them, Compare Foods, left in 2011. Jefferson Apartment Group bought the center in late 2014 for $14 million, and its market study concluded that no grocer would succeed there, with more than five grocery-anchored centers within a few miles and little visibility from a main road. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the redevelopment on July 26, 2016.

Demolition began in October 2018, and Stanley Martin bought the residential portion and built it out: 44 townhouses, 42 two-over-two condominium townhouses, and 70 condominiums in two buildings. Stanley Martin finished the first townhouses in 2019 and closed its last condo sales in early 2023.

One two-story building from the old center still stands at 12054 North Shore Drive, with shops on the ground floor and a second floor of office space. Paisano’s Pizza, a barbershop, a nail salon, a pet groomer and an H&R Block office fill most of the ground floor.

Four of every five homes here went up between 1967 and 1973

Fairfax County’s assessment records list about 670 homes in the Uplands and about 910 in Tall Oaks, and about 1,275 of those 1,580 date from 1967 to 1973. The two neighborhoods split into these communities:

The Uplands

• Hillcrest. 173 townhouses on Saffold Way, built from 1969 to 1972, the largest townhouse cluster in either neighborhood.
• Forest Edge. 107 townhouses on Greenmont Court and Forest Edge Drive, built from 1967 to 1969.
• Regency Square. 50 semi-detached homes on Yellowwood and Roundleaf courts and 40 townhouses on Goldenrain Court, all built in 1970.
• Hunt Club. 38 townhouses on Green Run Lane, Ambleside Court and Knights Bridge Court, built in 1970 and 1971, and the largest of the Uplands townhouses at a median of about 2,000 finished square feet.
• Ring Road and the streets off it. About 170 single-family houses on Ring Road, Aldenham Lane, Hunt Club Road, Deep Run Lane, Thanlet Lane, Buttermilk Lane, Westhills Lane, Earnshaw Court and Marchmont Court, almost all built from 1969 to 1972. More than half are two-story houses, 34 are one-level ramblers, and about 40 are split-levels or split foyers.
• The Lake Fairfax side. Three newer subdivisions sit along Lake Fairfax Drive and Hunter Mill Road: 26 houses on Park Lake Drive from the mid-1980s, 44 houses at the Hunt at Lake Fairfax on Dasher Lane and Blaze Drive from 1994 to 1997, and eight new houses on Mason Hunt Court, which Kingston Royce Homes began building in 2025 on the former Fairfax Hunt Club grounds. A log cabin from the 1790s on the club grounds will stay.

Tall Oaks

• Chestnut Grove. 226 condominiums at Chestnut Grove Square, built in 1972, at the south end of the neighborhood.
• Bentana Park. 240 condominiums on Parkcrest Circle, built in 1973.
• Bentana Woods East and West. 156 townhouses built in 1972 and 1973 on Bentana Way, Park Overlook Drive, Park Glen Court, and two streets with Scandinavian names, Scandia Circle and Farsta Court.
• Villas de Espana. 73 townhouses on Valencia Way, built in 1971 and 1972.
• Oak Spring. 58 townhouses on Oak Spring Way, built in 1986 and 1987, the only 1980s cluster in Tall Oaks.
• Bandit Loop. The 156 homes built on the village center site from 2019 to 2023.

2026 sales ran from $220,000 at Chestnut Grove to $3.2 million on Mason Hunt Court

Bright MLS recorded these closed sales from January 1 through September 30, 2026:

Uplands homes went under contract in a median of five days and sold at a median of 101 percent of their original list price. Tall Oaks homes took a median of 36 days and sold at 98 percent of their original price, and the Bentana Park condos took a median of 62 days to find a buyer.

Chestnut Grove has the lowest prices in either neighborhood and the highest condo fees. Its fees on this year’s sales and listings ran from $875 to $1,544 a month, depending on unit size, while Bentana Park fees ran from $505 to $598. Ask what each fee covers before comparing them, since some condo fees include heat or water and others do not. Our post on what it costs to own a home in Reston adds property taxes, insurance and the RA assessment to the monthly picture.

Bandit Loop has three separate associations

The 156 homes on the old village center site look like one community, and they answer to three different associations. The 44 townhouses belong to Tall Oaks at North Shore, a homeowners association whose dues ran about $64 to $71 a month on this year’s listings. The 42 two-over-twos form one condominium, Two Over Twos at Tall Oaks, with fees of about $335 to $355 a month. The 70 flats in the two buildings at 1669 and 1675 Bandit Loop form a second condominium, The Flats at Tall Oaks, at about $545 a month.

Owners in all three also pay the Reston Association assessment, $890 for 2026, which the RA board raised to $900 for 2027. Our guide to how the RA assessment, cluster fees and condo fees fit together explains who bills what.

A two-over-two stacks one two-level home on top of another, each with its own front door. The Flats offer one-level living in buildings finished in 2022.

Lake Fairfax Park is the backyard for both neighborhoods

Lake Fairfax Park covers 476 acres and holds a 20-acre lake, the fifth lake in Reston alongside the four that Reston Association manages. The park borders the Uplands on its south side and Tall Oaks on its east side, and homes on Park Lake Drive, Aldenham Lane and Thanlet Lane in the Uplands and on Bentana Way, Park Overlook Drive and Parkcrest Circle in Tall Oaks sit at the edge of its woods.

• The Water Mine Family Swimmin’ Hole, the park’s water park, opens Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, with a lazy river for tubing, slides and a shallow pool for small children.
• More than 10 miles of mountain bike trails run through the woods, from wide family loops to rocky singletrack, along with a pump track, a looping dirt circuit of rollers and banked turns that the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts describe as Northern Virginia’s first public one when it opened in 2016. We have ridden those trails for years.
• The lake allows fishing with a Virginia license and has boat rentals. The Park Authority bans swimming and gas or electric motors.
• The campground, picnic areas, playground, trails and skatepark stay open all year.

The Park Authority has retired the park’s old carousel. The main entrance sits on Lake Fairfax Drive, off Baron Cameron Avenue, a short drive or bike ride from most of the Uplands. From Tall Oaks, residents can reach the park’s trail network on foot through a short connector path from Chestnut Grove. Our fall events calendar lists what the park has on through November.

Two Reston Association pools serve the neighborhoods

RA runs two pools here: Uplands Pool, off Ring Road at the Uplands Recreation Area, which also has tennis courts and a ballfield, and Tall Oaks Pool, on North Shore Drive near Wiehle Avenue. Both are part of what the RA assessment pays for, along with the paved paths that link these neighborhoods to Lake Anne and the rest of Reston. Our Reston trails guide maps those paths, and our post on Reston Association fees covers the rest of what the assessment buys.

The nearest grocery stores are a short drive away, and Lake Anne Plaza is a walk or bike ride

No grocery store has operated in either neighborhood since 2011. The nearest are a few minutes away by car: the Giant at North Point Village Center, about two miles from Bandit Loop and a little less from the northern Uplands; the Trader Joe’s and the Harris Teeter near Reston Town Center, roughly two miles away; and the Wegmans at Halley Rise, about three miles from most addresses here.

For coffee and dinner, Lake Anne Plaza sits about a mile west of the Uplands townhouses on Saffold Way and about 1.4 miles from Bandit Loop, an easy walk or bike ride on RA paths. Closer to home, Paisano’s on North Shore Drive serves pizza.

Forest Edge Elementary sits inside the Uplands

Forest Edge Elementary stands on Becontree Lane in the Uplands, and it serves almost every address in both neighborhoods. For 2026-27, FCPS sends those students on to Hughes Middle School and South Lakes High School.

The Chestnut Grove condominiums and a few houses on the Hunter Mill Road side of the Uplands, on Little Run Farm Court and Chamberlain Drive, go to Sunrise Valley Elementary instead, and from there to the same middle and high schools. Our guide to Reston and Herndon high schools covers South Lakes in more detail. FCPS adopted a countywide boundary review in January 2026, so check the exact address in the FCPS boundary locator before writing an offer.

Route 7 is five minutes from the Uplands, and Metro is a 20-minute walk from Chestnut Grove

The Uplands sits about a mile and a half from Leesburg Pike, Route 7, by way of Baron Cameron Avenue and Hunter Mill Road. From there, Tysons Corner Center is about eight miles east, downtown Great Falls about five miles north, and the shopping at Dulles Town Center in Sterling and One Loudoun in Ashburn within eight to 12 miles to the west. Outside rush hour, those drives run roughly 15 to 25 minutes. Our buyers in the Uplands tell us the Route 7 access surprised them more than anything else about the neighborhood.

The Wiehle-Reston East station sits about 0.9 miles from Chestnut Grove on foot, roughly a 20-minute walk down Wiehle Avenue, and about 1.1 miles from Bandit Loop. From the Uplands, the station is a drive of about two to two and a half miles. Our W&OD Trail guide covers the bike route into Washington, which crosses Wiehle Avenue near the station.

EYA wants to build up to 1,042 homes just south of Chestnut Grove

EYA’s plan to replace the Lake Fairfax Business Center with 956 to 1,042 townhouses, condominiums and apartments won a Planning Commission recommendation on October 14, and FFXnow expects the Board of Supervisors to take it up on November 17. Our posts on the Lake Fairfax Business Center rezoning and the October county votes have the details. If the Board approves it, Tall Oaks would gain a large new neighbor between its southern edge and the Dulles Toll Road.

On the Uplands side, Kingston Royce had sold five of the eight Mason Hunt Court lots by mid-2025, and two finished houses closed through Bright MLS this year, at $2.53 million and $3.22 million.

Check four things before writing an offer here

• Whether the home belongs to Reston Association. The three subdivisions on the Lake Fairfax side, Park Lake Drive, the Hunt at Lake Fairfax and Mason Hunt Court, sit outside RA, as do the handful of larger lots along Hunter Mill Road, which carry Vienna addresses. Their owners pay their own HOA dues instead of the RA assessment, so check what those dues cover.
• Which association stack applies on Bandit Loop. A townhouse, a two-over-two and a flat on the same street answer to three different associations.
• What the condo fee covers. Compare Chestnut Grove and Bentana Park fees only after you know which utilities each one includes.
• The age of the systems. About four in five homes in both neighborhoods went up between 1967 and 1973. Ask for the dates of the last roof, window, HVAC and water heater replacements.

Tall Oaks and the Uplands put a 476-acre county park within reach of homes priced from about $220,000 for a 1970s condo to more than $3 million for a new house. If you are weighing a home on either side of Wiehle Avenue, reach out and we will walk the neighborhood and the park with you.

See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.