The Fairfax County Planning Commission last week unanimously approved redevelopment plans for the Spectrum shopping center in Reston.

The proposed redevelopment plan, as outlined in a county staff report released May 8, will include the gradual removal and rebuilding of the existing Spectrum shopping center, currently the site of Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Citibank and other retail businesses. The redevelopment would put 1,442 residential units and almost 790,000 square feet of office and retail space on the 24.29-acre property.

Overall, the project includes two office buildings, seven new residential buildings and one building that could be an office or hotel. The project would also create new, internal, privately owned east/west streets and eight open-air public and private plazas. New buildings would range in height from five to 13 stories, most with underground parking beneath them.

According to attorney Mark Looney with law form Cooley, Godward and Kronish, Lerner Enterprises--the owner of the center--does not have immediate plans for the redevelopment.

"The approval of this plan at this point in time does not result in an immediate redevelopment of the property," Looney told planners at the May 21 public hearing.

Looney said that current vacancies and potential future vacancies within the Spectrum Shopping Center made it necessary for Lerner to develop a plan for the redevelopment option.

Looney said the center, which was always planned to be "an urban, pedestrian-oriented development opening onto Fountain Drive," was zoned as part of the original Reston Town Center in the late 1980s and is currently underdeveloped with its current retail uses.

"We're trying to fill the vision for what the area was supposed to be to begin with," he said. "All we're trying to do is have a plan in place that [Lerner] can execute if the opportunity presents itself."

Part of the redevelopment plan includes a north-to-south walkway which would allow pedestrian traffic to walk from the southern-most section of the center through a series of paths, stairs and elevators to the northern-most section, which includes the Harris Teeter grocery store.

According to Looney, the walkway would also provide access to all the "plazas and green space" planned for the redevelopment.

Reston resident Heidi Keusenkothen, the only person to speak against the redevelopment at the public hearing, said that she did not believe it fell in line with Reston founder Robert E. Simon's concept for Reston.

"He planned this community because he was tired of the congestion in New York," she said. "You are taking away an area that my family and I enjoy and use every weekend. Just because this was part of an original plan for Reston doesn't mean it is the right thing to do now."

After her testimony, Hunter Mill Commissioner Frank de la Fe immediately contradicted Keusenkothen, saying that Simon in fact supports the redevelopment. "I encourage you to read and live Reston," he said.

Navy Federal Credit Union employee Amy Malloy, who currently works in the Spectrum shopping center, asked for a ballpark figure of the project's timeline. Looney replied that Lerner does not currently have a timeline for the project but that more details will be disclosed in an upcoming Planned Residential Community plan.