Lake Anne: It's an Ethnic Marketplace! A Restaurant Row! An Ice-Cream Parlor! A Floor Polish!

The consultants have spoken, and their recommendation is to make Lake Anne a theme park like Wally World themed destination area, much like the Fake Downtown. (What is the Fake Downtown's theme, anyway, besides chain retail and dining?)

Does Reston's historic Lake Anne Plaza have a future as an expanded dining destination, an ethnic marketplace or a downtown arts district?

Perhaps. These were three of six concepts presented by consultants from Alvarez & Marshal and The Eisen Group. Also envisioned: a sustainable development center that could be a prototype for other communities and projects; an office cluster for start-ups, who would be drawn by the lower rents than but close proximity to the Dulles Tech Corridor; and a walkable village center with more residences and more businesses to serve them.

The ideas were presented at a public meeting Wednesday at Reston Community Center at Lake Anne.

At the meeting, folks actually addressed the elephant in the room -- vacancy rates exceeding 50 percent in the Plaza. There was also some debate over whether there needs to be a more unified approach to manage retail properties and "coordinate merchants," which we have to say sounds a bit Soviet, even for the brutalist architecture of the Plaza.

(Speaking of which, apparently Lake Anne can apply for National Historic Registry status in the next few years. Who knew? We can't wait for the signs that reveal that as a young surveyor, George Washington slept nearby and wrote up his first DRB violation notice when he spotted a log cabin chinked with off-teal oakum.)

But we digress. One suggestion from the consultants was to form a business improvement district, much like the ones downtown that hire their own staff to chase away the vagrants pick up trash.

Consultants Alvarez & Marsal and The Eisen Group are also asking the community to begin thinking about forming a new entity, such as a business improvement district, that can take ownership of the revitalization efforts and possibly raise additional funds to support a staff that can help manage the center. The consultants will produce a final report in mid-October that will recommend next steps for reaching the community's goals.

So... lots to talk about during those quiet winter months at the Plaza! Meanwhile, our favorite correspondent, the Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, has contributed a Lake Anne-themed scene to our ongoing pre-write of Reston: The Opera. We're not ashamed to admit that we had tears in our eyes as we sang the last line, out loud, as people sitting nearby nervously edged away.