"Paid parking is in effect 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Weekends (from 12:00 a.m. Saturday through 12:00 a.m. Monday) are free, as are major holidays and premier events (see below)."
(From
https://www.restontowncenter.com/parking/parking-faq/)
They only list six places who will validate parking.
Also from the FAQ:
What consultation has taken place?
Reston Town Center is a unique environment that operates as an urban mixed use environment. This is also known as “Second City”. In order to preserve the parking rights of our visitors and at the same time enhance our customer’s experience, we extensively researched all options and identified the ParkRTC model. Reston Town Center has been reviewing customer recommendations and feedback for several years, especially concerns about the availability of parking spaces during busy shopping periods.
Well, this will certainly fix the “availability of parking spaces” problem! I sure won’t be going there if I don’t have to...
That’s the only place where they seem to list any problem they’re trying to solve. Oh, and the reason more retailers aren’t validating: because the retailers have to pick up the cost. So…this “reason” makes no sense, unless they think there are a lot of people just hanging out during “busy shopping periods” and not shopping. Which I somehow doubt; it’s not enough of a mall scene.
This doesn't make any sense unless either (a) they've deluded themselves into thinking that they'll make money @ $2/hour (not $6, as someone posted above) or (b) they're trying to force even more store turnover, which seems unlikely.