McLean Board Renews Pursuit of Downtown Project

The McLean Community Board voted Monday night to return to its plan to try and build some kind of facility some where in downtown as a way to spend its estimated $10.7 million surplus.

This the latest development in the long-running saga of  the MCC Board, its surplus and the stalled redevelopment of downtown McLean. The MCC's latest decision comes four months after board members raised serious doubts and questions about the feasibility of a downtown project.

Monday night board members agreed that little has changed in downtown: Developer Dan Montgomery, who owns much for downtown McLean, still has his redevelopment plans on hold. MCC  still has no site. The staff has told the board that its  plan for a building that would include perhaps a black box theater, rehearsal space and recreational space, would need a $1 million annual subsidy to operate.

Between the November meeting and the Monday meeting:

• The McLean Citizens Association has asked the MCC to decide how to spend the surplus or return it to taxpayers.
• Supporters of downtown development including Dranesville Supervisor John Foust, to whom the MCC board reports, the McLean Planning Committee and the McLean Revitalization Committee have urged the MCC board to continue to plan a building downtown.
• Representatives of McLean Youth Athletics have urged the board to spend the money on a multi-use recreational facility.

Nearly a dozen McLean residents attended Monday night's special meeting. Usually only one or two residents attend MCC meetings.

The board's decision left unanswered whether they would again hire the real estate firm of Jones Lang to help search for a downtown site. The board paid Jones Lang nearly $40,000 in taxpayer funds for a report that the board has refused to make public.*

In November a majority of MCC board members met in an informal Sunday session to discuss downtown. The consensus of that meeting appeared to be to halt downtown plans for now because the MCC would have to go it alone and had failed to find a site large enough for a new facility.

Here are 5 highlights from the nearly two-hour Monday meeting:

1. MCC chair Kevin Dent said the question for the meeting was, "Do we want to pursue a new facility in (downtown) McLean."

Board member Chad Quinn said the larger issue is "the plan for the surplus." He said the board had three options:

1. Use the surplus to reduce the property tax charged McLean residents who live in the MCC's special tax district.
2. Improve the existing McLean Community Center which is more than 30 years old.
3. Build something downtown. "We’ve had successive board meetings where people tell us that we should invest downtown," Quinn said.

2. Some board members said they first need a site. Others said they need to decide on a use.

Board member Sean Dunn said the question comes down to a location “at this point in time we don’t have a where to go to.”

Board member Jay Howell: The board  needs to decide what they want in a new facility. "Once you know the size, you know where you need to go."

Some board members reminded him that the uses for a new building were contained in a "white paper" adopted by the board in 2009 and later modified.

3. Board Vice Chair Risa Sanders tried unsuccessfully to get her fellow board members to reject support for a gym/recreational facility. MCC should not be in the business of running a gym, she said, adding that was the job of the Fairfax County Park Authority.

4. Board member Sean Dunn said he supported selling bonds to pay for a new facility instead of saving the surplus. McLean residents would have to vote on whether the county could sell such bonds. Selling bonds is the usual way that local governments pay for capital projects such as schools and community centers.

5. Board member Susan Bourgeois, who is chair of the board's special committee on downtown: ”We want to go downtown the question is when.”

Reaction to the decision:

Dan Duval, a member of the McLean Revitalization Committee who spearheaded a project to put the overhead utility lines at Chain Bridge Road and Old Dominion Drive underground: "I think the organizations that are focused on downtown revitalization (MRC &MPC) are very supportive of an MCC presence downtown. 

"The identification of the programs to be offered in a downtown location and therefore the size and type of facility that is needed remain as part of the ongoing analysis by the MCC Board.  But, as a general proposition, I was pleased with the decision by the MCC Board last evening because I think it can have a positive effect on the revitalization of the CBC."

Bill Denk, a member of the McLean Citizens Association who has been a critic of the accumulated surplus: The MCCGB (McLean Community Center Governing Board) seems to continue to believe it is the MCCGB's "right" to use the excess taxes accumulated (between $8.7M - $12M) as they see fit.

"The MCCGB continues to resist asking the community if they would like their excess collected taxes returned to them (about $500 per household, $10,000,000 divided by 20,000 households in the tax district). Why? There is no need for a MCC facility and especially in an expensive and increasingly congested downtown location."

Joel Stillman, president, McLean Youth Athletics: The fact that the MCC board voted to continue looking for downtown space that includes an indoor  multi use recreational facility is heartening.

"However, MYA and community members were there to make sure that the voices of the community are heard and not forgotten and that this fantastic idea does not get pushed aside.  Although we understand the challenges of finding and establishing such a space, we truly believe that “were there is a will there is  way”.       

The board has accumulated the surplus by collecting more in taxpayer dollars than were needed to operate the center.

*Virginia's Freedom of Information Act allows but does not require government agencies to withhold information about possible real estate acquisition considerations.