McLean Community Center Board Rejects MCA Request for $100K Report

The McLean Community Center Board has refused to share a $100,000 taxpayer-funded consultant's report with the McLean Citizens Association.

MCC board president Kevin Dent told MCA he was rejecting the request because the report prepared by Jones Lang, a real estate services company, was "prepared specifically for closed sessions to evaluate the potential cost to MCC of the potential acquisition of real property in downtown McLean in order for the Governing Board to make strategic decisions about how to proceed in the most cost-effective manner with a potential Downtown Initiative."

MCA had noted in its request its "strong concern about, and opposition to, the decision of the McLean Community Center Governing Board (MCCGB) not to release the study ... which was paid for with taxpayer funds budgeted at as much as $100,000."

The MCA further stated "the funding for any purchase or construction would be paid from taxpayer dollars. The MCA is extremely concerned with government decisions made outside the public view and with related documents that are withheld from the public. We urge openness by the MCCGB as stewards of our tax dollars."

The MCA letter also talked about the $12 million surplus that the MCC board has accumulated over the years by collecting from taxpayers* more money than was needed to run the community center.

"One of the major frustrations is the (MCC board’s) long-term failure either to construct additional facilities or to refund the large taxpayer-funded reserve, which is intended to pay at least part of the MCC expansion. According to the 2010 annual report for Fairfax County, the MCCGB has an unreserved fund balance of more than $12 million dollars," Rob Jackson, MCA president, wrote in the letter.

The board has been looking for ways to spend its surplus for several years. The board first proposed building a gymnasium at the Spring Hill Recreation Center on Lewinsville Road but, as Dent said in his letter, they could not reach an agreement with the Fairfax County Park Authority, which runs Spring Hill.

Then the board turned its attention to downtown and thoughts of replacing the Old Firehouse Teen Center. Their problem is that the county owns the teen center. The board is unsure what it would build and there is no space for parking.

It is reported the MCC Board has asked Jones Lang to look at the Old McDonald's site on Elm Street and an undisclosed site.

Dan Montgomery, who owns the heart of downtown McLean, bought the McDonald's site last year along with two of the neighboring properties.

Montgomery's son, Robert, presented an outline of the company's plans for redeveloping downtown early in 2010. Then in July, Montgomery told Dranesville Supervisor John Foust that downtown development was on hold until the recession was a distant memory.

Montgomery, a McLean resident and owner of the Clark Construction Co., owns the Giant Shopping Center, half of the shopping center across the street that includes McLean Hardware and the block along Old Dominion Drive from Chain Bridge to Beverly.

What's the next move? Stay tuned.

Copies of both letters can be viewed with this story.

*The McLean Community Center Board, which reports to Dranesville Supervisor John Foust and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, was created to run the center and collect tax dollars from McLean residents to run the center. The center is an agency of Fairfax County government.