Last week, the Planning and Zoning Committee of the McLean Citizens Association voted to support a design for a personal storage building planned for downtown McLean. County approval for the project, which is to be located on what is now a parking lot on Beverly Road, next to the Madison Building and behind McLean Animal Hospital, appears likely.

Committee co-chair Mark Zetts said county staff had expressed some concern that earlier designs did not meet the requirement of resembling an office building, and changes were made accordingly. "I think it’s looking pretty good," he said. "They keep improving this and they’ve been continually improving it."

The citizens association supported a plan change that allowed a storage facility on the site in 2004 and also backed a countywide amendment to the zoning ordinance to permit such businesses in areas zoned for a planned commercial development, with this project specifically in mind. The amendment passed in the spring. "That zoning ordinance was really the last stumbling block to getting this storage put in there," Zetts said.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Zetts’ committee approved of a design option that was preferred by the McLean Planning Committee (MPC), which oversees development in the downtown area. Maya Huber, who chairs the MPC subcommittee examining the storage facility proposal, said the design, while office-like, also had a residential look, with dormers on a mansard roof. She said this was appropriate, with residential communities so close to the property. Huber said the proposed design would also make the building appear shorter than it is and would fit with the character of Beverly Road, with brick edifices and heavy landscaping. "I think this was tweaked until it’s about right," she said, although some minor changes are still being made.

She said the project would also support the current push to make the downtown more pedestrian-friendly, as it will include a mid-block walkway from McLean House Condominiums and Ashby’s Apartments to the Safeway parking lot.

While the MPC opposed the earlier plan change that allowed a storage facility on the site, preferring a retail use, Huber said she felt it was the committee’s job to implement the plan as it now stood.

Zetts said the facility would have little impact on the surrounding area while providing a valuable service. He said some neighbors had expressed concern about noise, but all loading and unloading would take place partially underground, minimizing noise and keeping activity out of sight.

The board of the McLean Citizens Association will make a decision on the proposal tonight and the Fairfax County Planning Commission is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the matter on Dec. 2.