The McLean Planning Committee (MPC), in charge of downtown McLean’s revitalization, met with residents last week to get feedback on how the project is going and to solicit input on any changes in priority that residents feel are necessary. Although no new direction was promoted by residents, now is the appropriate stage to take an all-encompassing look at the progress to date and expectations for the future of McLean’s revitalization.
“We need to find out if what we are doing at the Planning Committee is still what [the community] wants to do. We’re ready for bad news,” said MPC head Barbara Soderquist.
According to Stuart Mendelsohn, the former district supervisor, who revived the revitalization project in 1997, “It’s time to start tackling the tough stuff.” He explained it’s been seven years since the project got off the ground and said now “is a good time to hear from the community.”
In general, the revitalization has exceeded the expectations and time frame initially put on the project. Local developer and member of MPC Bob Young said, “I think it’s remarkable we have a hotel in town. The Palladium will be terrific. But I think now it’s time we turn our attention to Main Street.”
Residents echoed Young’s feelings that what is lacking in McLean, what has not created a sense of place in the downtown area, is a pedestrian-friendly environment.
Creating that environment will pull from a number of different areas, according to MPC members. In addition to improving walkways, the group is working on undergrounding utilities, retrofitting lighting to comply with dark-skies rules and stepping up landscaping around town for beautification.
Instituting pedestrian walkways downtown emerged as the front-runner for residents’ concerns. “From my way of thinking, it’s more important than undergrounding utilities,” said Bill Frazier, president of the Broyhill Estates Home Owners Association.
The problem, said Young, is that Main Street is “more controversial than what we’ve done before.”
AN EXAMPLE OF the walkways MPC envisions can now be seen in front of the remodeled Exxon downtown. Exxon’s remodeling is ahead of the rest of the downtown revitalization and is already in compliance with the brick walkway and dark-skies (lower watt) streetlights.
Some residents, however, expressed skepticism that these measures were really necessary or should be as high on the priority list as they are. One resident decried the brick walkways, saying that when these were used in the revitalization of Vienna, they were a huge expense that did not create any more foot traffic downtown.
Young responded that “if you don’t want them, we need to hear that. As a developer I’d like to save money not putting in brick if they aren’t wanted. It’s expensive to do.”
Mendelsohn added, “We’re building out the sidewalks in the hope that we will have a network to connect them” in the future.
Old “cobra head” lighting fixtures will, over time, be replaced with the dark-skies-compliant fixtures that the community stated it wanted. “It’s low-hanging fruit to swap out the heads because it’s cheap,” said MPC member, Jack Wilbern.
A lighting ordinance was passed last year requiring the new heads, but there is no retroactive enforcement capability for city officials.
Young and Mendelsohn clashed over resurrecting the proposal for a pedestrian bridge over Route 123 that would allow residents to get to McLean Central Park without risking life and limb trying to cross that busy road. Young, who laid the foundation for that bridge years ago, said it is possible to build the bridge now, if the community wants it. Mendelsohn was adamant that the issue is dead and said, “It will never happen.”
Some pedestrian-friendly measures have already come about on the edge of the revitalization district toward McLean High School. Crosswalks have been marked in the area where there previously were none. A brick median and rumble strips are also planned for that area in the near term, according to Wilbern.
The revitalization project, which has distinguished itself as the forerunner to all the other revitalization efforts in the county, received a $50,000 stipend from the county recently, which will be put into action in the coming months. “We took half of that and got 10 benches, 10 trash cans and 10 planters,” Wilbern said. This spring those items will be peppered along the local bus route to facilitate use of mass transit and foot traffic.
ONE RESIDENT BROUGHT the odd slope of the bench outside the Exxon to the attention of the MPC. “Unless we’re trying to drum up business for chiropractors, something needs to be done about that,” said the resident. “That’s the kind of thing that needs to be brought to our attention,” Wilbern said.
While undergrounding utilities in the entire revitalization area will take some time and a considerable amount of money, a section of town adjacent to the Palladium should be the first to have the underground utility lines. MPC’s Dan Duvall said that preliminary engineering studies are currently being done and should be received by the county midyear if everything stays on schedule. “Our hope is that construction will begin in 2005. Hopefully not a whole lot more than six months [to complete],” said Duvall.
Landscaping is another arena in which MPC members admit they have a way to go. District supervisor Joan DuBois said she hopes business owners will begin to step up and take an active role in landscaping their storefronts. “Maybe as we keep moving forward with revitalization, these business owners who haven’t been doing anything will get some pride in their community and do something,” said DuBois.
Wilbern said if all goes well, this spring 10,000 red tulips, which were planted, will bloom downtown. The tulips were donated by a developer and have been planted primarily along medians and around “Welcome to McLean” signs.
Further beautification, Wilbern said, is “on the list. We’re going to get there.”
As revitalization enters this new stage, MPC is glad to have DuBois as its champion with the county. DuBois’s first major case at the Planning Commission, her post before taking over for Mendelsohn, was the Palladium in downtown McLean. DuBois assured the committee and the community of her continued support for McLean’s revitalization at the meeting.
Community input now is critical because there are more than 25 planning areas that can be fine-tuned at this stage. “We have a comprehensive plan amendment year coming up, so this is a good time to get some ideas,” said Wilbern. The MPC has kept the revitalization project in the foreground of the county by bird-dogging county officials while projects were in their infancy stages.
“This is the year to suggest changes. Now is the time to tweak it, if that’s something the community feels is necessary,” said DuBois.
McLean’s revitalization project has also emerged as a model for the county, which Wilbern credits to the strength of community participation in the project.
Some residents expressed dismay that there is still no draw for a night life in downtown McLean, like there is in Reston. Regardless of the changes scheduled to happen in McLean, the area does not have the capability to revamp itself on that scale. Those areas were built by developers with large parcels of land and a great deal of money. McLean’s downtown is made up of many small business owners who must agree on changes and is being largely funded through regional government efforts and grants.
MCLEAN’S BEST SHOT at differentiating itself may lie in reinventing downtown as an art hub. Officials with the Palladium have promised to host two cultural events on the common area each month. Additionally, there is creative space for sale at the Palladium that could be patterned after The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, if a private investor steps in to take charge of the space offered for that purpose.
Mendelsohn said the idea of an ice-skating rink, similar to the one in Reston Town Center, is a possibility still. That idea had been bandied about initially, but no movement has been made on it over the last few years.
Soderquist said that while the revitalization seems to be moving slowly for residents, outsiders are beginning to see changes. “What I used to hear was ‘This is McLean?’ and I haven’t heard that in a while. I think that’s a good indication of where we are going.”