McLean Community Business Center Hearings Coming Up

MCLEAN, VA — Public hearings are coming up for a comprehensive plan amendment regarding the McLean Community Business Center Study. The plan amendment seeks to create a sense of place in downtown McLean and update guidance on planned land uses, transportation, parks, and open space, and other public facility needs.

The study focuses on a 230-acre area of McLean centered around Old Dominion Drive and Chain Bridge Road. The last significant review of comprehensive plan recommendations for the CBC was over 20 years ago. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized a plan amendment for the CBC in 2018, directing staff to consider revisions to planned land uses, density and mix of uses, as well as transportation, public facility needs, and urban design guidance.

County staff collaborated with a consultant and a community task force to develop a new vision for the McLean CBC. The comprehensive plan currently allows 2,175 residential units and 3,365,000 square feet of office, retail and institutional space with single-family homes surrounding the CBC. The proposal calls for mixing uses with 3,850 residential units and 3,150,000 square feet of non-residential space, as well as additional bike and pedestrian facilities and a park concept.

The proposal calls for organizing the CBC into three zones; center, general, and edge. According to a county staff report, redevelopment would be centered on the center zone, where the tallest buildings and density are envisioned. Additional development would be considered in the center and general zone, but no new recommendations are proposed for the edge zone. In the center zone, an allowance of a height beyond a limit of seven stories would be considered with the provision of at least a two-third acre public park. In that scenario, a development with a height up to 10 stories and 128 feet would be considered.

The proposed amendment also calls for flexibility in considering a variety of proposed uses rather than assigning a specific use to a parcel of land. Guidance is also included to create a "more walkable mixed-use downtown" with active first-floor uses in the center zone, multimodal streets with pedestrian and bicyclist facilities and park spaces with a centrally located park.

"These proposed recommendations will encourage a 'downtown' live-work-shop
environment identified by the community during the visioning process as a desired future for
McLean," the county staff report concludes. "The proposed Plan Amendment balances the vision for redevelopment within the CBC with the community’s desire to maintain the convenience of existing community-serving businesses and new development that is mindful of transitions to existing neighborhoods surrounding the CBC."

Although there hasn't been a recent major revision of the CBC plan, the board has approved site-specific plan amendments for mixed-use development. In 2014, the board approved an amendment in 2014 to allow mixed-use development with a density up to a 1.94 floor area ratio for properties along the north side of Elm Street and south side of Fleetwood Road. That led to the approval of a rezoning application to develop The Signet, a seven-story residential building with ground-floor retail and a park. In 2018, the board approved an amendment to recommend mixed-use development up to a 2 floor area ratio at the northwest corner of Lowell Avenue and Old Dominion Drive. A rezoning application was then approved for a 44-unit residential building that retained the existing office building.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on May 26 at 7:30 p.m. and a Board of Supervisors hearing is scheduled for June 22 at 4:30 p.m. To provide comments or testimony to the planning commission, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planningcommission for more information.

More information on the study and proposed plan amendment is available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/mclean-cbc-study.