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All quiet on the revitalization front
This past spring, the McLean Planning Committee stirred up public interest in the creation of a downtown "main street" for McLean with a series of well-attended public meetings, but since then there hasn't been much news on the project's progress.
Right now, the only outwardly visible sign of a redesign for McLean are the new brick sidewalks being constructed along Chain Bridge road by the McLean Revitalization Corp., designed to show what the streets of McLean could look like in a more pedestrian friendly future.
"The next big meeting we'll have for main street is in September," newly minted McLean Planning Committee chair Doug Potts said.
According to Potts, the committee has plans to meet with local landowner Dan Montgomery later this month. It was Montgomery's consolidation of a great deal of property in McLean's Central Business District, the area surrounding Giant and the Old Firehouse Teen Center, that jump-started the revitalization process.
Montgomery, who also lives in McLean, has pledged to follow the public's wishes for a revitalized McLean, but it's still not known what his own ideas are. The September public meeting is intended to present his ideas to the public, according to Potts.
With all that going on behind the scenes, there are a few outward signs that things might be changing. Representatives for Montgomery, including his son, Bob Montgomery, 24, have opened an office next to Capri Restaurant in downtown McLean.
"We think it's important to have a presence here," Bob Montgomery said.
The office is in the name of a newly formed company, McLean Properties LLC, which Montgomery said is not formally affiliated with Clarke Construction, the national builder his father presides over.
Initially, McLean Properties will serve as a kind of property management office for the properties Dan Montgomery owns, but it may become a bigger part of the revitalization process as time goes by. For now, McLean Properties will be working on the current operations of the Giant shopping center, rather than the future of McLean's business district.
"We want to be here to answer people's questions," Bob Montgomery said. "But nothing has been decided yet."
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