$12 million Surplus Spurs Competition Among McLean Residents
Options: Build something downtown, build a gym, give it back to the taxpayers
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The president of McLean Youth Athletics attended a McLean Community Center board meeting in September 2007 to ask the board to use its $2 million surplus to build a gymnasium at the Spring Hill Recreation Center.
Joel Stillman was back at the Community Center board's January 2012 meeting with the same request: Spend the surplus --- which as now ballooned to $12 million--- to build a multi-use indoor recreation facility at Spring Hill.
In December representatives of McLean's downtown revitalization committee and the McLean Planning Committee asked the MCC board to spend the surplus to build an undetermined project in downtown.
The $12 million surplus accumulated by the MCC board has spawned a competition between residents supporting an undetermined building in downtown and other residents supporting a gym at the Spring Hill.
"I would implore you not to give up on downtown,” Jim Peoples, a member of both the revitalization committee and the McLean Planning told the MCC board in December.
Joel Stillman: MCC also has "a mission to provide recreational facilities the definition has been more of the mental recreation. We are saying it’s more than that." Stillman was joined by the presidents of McLean Youth Wrestling, Basketball, Volleyball --- all asking for a gym that could be used by all residents regardless of age.
5 things you need to know about this issue that centers on taxpayer dollars:
1. This is really about how to spend the surplus the MCC board has accumulated over the years by charging taxpayers more than was needed to finance the community center.
The board has three options: spend it downtown to try and spur downtown redevelopment. Spend it to build a gym at Spring Hill. Give the money back to McLean taxpayers.
2. Stillman said at the January meeting, "It's clear there has been a roadblock” between the Fairfax County Park Authority and the MCC board. “What is this problem that the two sides are having. MCC has the money. The Park Authority has the land, so how do you do this?” he asked.
3. MCC board president Kevin Dent responded: “We had good meetings with the Park Authority staff” and "We felt we had made good progress.”
The Park Authority wanted to build a facility for everyone in the county. MCC wanted priority for McLean taxpayers since they were paying for some of it, Dent explained.
They finally came to an agreement and gave it to Kevin Fay, the Dranesville representative to the Park Authority Board. “Long story short we never heard back from them. . . we could get no traction from from Fairfax County Park Authority,” Dent said.
"After six months of no response from them,” Dent said the MCC board started looking at building a black box theater on the site of the Old Firehouse Teen Center, which the county owns and leases to the community center.
4. Dan Montgomery, a McLean president, president of the Clark Construction Co, developer of several town centers and one of the savviest developers in the area, owns much of downtown McLean including the Giant shopping center and at least half of the shopping center where McLean Hardware is located.
Montgomery had hoped to redevelop the center of McLean but in July 2010, with the recession in full swing, he told Supervisor John Foust he was dropping the redevelopment plans.
5. Foust who oversees the MCC board has said he wants the money spent downtown. He worked to engage Montgomery and the MCC in a joint project to redevelop the area generally from Old Dominion Drive west to Ingleside Avenue and from Chain Bridge Road north to Beverly Road.
He told the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce in January: "In my opinion the Community Center is landlocked. There is only so much you can do back there. . . the obvious place for them to expand is downtown. It would also help to get downtown moving."
But he also endorsed a gym. He said,"For a town this size this would be a great thing to do for the children and the adults."
A special committee on Downtown formed by the MCC board holds its first meeting tonight 7:30 pm at the Community Center.
*McLean Youth Athletics is an umbrella group for nine different sports.Each sport runs its own program. Students in grades 3-12 can register in one place for a variety of league sports.
Holley Morse
7:09 am on Monday, February 6, 2012
this surplus could be used for many things..... Assist Langley HS in establishing much needed turf fields and using it to provide better services, long and short term, for seniors In our community, who have most likely paid the most into this surplus account.
B
5:10 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
Spend some of the surplus on turf fields at McLean HS, Langley HS, and Lewinsville Park so the youth and community can all use it! Plus spend the remaining surplus on an indoor gym in downtown McLean somewhere (not at the Springhill Rec Center). We dont need a black box threatre in downtown McLean. Turf fields and an indoor gym would support 10,000+ youth in our community.
Rob Jackson
5:40 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
The funds must be spent on capital projects that are used by the McLean Community Center in order to comply with the law and the Center's charter. The funds cannot just be spent on any project in McLean or given to another entity.
William T. Onorato
9:16 am on Monday, February 6, 2012
In these difficult times, it would be better to return the money to the taxpayers who unwittingly overpaid. The rest of the ideas sound like "a kid in a candy store" mentality!
Citizen E
9:29 am on Monday, February 6, 2012
Bring Dan Montgomery and MCC together and build a gym in downtown McLean. How great would that be? There's an embarrassing shortage of basketball facilities in this area. The "home" gym for one of the McLean select basketball teams is Bryant School, south of Alexandria -- seriously?
Mozart
10:02 am on Monday, February 6, 2012
Agree with Citizen E! The money needs to be spent downtown, for the primary benefit of the residents of the area who have contributed to the $12 million surplus, and a gym would be great.
Dan Montgomery and John Foust better wake up and understand that Clark's gobbling up local properties and then letting downtown continue to age ungracefully, while neighboring areas (parts of Arlington, Church Street in Vienna) get nicer, are not exactly endearing themselves to McLean residents.
C
6:53 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
I agree with you. What are these two people thinking?!! Downtown McLean is in pretty bad shape and only getting worse. Who in their right mind would put a personal storage facility in the middle of McLean? I have friends and relatives visit occasionally and they cannot figure out why anyone would live in McLean. Their comments are usually centered around the fact that there's nothing in McLean except for all the banks. So true!!
Tanya La Force
11:11 am on Monday, February 6, 2012
Northern Virginia is the largest metro area in the nation without a children's museum/children's science center. The economic impact of such a community resource in our area is great. Talk about a "mental recreation" area for all in the community-- older citizens volunteer and engagement opportunities as well as inspiring the next generation of innovators!!
PJ Buckley
12:47 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
Give back OUR money.
Joel Stillman
6:34 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
The article actually misquoted Joel Stillman a bit because MYA is in favor of a multi use indoor facility which could be used for many more things other than sports. Indoor art shows, craft fairs, classes, community events, etc. Also, there is no requirement that it be built at the Spring Hill Rec Center although the Rec Center is already zoned for this type of faciltiy and thus would greatly reduce the cost of such a project. The real issue is why the MCC and the Park Authority can not come together for the benefit of the citizens of McLean and overcome political issues.
William Denk
4:36 pm on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Bill Denk
The current MCC site is not landlocked. The Park Authority is beginning a new Master Planning Process for McLean Central Park in June 2012 and considering a new entrance to the Park. There is plenty of space to expand the MCC at its current site, to provide parking (surface and garage) and access to the MCC and Park without disturbing the nearby residents. An expanded MCC could be part of the new Master Plan for the park. Placing a new facility in expensive downtown, on commercial property, makes no sense and provides dis-economies due to the need to maintain two locations with more new county employees. I believe the majority of McLean Tax District 1 residents would like the surplus dollars returned to the taxpayers.
A. Nonimous
6:34 pm on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The McLean Citizens Assn. has already asked the Ffx Board of Sup. to lower the MCC tax rate if the MCCBD has not come up with a citizen-approved plan for the $12 million surplus, which was collected over the last six years while the tax rate only varied a few tenths and nobody was paying attention or managing our tax burden. The BoS should act this next month! Tell them to act!