WRIT: McLean will not be 'Tysonized'

Downtown McLean hasn't changed much in 20 years, perhaps longer. A renewal may be coming, led by Washington Real Estate Investment Trust and the JBG Cos., owners of two key properties.
http://www.wtop.com/149/3488559/WRIT-McLean-will-not-be-Tysonized

Downtown McLean hasn’t changed much in 20 years, perhaps longer. A renewal may be coming, led by Washington Real Estate Investment Trust and the JBG Cos., owners of two key properties.

But McLean will not be “Tysonized,” said Bob Elliott, WRIT’s director of development, in response to comments from Sally Horn, president of the McLean Citizens Association.

"This is the most dense part of the McLean, the tallest part of McLean," Elliott said. "When you look around, nothing has happened for the last two decades."

WRIT has owned the Ashby, a 256-unit, 12-story apartment complex located on Beverly Road, since the mid-1990s. It’s pitching an addition of 216 units (192 in a new, 10-story building and 25 units converted from existing retail spaces), new retail along Beverly Road, up to 58 percent green space and underground parking to replace surface lots.

The effort, Elliott said, is meant to "get rid of the old suburban-style feel" and "create an amenity for McLean," the "kinds of things we think McLean wants." The Ashby is located in the heart of downtown McLean, between Beverly Road, Route 123 and Old Dominion Drive.

"We’ve owned the property for nearly 20 years," he said. "We look at this in the long term, trying to do the right thing. We don’t see this as 'Tysonizing.'"

It’s still very early in the process. WRIT will need to have the Comprehensive Plan amended, the site rezoned and its site plans approved before any work can get started. And it faces opposition, based on Horn’s comments, from the citizens association — though the McLean Chamber of Commerce and other community leaders are willing to at least consider the proposal.

WRIT revises, reduces expansion plans for the Ashby in McLean
Opponents say it will "Tysonize" McLean
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2013/10/writ-revises-reduces-expansion-plans.html

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust’s first pitch for a major expansion of the Ashby Apartments in McLean fell flat. It’s second bid, at least, isn’t being written off.

WRIT recently briefed a neighborhood planning panel on its latest blueprint for the Ashby, a 12-story, 256-unit apartment complex located on Beverly Road, a block from Route 123.

What was first proposed to be four new buildings ranging from 4 to 10 stories is now one large building. What was 236 new apartment units is now 192. WRIT still plans to move the parking underground, but rather than redeveloping the mass of surface parking, it is proposing to maintain 60 percent of the site as open space.

Following the September briefing, the McLean Planning Committee, a 16-member organization of the McLean Citizens Association, the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce and other community groups, voted 8-4 on a quasi-positive motion, that the proposed density “is appropriate for the proposed Ashby project and would not disqualify it from a positive recommendation from the MPC.” The committee is an advisory body to County Supervisor John Faust, D-Dranesville.

Marcus Simon, The Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce representative to the MPC, said the project “merited further consideration for them to go on.”

The lead opponent remains the McLean Citizens Association, which argues the Ashby redevelopment is simply too dense and will set a dangerous precedent for future McLean projects. That part of McLean, said MCA President Sally Horn, is designated in the Comprehensive Plan as an "area of minimal change."

"We are not prepared to see McLean 'Tysonized,'" Horn said. "We just think it's inappropriate."

The MCA's four members on the planning committee represented the four "no" votes.

WRIT is scheduled to present its latest Ashby iteration to the MCA on Oct. 29. Bob Elliot, director of development for the firm, did not return calls for comment.

A daisy cutter dropped on "downtown" Mclean would do wonders.