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Dear MCA Members and Friends:
It has been an honor to serve as President of the McLean Citizens Association for the past two years. We will be electing new officers and board members at our Annual Membership Meeting on May 22. Please note that this is a members-only event. If your membership has lapsed or you are not yet a member, refer to the article below and click on the link to renew or join this esteemed 110-year-old organization.
Indeed, MCA has been in existence for 110 years. How has MCA achieved this remarkable longevity? It is simple. MCA boards have consistently adhered to our core mission: “to advance the civic, educational, environmental, recreational, and social interests of the McLean area.”
I encourage each of you to attend and actively participate in one of our committee meetings. These meetings are where significant work is accomplished, and you will be impressed by the level of expertise, as well as the commitment and determination to implement changes—both major and minor—to improve our community.
Regards,
Linda Walsh
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McLean Community Center Governing Board Elections
The MCA Board would like to remind every resident of the McLean Community Center tax district (Dranesville District 1A) to vote in the McLean Community Center (MCC) Governing Board elections. MCC is funded by MCC tax district residents through a real estate tax surcharge, with additional funding from fees and donations. The eleven-member MCC Governing Board is elected by citizens of the district and appointed by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to oversee MCC’s budget and operation.
This year there are six candidates for three adult positions and nine candidates for two teen positions. The adult candidates were all invited to make brief presentations to the MCA Board at our May meeting. This impressive group is a testament to the depth of experience and talent present in our community. Meet the candidates here.
In-person voting will take place in the voting tent at Lewinsville Park on McLean Day:
Friday, May 16: 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 17: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m
| | MCA Annual Membership Meeting
Thursday, May 22
Reception: 6:30 pm
Meeting: 7:30 pm
McLean Community Center, Community Hall
Please join us for a wine and cheese reception, beginning at 6:30 pm. Our guest speaker will be Dranesville Supervisor Jimmy Bierman. Presentations will be made by MCA Officers and Committee Chairs, and the President of the McLean Community Foundation (MCF) will present the MCF Annual Report. The members will elect the MCA Board of Directors and Officers and MCF Trustees.
An invitation with the full agenda and nominated slate was emailed on April 21st. | | |
MCA lost two former leaders, and MCA members lost two dear friends, on the same day. Maya Huber and Janie Strauss, two prominent McLean-area citizens who got their start at MCA, died within hours of each other on April 11th.
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Maya Huber
December 22, 1929 -- April 11, 2025
Maya Huber served on the MCA Board for twenty-one years from 1973 to 1999, including three years as 2nd Vice President. She also served as a Trustee of the McLean Citizens Foundation (now McLean Community Foundation).
In a Patch article from 2011, when she became Secretary of the McLean Planning Committee, she was described as "a walking encyclopedia of McLean zoning law and history."
Read about Maya Huber's extensive contributions here.
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Jane K. "Janie" Strauss
December, 1946 -- April 11, 2025
Janie Strauss served on the MCA Board for three years from 1987-1989, including one year as 2nd Vice President. The first chair of the MCA’s Education Committee -- in the late 1980’s -- she served as an appointed member of the Fairfax County School Board from 1991-1993 and then became Dranesville District's first elected School Board Member in 1996. She served continuously, with multiple terms as chair and vice chair, until stepping down in 2019.
One of her most lasting MCA contributions was the MCA 3rd grade history project that resulted in the 1993 publication of a fascinating history book about our community.
Janie Strauss received the Virginia School Board Association Advocate for Education Award in 2018 and was honored by the Board of Supervisors as Lady Fairfax of the Dranesville District in 2021.
In recent years, she served as an officer director of the national capital area Cappies, a program for budding high school theater critics that was co-founded by her late husband, Capitol Steps founder Bill Strauss.
Read about Janie Strauss's leadership here.
| | | MCA Outstanding Character Award for Teenagers
Will Be Announced at McLean Day 2025
MCA is again sponsoring the Outstanding Character Award for Teenagers to recognize teens who, on their own and without compensation or formal recognition, cared for elderly relatives or younger siblings, or helped out in their neighborhood or anywhere in the Greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area. MCA is proud to recognize these teens and to hold them up as an example for others to follow.
Applications were due by April 25th. The MCA Education and Youth (E&Y) Committee selects the winners from the most deserving candidates.
Award certificates are presented on the outdoor stage at McLean Day at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, 2025. Names of award winners will be provided to local newspapers to highlight recognition of the teens' achievements.
|  | MCA Supports Vinson Hall SSPA Nomination
Fairfax County's Site-Specific Plan Amendment Process (SSPA) allows the public to propose a site-specific land use policy change in the Comprehensive Plan, the guiding document for the county land use and development decisions. It's the first step in a long process. If a nomination leads to a change in the comprehensive plan, a subsequent application for rezoning, with its requisite staff evaluation and public hearings, is still needed before a project may proceed. In April, county staff held community meetings to discuss a proposed list of SSPA nominations. Case managers from MCA's Planning & Zoning Committee attended the community meetings pertaining to McLean-area properties, listened to the Tysons Plaza and Valo Park nominee's presentations at the Committee's April meetings, and research and reviewed the nominations.
At the end of April, County staff published a White Paper that included a one-page summary of public comment and staff views on each nomination and a chart giving staff’s recommendations on tier rankings for each project. The three Tysons nominations -- Corporate Ridge, Tysons Plaza, and Valo Park -- were given a “Tier 1 Planning Study" designation; the Gordon Road Triangle nomination adjacent to the City of Falls Church and the Vinson Hall nomination were designated “Tier 1." Tier 1 items, which are in areas of development focus for the County or support an identified County priority such as providing affordable housing or enhancing office development, are given the highest priority in the county's Work Program, its review schedule of comprehensive planning studies and Plan amendments. Tier 1 items are anticipated to begin review in late Summer 2025 as either individual SSPAs or as part of a combined review of a planning area
Case managers attended the PC's May 1st Planning Workshop, which included a discussion of the Vinson Hall nomination. Planning Workshops provide an opportunity for the PC to hear from the community about the nominations.
At its May Board meeting, MCA approved a letter to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) supporting the PC's Tier 1 assignment for the Vinson Hall nomination. In its letter, MCA states that the proposed expansion of the existing senior living facility into a continuing care retirement community with additional independent living units is a cost-effective and low-impact way to provide more retirement housing for McLean-area residents, provided that due consideration is given to traffic concerns
The PC will discuss the three Tysons nominations and the Gordon Road nomination at its May 15th Planning Workshop. Time permitting, the PC will begin marking up the staff tier recommendations at its workshop on May 22 and finish at its meeting on June 5th. The BOS expects to vote on the PC's recommendations at its June 10th meeting.
| Senior Safety Summit 2025:
Co-sponsored by MCA
For more photos from this annual event, open to the public, see the MCA website. | Environment, Parks & Recreation
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McLean Trees Foundation Continues Tree Talk Series
The McLean Trees Foundation, in collaboration with the Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Plant Society, will be holding the following webinar on Tuesday, May 13th from 7pm to 8:30pm:
Making Pruning Cuts; Conifers
Proper pruning cuts work with tree biology to provide good structure to trees over time. Good structural pruning of young trees will set them up to be assets as they mature, instead of problems. During the webinar we will learn how to remove and shorten branches, as well as how to rejuvenate shrubs. We will also discuss conifers native to Fairfax and Virginia.
This is the fifth in a series of talks by Urban Forest Conservationist Jim McGlone, who holds a PhD in Human Ecology from Virginia Tech and recently retired from the Virginia Department of Forestry, where he spent 17 years as an Urban Forest Conservationist. Each talk begins with general information on an aspect of tree selection, planting, and care before covering a particular tree species or genus.
You will find recordings of earlier talks, along with plenty of other information, on the McLean Trees Foundation website. | | | |