This week, MCA President Rob Jackson sent a letter to Sara Baldwin, Acting Executive Director of the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA), expressing a number of concerns regarding the McLean Central Park (MCP) Development Concept released to the public on Monday, May 24, 2021. The letter was approved by the MCA Board at its June 2nd monthly meeting.
The letter notes that MCP is the McLean community’s predominant local park and highly valued for its open, green space, recreation facilities, and adjacent library and community center. The letter requests that the FCPA extend the abbreviated comment period, which ends June 24th. It also urges FCPA to conduct a full communication and coordination process with the McLean community including various stakeholders. This should include focused traffic, parking, and noise studies and analysis of more effective integration of the park with the proposed McLean Community Business Center (CBC) plan.
The letter states that the short comment period and lack of community outreach and involvement is particularly troublesome given the amount of time that has lapsed since the publication of the MCP Master Plan in 2013 and the many changes in the area since then, including significant development in nearby Tysons, proposed changes to the CBC, which would result in a more densely populated, urbanized environment, and heightened awareness of the ecological sensitivity of MCP land, much of which lies in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Resource Protection Area.
The letter also discusses numerous specific concerns with the FCPA MCP Development Concept, including 1) concerns about replacing green space with built environment, 2) lack of community input on proposed new park features and lack of responsiveness to concerns that have been expressed about preferred features such as enhanced playgrounds and improved park maintenance, and 3) the proposed amphitheater, lacks demonstrated need, is in an undesirable proposed location (corner of Dolly Madison Avenue and Ingleside Avenue), lack of parking, and unaddressed need for safe pedestrian access to MCP from the planned development in the CBC.
The letter can be accessed by clicking this link - Letter McLean Central Park Development Concept.