The Connection

McLean — Fairfax County held a public meeting about the proposed redevelopment of the Lewinsville Senior Center in McLean. The building was built in 1964, and Paula Sampson, director of Housing and Community Development, said this is a project the county has been looking at for years.

"We’ve known for a long time we needed some rehabilitation and renovations at this site, but the big problem is that the county faced very severe fiscal constraints and still is," she said. "The fiscal realities we’re dealing with required us to take a creative approach and look for partners."

The county will seek to form a public-private partnership to redevelop the center, under the Public Private Education Act. The act was created in 2002 by the Virginia General Assembly to allow for school facilities to bring in the private sector on projects, and has since been expanded to other kinds of public projects.

Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) said it was important to the county that the project not cost the taxpayer.

"This isn’t going to be a burden to the taxpayer, because we decided that just couldn’t happen," he said. "That’s why we came up with what we feel is a creative solution with this private-public partnership."

Sampson said the county has specific goals for the project.

"We don’t know exactly what we will get, but our experience tells us to go out, go through this process and see what comes in," she said. "We want to make sure that whoever we select is someone that gets this community and understands the importance of this place, will give it a residential feel and will increase the number of affordable senior housing opportunities here."

The process calls for the county to put out a request for proposals, and once a developer is chosen, the special exception regarding the center will have to be amended from the one granted in the early 2000s. The county developed a plan in 2004 that did not come to fruition.

"The assisted living proposal is being replaced by an increased number of independent living units. The assisted living component requires a subsidy, and the county does not want to pursue that path in the current financial climate," said Tom Armstrong, senior project planner with the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Sampson stressed that the well being of the current residents would figure prominently in the planning process.

"Rest assured, the residents who currently live here are foremost in our minds. Our whole goal is to enhance their quality of life, it is to actually increase the number of opportunities there are in this community for seniors," she said.

More information can be found at the Dranesville district website, www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dranesville.