Four years ago, when Lewinsville Retirement Residence (LRR) Board President Bill Chenault heard that Evans Farm had been sold for residential development, he said, he went into a cold sweat.
“We had accumulated a considerable [cash] reserve at LRR, and had hoped to expand on to the Evans land,” he said. The owner, Ralph Evans, “had always been closely associated with our church,” Lewinsvile Presbyterian Church in McLean.
The church is bordered by Route 123, Great Falls Street, and Chain Bridge Road. Evans Farm Inn, to the north, formed the other boundary.
“We were suddenly faced with the prospect of being landlocked, and having no place to go and invest the reserve we had accumulated,” said Chenault, a Great Falls resident who is now retired.
“I knew this was an expensive development, and [the developers] were required to provide the ADUs, so I just proposed the swap to Elm Street and to West Group,” he said. “Bill Moran [of Elm Street Development” took it to the county.
“The county liked the idea,” Chenault said. “It seemed to be a win for everyone, in a very controversial situation. There was a lot of opposition to [development of] Evans Farm, but not to us,” he said.
Lewinsville Presbyterian had operated a retirement home with 144 units for the elderly.
Residents had to be at least 62 to live there, but most were older. At present, 28 residents are 90 or older, he said.
Church members serve as volunteers on a nine-member board of directors. They also spend time with the residents, driving them to appointments and shopping.
AFTER FOUR YEARS of thought, hope and expectation, last week’s groundbreaking brought closure to what turned out to be a three-way, win-win-win: church, government, and developer worked closely to create 18 new homes that will keep older people in downtown McLean.
“The developers proved to be very nice to work with, as has the county,” Chenault said. “There haven’t been any rough spots, except for some slow spots because I was an amateur. I was just doing something for the church,” he said, driven “not so much by creativity as desperation.”
Bill Chenault, president of The Lewinsville, said the collaborative agreement between county and federal governments, a church, and a developer presaged the current emphasis on “faith-based initiatives.”
LRR’s concept is ahead of its time, and “has demonstrated the careful monitoring that must accompany any such combination of energy and money,” he said.
“If the so-called faith-based initiatives realize their full potential, it will be only because public as well as private sector officials have exercised the kind of restraint and oversight that we have seen from all of the participants in this project,” he said.
“It’s neat to see such broad-based partnership filling a need that the community clearly has for affordable housing for the elderly,” said
Dranesville Supervisor Stu Mendelsohn.
“The three-way partnership of private, public, and faith-based interests builds community in the best sense,” he said. “None of this could have been done without any of the three parts.”
NO ONE WHO SERVES on the LRR board receives a salary, Chenault said.
“There is no conflict of interest in any way, shape or form. People in the church spend their time on this because they support the mission."
A conceptual firewall, separates the “helping activities” from the business side of running 144 residences, he said. “It is very important that it is run as a business.”
“I think a lot of churches could do this. You are putting the energy of the church [together] with gobs of government money. It has to be handled on a high ethical plane,” he said.
<1b>— Beverly Crawford