A group of McLean residents, feeling let down by the local government and abandoned by the McLean Citizens Association (MCA), claim a small church that serves the immigrant Taiwanese community is being trampled by a proposal to build an assisted-living facility in the Chesterbrook area. Although plans for the facility have been known for two years, opponents of the project contend that myriad changes to the design have left residents and community organizations at a loss regarding the ultimate structure.
"One of the platforms Joan DuBois [Dranesville District Supervisor] ran on was that we would have a process that is open. This is anything but open," said Elgie Holstein of the West Moreland Square Homes Association.
MCA, at its last meeting, decided to take no position on the facility because, after the project design was changed again, it did not have adequate time to review the proposal before taking a stance.
The Planning Commission subsequently deferred a hearing on the matter until later this month, which is not uncommon in a controversial case.
The Chesterbrook Affordable Assisted Living Facility Task Force (CAALF) has applied for a special exception to build the facility on Westmoreland Street in McLean. It will include some low- and medium-income units. The plot where the facility is proposed is a vacant 5-acre parcel behind the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery owns the land proposed to be developed.
"What’s really sad is this little church of Taiwanese Presbyterians. This isn’t a big church, but they’ve been working very hard to build it up. These are mainly Taiwanese immigrants, many of whom don’t speak much English, but they hope to grow and expand the church one day. We as a community support that, but if they build this facility, that little church of Taiwanese-Americans has nowhere to go," Holstein said.
Taiwanese Presbyterian Church pastor David Chen is saddened by the loss of the property and its impact to his congregations expansion plans, but he remains optimistic. "We will expand, only smaller. We have limited space now," Chen said .
Chen maintains he supports the project and the decision by the church to build the facility but feels shut out of the process. "The Presbytery took away our land. We did not consent. We did not get to see the plan. Now it is so big, and they change [the plan] all the time," said Chen.
DuBois said, "We are at a point with this facility where, after two years, we have to go forward. Overall this has been a very emotional issue, and that’s on both sides — from the perspective of the faith community and the advocates of the facility and also the residents who are concerned about how the facility will fit into their neighborhood."
Staff from the supervisor's office will be sitting down with representatives from all sides of the issue in the coming weeks "to see if we can come to a satisfactory resolution," DuBois said.
Many residents impacted by the assisted-living facility claim it’s a commendable enterprise but question the need to put it in a residential area that already has a number of institutions within its borders. "We don’t want to become an institutional sacrifice zone for the rest of the county," laments Holstein.
Some residents have written letters to the district supervisor urging a halt to the project because of what they say will be an increase in traffic density close to a school zone and additional congestion. Others claim the size of the proposal, which would allow four or five dwelling units per acre and is significantly larger than the neighboring Temple Rodef Shalom, is too big for the area.
The neighborhood has, in the past, supported programs sponsored by the church. There is a child-care center, an Alzheimer’s day care and Hospice day-care center there. The issue now, according to residents, is land use, not community outreach.
Not all residents are against the project, however. Doug Clark, the interim pastor for Immanuel Presbyterian Church of McLean, said, "We are strongly in support of it. Members of our church have taken a stand for it recently at the hearings." Clark admits there is division even within his own church. "That doesn’t mean every single member is in support of it, but certainly the governing body is."
DuBois says that division is typical of the larger community on this issue. "It is really time to move on, to do what we can and to move on with this."