A 75-year-old McLean man was struck by a car and killed last night near the intersection of Route 123 and Chain Bridge Road.

Police say Philip Dietz was crossing Route 123 just before 10 p.m. when he was struck by a driver in a BMW heading southbound. He died from his injuries.

All southbound lanes of Route 123 were closed for an extended period of time last night while a crash reconstruction team worked to investigate the collision, according to VDOT.

More from the Fairfax County Police Department:

Crash Reconstruction Unit detectives are investigating a fatal crash involving a pedestrian in the intersection of Dolley Madison Boulevard and Madison McLean Drive. Philip John Dietz, 75, of McLean, was attempting to cross Dolley Madison Boulevard around 9:55 last night. The driver of a 2002 BMW was traveling southbound in the right lane of Dolley Madison Boulevard when he hit Dietz in the intersection. Investigators are working to determine if Dietz used the marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal at the time of the crash. Speed and alcohol do not appear to be factors for anyone involved. The driver remained at the scene and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Once the investigation is complete, the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney will review the case and determine if the driver will be charged.

Map via Google Maps

The MPAartfest is returning to McLean Central Park this Sunday (Oct. 7) from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The art show and sale will feature work from nearly 40 visual artists in a variety of media and styles, including woodturning, jewelry and ironwork.

Mini-art galleries will be set up throughout the park featuring artwork and food from local restaurants. The MPAartfest will also feature live music from various genres and educational activities for children.

MPAartfest is an annual event hosted by the McLean Project for the Arts (MPA), attracting an average of 5,000-6,000 visitors each year. This will be MPAartfest’s 12th year.

Admission to the festival is free. Parking will be available at “signed lots throughout McLean” with shuttles running to the MPAartfest.

Photo via McLean Project for the Arts

(Updated at 4:50) –Archontiko is bringing modern Greek dining to McLean.

Restaurant owner Theodoros “Ted” Theodorou said Archontiko, located at 1313 Old Chain Bridge Rd., will feature a variety of modern Greek cuisine beyond the traditional fare. One point of pride for Theodorou is that every few days, the restaurant will receive a new shipment of fish brought fresh from the Mediterranean.

Theodorou is no stranger to opening restaurants in Northern Virginia — he owns Delia’s Pizzeria and Mediterranean Grille in Alexandria and restaurants in Sterling and Springfield — but he says Archontiko is specifically tailored to suit the McLean community.

“We wanted to open here because of the area and the people that live here,” said Theodorou. “The prices are very moderate. We’re not going to charge $40 for fish. It will be what people here will be able to afford.”

Construction is ongoing inside the restaurant. The location had previously been Evo Bistro, also a Mediterranean restaurant. The interior is being completely refurbished and redecorated, the walls adorned with scenes depicting Greek ruins.

Theodorou says the restaurant is aiming for a mid-November opening.

What is McLean?

A common theme at last night’s (Thursday) open house for the McLean Community Business Center (CBC) Planning Study is that McLean is a community without a sense of identity. The CBC is as close as McLean has to a downtown, but it’s one whose core has more gas stations than coffee shops.

The CBC Planning Study is an effort to change that and transform downtown McLean into something residents could be proud of and hopefully kickstart economic revitalization in the area. The CBC Plan would act as an update to the 20-year-old Comprehensive Plan for McLean.

Last night was the CBC Planning Study’s first open house and focused on collecting input from citizens.

McLean exists on the periphery of the hustle and bustle of Tysons, feeling more like a village than a city. At the meeting inside the McLean High School cafeteria, the few dozen attendees mostly knew each other and many have been to earlier CBC planning meetings. But unlike other Northern Virginia communities like Arlington or Falls Church, citizens of McLean say there’s no feeling of a central community.

“I would like McLean to have a sense of place,” said local resident Nancy McFalls. “I want to go here and feel like there is a downtown. Nothing crazy big, not a megalopolis, but it would be cool if it felt like a more organic downtown area.”

McFalls, like many other nearby residents, said she wants the area to be more walkable.

“I drive to the Giant, then I get in my car and drive across the street to the Total Wine,” said McFalls. “It’s not far, but I don’t want to be hit by a car crossing the road.”

As McFalls started talking about her vision for a more pedestrian- and park-friendly downtown McLean, friends joined in and referenced the Italian tradition of “la passeggiata,” the art of a social walk in the evenings. McFalls agreed, saying they hope for a more European-style downtown where residents can mingle and enjoy the local park.

“Currently, McLean is a place where you run errands,” said Kim Dorgan, a local resident and chair of the McLean CBC Study Task Force. “I would like McLean to have more of a village feeling, something distinct from the high rises in Tysons.”

Rob Jackson, chair of the McLean Citizens Association’s Planning and Zoning Committee, echoed sentiments from Supervisor John Foust in saying that the area will also have to contend with the ever-swelling plague of traffic coming to and from Tysons through McLean.

Colin Greene, senior director of planning for project consultant Streetsense, said that over the next five years McLean is projected to have 80,000 square feet of retail developed, though much of this would be replacing existing retail locations. Over ten years, Greene said McLean should expect an additional 40,000 square feet of retail to be built in the area.

Greene also noted that residential growth in McLean is expected to rise, with 900 total units projected to be built in the area over the next ten years. Most of these, Greene said, will be apartment buildings.

But Bill Frazer, a local resident, said he was concerned that the plans and projections didn’t take into account the intentions of the people who own much of the land in downtown McLean.

“There are people here who own a significant amount of property,” said Frazer. “So all that talk about new office space and such going in there won’t happen without those property owners.”

Katrina Newtson from the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning said the task force is comprised of several landowners and is working on pulling all of the major stakeholders in McLean into the process.

Input on the CBC Planning Study will be collected until Nov. 15. The next open house will be held on Nov. 8 from 7-9 p.m. in the McLean High School cafeteria.

The CBC Planning Study meets through early spring to draft a plan for downtown McLean. In late 2019 or early 2020, the final vision plan will be sent to the Board of Supervisors for adoption.

Work to replace a culvert along Valley Wood Road in McLean will prompt an all-week detour along the Arlington-McLean border next week.

VDOT crews will be performing the work during the day Monday through Friday, weather permitting.

More from VDOT:

Valley Wood Road/37th Street North between North Kensington Street and Vermont Avenue will be closed to through traffic (weather permitting) Monday, Oct. 1 through Friday, Oct. 5 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day for culvert replacement, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Residents within the closure area, emergency vehicles and school buses will have access to the closed portion of Valley Wood Road/37th Street North; however, they will not be able to go beyond the point of culvert replacement in either direction.

Traffic will be detoured via North Kensington Street, Rhode Island Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue and Vermont Avenue back to Valley Wood Road/37th Street North.

Arlington County’s sometimes snarky Dept. of Environmental Services Twitter account also posted about the detour today.

Despite radically different cultures and conventions, Arlington and McLean residents will share a detour next week as the state replaces a culvert along what we call 37th St N – what McLeanites call Valley Wood Road. https://t.co/Ee5DnoeCFZ #VaTraffic pic.twitter.com/NL3vguboHH

— Arlington Department of Environmental Services (@ArlingtonDES) September 26, 2018

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is on scene of a small fire at a house in the McLean area.

The fire on the 1200 block of Winter Hunt Road started in a bathroom exhaust fan, the department said via Twitter. It was quickly extinguished, but not before sending light smoke billowing out of the home’s attic.

Firefighters are now checking to see if the fire spread to other parts of the home.

The initial structure fire dispatch, which went out just before 2 p.m., drew a mutual aid response from as far away as Arlington.

Update – 1200 block of Winter Hunt Road in the McLean area: small fire in bathroom fan. Fire is out. Crews checking for extension. #fcfrd #news https://t.co/q9UA637hBu

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) September 26, 2018

Map via Google Maps

(Updated at 10:50 a.m.) As neighbors, McLean and Tysons couldn’t be more different. The former has a reputation as a quiet, suburban town with a long history and deep community roots, while the latter is a comparatively young and bustling pseudo-city in its own right.

But what happens in one will have a profound impact on the other, and Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust, who represents McLean, said that has become particularly clear with regards to regional traffic.

“Our plans say that Tysons development will be limited to Tysons and that the neighborhoods should be protected,” said Foust, “but the traffic that goes there goes through McLean and it has gotten worse.”

In discussions with members with the McLean Citizens Association, traffic was almost universally one of the most discussed items. The impact of the growing Tysons can already be felt in McLean, where both highways and residential streets are becoming increasingly clogged with commuter traffic. One of the big problems, on both a county and inter-state level, is the American Legion Bridge.

An average of 239,000 people use the American Legion Bridge every workday, according to a letter sent from the Fairfax Board of Supervisors to the Maryland Department of Transportation.

“The bridge is grossly over capacity,” said Foust. “It’s the responsibility of Maryland now. We’ve been encouraging them to expand… expansion would be a huge difference.”

Maryland has previously announced a $9 billion investment in reducing traffic congestion, including adding toll lanes north of the bridge, but the bridge itself remains a roadblock for commuter traffic heading to or from Tysons and McLean.

But expanding, supplementing, or replacing the bridge all come with difficulties. VDOT engineers have said that the bridge cannot be expanded and that it has reached capacity. Adding a new bridge to the site would also be difficult, if not impossible, given the low-density zoning in the area aimed at protecting the Potomac River. Fully replacing the bridge is a popular suggestion, but one that could take decades of planning, environmental, and financial work.

In the meantime, Foust said that traffic improvement projects in Tysons, like the Jones Branch Extension currently underway, will also help regional traffic flow. The new extension should take some pressure Route 123 and hopefully reduce congestion in McLean.

Ultimately, Foust said Tysons and McLean are going to need to rely on non-car transportation to help take some of the pressure off local roads. But paradoxically a lack of car-supporting infrastructure, at McLean Station on the Silver Line especially, makes that difficult.

“There’s a lack of parking at the stations here,” said Foust. “There’s no plan in place to build a lot [at McLean Station]. It’s very inconvenient. Generally, the Board does not want to encourage more traffic to drive into Tysons, but that means my constitutes can’t utilize the Metro.”

Foust said the County is working on expanding bus transportation, but that it will take a long time to get that to a convenient level. Given the growing pressure of traffic coming in and out of Tysons, it’s time McLean may not have.