Mason supervisor candidate Steve Lee would address residents’ concerns
Steve Lee, a candidate to represent Mason District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, promises to bring transparency and accessibility to the supervisor’s office. He would have an open-door policy, inviting residents to bring their concerns.
Lee is one of four candidates running in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, June 20.
With Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross retiring at the end of 2023 after 28 years in office, he says, “This is the time to bring fresh new ideas.” Lee’s ideas are about revitalizing a stagnant district, creating more affordable housing, and fully funding local schools.
Investing in the community
Lee has been involved in the Annandale community for decades, as the owner of a real estate financing company specializing in businesses and commercial properties and a commercial mortgage company.
That experience will be valuable in attracting more investment to Mason District. He believes Mason has the most potential to grow, compared to any other district.
While some see the lack of a Metro station as a major obstacle in revitalizing Mason District, Lee proposes a solution. He would work with transportation officials to create a nonstop express bus connecting Annandale with the Dunn Loring Metro station, which is only eight minutes away.
Transparency
Lee feels that the supervisor’s office hasn’t been transparent or accessible to constituents. He would change that.
“The supervisor’s office has everything do to with the residents of Mason district. We should be accessible, and we should be willing to listen and do the work constituents want,” he says.
Related story: Supervisor candidate Jimenez: missing in action on the Planning Commission
He would create an office within the Mason Government Center where any resident can come in without an appointment and talk about their concerns. “If it’s something we cannot address, we should say so and not give people the runaround.”
Lee proposes setting up a My Mason website where anyone can log on and discuss their issues. He would schedule regular meetings with community associations with the goal of bringing people together and creating a dialogue.
Affordable housing
“Everyone talks about affordable housing, but there aren’t a lot of ideas about how to do it,” Lee says.
“Mason District has the most potential affordable housing sites,” he says. For example, the county-owned Wedgewood Apartments has just 716 affordable units on 35 acres in a prime location in Annandale. That site is larger than Mosaic District, which is only 31 acres.
Those apartments are old and plagued by a number of problems, including water leaks, mold, and pests. He proposes replacing those buildings with new, denser affordable housing with commercial and community spaces.
Related story: Reid Voss is hiding his Republican background
Similar redevelopment projects could replace the privately owned Fairmont Gardens development in Annandale and the garden-style apartments in Culmore, Lincolnia, and other areas in Mason District. Rents at those properties are high, considering many of the buildings are in poor condition and don’t meet county codes.
And since many of those complexes are not fully occupied, redevelopment can be done one section at a time, so tenants wouldn’t have to be displaced.
Providing more affordable housing is critical, Lee says. First responders and teachers have long commutes because they can’t afford to live here, businesses can’t find enough employees, and young people can’t afford to buy a home or start a family.
Lee proposes attracting more young people to boost the local economy by providing assistance to help them become homeowners.
Education
Lee supports 100 percent funding for schools, with some of those funds allocated to teachers to sponsor extracurricular activities.
He feels so strongly about education, he would contribute the 30 percent raise the Board of Supervisors approved for itself to the schools.
“I disagreed with the raise. Supervisors are public servants,” Lee says. Being a supervisor should officially be designated a full-time job. “I will be an overtime supervisor,” working on evenings and weekends.
He would also help young families by working with local organizations to expand childcare and early education opportunities.
And while there are some good programs for seniors in Mason District, Lee would create more programs to get seniors involved in community and school activities. “Seniors have so much to give back to the community.”
Bringing people together
Lee’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Korea when he was 13, settling in the Jefferson Village Apartments on Graham Road, then relocating to Annandale. His parents owned an auto repair shop and his mother worked at home as a seamstress. Lee lives in Brook Hills Estates in Annandale.
“The Korean community has done very well here because the mainstream community has accepted us,” he says.
“After opening a couple of new businesses and being a stakeholder in Annandale, I’ve seen the need to serve the community,” Lee says.
Lee is president of the Korean American Association of Greater Washington. He served on the Annandale Central Business District Planning Committee, volunteered on a police department committee charged with recruiting diverse officers, helped plan the KORUS Korean-American festival, and worked on many projects with the county Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.
Lee was one of the founders of the Korean Community Center and currently serves on its board of directors. The center, located on Little River Turnpike in Annandale, is open to everyone.
He has been involved with planning the Taste of Annandale since 2015.
“We started the Taste of Annandale to bring the diverse communities together,” he says. “The most recent one, in April, reflected the broad range of cultures here. It’s taking a long time, but we will get there.”
I have qualms with all of the candidates – none are super exciting to me. Lee seems to be the only one that has a history of being on the ground to improve the quality of life in Annandale. He doesn’t have direct political experience and the self serving business interest in becoming supervisor is blatant. The transparency thing seems like a middle school class president pitch. Regardless, he’s not Republican Voss or Absent Andres so I’ll vote Lee
Lol, the lesser of 4 evils, well put. While he does have interests that could be considered a conflict of interest being that he is a business owner, it doesn’t mean he will take advantage of that. He strikes me as a genuine dude, and if he wanted to make money, if that was his motivation, then instead of spending the time to be a supervisor and improve Annandale, he would just spend that time instead on building/growing his businesses.
Steve Lee has my enthusiastic vote for Mason’s supervisor.
The only two contenders are Steve Lee and Reid Voss in my opinion. Here are some of their differences. Steve Lee left Annandale and moved back to run for Mason Supervisor. Reid Voss never left, he was born in Mason, his kids go to public school in Mason and that is why he wants to bring Mason back from the ashes. And good lord we need someone to help us clean this place up.
Steve Lee has been a supporter of the Taste of Annandale, for that he should be commended. He wants to boost the business climate in Annandale and get support to build a parking garage at one of his properties. To me that screams conflict of interest.
Reid Voss is successfully leading the Lake Barcroft Homeowners Association and understands the daily strife of our neighborhoods. He sincerely wants to improve our neighborhoods and our local commercial districts such as Baileys, Seven Corners and downtown Annandale. As for any Republican past, who knows and who cares. BTW Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren were once Republicans and Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat.
Reid Voss is the right candidate needed at this time and that is why he is getting my vote and why he should get yours.
Curious, why did you not consider Allen, he worked for Beyer’s staff and has done outreach and organizing for the Bren Mar development. I liked his housing positions and outreach solutions.
Annandale is Steve’s primary focus. Andres is running on his experience in local government as an appointed, salaried Commissioner on the Fairfax Planning Commission but shirked his duty as a public servant by failing to attend multiple Planning Commission meetings and even his own committee meetings with an abysmal attendance record compared to any other Commissioner. (See article link above.). He even failed to show up in his own neighborhood to help protect Justice Park from the school board and Park Authority who wanted to allocate community parkland for a school parking lot. In contrast, Reid Voss is a long-time Mason resident with kids in Mason schools and he has personally visited over 7000 households in Mason district and met with over 40 citizen’s and neighborhood associations to learn about resident concerns and present his ideas with the energetic, can-do approach he demonstrates as a small businessman and member of a neighborhood HOA. He will work hard for us to get the Board of Supervisors to finally give Mason District the attention it deserves. Who do you think will do the best job as job of Supervisor? Vote Reid Voss.
I hope those in Annandale and Mason District that really care read my earlier remarks. Lots of good guys out there … knowing Lee for years, we could not do better. In addition to understanding what the District and County needs, he will dig in the dirt and poke in the brambles to figure how to get it done …. and pay for it responsibly. Dan McKinnon
Vote Steve Lee for Mason District Supervisor
In races like this I wish ranked choice voting exists, everyone but Voss has compelling ideas, I would vote for Jimenez because I like his highest housing goals and environmental background but Allen and Lee seem like great candidates too, Allen’s responses on the Washington Post shows he agrees with zoning for more multifamily housing and Lee support for mixed use areas is good too and focus on revitalization efforts and interaction. I feel lots of these goals most candidates agree with.
100% Ranked choice us such a no-brainer in a primary like this.
Seems like the other candidates have negative comments but I haven’t seen one against Steve Lee yet, and he’s not one of the front runners? We need to spread the word and enthusiasm around Annandale, vote Steve Lee!
I cast my vote for Mr. Lee because he is placing community engagement and representative government at the top of his ticket. We have lost representative government with the current Board of Supervisors-everything about the zMod implementation process was undemocratic- and I want someone committed to bringing that back.
Someone with lots of on the ground experience in Mason district, as he has had, immersing himself in the world of the small business owners, community organizations, and large-scale events that bring people from all walks of life together in public spaces. To me, that person is Mr. Lee.
He will best democratize the mechanism of county government for us, and I believe that’s the path to solutions for everything on the substantial Mason District to-do list.
So here is my take:
1} I am certain that eyes are rolling now; the blog has been blocking my strong commentary because I support Reid Voss. Its ok for the blog to endorse Lee, but it should not be bias about its reporting and discussion amongst its readers.
2) I highly respect M Reindorf’s commentary above for she in my opinion is the most credible person that I know commenting on this particular post.
3) All the candidates and the County have been talking about multi-family housing in single family subdivisions but they have not given us an iota of how they are going to fund an increase in county services to support a denser population, and how they will mediate its impact on our macro climate. For example, higher density means more parking needs. Will homeowners and tenants be paving over their front lawns and cutting down trees to accomodate more parking? If so, that would increase the heat island effect and add to storm water run-off. Has the County addressed that ……….NO. What are the candidates remedy for that? I have heard nothing! The County is already doing a bad job, so I suspect that things will get worse but I am hoping that I am dead wrong. Historically the County’s way of dealing with an uptick in density and its needs for greater services such as education would be to increase our property taxes and short change all of us on services, i.e. the terrible trash collection we now must endure. That will be the result of the zMod zoning code…..more people, less services and a poorer quality of life.
4) As for Lee, he has not knocked on my door and I know nothing about him except what I read here. What makes me suspect, is that he moved away and now he is back. The reason I support Reid Voss is because of his current devotion to Lake Barcroft and that he leads their HOA, that he sends his kids to Mason schools, that he grew up here, that he knows the terrain, and that he is committed to advocating for our neighborhoods and increasing commercial growth with smart development in our anemic commercial areas such as Baileys and Seven Corners. None of the other candidates can say that and if they have, I must have missed it. If Lee gets elected, I would hope he would have the same sincere allegiance to our neighborhoods that Voss has and that this is not a one stop pony show or a self-serving business driven decision to run for Mason Supervisor.
I have sat down with Voss, and he is sincere when he says “I have to run, who else is going to save us from further Mason decline?” Who has the balls, that is my question to all of these candidates? I am listening, please convince me with real data.
Maybe you weren’t home when Lee knocked? He knocked and my husband was home but I missed which was a bummer. Voss does not have a history of actions but he’ll tell you all of these nice sounding ideas. The point I’m trying to make is that you don’t need to sit on the most powerful local government in VA to improve your community. Lee has taken big risks to open businesses and invest in the community. He’s sat on non profit round tables that have brought ideas from whiteboard to reality. I believe Lee will use the position to continue doing so at larger scale. Voss has your vote because he tapped your anger?