"Everyone wants to live in a nice-looking town, you know what I'm saying?"

"McLean is -- people say it's a state of mind," said Maya Huber, who has served as a volunteer planner in the Fairfax County community around the crossroads of Old Dominion Drive and Dolley Madison Boulevard over three decades. She said people have had to learn to tolerate the strip center in the middle of town.

"We realize it's very decrepit, and we suffer when the parking lots are broken up and there's no shade to park your car. . . . The downtown is -- convenient is the way I'd put it. It might not be beautiful, but it's convenient," said Huber, who headed a task force that overhauled plans for McLean in 1975.

She helped push for a new main street a decade ago and is buoyed by recent moves that could finally make it happen. "It would be nice to have a better-looking, more pedestrian-friendly downtown where you don't feel like you're going to get run over if you cross the street," Huber said.

But Paul Garmirian sees the agitation to remake McLean as misguided. Sitting in his cigar shop downtown, Garmirian, the son of a prominent builder in Lebanon, said fellow residents "have a pie-in-the-sky wish list" that includes "cobblestones or the London look."

"To try to revamp it into something it's not, to me smells artificial," Garmirian said. Displayed nearby was a 22-karat-gold S.T. Dupont lighter selling for $1,750. Out front was a lustrous red Porsche Carrera with "PG CIGAR" plates.

"Cities and towns traditionally grow from the inside. They become what they are. They don't sit down and say, 'Let's become charming,' " he said.

A series of community meetings this spring sought to tap into what people want. "Not another cookie-cutter 'downtown' with all the usual chain stores," one resident said. "Many more casual, family-friendly restaurants," another said.

How about a riff on Boston's Faneuil Hall or Washington's Eastern Market, with a year-round covered farmers market, cafes and booths for local craftsmen? Or a movie theater? But no multiplexes.

Add to the jumble of disparate voices today's tumultuous financial markets and pockets of resistance to increased development, and "it's going to be a difficult thing to put together. It's going to take some genius, basically," Huber said.

That genius would have to come from a development and investment group that includes Dan Montgomery, president of Bethesda-based Clark Construction Group. Montgomery's son Bob represents the group, which has stayed mum on its plans. Neither would sit for an interview.

"No one knows what the market will look like down the road, but we, like the community groups that developed the vision, believe that if there is a lively, pedestrian-friendly downtown core that inspires a sense of community, people will be excited about it and will support it," Bob Montgomery said by e-mail.

The group's actions have been more revealing. It has been buying up properties crucial to the development, including the shopping center, which is at Old Dominion Drive and Center Street and is home to, among other businesses, McLean Pizza Restaurant and McLean Hair Fashions, where a fluorescent yellow sign touts the "Hot! Japanese Magic Straight Perm" for $159.

According to Bob Montgomery, Clark Construction has no ownership interest in the properties, and his father has "made a 100% personal commitment" to the project. Some who have spoken to Dan Montgomery cite his hometown ties as a reason for confidence.

"Maximization of profit, he's certainly indicated to me, that's not the goal here," said Daniel DuVal, president of the McLean Revitalization Corp. DuVal and Dan Montgomery met through their children's schools.

Barbara Byron, director of Fairfax's Office of Community Revitalization and Reinvestment, said that what is envisioned for the middle of McLean is something akin to Shirlington or Bethesda Row, walkable communities with condominiums, restaurants and stores, where people can relax on benches and stroll past small parks. Some buildings could be four, five or occasionally six stories.

Fairfax officials, whose approval would be required, are leaving it up to the developers to "come up with the first shot," Byron said.

One thing the county knows it wants, Byron said, is "something that's integral to McLean, not something you'd find in Arizona." Whether that means architecture that fits McLean or something else is unclear. But the bar is high. "A lot of people describe it as a place where people can say, 'This is McLean,' " she said.

The view from the old shopping center and potential development site currently includes a faded blue and white tank truck in front of Little Boy Blue, a septic-servicing company. Gas stations and fast-food places are down the road. The Old Firehouse Teen Center would probably be torn down for the project. "Main Street" would link to other recent efforts to spruce up downtown.

"I guess some people have a perception that McLean should look like something more than it does," said Mike Cannon, a longtime employee of McLean Hardware, a fixture in the center for decades.

"McLean is this big name, McLean and Potomac. They hear that in other states and say, 'Whoa, that's a big deal,' " he said. But visitors and owners of upscale McLean homes alike can be disappointed with downtown. "They want to look like Carmel, California, or something like that," he said.

The president of Burns Brothers Cleaners is worried about staying in business. The shop has been in the same location for 59 years. "We were a free-standing building, and then the shopping center kind of attached to us," Amy Burns said.

The Burns Brothers lease is up next year, and although the owners have met with the Montgomeries, they have received no assurances that they will have a home in the new project or in other nearby properties the development group controls.

It would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to move the business's heavy equipment, Burns said. It also needs a big space, at least 2,400 square feet. "We have a couple Realtor customers who are keeping an eye out, but the two that have come available are not anywhere close to what we need," Burns said.

McLean Hardware moved this summer to a nearby property controlled by the development group. "Believe me, I didn't want to move. I was at that store for 26 years. It was a job moving. We have about 80,000 items," Cannon said.

Through the process, he has thought much about McLean's mixture of tradition and status and hopes the best parts remain. The store has been sponsoring the McLean Hardware Little League team since 1963, and it donates plastic megaphone popcorn holders for high school fundraisers.

"The mom-and-pops need to stay. . . . That's what makes the town click," Cannon said. "We're just getting a facelift. I've been living here about 30 years. It probably needs a facelift. Everyone wants to live in a nice-looking town, you know what I'm saying?"