Who permits the work
McLean is unincorporated Fairfax County, so Fairfax County Land Development Services runs the permit and inspection process. The thing that catches McLean projects more than anywhere else nearby is the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance: a lot of McLean backs onto streams and drainage that fall inside a mapped Resource Protection Area, and inside an RPA no land disturbance or vegetation removal is allowed without prior county approval. Minor additions to a house built before the RPA was mapped can still be approved under the ordinance, but it is a separate review with its own submission — so an RPA check belongs at the start of a design, not at permit time.
For a rooftop array that generally means two permits rather than one: a building permit for anything fastened to the roof
structure, and a separate electrical permit for everything downstream of it, pulled by the licensed electrician on the job. We
sequence both and pull the building permit under our licence — you file nothing yourself.
What McLean homes are actually built like
McLean runs from 1950s–1970s ramblers, split-levels and colonials on large wooded lots through to substantial recent custom construction. The big-lot, mature-tree character is exactly why the RPA and tree-preservation questions bite here. On the mid-century houses the usual work is opening up compartmentalised plans, which means load-bearing walls, beams and often a footing under a new point load — all of which is permitted and inspected structural work.
For solar that matters in two specific places: the age and condition of the roof covering, which decides whether the array
goes on now or after a replacement, and the capacity of the electrical service, which a licensed electrician confirms before
anything is designed.
What we will not tell you about your McLean project
No production figure, no payback year, no incentive percentage and no equipment warranty term. Those depend on your roof,
your bills, your tax position and programmes that change — and a number published before anyone has measured your roof is
a guess. Your specialist puts the real ones in writing after the free assessment, and tells you to confirm anything
tax-related with your own tax adviser.
Permit authority and code requirements are summarized for general guidance and can change; we confirm the current requirements for your specific parcel before work begins. Nothing on this page is tax advice.