FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to readopt an update to the county’s zoning ordinance that it had originally adopted in 2021 but which a Virginia Supreme Court decision voided in March.
The Modernized Zoning Ordinance (zMOD) supervisors approved on Tuesday included several add-on provisions to address concerns raised by the public and based on recommendations that the Fairfax County Planning Commission made its May 3 meeting.
As part of the Zoning Ordinance Work Program, the planning commission’s Land Use Process Review Committee on June 8, and the board’s Land Use Policy Committee, on July 18 will consider:
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When the board first voted to adopt zMOD in 2021, Supervisors Walter Alcorn (Hunter Mill) and Pat Herrity (Springfield) voted against it. But on Tuesday, they both dropped their opposition to the measure.
Back in 2021, Alcorn was concerned about the implementation of new standards for affordable living units and home based businesses. But numbers provided by county staff showed that while zMOD was in place, the impact was modest.
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“We’re looking at 37 ALUs that were approved out of about 400,000 households in Fairfax County during the first 18 months,” he said. “HBBs, we’re looking under 400.”
Alcorn agreed that the county needed to continue monitoring the situation to ensure that problems did not arise.
“This definitely ain’t perfect,” he said. “But we have a process. We’re getting input from affected residents, from people involved in the process , from concerned citizens. We have a process through our work program in order to address that. I welcome that.”
While Herrity supported the original aim of zMOD to update elements in an outdated ordinance, the draft he voted on in 2021 contained portions he couldn’t support. There were still portions Tuesday’s measure that he opposed, but he acknowledged that it was time to move forward.
“We’re kind of where we are now and I recognize because of the vast economic uncertainty that we need to have this in place,” Herrity said. “It would not be in the best interest of the county to run another process, delay a resolution or, unfortunately, to even fix what we have in front of us that we know needs fixing.”
When the final vote came, Herrity declared himself absent and the measure passed 9-0-1.
“zMOD is not designed to solve all the problems of the world,” Supervisor Penny Gross (Mount Vernon) said, summing up the sentiments of several board members. “But it is designed to look to the future. It is not designed to shut the door either on today’s residents and visitors or future residents and visitors. Five years of work, at least 102 public meetings and untold articles and telephone conversations. There was almost no stone left unturned during our zMOD deliberations.”
RELATED: Fairfax County Zoning Update Voided With VA Supreme Court Ruling
In 2016, Fairfax County began the process of updating its zoning ordinance for the first time since 1978.
After several years of meetings, public engagement sessions, and rewrites, the Fairfax County Planning Commission held a public hearing on Jan. 28, 2021, after which commissioners were scheduled to vote on whether to recommend adoption of the final draft by the board of supervisors.
Virginia Coalition for Open Government: Full Text of Virginia Supreme Court Ruling
After deferring its decision in January 2021, the planning commission voted on March 3, 2021, to recommend that the board of supervisors adopt zMod.
Two days later, Fairfax County residents David Berry, Carol A. Hawn, Helen H. Webb, and Adrienne A. Whyte filed for an injunction. They sought to prevent the board from enacting the ordinance update at its March 9, 2021, meeting, which was conducted electronically. The lawsuit claimed that the county violated the open meetings provision of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fairfax County was operating under an emergency order adopted by the board of supervisors on March 24,2020, which authorized electronic meetings to ensure continuity of government operations. The board adopted a permanent version of that ordinance on April 14, 2020.
RELATED: Hearings Likely For Fairfax County To Readopt Updated Zoning Ordinance
After the Fairfax County Circuit Court denied the residents’ motion for a temporary/preliminary injunction, the board of supervisors voted to adopt zMOD.
Even though the circuit court dismissed the complaint at the board of supervisors’ request on Sept. 9, 2021, the residents appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court over what they viewed as a FOIA violation. The court agreed and released its decision in March voiding zMOD.
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