Council urges county to improve public engagement in land use process

Land use under discussion at a meeting of the Lincolnia Task Force.

Fairfax County should engage citizens in proposed redevelopment activities earlier in the process, use social media to reach out to the public, and host academies to educate residents about land use.

Those are among the recommendations of the Community Council on Land Use Engagement, a citizens’ group created by Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova in January to consider how the county can improve its public outreach procedures.
The chair of the council, former Planning Commissioner Walter Alcorn, will present the final report to the BoS on June 20. The report is virtually completed, but may be subject to some editorial changes.

Members of the council include citizen association representatives, land use committee members, developer representatives, residents active in land use issues, and county staff. Members from Mason District include Jeffrey Longo (Sleepy Hollow Manor Citizens Association) and Deborah Fraser (a resident of Stonegate at Landmark).

“County officials – the board, Planning Commission, and staff – must actively seek and be responsive to resident input,” the report states. “Developers must also respect the role of residents in the process.” And while the county and developers should reach out to the affected community in a timely manner, civic associations and HOAs “must be vigilant in relaying important information to their members.”

The council notes that the existing citizen engagement process works well in places with active civic associations, HOAs, and/or land use committees, but has been less effective in places without a strong civic infrastructure or in multifamily communities without a single point of contact.

The council calls for the current legal requirements for notification to be strengthened, noting that the law requiring the notification of 25 adjacent landowners before a hearing on a land use matter is “insufficient for a properly engaged citizenry.”

“The council also recognizes that some land use changes can trigger a substantial amount of controversy in the community for a variety of reasons,” the report states. “Some of the controversy may be unavoidable, but some could be minimized through greater county staff and applicant intervention, education, and consensus-building early in the process.”

Regarding notification to the community, the council believes traditional forms of communication – such as direct mail, newspaper ads and articles, newsletters, and legal postings (the yellow signs) – should be more clearly written and more targeted in placement and distribution.

“Other forms of communication, including email, the website, Channel 16, and third-party services like Nextdoor, provide great opportunity to continue and broaden participation,” the report states.

Noting that the most involved citizens tend to be older and more educated about the development process, the report urges the county to reach out to a wider, more diverse group of citizens, including new residents, small-business owners, parents of young children, tenants, people who don’t speak English at home, and people who live in areas without an active citizen association.

Here are some of the group’s key recommendations: