Planning Commission to take up accessory living units
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| The building to the left of this house in Mason District appears to be an ALU. |
After years of work and nearly 100 community meetings, the Fairfax County Planning Commission is holding a public hearing Jan. 28 on zMOD, the massive rewrite, consolidation, and modernization of the county’s zoning code. The Board of Supervisors’ hearing is scheduled for March 9.
At a town hall on zMOD hosted by Braddock Supervisor James Walkinshaw Jan. 25, most of the questions were about the most controversial issues – accessory living units (ALUs) and home-based businesses.
zMOD would make it easier for a resident to create an ALU inside their home.
Under current zoning rules, a property owner needs a special permit, which requires a public hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals, in order to have an interior ALU. Under zMOD, a homeowner would only need an administrative permit, which doesn’t require a hearing and can be handled over the counter.
Due to a large number of complaints about that change, the county zoning staff is giving the BoS an option to retain the requirement for a hearing.
ALUs that are in a detached building on a homeowners’ property would still need a special permit. Detached ALUs can only be approved on lots that are at least two acres.
Related story: Concerns raised about dropping public hearing requirement for accessory dwelling units
An ALU must have a kitchen, bathroom, and area for living and sleeping. ALUs are restricted to single-family homes; they are not allowed in townhouses or condos. They also can’t be used for short-term lodging.
A maximum of two people can live in an ALU. The property owner must live in either the ALU or the principal dwelling. The owner must provide at least one additional off-street parking space beyond what is already required.
Under the current zoning rules, at least one person living in an ALU or main dwelling unit must be age 55 or older or have a disability. The zMOD proposal gives the BoS an option to consider removing that requirement.
In an interior ALU, the size of the ALU can be no bigger than 800 square feet or 40 percent of the principal dwelling size, whichever is less. The BoS is given the option of allowing the entire basement to be considered an ALU. Detached ALUs can be up to 1,200 square feet.
Since 1983, Fairfax County approved 219 ALUs and denied 17. If the new rules are approved, “we do anticipate modest increases; we don’t think it’s going to be crazy,” said Carmen Bishop, senior assistant to the zoning administrator in the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning.
zMOD consolidates the current rules on home occupations, home professional offices, and home-based barbershops/beauty salons.
Examples of home-based businesses include teaching, fitness training, repair of small household items, and sewing or tailoring. Production of handcrafted or food items is allowed but is limited to off-site delivery. Hair salons are allowed but massages, facials, and manicures are not.
Related story: ZMod and ADUs: A solution in search of a problem
These businesses can have no more than two customers at a time and six customers per day. Businesses in single-family detached homes can have one employee; businesses in other types of homes cannot have any employees. There must be one dedicated parking space.
A home-based business can have up to three small temporary signs the size of a yard sign for a political candidate.
The county’s zoning rules don’t take precedence over more restrictive HOA covenants.
Among other changes to the zoning code in zMOD discussed at the Jan. 25 meeting:
- Food trucks are allowed in residential areas – such as parking lots at community pools and religious buildings – up to 12 times a year with an administrative permit. No more than three food trucks are allowed at a time, and they can’t be on the premises for more than four hours.
- Solar panels can exceed a building’s height by five feet.
- Fences on decks can be up to eight-and-a-half feet high.
- New types of uses have been added, such as trampoline parks, cat lounges, and electric vehicle charging stations.
- The language is simplified and the structure of the document is more intuitive, with more graphics. There are just nine articles instead of 20. The new document can be more easily viewed on a phone and tablet.
9 responses to “Planning Commission to take up accessory living units”
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When will we remove light trucks and vans off of our streets?
How many kids need to be hurt so we remove these dangers off of our communities?
I applaud the redrafting of the Zoning Ordinance. While I am sure there is at least one item in the new document to anger each of us, in general any regulation with this much power to define our community should be regularly, systematically updated. There is nothing magic about the current ordinance – it merely reflects the time in which it was developed. Fairfax is no longer the rural area it once was (pre-194os) nor just the bedroom suburb most of us remember (pre-2000), it is an increasingly urban community with significant density and a complex social structure. In order to manage it for the future, it needs to look forward and not backward. (Nope, I don't work for the County!)
If HOAs can restrict ALUs and home-based businesses, then areas of the County with fewer/no HOAs may see disproportionate development. This strikes me as patently unfair. It may be true the County will only see a modest increase in ALUs, for example, but a modest increase on a street or other localized area can have a major impact on quality of life for that neighborhood. I wonder how many of the planners or supervisors live in HOAs or other developments exempt from some of the proposed rules (townhouse and condo communities).
It seems clear the County wants to get rid of the 55+ and disability requirement, as well special permits for interior ALUs. This will likely have the unintentional consequence of reducing housing options for a vulnerable segment of our community.
However, the home-based business updates may be of greater consequence to the community. The proposed changes increase the categories of home-based business that can receive customers, i.e., all of them. The advertised number of customers per day is 0 – 8. Home-based businesses can operate a 13 hr. business day (8 am – 9 pm) every day of the week.
There are a lot of things to like about the zMOD – developing an accessible regulation is itself major accomplishment. It’s worth considering updates to the ALU and home-based business regulations. But, the proposed changes go too far, and we’ll likely be stuck with them for years (decades?) to come.
Knowing Mason District as I do, this will turn the district into a tent city. First zoning has to prove that they can thwart multi family housing in designated single family dwelling units. Once they get compliance under control then we should re-visit this. Currently the County Attorneys have limited zoning on getting accurate information in their interviews when inspecting a complaint. All Jose has to so say is yea, I am the second cousin of Maria and zoning marks the complaint as compliant. What a freaking joke!
This modification would have a more profound impact if people actually paid attention to ALU rules to begin with. Most of the houses around my neighborhood with 10 cars on the street and a houseful of people added bedrooms and bathrooms in the basement without consulting the zoning ordinance or pulling a permit. They simply did the work and had more people move in. When those people move out, the mattresses go out on the street and the front storm door is left open until new people move in. Sometimes, the mattresses are gone before the new people arrive, sometimes they sit on the curb for months. Until zoning enforcement is stepped up, the decline of neighborhoods without HOA's will continue, ZMod or not.
This is concerning, as someone who lives in a non-HOA community. If you live in a community with older homes that flipper developer vultures feast on – every single new teardown and/or remodel is going to have a basement apartment ALU, every single one. There have been a dozen (or more) newly built and remodeled homes on my street in the last 10 years, and I would imagine that every single one of them would have put in a basement apartment given the wide open opportunity to do so. Mandating one extra parking space is a joke.
The Planning Commission meeting is tomorrow night. There's still time to make your voice heard, either at the hearing (via phone) or email the Commission ahead of time – https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/AgencyDetail.aspx?agId=36&abv=PLN. Click on "Email."
I'd rather have a teardown with an ADU in the basement than an ADU/house in the backyard. That is happening in my neighborhood. People were buying houses and building mansions, but the past couple years it's a house in the backyard. And it's not Grandma living there or someone over 55.
This will happen more as well. With looser ALU restrictions, I can definitely see more people building separate dwelling units. It is however easier to build a basement apartment/ALU.