Supervisors streamline the development review process

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on July 19 approved a revised method for considering development proposals, including a shortened timeline.

The change affects the Site-Specific Plan Amendment process (SSPA) under which developers and others can submit proposals that require amendments to the county’s Comprehensive Plan.

A shorter timeline

The new process retains the three-step structure, with a nomination, screening, and evaluation phase.

The nomination period is reduced from three months to one month. The screening process carried out with community engagement, which currently takes six or seven months, is reduced to four months.

The timeline for the evaluation phase would vary depending on the urgency of the project, geographic equity, and available resources.

The current four-year alternating cycle in which proposals for the north and south areas of the county are considered in separate years is being replaced with a countywide nomination period every two years.

More flexibility

The new SSPA process gives the board more flexibility. It can accept nominations that didn’t meet the initial qualifications and can reject a plan likely to come up against significant community opposition.

People living and working near the site will be engaged earlier in the process.

Instead of a public hearing to screen the nominations, the Planning Commission will hold a workshop open to the public to review development proposals. An ad hoc task force could still be used with complex nominations.

Related story: Board to consider changes in comp plan amendment process

The only people who spoke at the public hearing before the vote represented developers. They all support the changes.

Board chair Jeffrey McKay called the new process a “drastic improvement” and “a major step forward in the right direction.”

Now, people nominate unrealistic proposals that are not economically feasible and that spark widespread opposition from residents, McKay said. With the new SSPA system, the county “will determine if a proposal has merit at the start of the process.”

More details required early

Nominators now have to submit more information about their proposal at the beginning of the process, including an illustrated concept plan, a potential timeline, and the consent of property owners.

The board, however, has the discretion to accept proposals that do not meet the property owner consent submissions.

The revised justification criteria call for nominators to explain how the proposal would:

• address an emerging community concern or change in circumstances.
• advance planning objectives of the county’s policy plan, area plans, and/or concept for future development.
• align with the goals of the county’s Strategic Plan, One Fairfax policy, Communitywide Housing Strategic Plan, Economic Success Plan, or other policies; and
• describe in detail how a plan resubmitted from a previous SSPA cycle has been changed and why.

The eligibility criteria for nominations is expanded to allow areas subject to a previous land use plan amendment to come up again two years after the previous nomination was approved. The current limit is four years.

The new nomination phase will take effect by October.