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.
I would be surprised that this new efficiency would improve the speed of the process. We have been waiting for development on Columbia Pike where the old homeless shelter was located. That process is now in its 10th year. This is just evidence that our political system is broken when it cant get anything done. This vacant lot along with the adjoining vacant lots is truly a testament.
Clearly you don’t work for any level of government. Dysfunction is a feature, not a bug. They don’t actually care about getting anything done. It’s about power and money and the prospect of getting more power and money.
Yay! Develop it all. Level the remaining green space. Displace the no and low income “residents” who are are drain to the system. Let’s start making some money around here. Thank you, developers, for beautifying our suburbanscape!
Not sure what “green space” you are referring to.
Around Bailey’s Crossroads there is plenty of asphalt covered land with old buildings and empty lots which are anything but green ready and waiting to be developed.
Nobody wants that junk. Developers are interested in parks and small forests next to nice neighborhoods. These have the most potential.