WASHINGTON — The head of Fairfax County’s governing board says she will vote to strike down a controversial zoning change that could limit the number of people who can visit a home and the frequency of gatherings.
Sharon Bulova, chairman of the Fairfax County board of supervisors, says she will vote to turn down a measure being considered that would limit the number of people who can visit a home. The measure would limit visitors to 49 per day and would say there could be no more than three over-sized gatherings within a 40-day period.
The suggested zoning alterations came after residents complained about large and frequent events at houses, which cause parking, traffic and noise problems. Events ranged from religious meetings to social clubs to family gatherings.
Bulova says she thinks the rest of the 10-member board will follow suit in striking down the changes.
“I plan to suggest that we pull the plug on this,” Bulove said Thursday.
“I just think it goes a little bit too far, there’s been a lot of misunderstanding, and I’m not really certain that it would get to the problem without impacting people negatively.”
Bulova says she will make her suggestions at the board’s next gathering, a development process meeting, on June 10.
The county hosted three public meetings about the possible home gathering and event limitations. Bulova says she was not in favor of bringing the suggestions to the public because they seemed like an overreach from the government that would lead to miscommunication.
“In this case, I know for a fact that a majority of board members feel that this got off to a really bad start,” she said.
Bulova says she will suggest that the county goes back to the drawing board.
“What I’d like to see is if our existing ordinances can try to get at this issue, rather than trying to create new laws that people keep trying to circumvent.”
Related Stories:
- Fairfax considers limiting size of home gatherings, events
- Fairfax County residents speak out about limits to home gatherings (Video)
WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report. Follow @kingWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
