After a family of Chinese immigrants moved in next door to Donald Sack's home in Fairfax last year, he started noticing that a lot of cars pulled up to the house late at night.
"As time passed, every night at about 10:30 a convoy of cars would come rolling down the street," he said. "And since they were pretty young, they were going quickly down the street."
Sacks eventually learned that they all worked at a Fairfax Circle Chinese restaurant and that they all lived in the house full-time.
Sack was disturbed that all the residents owned cars — which they parked in the visitor parking spots and on the street — and because so many of them smoked. He wrote to Supervisor Gerald Connolly (D-Providence) asking that the county inspect the house for possible zoning and health violations.
The Department of Planning and Zoning conducted an inspection of the house and ascertained that no ordinances were being violated because the residents were all related.
Sacks said he is satisfied with the county's assessment.
"As far as I'm concerned the case is closed," he said. "It looked to me that some level of community standards were attempted to be met."
His Chinese-American neighbors reminded him of his own family's experience when first moving to the United States.
"I though back to when my relatives came from Germany. They landed in Baltimore. I wondered what my relatives had to have gone through," he said.
Sacks' neighbors refused to comment for this story.
THE QUESTION of potential overcrowding in Fairfax County homes is one that comes up often, said Supervisor Sharon Bulova (D-Braddock).
"I hear about this issue in almost any community association meeting I go to," she said. Bulova added that constituents were more concerned about street parking than anything else, especially if commercial vehicles are parked out front.
"It can sound like we're being anti-immigrant," she said. "The issue can have tones of ethnic or racial conflicts."
But, she added, "we are a nation of immigrants. We all came here from some other part of the world."
In response to constituent requests, Bulova convened a task force in January to discuss overcrowding and other challenges to the community. The task force, composed of civic activists and county officials, recommended that the county produce a pamphlet designed to inform neighborhoods about the ways in which they can work with county staff to address zoning violations, health department violations, traffic violations or problems with property maintenance. At the June 17 Board of Supervisors meeting, the Boards asked county staff to find ways to produce and distribute such a pamphlet.
The task force also recommended that communities greet new neighbors and educate them about local civic associations and regulations in effect in that community.
"Being a good neighbor, really that's the bottom line," said Bulova. "Part of the community outreach recommendations were that we brush up on our skills."
WILLIAM HEINZ, a task force member from Annandale, said the effects of the recommendations would be "marginal."
"When we came up with an idea you really do find pretty rapidly that there are restrictions on what can be done," he said.
For instance, he said, county inspectors cannot enter a home without the consent of the residents, unless a neighbor is willing to testify in court that he or she believes the county code is being broken.
"It's a concern of the neighborhoods, particularly the older neighborhoods that have been well-established," said Norma Heck, former president of the North Springfield Civic Association. "People are very concerned about maintaining the value of their property."
Heck stressed that the issue was not rooted in concerns over immigration. "It's not who is moving in there, it's maintaining the quality of life in that community," she said. "If you want to come into a community that has high standards, you have a responsibility to do the same thing."
THERE ARE TWO types of regulations in effect for Fairfax County housing, said Roy Eidem, an environmental health specialist with the Fairfax County Health Department.
One is a regulation on occupancy, enforced by the Department of Planning and Zoning. According to the county code, no more than four unrelated people may live together.
The other regulation, enforced by the Health Department, concerns the bedroom space available in a house. The Virginia Statewide Building Code mandates that a one-person bedroom must be a minimum of 70 square feet. Bedrooms with two or more people must provide at least 50 square feet per person.
Bedrooms must also provide a certain measure of privacy and have two exits (one can be a window,) one of which leads to the outdoors, he added.
"You have to meet both in order to satisfy the county maintenance requirements," he said, noting that "our requirements are very minimal."