On Wednesday, April 20, residents of the Dranesville, Sully and Hunter Mill districts will have the opportunity to discuss nominations for the Area Plans Review process, a procedure that began last year and could potentially change the way certain areas of those districts are developed.
A public hearing will be held at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, with citizens welcome to address the county’s Planning Commission regarding modifications to the county’s Master Plan, the guideline that directs how development occurs in certain areas, controls density and regulates land use, transportation and public facilities.
“This is a standard part of the Area Plan Review process,” which takes place every five years, said Alison Kriviskey, a senior planner with the county’s Planning Commission.
Those who wish to address the Planning Commission are strongly urged to sign up to speak, either on the county’s Web site, www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/apr, or by phone at 703-324-3865, she said. Speakers presenting on their own behalf will be given five minutes to speak whereas those representing a community or civic group will be given 10 minutes to plead their case, she said.
“If people don’t sign up by the deadline, they can come and speak, but not until the end of the list,” she said. The deadline is 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting, and those who sign up after that deadline will only be able to speak for three minutes, whether representing an individual person or a group. “There’s no limit to how many people can speak on a single case,” Kriviskey said.
Presentations will begin at 7:30 p.m., and no new case will be opened after midnight, she said. A carry-over date of April 27 at 7:30 p.m. has been established should more cases remain. The order in which the cases will be read is not determined until the day of the public hearing, she said.
The Planning Commission has established the Web site to make it easier for residents to stay on top of changes to the Comprehensive Plan or upcoming meetings regarding land use, she said. “People often say they don’t know where to go to get information about their neighborhoods, so we decided to create a listserv, including some e-mail notifications, to keep people informed,” Kriviskey said.
“On the Fairfax County Web site, you can sign up to have announcements sent into your e-mail regarding the Area Plan Review and other planning processes,” she said. “We’re trying to send out announcements about projects, deadlines and other things to keep residents up to date.”
THE FINAL DECISIONS on the Area Plan Review nominations are due by May 18, she said, during a meeting scheduled for 8:15 p.m. at the Government Center. That meeting will be open for public attendance but will not be a public hearing, she said.
Dranesville District Supervisor Joan DuBois said if there were any major concerns about the proposed changes, she would have heard about the problem by now.
“We’ve already had an APR task force that reviewed what used to be the norm,” DuBois said. “You’re more likely to see more people from APR than the task force in the audience that night.”
Initially, 85 projects were nominated to be studied and discussed, but only 55 projects remain, according to the staff reports for the proposed plan amendments.
In the Dranesville District, there are three nominations that will be considered, not including four nominations that lay in the Hunter Mill and Dranesville Districts and have been excluded from the Area Plan Review Process to be explored as part of a special study, recommended by Supervisors DuBois and Catherine E. Hudgins from Hunter Mill. Two other nominations from the Dranesville District, both in McLean, have been withdrawn.