Residents of Fairfax County can now pre-order their Fairfax County license plates online at the new Visit Fairfax website—www.fxva.com/plates/.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted last week to approve the sale of the license plates, in partnership with Visit Fairfax, the nonprofit promotion and tourism arm of Fairfax County, and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
The license plates feature the county seal, county map and the website addresses of the government and Visit Fairfax. The plate will cost $25 a year. As mandated by state law, $10 is retained by the state while the other $15 goes back to the license plate sponsor after 1,000 plates are ordered.
The DMV requires 350 commitments from the community in order to make the specialty plate available for purchase at all Virginia DMV locations.
Revenue from the plates will support the World Police and Fire Games—the largest sporting event in the world after the Summer Olympics—which the county will host in 2015. In following years, proceeds will be dedicated to tourism.
“We’ve already had numerous calls about the specialty plates,” said Barry Biggar, president and CEO of Visit Fairfax, when Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) arrived at the Visit Fairfax office last week to pre-order his license plate. Herrity, who initiated the plan, estimated that Fairfax County could generate roughly $250,000 per year from the plates.
“I don’t think we’re going to have trouble getting 350 residents to purchase these license plates,” Herrity said.