Massive home addition causes confusion in Fairfax County neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People need to pay attention to the 2026 legislative session in VA. This type of eyesore will become common in single family neighborhoods if the the YIMBYs convince the legislators to preempt local control over zoning. this is exactly what will be coming to Alexandria and Arlington due to the zoning changes. Maybe everywhere in Virginia if the VA legislature preempts local control zoning. Call your state senate reps and state delegates this year to voice your opposition to bills that allow this monstrosity by-right. Oppose anything that eliminates single family zoning, parking minimums, and definitely call to voice opposition to bills that allow churches to ignore local zoning rules. This is already legal everywhere in California and they want to force this on your quaint suburban community as well.

Agree 100%

The bills are now in the state legislature.
SB388 will override local zoning rules and allow non-profits to develop land at a minimum density of 20 units per acre.
SB454: requires by-right multifamily housing for land with business or commercial zoning
SB354 & HB888: will eliminate or reduce parking requirements
SB488: will force density on localities and create housing production targets.

Every neighborhood will have apartments towers popping up if people don’t fight back. Call your state senate reps now to voice your opposition yo these bills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, 5 bedrooms at least 5 full and 2 half baths plus a laundry room

Three laundry rooms! One on each floor

And, it's not going to be apartments...

They never should have approved the first plans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ship has likely sailed on this one, but there is no way that the land disturbance was under 2,500 sq ft. By self-reporting a disturbance of under this amount, they were able to avoid needing to seek a land disturbance permit and approval for a grading plan. Approval for these would have also necessitated an environmental and run-off review, adding further scrutiny to the project.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/landdevelopment/land-disturbance

The google street view from October 2025, clearly shows they have used the entire front yard area from the front porch to the sidewalk as staging area and the ground was disturbed. They did not account for this like they should have in their initial plans. The plans also call for using the existing driveway as stockpile, but the existing driveway was clearly removed. This is also evident on the street view. They even have temporary work area fencing going to what is presumably the property line.

I am at roughly 3,300 sq ft of land disturbance when I account for the front yard area disturbed.

Their calculations do not add up to me from what is show in the plans. I get to 2,097 of disturbance alone from the addition, side buffer area, and rear buffers. This does not include any of the required 10 ft buffer from the garage into the yard.

The plans show an entirely new foundation and footing laid for the entire addition.

Thank you. Everyone who keeps saying "homeowners can do what they want on their own property"- this is proof positive that you really can impact neighbors if you don't follow the rules. We live in a society with rules for this reason. Otherwise it's chaos.

But he could’ve built the same property 8 inches narrower, everyone still would’ve hated it, and the property would’ve been fully compliant and legal.

No because they lied about the land disturbance. Did you read the quotes that you responded to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, 5 bedrooms at least 5 full and 2 half baths plus a laundry room

Three laundry rooms! One on each floor

And, it's not going to be apartments...

They never should have approved the first plans

I understand this one. No one wants to be hauling laundry up and down stairs. I am curious how they will be able to run three dryers on a single 200A service without some sort of coordination.

[Anonymous]

6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

it does if the people are unrelated and living apart from each other in the same structure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

And that is only in the “new” part of the house. There may very well be another laundry room in the original part of the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

And that is only in the “new” part of the house. There may very well be another laundry room in the original part of the house.

It was probably in the old garage. That was pretty common for attached garages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

And that is only in the “new” part of the house. There may very well be another laundry room in the original part of the house.

It was probably in the old garage. That was pretty common for attached garages.

In Fairfax County? Winters are a bit cold here to have laundry in the garage. I’ve seen that when I’ve lived out west, but not here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6 people (family of 4 plus elderly grandparents) need 3 washing machines and 3 dryers? Seriously? My family of 5 survives
Just fine with one set. Some friends have two sets, ok. But 3 sets for 6 people. Doesn’t make sense to me.

And that is only in the “new” part of the house. There may very well be another laundry room in the original part of the house.

It was probably in the old garage. That was pretty common for attached garages.

In Fairfax County? Winters are a bit cold here to have laundry in the garage. I’ve seen that when I’ve lived out west, but not here.

Ah, you are a traveled individual and know all. Let me embiggen your mind:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/460644.page

[Anonymous]

In that particular model, the laundry room is behind the garage, so it would have been destroyed while ripping out that whole section of the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In that particular model, the laundry room is behind the garage, so it would have been destroyed while ripping out that whole section of the house.

How do the pipes not freeze in a garage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the statement of aggrieved persons…

They are saying the building systems associated with the addition are impacting their current living without adequate heating or hot water.

Not sure why the addition caused the water tank and the central heat to be removed in the original home while the home was under construction. I would have thought the contractor would have thought that through more and made a changeover to the new systems at the end of the project. That said it was their choice to live through the renovation in the home. Plenty of people move out during major renovations. This hardship they brought onto themselves in my opinion. Move out if it’s so terrible or build to the plans.

With children not sure I would be reporting to the county having such dismal living conditions. Just me though.

I think the homeowner is delusional in this statement, making comments like the stop work order demonstrated “harm” by directly burdening his property. Ummm - no one harmed him but himself. Build to the plans and he wouldn’t have had a problem.

Just a wild guess, but the HVAC and water heater were probably in the old garage and right up against the wall were you would have needed to do some foundation work.

Why would they eliminate the havac and hot water heater during construction on a lived in house? Wtf?

Each of those individual apartments will need their own hvac units and hot water heaters. It is not as if the home and 3 separate apartment are going to exist on one hvac system and the same hot water heater.

None of this makes sense.

For the 3 story apartment building, won't the 3rd story hvac unit need to be located on the roof, adding to the height?

[Anonymous]

I wonder what the heavy sleet on Sunday will do to this unfinished structure…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In that particular model, the laundry room is behind the garage, so it would have been destroyed while ripping out that whole section of the house.

The Ashley model has no basement and the kitchen has a door to a utility room behind the garage. The utility room has 2 other doors, to garage and outside. Plus it has washer/dryer and HVAC and a water heater.

Google Ashley Poplar tree and see sold houses - Compass site has a function where you can get similar properties [floor plan].

I suspect that the 4210 Marble washer/dryer, HVAC, water heater were not located in the demo area for this addition project. Where they went from the original could have been done via unpermitted work. Where's the permits for the 32 by 12.5 addition on the back in the Feb 2025 survey? That thing doesn't match the google aerial.