Reply to Massive home addition causes confusion in Fairfax County neighborhood

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The county reviews plans when approving building permits. It is not responsible for validating that a homeowner’s plans are accurate. The county is not responsible for conducting a survey to confirm the plans. If the plans showed the addition being built with the appropriate 8ft setback, then the county has no liability.

If the plans showed the error (eg less than 8ft setback) and the county still approved the plans, then sure the county would have some culpability in the situation.

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The issue isn't liability. The issue is where this would fall under the "self-inflicted hardship" precedent. Working off of an approved plan, [b]even when that plan included an error from homeowner[/b], meaningfully changes that.

Does it change it enough? I don't know. And we probably won't find out because I highly doubt the homeowner here will seek a variance instead of a special permit.

If you're the homeowner, or a neighbor thinking about bringing a lawsuit, you're definitely going to want to talk to a lawyer about your realistic chance of success for different options. Some of the information coming up here is very incomplete, apparently being filtered based on their own desires for this case.[/quote]

Public records show that the application did not include the setback error. The plans the county approved show a 8.5 foot setback. According to publicly available information, it appears that the homeowner did create the setback error himself, which would be a reason to deny a variance.

A number of people posting here have stated that this is a variance issue, not a special permit issue. Why do you think otherwise?
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