Reply to Massive home addition causes confusion in Fairfax County neighborhood

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"Errors are exactly the expected scenario for special permits for small violations of the setback requirements."

- this is not the case when the error is the fault of the permittee. There was nothing inherently wrong with the property/lot itself and all issues here are principally the fault of the owner. Zoning variances are not given as a favor to someone who messed up on their own. Think of the incentives, no need to do the work properly and spend additional money because  it will just get approved at the end. Small or large, it does not matter as this is a binary issue, it is either over the setback line or behind it. Fire safety is important here as the new addition is very close to the neigboring structure.

This is not a special permit situation anyways, as that is for use of the property. They may need one should they seek a zoning exception for multi family.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/sites/planning-development/files/assets/documents/zoning/special%20permit%20process/specialpermit-applicationpackage.pdf

This issue needs to be sorted out through the zoning variance process with the BZA. It will be time consuming and difficult, as the root cause of the issue here has nothing to do with special conditions of the property itself, rather failure to do things property by the owner.[/quote]

The special permit process covers small (<10%) errors when when measuring or laying out a structure. That seems to cover this case.

This isn’t a multi-family structure or living situation, so I’m not sure why you referenced that.[/quote]

Someone who knows what they’re talking about is giving you useful information here. The owners need to talk to a lawyer about how to proceed- a real lawyer who will need to be paid. Going cheap on everything is not working out so far.

NAL here, but from the posts written above, it looks like small errors are not covered under the special permit process when they occur because of negligence (as in not getting a professional survey). An error through mistake is not the same as an error made after *not* doing due diligence. The owners  should talk to a lawyer familiar with the Fairfax County process to get good advice, if they haven’t already. 
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See correction above.

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