Proposals to streamline the process of applying for community special event permits from the county government won the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s general support on Wednesday (Jan. 8).
However, with a number of details left unresolved, members deferred final action on whether to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the changes to next Wednesday, Jan. 15.
The proposed zoning amendment would affect the administrative permit process required for relatively small special events, such as art fairs and neighborhood open houses. In some cases, the costs charged sponsoring organizations for the permits also would be reduced.
Commission members generally were supportive of the broad outlines of the changes proposed by staff, with some caveats.
“This is an improvement over what we’ve had … but there are improvements that potentially could be had,” Planning Commission chair and at-large member Phil Niedzielski-Eichner said before proposing that the vote be pushed back a week.
During the preceding discussion, several commissioners said the regulations need to be more specific about what triggers the need for either an administrative permit for smaller events or a Board of Supervisors-issued special permit for larger ones — and when no permit is required.
“It’s hard to understand what is a special event, what is not a special event,” Braddock District Commissioner Mary Cortina said. “It’s really not clear to me where those lines are.”
The proposed changes don’t impact when a permit is required, staff said. A neighborhood Halloween party, for example, won’t require one, nor would a wedding conducted in a home’s rear yard. County officials said they are always happy to field questions from those in doubt.
In an earlier incarnation of the proposed changes, staff suggested eliminating fees for permits when the event was relatively small. They changed their mind, however, after considering the staff time involved in processing permits and coordinating with other agencies that have regulatory authority.
In the end, staff recommend a minimum charge of $120 to cover a two-year period for events that don’t expect more than 150 people in attendance at a time. That’s half the current minimum permit rate, but it still caused heartburn for some commission members.
“We don’t want to create barriers. Organizations may just feel $120 is too much,” Providence District Commissioner Jeremy Hancock said, noting that those groups might consider not holding the event, or ignore the permit requirement and hope nobody alerts county staff.
“Some balance” is needed to ensure compliance without imposing a financial hardship, he argued.
The current ordinance lets the Board of Supervisors waive fees in specific cases, but going through that approval process could present another hurdle for smaller organizations.
“My concern is with the smaller groups, making sure they get the county support they need without the barriers,” Hancock said.
Cortina circled back on the issue of cost, musing whether the county government in certain instances had the authority to require permits at all.
“There are constitutional rights to gather, and generally, you don’t need a permit to gather unless there is a significant public impact,” she said.
Niedzielski-Eichner said a one-week delay of the vote would allow the commission to review options presented by staff and digest the discussion from the meeting. A date for eventual consideration by the Board of Supervisors hasn’t been set.
Rules on food truck locations may be loosened
At its Wednesday meeting, the planning commission also held a public hearing on proposed changes to rules for food trucks that could primarily benefit neighborhood swim clubs and those working in smaller office buildings.
Designed to provide more flexibility on where food trucks can be located, staff have proposed two key alterations:
- The number of days per year a food truck could serve a specific spot in a residential neighborhood would increase from the current 12 to a maximum of 32.
- One food truck would be allowed at a time in commercial locations where the gross floor area of a building is 25,000 square feet or less. Currently, food trucks only are permitted when an adjacent building’s floor area is higher than that.
Increasing the time limit from 12 to 32 days in residential areas would allow food trucks to be on site all weekend and holiday days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, staff said. That would benefit community pools in particular, they noted.
If the changes are implemented, food-truck operators would still need to comply with all applicable permit requirements. The fee structure would not change.
The planning commissioners seemed amenable to the proposals, but in conjunction with the special events zoning amendment, action was deferred to Wednesday, Jan. 15.
