Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors reacted favorably Tuesday (Feb. 18) to a request that pets be allowed in more Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority apartment properties.
“That review is underway,” Board Chair Jeff McKay said in response to comments by Gina Marie Lynch, the Mount Vernon representative to the Animal Services Advisory Commission.
Household pets “provide many people a reason to get up in the morning,” Lynch said during the public comment section of the board’s meeting last week.
She pointed to the mental-health benefits of pet ownership, observing that pets “are friends to children and seniors.”
Restrictions on pets in some of the county’s affordable housing units force some individuals to choose between finding another place to live or giving up their pets.
With county animal shelters already at or near capacity, that can result in a “heartbreaking scenario,” Lynch said.
McKay said that the request would be addressed.
“We are looking forward to working with you,” he told Lynch.
When it comes to current policy related to affordable housing tenants and pets in the county, the situation is somewhat complex.
“The wide variety of housing types and programs has led to a corresponding wide variety of pet policies in Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) units and rent-subsidy programs,” Allyson Pearce, a spokesperson for the authority, told FFXnow.
According to Pearce:
“Pet policies have evolved over time as the FCRHA’s portfolio expanded and then fully transitioned to third-party, private management. Pets are allowed with some size and breed restrictions at the FCRHA’s one manufactured-home park and its wholly owned senior independent-living properties. Most of the FCRHA’s multifamily units do not allow pets, and neither of the FCRHA’s licensed assisted-living facilities allow them. Both multi-family and senior units in private developments have additional pet limitations due to homeowner-association bylaws.”
Where pets are allowed in FCRHA-owned properties, renters are charged minimal fees and deposits, Pearce said, and pet immunizations must be kept up to date.
For residents receiving subsidies through the county government’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly Section 8 housing), pet policies are at the discretion of individual landlords.
Service and companion animals are permitted as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Requests for exceptions to policies as a reasonable accommodation are evaluated and documented in accordance with established policies and procedures,” Pearce said.
Among other topics brought up during the public-comment period:
Ordinance to remove snow from sidewalks suggested
During the public comment period, speaker Joe McMullin asked county officials to use Falls Church’s snow-removal ordinance as a model for Fairfax County.
Currently, Fairfax officials encourage but do not require that snow be removed from sidewalks adjacent to residential and commercial property. However, a number of neighboring jurisdictions do mandate that property owners help clean up.
McMullin pointed to the Falls Church ordinance as the one to emulate based on his experience living in the county’s Jefferson Village community, near the Falls Church City border.
Under regulations in the city code, Falls Church gives residents 12 hours and business owners eight hours from the time snow stops falling to remove it from sidewalks. If the snowfall ends overnight, they have the same period of time, starting at daylight.
Those failing to meet the requirement face fines of $100 to $750, although Falls Church officials say most who receive a violation notice take care of the issue, and very few fines are levied. One informal staff estimate was a single citation had been issued in the past six years.
Arlington, which also has a snow-removal ordinance, has a light touch on issuing citations as well.
In his remarks to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, McMullin noted that the storm that hit the region on Jan. 6-7 was especially vexing, because frigid temperatures resulted in any snow that wasn’t quickly removed from sidewalks turning to ice and lingering for several weeks.
Snowy and icy sidewalks were one of the reasons that Fairfax County Public Schools cited for keeping schools closed through Jan. 9, which amounted to nearly three weeks without class for students who had been absent for the winter break.
A subsequent snow event on Feb. 11 proved less challenging, because it was followed by warming temperatures and rain that helped dissipate the wintry accumulation.
More bamboo enforcement needed, speaker says
Public-comment speaker Nancy Oakes urged supervisors to require more stringent enforcement of regulations on planting and supervision of running bamboo.
She told county officials that a neighbor’s bamboo had encroached on her yard, but she was advised not to cut it. County officials responded that they’re working with Oakes on the issue.
The Board of Supervisors passed a revised ordinance in 2022 requiring property owners who have running bamboo to ensure it doesn’t encroach on adjoining properties or public rights-of-way. That ordinance went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
“If a bamboo owner fails to comply with a notice of violation, each day that running bamboo remains uncontained may result in a civil penalty of $50, up to a maximum of $2,000 in a 12‑month period,” county officials said after adoption of the new requirements.
Advocacy for Palestinians continues
Speaker Susana Vega criticized the county leadership, which “continues to remain silent” on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, she said.
Like those who have spoken at previous public comment periods, Vega called on supervisors to divest from companies doing business in or connected to Israel, much as the county government did decades ago for businesses operating in apartheid-era South Africa.
Israel and Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, agreed to a ceasefire in mid-January after more than 15 months of violence following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israeli towns. However, a deal for a “second phase” of the truce, which is currently set to expire on March 1, has yet to be reached.
At the same time, Israeli settlers have continued to build houses in the West Bank, attacking and displacing existing residents in an area that was envisioned by the 1993 Oslo accords as a future Palestinian state, according to news reports.
Photo via Sabina Fratila/Unsplash
