January 3, 2025
Happy New Year! Before we look ahead to what 2025 will bring, Department of Code Compliance wanted to provide a look back at where we’ve been over the last year. In 2024, DCC was proud to deliver excellent service to the residents, businesses, and visitors of Fairfax County. DCC continues to build on efforts to provide education, outreach, and responsive enforcement actions which prioritize community safety and wellbeing.
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DCC programs for managing community-based concerns are popular throughout the County. Our intrepid intake team provides front-facing customer service, taking nearly 9400 calls, processing 3000 website submissions in PLUS and well over 500 Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests In 2024. In total, we received around 6700 new reports in 2024. Our 29 full time investigators, along with our seasonal crews for tall grass enforcement, conducted nearly 12,000 property inspections. Most of our casework (44% of inspections) were related to a zoning matter, followed by property maintenance (21%), unpermitted construction (16%), Tall Grass (15%), and bamboo issues (4%). Of the cases received in 2024, 85% have been closed. At the time of this report, the agency has about 1600 cases in an active status.
DCC 2024 Wrap-Up Infographic
Recognizing that rules enforced by DCC apply to everyone, but that not everyone in the community knows these rules, DCC emphasizes the importance of educating those who are subject to enforcement. This requires a unique set of communication skills that our investigative staff use effectively – shown by our team achieving voluntary compliance (i.e. no legal action pursued in court) in 95% of cases that closed in 2024. To avoid unnecessary hardship and provide fair treatment, DCC strives to limit the use of legal penalties. For new cases in 2024, DCC Investigators cited nearly 1500 violations, but sent only 83 requests for legal action to our County’s Attorney. This is down from about 1600 violations and 168 legal requests in 2023.
In April of 2024, DCC undertook a strategic reorganization to better distribute workloads geographically throughout the County. This alignment of our five enforcement divisions with the nine magisterial districts has helped provide better communication and coordination with our elected officials’ offices, more efficient allocation of staff resources, and better service to our stakeholders.
Initiatives to broadly communicate our services and explanations of rules and regulations are a key area of focus. In 2024, DCC staff attended or hosted 14 events in partnership with other internal agencies, reaching hundreds of staff and public audience members. We distributed 12 editions of Code Compliance Corner, covering a range of topics which were amplified across social media and other County news publications. We updated 15 topical websites and flyers and received about 74,000 website views.
We look forward to building on these successes in the coming year.
We are here to help!
If you have questions, want to make a report, or if you are the subject of enforcement and need to contact us, you can report problems online, reach us via email, phone (703-324-1300 / TTY 711), or visit us in person at 12055 Government Center Parkway, Suite 1016, Fairfax, VA 22035.
December 2, 2024
Hoarding Disorder can lead to the extreme and persistent collection of possessions inside a dwelling (hoarding). Common hoarded possessions include newspapers, trash, clothing, rotting food and even animals. Without intervention, hoarding can interfere with personal hygiene and health; access to medical care in emergences; and can create fire hazards and other dangerous living environments for the residents and animals who live in them. More importantly, it could also contribute to loss of life and could endanger anyone living in close proximity to a hoarded structure, in the event of fire or structural collapse. It is important to report hoarding to someone who is able to provide assistance to the resident. Because hoarding requires multi-faceted, streamlined response efforts, Fairfax County created the Hoarding Committee, led by the Department of Code Compliance (DCC). Additional information about hoarding, including the County’s Hoarding Committee, three-part hoarding mini-series, and links to potential resources is available on DCC’s Hoarding Website and Hoarding Flyer.
DCC is here to help – if you have questions, want to make a report, or if you are the subject of enforcement and need to contact us. You can report problems online, learn about what happens during an investigation, reach us via email, phone (703-324-1300 / TTY 711), or visit us in person at 12055 Government Center Parkway, Suite 1016, Fairfax, VA 22035.
November 1, 2024
The right lighting provides benefits to your property, including safety and crime prevention and curb appeal. However, too much, or the wrong type of, lighting causes a lot of problems – like light trespass to neighbors, dangerous glare to drivers, and impacts to sensitive habitat. Not to mention that excess lighting is wasteful and increases energy demand. The County promotes Dark Skies to limit the harmful effects of light pollution and encourages responsible lighting practices.
To support these initiatives, the Zoning Ordinance has rules on new or replacement outdoor lighting fixtures that are enforced by the Department of Code Compliance (DCC). DCC investigates for compliance with those rules, which include the ones bulleted below. Details about color temperature and brightness (measured in lumens) can be found on the lightbulb box.
Fixtures that emit initial light outputs greater than 1,500 lumens must be full cut-off and mounted horizontal to the ground. Full cut-off means no light is emitted above the bottom of the fixture – in other words, light should point down and not up.
Lightbulb color temperature must be at or lower than 3,000 Kelvin.
Lighting used to illuminate flags, as part of landscaping, or for architectural purposes, must be aimed and shielded to keep the light only on the intended object. Landscaping or architectural detail lighting cannot point directly upward without shielding.
Lights exempt from the regulations include:
Holiday lights
Motion activated lights, such as security lights, of less than 4,000 lumens, when the light is directed within the property boundary and turns off within five minutes of motion stopping.
In addition to their Outdoor Lighting webpage, the Department of Planning and Development has flyers with key outdoor lighting regulation information for residential as well as commercial, industrial and other nonresidential properties.
Interested in light pollution monitoring? The Light Pollution Monitoring Kit, also known as the Dark Skies Kit, is available to borrow from the FCPL Library of Things and includes tools to measure and monitor light levels.
DCC is here to help – if you have questions, want to make a report, or if you are the subject of enforcement and need to contact us. You can report problems online, learn about what happens during an investigation, reach us via email, phone (703-324-1300 / TTY 711), or visit us in person at 12055 Government Center Parkway, Suite 1016, Fairfax, VA 22035.