Attend this meeting to offer feedback to Fairfax County Supervisor Walter Alcorn and Planning Commissioner John Carter on the proposed updates to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan’s Policy Plan:

📅 Monday, Nov. 10

🕡 7 p.m.

📍 North County Governmental Center

Fairfax County planning staff is unavailable and will not attend the meeting to provide an overview or answer questions. So for background information, please review the following, especially the staff presentation to the Planning Commission that includes recent updates to the draft plan based on feedback:

• Staff presentation to the Planning Commission
• Watch the staff presentation to the Planning Commission
• Read the staff report

Background

The Policy Plan: Why It Matters

As one of the Comprehensive Plan’s components, the Policy Plan provides a vision for future land use in the county. It also contains the Board of Supervisors’ goals, policies and objectives for land use, transportation, affordable housing and more.

However, the Policy Plan hasn’t been wholistically updated since it was adopted in 1990, so this project aims to

• Review, update and streamline existing policies, eliminating obsolete or redundant policies, reflect emerging trends in land use, incorporate new priorities like the focus on making it easier to get around by foot or bike.
• Add new policy plan elements such as equity and community health
• Ensure the policy plan aligns with other county plans, including the Strategic Plan and One Fairfax Policy.

What’s the Policy Plan?

The Policy Plan sets forth general countywide policies to guide land use planning and development. Because it focuses on the broader vision, the plan doesn’t offer guidance for specific properties or geographic areas, such as recommended uses, density, intensity or site design. These more detailed, localized recommendations are found in the four Area Plans instead. Of course, the Policy Plan provides a framework that informs the site-specific guidance in the Area Plans. And it provides the policy foundation for requiring residential developers to offset their development’s impact on public facilities like schools, and it expresses values like respecting existing residential neighborhoods when new development is proposed.