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The Expedited Building Plan Review Program offers owners and developers the opportunity to reduce the time necessary for Fairfax County to issue a building permit. The program goal is to cut Building Division time to permit in half without reducing code compliance or “quality” of the plans.
Keys to program success are the carefully vetted, Fairfax County certified “Peer Reviewers”. These are registered architects and professional engineers who are highly qualified through years of design and review experience, certification by the International Code Council and a record of success with the county building plans review process. Peer reviewer performance is monitored, and under-performers are invited to exit the program.
Owners and developers, especially those unfamiliar with the Fairfax County building permit process, are encouraged to employ peer reviewers during the initial design phase to help streamline the design/development process.
Peer reviewers are hired by the owner / developer to accommodate the design schedule and to enforce the Virginia Construction Code and Fairfax County requirements in the building official’s stead.
All are cautioned to remember that peer reviewers are not a part of the design team. Rather, they are a knowledgeable resource with code enforcement responsibilities like those of county staff. Read about peer reviewer conflict of interest below.
The process begins with the owner/developer decision to opt into the program. The Fairfax County building official allows all qualified projects admission to the program. Pre-approval is vested in the list of certified peer reviewers.
Once submitted, permit issuance is expedited as the peer reviewed plans are given priority status. Residential and complex commercial plans receive advanced placement in each respective queue. Non-complex interior alterations are generally administratively processed to further expedite the plan review.
Highly complex plans may not see time savings on the first county review; however, the number of reviews is expected to be fewer, yielding a lower overall time to permit.
If you have additional questions, please contact Building Plan Review at 703-222-0114 , TTY 711, or via email.
