Land Development Services

Effective Dec. 29, 2023, LDSNET, a legacy land development system, will no longer be available for use. Customers may access land development records through PLUS (the Planning and Land Use System). PLUS serves as Fairfax County’s central platform for customers to complete building, zoning, permitting and other land development processes. If you are unable to find a land development record in PLUS, you will be able to locate your record at the Land Development Information History webpage.

Find important information and instructions for Land Development Service (LDS)-related records on the Permit Library | Land Development Services (fairfaxcounty.gov) page.

Visit the PLUS webpage for additional information about PLUS.

County staff continue to implement additional improvements to the Planning and Land Use System (PLUS) to serve you better. Check out these new PLUS fixes for Land Development Services (LDS) customers.

We welcome your feedback on future PLUS enhancements. If you have ideas to improve the system, please take a moment to enter them here: LDS Customer PLUS Feedback Form.

On Sept. 26, 2023, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors repealed and replaced Article 6 of the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance. Article 6 contains the off-street parking and loading regulations for land development in the county. A copy of the approved amendment is available for review on the Parking Reimagined webpage prior to its effective date of Jan. 1, 2024, at which time it will be incorporated into the Zoning Ordinance.

The new ordinance was adopted following a two-year study of Fairfax County’s parking regulations with the goal of updating and modernizing these requirements to incorporate current and future parking trends.

Significant regulatory changes include new requirements for minimum bicycle parking; adjustments to parking rates for many land uses; a graduated tiered parking framework with lower minimum requirements in planned high-density development areas of the county; restructured loading requirements; additional options and criteria for parking reductions, now known as adjustments; and administrative changes intended to create more simplicity, flexibility and predictability in determining site and use parking needs. Additional training material will be posted on the LDS Off-Street Parking webpage.

If you have any questions, please contact Michael Davis, Parking Program Manager, in the Site Development and Inspection Division at 703-324-3065, TTY 711

Staff from the Department of Land Development Services (LDS) and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) conducted a 90-day pilot program beginning in August to test a process change that would reduce the review period for residential deck permits from about ten days to three-business days. The pilot project was successful, and the new process has been implemented as a permanent change; comprehensive residential deck reviews are now completed within three-business days. LDS and DPD staff have been able to review applications associated with residential deck permits within three-business days of completed application submission. This includes first submission applications as well as resubmissions.  This change will streamline the permitting process for the over 2,000 residential deck permits that are issued on average each year.

This does not include deck projects proposing encroachment into the Resource Protection Area (RPA) and/or the floodplain as those require separate, and more technical, site review. For more information on floodplain and RPA submission requirements, visit our Plan Ahead page.

Current review times for non-residential deck permits and other project types can be found at Land Development Metrics.

For more information about residential deck projects please visit the LDS Permit Library or call 703-222-0801.

To better assist customers with site-related plan and document submissions in Fairfax County’s Planning and Land Use System (PLUS), Land Development Services (LDS) created the Site-Related Submission Guidelines webpage. The webpage is also referenced on each site record page in the new LDS Permit Library.

Submitters are strongly encouraged to adhere to these best practices when uploading plans and documents to the PLUS digital plan room. These practices promote customer ease-of-use and help facilitate the efficient acceptance and review of site-related plans.

For questions or additional information, please contact the Site Application Center staff via email or telephone at 703-222-0801, TTY 711.

County staff continue to implement additional improvements to the Planning and Land Use System (PLUS) to serve you better. Check out these new PLUS fixes for Land Development Services (LDS) customers.

We welcome your feedback on future PLUS enhancements. If you have ideas to improve the system, please take a moment to enter them here: LDS Customer PLUS Feedback Form.

The Land Development Services Site Development and Inspections Division has updated the Erosion and Sediment Control (E&S) Checklist. The checklist contents have been re-organized and simplified, and outdated code references and contents have been updated.

All E&S plans submitted for approval must include an E&S checklist. The hyperlinked checklist is available under the “Requirements section of all relevant site record guides found in the LDS Permit Library. (Learn more about the Permit Library.) The new checklist may be used immediately and is required for all initial submissions made on or after November 10, 2023.

A copy of the updated checklist has been posted on the website.

If you have any questions, please contact the Site Development and Inspections Division at 703-324-1720, TTY 711.

All plat submissions, including Easement Plats and Record Plats, must clearly identify public easements. This new requirement is effective immediately and is necessitated by a recent court decision regarding Virginia Code Sec. 15.2-2265.

All plats with proposed easements must bear a note saying, “See the accompanying deed to this plat for information on use, ownership, maintenance and conditions of easements shown”.

If you have any questions, please contact Matthew Hansen or call Land Development Services at 703-324-1752, TTY 711.

To better serve you, we continue to improve the Planning and Land Use System (PLUS). Check out these new PLUS updates for Land Development Service s (LDS) customers.

Building & Site:

• Updated the digital plan room to include a PDF. Customers can download the PDF by selecting the PDF icon to see general comments as well as comments made on a specific sheet. The PDF is available when comments are in the “open” status, meaning they have not been “answered/addressed."
• Added help bubbles to all permit records, linking to the corresponding Permit Library webpage for each building and site application.

Building:

• Corrected the date field on the Elevator Vertical Transportation Inspection report.
• Created the Building Records Issued report to allow customers to view permits issued monthly, by record type, similar to what was available in our previous permitting system (FIDO).
• Updated street names for Lee Highway (Route 29) and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway (Route 50) to reflect the county-wide name change for these roads to their route numbers 29 and 50.
• Created a new TRUSS record allowing customers to submit truss shop drawings under their own record type, streamlining the process and increasing efficiency for applications to now be directly managed by the Building Division.

Site:

• Updated the General Information Tab on Waiver applications (WAIV) to provide more options to the customer in selecting the appropriate code reference based on the application type, such as invasive vegetation removal in the RPA under 118-3-3(d)(3) and then assess fees appropriately based on the request type.
• Corrected the Floodplain Study record to no longer require a wetland delineator for submission.
• Updated site email notifications to better inform the customer on the status of their record and any necessary actions, such as a notification directing the applicant that the modest corrections needed for approval can be submitted as a “signature submission” along with the necessary steps and timeframe in which to satisfy the comments without being charged an additional review fee.
• Updated Pro Rata Share assessment to account for July 1 fee change.
• Corrected the Minimum Submission Review (MSR) fee for temporary (TMP) records which were previously charging incorrectly.

 We welcome your feedback on future PLUS enhancements. If you have ideas to improve the system, please take a moment to enter them here: LDS Customer PLUS Feedback Form.

Staff at LDS have spent the past several months developing a comprehensive permit library for each building and site-related record type available in the Planning and Land Use system (PLUS). Within the permit library, customers will find a page devoted to each record type providing guidance through the application and approval process.

In addition to developing detailed content for each permit library guide, staff worked with a web design consultant to ensure the layout for each page is intuitive and user friendly. Our goal is to make the permitting process easier and more transparent.

Each permit library page is formatted in a similar way to provide consistency and quick reference across each record type by including the following information:

• The first section of each guide gives a detailed description of what projects are applicable under the record type. For example, for the residential addition/alteration record type, the description begins, “Residential additions and alterations include renovations, decks, finished basements and more…”
• Quick links at the top of each page take customers to specific sections.
• An explanation of who should apply for the record type – property owners or contractors.
• Useful links and resources to help plan for your project.
• Guidance on submitting applications in PLUS along with relevant YouTube tutorials.
• Detailed information on requirements to complete your application in PLUS. (Requirements may include architectural plans, house plats or other documents and authorizations.)
• An explanation of what happens after applications are submitted including how review works, who is reviewing your application, any fees due and the estimated timeframe for review and approval.
• Once customers reach permit or plan issuance, the permit guides explain how to access the permit card and other approved documents in PLUS.
• Depending on the record type there may be additional sections providing information on the inspections process, conservation/bond release, occupancy and more.
• Once fully indexed by Google each record type page will be accessible from a Google search, such as “Fairfax County household appliance permit.”

LDS will continue to strive to bring excellent customer service to the Fairfax County community. Staff believes the permit library is a big step forward in furthering that commitment by providing our customers with the tools to succeed. We appreciate feedback and will be offering an online form at the bottom of each permit guide to capture your suggestions. Thank you for your commitment to building safely by applying for land development permits through Fairfax County.