The Fairfax County Architectural Review Board (ARB) is preparing to adopt updated district-specific design guidelines documents for thirteen Historic Overlay Districts (HODs), as well as a new General Design Guidelines document, which will apply to all current and future HODs. Once adopted, the documents will be available for use by applicants and design and construction professionals in the design phase of a project, and will be used by county staff, and ARB members during the ARB application review process.

The updated draft documents include:

• Historic Overlay District General Design Guidelines
• Bull Run Stone Bridge HOD Design Guidelines
• Centreville HOD Design Guidelines
• Colvin Run Mill HOD Design Guidelines
• Dranesville Tavern HOD Design Guidelines
• Huntley HOD Design Guidelines
• Lake Anne Village Center HOD Design Guidelines
• Langley Fork HOD Design Guidelines
• Mount Air HOD Design Guidelines
• Pohick Church HOD Design Guidelines
• Robey’s Mill HOD Design Guidelines
• St. Mary’s Church HOD Design Guidelines
• Sully HOD Design Guidelines
• Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House HOD Design Guidelines

The Wellington at River Farm and Hollin Hills HODs were established in 2021 in 2022, respectively. Both HODs were established with district-specific design guidelines which were not updated as part of this project.

Project Goals

Many of the HOD-specific design guidelines are unchanged since first established. This project, which traces to 2016, was undertaken to create more detailed design guidelines for all HODs, while simultaneously making the documents easier to use. The ARB identified project goals including: 

• creating a General Design Guidelines document, 
• updating and revising the existing district-specific design guidelines, 
• creating user-friendly documents with visual examples and enhanced definitions, 
• providing guidance documents for applicants, county staff, and ARB members’ use.

The updated district-specific design guidelines include maps, photographs, histories of the HOD and its contributing or historic resources, and recommendations for appropriate treatments based on project type. The General Design Guidelines document, which is applicable to all current and future HODs, contains similar information.