The cost of doing business with Fairfax County’s zoning regulators would skyrocket under a proposed fee increase to be considered by the Board of Supervisors.
The package of fees could hit homeowners and the ailing Virginia home-building industry alike, and follows measures proposed by Northern Virginia governments in similarly desperate financial straits.
Fairfax County faces a $648 million shortfall, and county staff wants to recoup $2 million by raising the cost of some permits, zoning appeals and other applications. The price of appealing a zoning administrator’s unfavorable decision, for example, would increase from $375 to a maximum of $2,455, according to documents provided by Fairfax County.
The Board of Supervisors is expected today to set March public hearings for the fee increases, which will be considered as part of the fiscal 2010 budget.
“The board has a policy to try to have new development pay for itself,” said new Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, who did not say whether she endorsed the new fees.
Michael Toalson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, called the proposal “government at its worst.” As builders endure rounds of layoffs from the shrinking volume of work amid the housing downturn, zoning staff should follow suit, he said.
“That’s what our businesses have to do; local governments, as much as it hurts me to say this, ought to follow that same requirement,” he said. “As demand for their services declines, they generate less revenue, so rather than do the right thing — admittedly, a terrible thing — they raise fees.”
Bulova suggested that as a tradeoff with developers, plans could be reviewed quicker.
Fairfax County agencies, including the Department of Planning and Zoning, have been asked to draw up ways on how to cut their budgets by as much as 15 percent to help close the shortfall. Planning and Zoning’s cuts include eliminating as many as 18 positions.
If passed, the zoning fee increase would be fourth in Fairfax County since 1996, according to a staff report, which said the change would recover up to 75 percent of the costs incurred by Planning and Zoning.
