Fairfax County will likely seek the power to ban guns from public buildings, keep cell phones out of the hands of teen drivers, streamline enforcement of overcrowding laws and protect gays from discrimination, according to a bundle of proposals that officials plan to send to Richmond next year.
The measures will be part of the yearly ritual of local supervisors asking state legislators for new and broader powers, which is made necessary under the much-bemoaned Dillon Rule. The rule — which remains in practice in Virginia — vests only as much power in local governments as the state decides to grant them.
Fairfax has beenrebuffed in previous attempts to ban firearms in publicly owned buildings like police stations and community centers and write sexual-orientation protections into its Human Rights Ordinance.
“In Virginia, small counties — like Wythe County — have the same problems with the Dillon Rule as a jurisdiction as large as Fairfax, which is having the authority to deal with some really basic human needs,” said Supervisor Penelope Gross, who represents the Mason District.
Proponents have argued the Dillon Rule ensures legal uniformity across county borders and has allowed the assembly to keep down taxes and attract business to the commonwealth.
The list of Fairfax’s requests, now in draft form, also asks for more funding for mental health services and for traffic improvements around Fort Belvoir, which is expected to be swamped with traffic due to an influx of 19,000 new workers by 2011.
On the issue of residential overcrowding, which has served as a surrogate to the illegal immigration debate in Fairfax, supervisors will ask the General Assembly for the power to enact an ordinance to prevent an owner from “flipping” a property in order to set back the enforcement process.
The board will also pursue legislation that would allow police to pull over teens with provisional driver’s license solely for using a cell phone while driving, among other requests.
The offense is now considered “secondary,” which means a violator would need to commit another crime at the same time to be pulled over.
