Fairfax County Kicks Off Changes to Comprehensive Plan Amendment Process

October 14, 2021

For an update on this topic, please see our January 24, 2022 alert.


Changes are coming to the Fairfax County Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission held a joint meeting Oct. 12, 2021, to discuss the SSPA process for achieving comprehensive plan amendments for individual sites. The existing SSPA program features a four-year cycle for handling comprehensive plan nominations and involves an extensive county and community review lasting at least two years.

Those bodies directed county staff to review the current SSPA process and propose improvements focused on inclusion and community engagement, timeline and prioritization of amendments, SSPA task force and staff resource demands, and nomination criteria adjustments.

Next steps in the process include:

  1. Late 2021— stakeholder interviews/community survey through.
  2. Early 2022 — findings and final recommendations.
  3. Early to mid-2022 — adoption of new/revised process.

If you are interested in providing input into the SSPA updates or have questions about the process, McGuireWoods’ Tysons land use group is available to discuss strategy and options for engagement.

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