Fairfax County, Virginia’s Parking Reimagined project moved closer to adoption after the Fairfax County Planning Commission voted Sept. 13, 2023, to recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors.

Parking Reimagined is the first major revision to Fairfax County’s parking and loading requirements in decades and has been billed as an effort to right-size parking minimums to match actual demand. The Planning Commission recommended approving a majority of the Fairfax County staff recommendations, but made several changes from staff recommendations regarding multifamily housing rates, loading space requirements, and administrative flexibility to approve parking reductions.

Regarding parking, the Planning Commission recommended increasing parking rates for multifamily housing developments, above the staff recommendation. Specifically, the Planning Commission modified the staff recommendation to increase multifamily countywide parking rates from 1.3 parking spaces per dwelling unit (sp/DU) to 1.45 sp/DU. Additionally, the Planning Commission increased the staff recommended rates within the county’s higher density urban areas, including transit station areas (TSAs), transit-oriented developments (TODs) and the planned Tysons Corner (PTC) urban district.

Regarding process, the Planning Commission recommended curtailing the Director of Land Development Services’ authority to approve administrative-level parking reductions. Specifically, the Planning Commission recommended reducing the director’s authority from the staff recommendation of up to 30% reduction for shared parking and parking requests in non-TOD and non-PTC areas, to a maximum 15% reduction. Additionally, the Planning Commission recommended requiring Board of Supervisors approval for approved rezoning projects to seek shared parking reductions. The zoning ordinance currently requires director-level review only for shared parking adjustments.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the adoption of Parking Reimagined on Sept. 26, 2023.