February 10, 2026 Land Use Policy Committee - Feb 10, 2026

meeting

Fairfax County Board Committees 26 min 2 speakers 8 agenda items transcribed 2 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the purpose of today’s Land Use Policy Committee meeting?

Kathy L. Smith 0:05

Good afternoon. I'm going to call the Land Use Policy Committee meeting to order. We have the minutes from our last meeting. If I don't see any corrections or additions, I will consider that accepted. OK, we're going to move forward. A couple of years ago when the budget came out, staff had been looking at raising fees. And some of them haven't been raised for a long time. So the board provided direction that these would be looked at every couple of years. And so this is, believe it or not, a couple of years have gone by. And so we are going to be having a presentation about the application fees. You know, next time we have the briefing meeting, would you guys please remind me to ask who I turn to first?

Kathy L. Smith 0:51

I saw Bill reach, so Bill's going first.

Bill Hicks 0:56

Super. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the committee. My name is Bill Hicks. I'm the Director of Land Development Services. I'm joined at the table by Deputy County Exec Jennifer Miller, Chief Bill Vinoy, Tracy Strunk out of DPD, and Bill Malin, also out of DPD. We're going to talk about a fee proposal. for FY27 that affects fees that are collected for DPD fees, fire marshal fees, as well as land development fees. And I'm just waiting for my presentation to pop up. Thank you. Super. So as Supervisor Smith mentioned, we were back here before this body two years ago where we proposed fees. We had not raised fees in a number of years. And so at the time, that was a significant makeup of kind of years as those fees had eroded.

Bill Hicks 1:57

We raised DPD fees a nominal 35% at that point. Building fees went up 25% nominally. And site fees, I think we raised those 10% during that time. And there were some exceptions. But as Supervisor Smith said, we had a commitment to regularly revisit our fees, and so we are here today. During those last two calendar years, so we raised those fees by those nominal numbers I've just mentioned. We did it over the course of two years, so they were phased in over two years. So we have not been back before this body to talk about raising fees since that time. As you'll see on this slide from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CPI has raised during that period 5%, a little bit more than 5%, but not much more than 5%.

Bill Hicks 2:51

And we have raised compensation for employees by kind of a nominal 8% across those two years as well. So we feel the pressure of the fees being eroded during that time. So our proposal before you today is a nominal 5% across all fees with some exceptions. Those are all zoning fees, land development fees, and fire marshal fees. And it's nominal because it's a little bit above or a little bit below, but it's right at 5% to make the numbers work. There are some exceptions, and we are going to go over what those exceptions are.

How did the committee’s past fee‑increase history shape the FY27 proposal?

Bill Hicks 3:32

What you get for that 5% increase is we pay for that staff compensation adjustment. We continue to pay for the technology that's used, the plus system, the Twilio phone system, those sorts of things. And it aligns with our cost recovery obligations. In land development services, our agreement with this body is that we try and recover 100% of our labor through all of our expenses through the fees that we raise. It's a little bit less in fire marshal and a little bit less in DPD, but we do have those philosophies that we move forward with and this honors that. I will mention here, I'll mention it again, but the technology surcharge that really pays for plus and capital investments across the board is not raising during this time, but it's a percentage of all fees, so it does

Bill Hicks 4:26

It stays at 10% where we set it two years ago, but as fees increase, we do increase that money coming in. And I will also mention that our agencies are absolutely committed to continuous improvement. I think we've seen a couple board matters come out over the course of the last fall that really direct improvements. We've spent a lot of energy around those. You'll see the results from those in a couple months. That's the Housing Production Initiative and the Economic Competitive Initiative. So I'm going to briefly talk.