March 4, 2026 BZA - Mar 04, 2026
meeting
Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals
2h 12m
2 agenda items
transcribed 6 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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What procedural steps does the Board follow at the start of a zoning appeal hearing?
Good
morning. The March 4th, 2026 meeting of the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals will please come to order. Are there any matters to be presented by members this morning? No. Our chair is running about five minutes behind, but she asked me to gavel in the meeting and get things started once we had a quorum. So she'll be arriving in just a few minutes. So with no matters to be presented by members this morning, I'll review our procedures for those of you who have not been here before. Once your case is called, please step up to the microphone, and I'll ask that anyone wishing to speak to that particular case Please stand, raise the right hand, and face the clerk on the left to take an oath. Once that is done, the appellant, in this case, will be asked to state their name and address for the record and whether or not they reaffirm the affidavit as previously submitted.
The applicant appellant will then be asked to have a seat in the front row or listen while we get the location and report from staff. Once we've heard the staff report, the applicant will be given up to 10 minutes to give their justification for whatever it is they are seeking today. I emphasize up to 10 minutes because we have detailed staff reports which have the justification in them, but feel free to add to that if you'd like to do so. I'll then ask if there is anyone who would like to speak to this application. If you have not already signed up to speak with the clerk, please do so at the clerk's desk. Again, to your left. Each individual speaker will be given up to three minutes in which to speak, and if you represent a citizen's association, you'll be given up to five minutes.
If there are speakers in opposition, the applicant or the applicant's agent will be given up to five minutes of rebuttal time. Once you've spoken, you cannot come back to speak unless you're asked to by a member of this board. So with that said, it seems that we have no administrative items at the top of the agenda this morning. So I will go ahead and call the first item for public hearing. Mark Schofield, ZAPL-2025-DR-00023. Is there a presentation from the county? Oh, yes, please. If everybody could please stand, face the clerk on your left, and raise your right hand for the oath.
Do you swear or affirm that your testimony will be the truth under penalty of the law?
I do.
Thank you. So now we'll hear from the county.
Good morning. My name's Austin Gastro, Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development. I'm joined today by Sarah Pinyak, also with Department of Planning and Development. peter versante office of the county attorney as well as james sexton with the department of code compliance this application before us today is a zoning appeal zapl 2025-dr00023 for the property located at 9710 fringe tree road This case is an appeal of an October 14th, 2025 notice of violation, which determined that the property owners have installed accessory structures, specifically a six foot tall fence and gate on a property that does not have a principal use established in violation of zoning ordinance provisions. The property is zoned to the RE district, contains 2.188 acres of land area, and is considered a vacant lot.
The property also contains recorded floodplain and resource protection area. Background information that is germane to this case is as follows. On April 21st of 2006, Mark and Frances Schofield purchased the property. On July 14th, 2025, the Department of Code Compliance inspected the property from Fringetree Road in response to a complaint that a gate and fence had been installed within a shared ingress-egress easement. This inspection confirmed that a six-foot tall fence and a gate had been installed on the subject property. And I would say that at this time of the inspection, a lot of the back and forth with the county and the appellant was related to questions about the easement and if there was easement violations.
I would just note that matters of easement, civil matters of easement, are not under the purview of the zoning administrator and actually are not under the purview of this zoning case at all.
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