February 25, 2026 PC - Feb 25, 2026

meeting

Fairfax County Planning Commission 4h 14m 4 speakers 8 agenda items transcribed 7 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the agenda and opening remarks for the February 25, 2026 Planning Commission meeting?

Najelski Eichner 0:01

I mean, also need to make an an announcement about the CIP process. Yeah. Well good evening. Welcome everybody to our February 25th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting. Good to see everybody. Our agenda this evening consists of Commission business, including one decision only, and then we will convene uh six public hearings, two of which are countywide proposals uh proposed uh zoning ordinance amendments uh on congregate living facilities and battery and energy storage systems, and the remaining four address a site specific comprehensive plan or rezoning requests. So we'll uh move immediately into commission business. I'd like to start us off expressing my um personal sorrow for the recent loss of former supervisor Mike Frye.

Najelski Eichner 0:50

Uh Mike was my supervisor during much of the time uh we raised our family uh and our daughters in the Greenbrier subdivision in Chintilly. Mike was an honorable, dedicated, hardworking public servant that I respected and held in the highest regard. May he rest in peace. Commissioner Carter, I believe you have a decision only. I do. Uh so a couple things before we get deep into this. There there are three types that we had a very good public hearing, I thought. Uh there are three types of signs. Uh this is these are my categories. Uh number one was the street uh uh signs at the street level. These are mostly identification signs. uh wayfinding signs and some regulatory signs. Uh so that was one We didn't receive much testimony on that.

Najelski Eichner 1:48

The second one was the what was called the F two sign, the Marriott uh uh hotel and conference center, located on the twenty eighth floor of the hotel and conference center. The third was the D one sign facing the Dulles Access Road. Now, in terms of the street levels, I'm going to go through each one and the recommendations for each one. We also have graphics if if you want them for these signs. So I'll see what the pleasure of the Commission is on that. So in terms of the street level signs, I received some written testimony. The concern was from the adjacent uh hard to get along with. Uh and if if all they're required to do is special exemptions, these small businesses are concerned about that and why aren't the standards enough?

Najelski Eichner 2:45

If they've met met the standards, why wouldn't that be adequate? We didn't receive a lot of substantial testimony and I I think those signs are okay. So we're going to recommend approval for those. The next one is the F two sign located on the twenty eighth floor of the Marriott Hotel and Conference Centers. That was the one that I thought was pretty uh beyond the pale, so to speak. We received a lot of testimony from the adjacent residences, uh mostly located south of the toll road. Their concern is it being over overly bright. Upsetting sleep patterns at night. Uh I strongly agreed with the concerns expressed at the public hearing and requested deferral to look at reducing the uh illumination, the brightness, the knits, and removing the background.

Najelski Eichner 3:38

Uh My view is the standards that we have for that sign are too high. The three hundred nits, I know that's our Fairfrax County standard, but I don't think it works everywhere. In this the context here, it's on the twenty eighth floor with the with the dark skies uh behind it. And I I think that's the biggest problem. And it's the background, which they showed with white background with white letters. virtually reads the s makes the sign unreadable, uh because the white letters and the black the white black ground are pretty much uh read as one. Uh My view is the background should be measured in lumens, which is the amount of light on the glass. But it also should be measured in terms of foot candles. Which is the amount of light that's emitted uh from the background.

Najelski Eichner 4:33

Th this is m makes it close to a street light. So it it it shines a lot of light in the dark skies. And I I think that was not appropriate. Um so the recommendation is to eliminate the white bla background entirely. uh r that will reduce substantially the impact on the dark skies. In addition, I thought reducing the illumination of the signs, the nits from almost three hundred to slightly less than one than one hundred.