County zoning tweak will help Fairlington residents with home-renovation projects

The Arlington County Board has tidied up a section of the county’s zoning ordinance that caused the Fairlington neighborhood fits.

County Board members on Saturday (Oct. 19) approved zoning amendments removing bureaucratic hurdles that had been placed on interior renovations and expansions of older townhouse and condominium properties.

Those properties are designated by county officials as “non-conforming” — not because there is anything wrong with them, but because they were built before the county’s zoning code was enacted.

County officials long have exempted single-family homes and duplexes from obtaining a use permit from the County Board or approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to make interior alterations or modest exterior alterations. But those in townhouses and condos received no such exemption.

The situation was most acute in Fairlington, where between February 2023 and May 2024 a total of two dozen property owners went to the BZA for approval of alterations, according to county officials. (Another case was heard from the Arlington Village community.)

Fairlington leaders came to the County Board in September 2023, asking for help. While it took more than a year to settle the matter, County Board Chair Libby Garvey said was it was a win for residents, county staff and for the BZA, which no longer will be saddled with extra workload.

“It’s been an issue that’s been difficult, all for no reason, so we fixed it,” said Garvey, a long-time resident and property owner in Fairlington.

The community near Arlington’s border with Alexandria was developed in the 1940s to handle an influx of workers during World War II. The apartment properties later were converted to condominiums.