Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors holds a public hearing Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 4 p.m. on a zoning amendment that writes a new state parking law into the county code. Within half a mile of the entrance to a Metrorail station, or to one of a handful of bus and commuter facilities, the county could require no more than half a parking space for each new apartment or condo and one space for each new house or townhouse.
The Planning Commission voted 9-0 on Oct. 7 to recommend the amendment, which the county titles the 2026 Code of Virginia Updates. Its parking section, laid out in the staff report, creates a new “Designated Area” parking tier under HB 888 that reaches the land around all four Silver Line stations that serve Reston and Herndon, plus the Reston Town Center Transit Station on Bluemont Way.
The new tier circles four Silver Line stations and Reston Town Center’s bus station
HB 888, signed April 22 and in effect since July 1, created § 15.2-2209.4 of the state code. Its caps of 0.5 spaces per apartment and one per house, duplex or townhouse cover any parcel within half a mile of a station entrance, and it defines a station as “a building or enhanced structure where members of the general public board or disembark” public transit.
County staff applied that definition to Metrorail, Virginia Railway Express, Amtrak and bus rapid transit stations, plus five bus and commuter facilities: the Stringfellow Road Park and Ride, the Monument Drive Commuter Garage and Transit Center, the Reston Town Center Transit Station, the Springfield Community Business Center Commuter Parking Garage and the Tysons West Park Transit Station.
The Reston Town Center Transit Station, the Fairfax Connector stop at 12051 Bluemont Way, sits about a quarter mile north of the Reston Town Center Metro station. Its ring carries the new tier farther north through the town center than the Metro ring alone would. Other rings on the county’s interactive parking tier map circle Wiehle-Reston East and the unincorporated land around Herndon and Innovation Center stations.
The Town of Herndon writes its own rules, and its Planning Commission takes up a matching amendment Monday, Oct. 19, which we covered in our Herndon post.
Reston’s station areas already had lower minimums, and the new caps go lower still
Fairfax’s 2023 Parking Reimagined rewrite, effective Jan. 1, 2024, sorted the county into tiers with lower minimums where transit service is stronger. On the county’s map, most land around Reston’s stations sits in the Transit Station Area tier, and the blocks closest to the stations sit in the Transit Oriented Development tier.
The zoning ordinance still lists these minimums for new homes in those two tiers. State law has overridden the higher figures since July 1, and the amendment replaces them with the HB 888 cap:
- Single-family detached house: 2 spaces in both tiers. The new cap is 1.
- Townhouse or stacked townhouse: 1.3 spaces per unit in both tiers, with 0.3 of that in shared visitor parking. The new cap is 1.
- Apartment or condo: 0.6 spaces per bedroom in a Transit Station Area and 0.4 per bedroom in Transit Oriented Development. The new cap is 0.5 per unit, whatever the bedroom count.
When a property falls in more than one tier, the county code applies the lowest minimum. A studio or one-bedroom apartment in a Transit Oriented Development area keeps its 0.4 figure, since the code counts a studio as one bedroom. The code lists 1.2 spaces for a two-bedroom apartment in a Transit Station Area, and the new tier lists 0.5.
For a 300-unit building split evenly between one- and two-bedroom apartments, the Transit Station Area rate in the code works out to 270 spaces. The new tier sets 150. Del. Irene Shin, who introduced HB 888, told FFXnow in June that a required space costs up to $5,000 in a surface lot and up to $50,000 in a parking deck. County staff told the outlet that the limits in the bill “were lower” than Parking Reimagined’s.
Builders can still add parking, and existing garages stay as they are
The amendment caps the parking the county can demand but sets no ceiling on what a builder provides, and it does not reach buildings already standing. Offices, stores and other nonresidential uses keep their current tier rates.
State law has required the county to apply the caps since July 1, the staff report notes, so the Oct. 27 vote mostly brings the written ordinance in line with practice. The Planning Commission recommended that the amendment take effect at 12:01 a.m. on the day after adoption.
Outside the rings, a 20 percent parking cut becomes an administrative approval
HB 888 also requires localities with more than 20,000 residents to offer an administrative path to cut parking by at least 20 percent for residential and mixed-use projects outside the designated areas. Fairfax’s draft raises its existing transit-related reduction from 15 percent to 20 percent, granted by the Director of Land Development Services without a Board vote. A project qualifies when it sits within 1,000 feet walking distance of a transit stop, lies outside the Transit Oriented Development tier and the Planned Tysons Corner district, and provides two of three features:
- a proffered transportation demand management program, a binding commitment to measures that cut car trips
- bicycle parking that meets the county code
- a Walk Score or Bike Score (a 0-to-100 walkability rating) above 70
Housing on church land is not part of the Oct. 27 vote
The amendment leaves out Faith in Housing, the 2026 law (HB 1279 and SB 388) that lets religious organizations and 501(c)(3) nonprofits build mostly affordable housing by right, meaning without a rezoning, on land they have owned for five years, starting Jan. 1, 2027. A footnote in the staff report says this round does not address laws with delayed effective dates.
In Arlington, the County Board takes up a resolution Saturday, Oct. 17, to start its own zoning changes, the Washington Business Journal reports. Projects under the state law must keep at least 60 percent of their homes affordable for 30 years.
Sign up to testify by noon Oct. 27, or email comments before the hearing closes
The hearing takes place in the Board Auditorium of the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax. Sign up on the Clerk to the Board’s speakers list or call 703-324-3151. In-person and phone speakers must sign up by noon on the day of the hearing, and video testimony is due by 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 26. Individuals get three minutes, and a spokesperson for a group gets five. Written comments go to [email protected] until the Board closes the hearing.
Buyers near the stations should get the parking count in writing
Under the caps, a new condo building near Wiehle-Reston East or Reston Town Center can provide one space for every two units, and a new townhouse inside a ring can come with one. Before signing on new construction near a station, get the number of assigned spaces in the contract or condo documents and ask whether spaces sell or lease separately.
See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.
