Comprehensive Plan Amendment

Summary

This topic tracks Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) activity across several distinct applications in the City of Fairfax. The most substantive and continuously tracked case involves the Mantua Professional Center on Pickett Road, where an applicant seeks to amend the Comprehensive Plan from Commercial Corridor Place Type to Townhouse/Single-Family Attached Neighborhood Place Type, in order to replace approximately 21,500 square feet of office space with 14 front-loaded townhomes on 2.12 acres. The project has a long pre-application history: a Planning Commission briefing occurred in June 2023, a City Council briefing followed in July 2023, a formal application was submitted in April 2024, and revised plans were submitted January 7, 2025. A Planning Commission work session on the Mantua application occurred around February 10, 2025, and a public hearing was held on July 27, 2026, at which a motion was made recommending the CPA. A separate but related CPA was discussed in February 2025 in connection with Gatewood Plaza (10201 Fairfax Boulevard), involving a change from Commercial Corridor to allow mixed-use and rezoning from CR to PDM, with a City Council briefing targeted for September 2, 2025. Additionally, in October 2025, Fairfax County (not the City) was processing two site-specific CPAs for the Fairfax Center Land Unit K area abutting the city, and in May 2026 the City discussed its own CPA process and the incorporation of Fairfax Square into a prior amendment cycle. The July 2026 Planning Commission meeting also included a public hearing for the Highlands at Mantua application, also requesting a CPA from Commercial Corridor to Townhouse/Single-Family Attached Neighborhood Place Type.

Open questions & options on the table

• Whether the Planning Commission's July 27, 2026 motion recommending the Mantua Professional Center CPA (from Commercial Corridor to Townhouse/Single-Family Attached Neighborhood Place Type) will be adopted by City Council, and on what timeline.
• Whether the Gatewood Plaza applicant (10201 Fairfax Boulevard) has chosen to move forward with the CPA and associated rezoning to PDM following the targeted September 2, 2025 City Council briefing, and what the current status of that application is.
• Whether the Highlands at Mantua public hearing (July 27, 2026) resulted in any formal action or recommendation by the Planning Commission beyond scheduling.
• How the City will manage future requests to add sites to the restricted list of locations eligible for the new mixed-use place type (noted in March 2025 as limited to only two sites at that time).

What members have said

Positions as recorded in meeting minutes; votes without recorded comment aren’t summarized.

Discussion time

Minutes of named discussion per transcribed meeting.