What is a Site Specific Amendment Process (SSPA)?

The Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process is Fairfax County’s process for reviewing proposed land use changes or “nominations” to the County’s Comprehensive Plan for individual sites. The newly improved SSPA process includes 1) more frequent opportunities to submit SSPA nominations, 2) enhanced community engagement by using community meetings to reach people who would be most impacted and 3) a reduction in the overall timeline for the nomination and screening period to improve efficiency and make better use of stakeholders’ time and resources. 

Click here to lean more about the SSPA process,

What is Rezoning and CDP/FDP?

Following a Comp Plan Amendment, the properties need to be rezoned to a zoning district that allows the recommendations for the Comp Plan Amendment to be implemented and the project to be built.

The rezoning process itself is outlined on the County’s website here.

As part of the rezoning, the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission also review and approve a Development Plan (otherwise known as the CDP/FDP):

DEVELOPMENT PLAN:

A graphic representation which depicts the nature and character of the development proposed for a specific land area. Information such as topography, location and size of proposed structures, location of streets, trails, utilities, and storm drainage are generally included on a development plan. A development plan is a required submission for a rezoning that generally characterizes the planned development of the subject lot. A development plan must be prepared and approved in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the Zoning Ordinance.