Fairfax to nullify votes, redo public hearings after error over notices

Fairfax County supervisors Tuesday delayed a vote on data center regulations and will have to nullify votes taken earlier this month on three other issues after officials realized they failed to meet new state requirements for advance public notices on pending matters.

A law that went into effect July 1 changed the rules for notifying residents of upcoming hearings, requiring that notices be placed in a local newspaper at least 28 days before a hearing and again 7 days before a hearing. The previous requirements called for a notice to be published once a week for two consecutive weeks, with the first occurring no earlier than 14 days before the scheduled hearing.

Fairfax’s second notice for a July 16 board of supervisors meeting — which included public hearings on a long-awaited zoning amendment meant to regulate data centers, a land use case and tweaks to the uniformed retirement system and the county’s workforce housing policy — was published four days before it was held, on July 12, county officials said.

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The error, which Fairfax officials realized late Monday, forced the board to postpone its vote on the data center issue and plan a redo of a public hearing that took place on that matter during the July 16 meeting.

The county will also nullify the board’s July 16 vote to approve the three other proposals and hold new public hearings and votes on those issues.

Because many county residents are likely to be away during the remainder of summer, all of the affected actions will be taken up again during the board’s Sept. 10 meeting, said Jeffrey C. McKay (D), the board’s chair.

The error caused some embarrassment for a county of 1.1 million residents that has long been known as a model of local governance.

McKay expressed his frustration when announcing the problem, which also caused the board to postpone to Sept. 10 nine public hearings — covering an array of issues — that were scheduled to be held Tuesday afternoon.

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Particularly irritating, McKay said, was the idea of having to wait longer to adopt a new policy governing where and how data centers can be built in Fairfax — a proposed zoning amendment that prompted four hours of testimony from those for and against the idea at the July 16 public hearing that will now have to be held for a second time.

“This makes me very angry because we spent a lot of time on this issue and we discovered this yesterday,” McKay said during Tuesday’s meeting about the error. “This is ridiculous that we’re at this point now.”

In a statement, the county apologized for the mistake and said it plans to conduct a review of its public hearing advertisement process.

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