I wanted to provide a quick update on our vaccine progress. First, Inova's new mass vaccine site in the City of Alexandria (pictured below) will begin taking patients on March 29 and are beginning to schedule time slots. While the center is technically in the City of Alexandria, it is serving Fairfax County residents and will be particularly helpful to those in South County. We are always working on more locations and hope to announce more soon. Again, Fairfax County residents must register through the County's vaccination webpage here. This is an exciting update since at max capacity this site can vaccinate close to 12,000 people a day. This site is incredibly important as we continue our work to get shots in arms as quickly as possible.

In addition, to date the Fairfax Health District has administered over 325,000 doses. I want to assure you we have put every resource into our vaccine operation. (We are even looking to hire more vaccinators, learn more here). It is no small task to vaccinate 1.2 million people but our team is working day and night to maximize the number of vaccines appointments offered each week. And while we have seen significant increases in supply, they do not yet meet the demand of our population. My regional colleagues and I wrote a letter to the Governor and had a call with his vaccination team late last week to discuss this issue. I can assure you it is our priority to get more vaccine doses to our health district and northern Virginia.

For COVID-19 resources mentioned in past newsletters, visit my website. If you have a friend who would like to sign up for this newsletter, they can do so here.

I’d like to provide a clarification to a portion of my statement in yesterday’s newsletter on the Accessory Living Units changes within zMOD: “With our previous ordinance, permitting for ALUs was financially unobtainable for most people (costing over $16,000 a permit) and only allowed with residents over the age of 55.”

While the cost of a special permit for a Home Based Business was $16,375 prior to zMOD’s adoption, the cost for an ALU permit was $435. However, I was referencing the cost of “the process” not the cost of the actual “permit” for an ALU. Obtaining a special permit takes an average of 116 days and can add many thousands of dollars more for a homeowner over the process. Those costs are variable but include fees for plats and for posting public notice, as well as hired professionals, including legal representation, before appearing for a Board of Zoning Appeals hearing (often costing many thousands of dollars). Those costs together were what I was referencing as being “financially unobtainable for most people”.

We recognize that we are in very trying times, but I hope this newsletter helps you track the progress we are making.

As I often say, we are truly lucky to live in Fairfax County where we have the resources to overcome challenges and a community who rises to the occasion.