wlexd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In 1956 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
> declared a six month zoning and residential land
> use moratorium in order to devise a new MASTER
> PLAN.
>
> This was the result. The plan was to keep the
> western two-thirds of the county rural.
>
> However, the large rural landowners sued Fairfax
> County and a 1959 Virginia Supreme Court decision
> found that the new MASTER PLAN was
> "unconstitutional."
>
> This "Carper Ruling" opened more than 170,000
> acres to more intensive development.
>
> The rest as they say is history. A close call.
BOARD OF COUNTY SUPERVISORS OF FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA v. G. WALLACE CARPER, ET AL.
Record Nos. 4865, 4869.
Supreme Court of Virginia.
March 16, 1959.
https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/supreme-court/1959/4865-1.html
The eastern one-third of the county contains most of the concentrated development. Ninety percent of the county's entire population resides in this area.
In the western two-thirds of the county are the settled communities of Centreville, Chantilly, Dranesville, Floris and Forestville, and the incorporated towns of Clifton, Herndon and Vienna. Outside of these communities and towns, the 170,000 acres in the western two-thirds of the county consist almost entirely of wooded, agricultural and vacant land, land of three-acre tracts and over, and land subdivided into one-half acre lots used for single family residences.