Fairfax County Moves To Limit Big-Box Retail

"After listening to heated testimony, supervisors voted 5 to 3, with two abstentions, to require that retail developers seek permission before they build stores of 80,000 square feet or more. The goal, according to the measure's supporters, is to lessen the negative effects of big boxes, including noise, traffic and aesthetic blight.

The bigger these big boxes are, the more impacts there will be on residential neighborhoods," said Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence). "And we don't have the means to review them. We need these added protections."

That sentiment was so strong among supervisors that they rejected a request by business leaders to raise the threshold for the new restrictions to 100,000 square feet -- slightly smaller than the typical Target. Supervisors did, however, agree to revisit the size in 18 months to see whether predictions of a chilling effect on retail development come true."