\u201cI\u2019ve seen lots of other people in the neighbourhood do additions, so it didn\u2019t even cross my mind that it would be anything out of the ordinary,\u201d said Leonard, 45, a marketing executive who has lived at the home with her husband and daughter for more than a decade. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut not this. Would you want to live next to this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s first complaint to the county kicked off a neighbourhood dispute that has ballooned into a public spectacle. <\/p>\n
The attention fixed on Marble Lane has led to news stories and action from Fairfax leaders, who admit the situation highlights a blind spot in the building codes of one of the Washington region\u2019s biggest counties.<\/p>\n
That attention has also driven a split into the leafy neighbourhood of mostly one- and two-storey homes, and the bad feelings have spilled out into Facebook screeds, awkward encounters and in-person harassment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just horrible,\u201d Leonard said, referring to the public response. She stood in her front yard as a stranger pulled up to take a cellphone photo of the construction. \u201cI cannot believe how it has taken off like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t wish this on my worst enemy,\u201d Nguyen said from the footpath outside his house, the sounds of children at recess filtering in from the nearby primary school.<\/p>\n
The conflict<\/p>\n
Nguyen, 46, was just trying to be a good son, father and neighbour, he said. Born in Vietnam, he\u2019s owned the home next to Leonard\u2019s for over two decades. Both residents say they had a friendly relationship for years.<\/p>\n
Nguyen considered building the addition last year to accommodate three generations under one roof. He said that in Asian cultures, parents live with their grown children. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to have to send them to a nursing home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nguyen said he hired professionals to design the addition and submitted the proper paperwork to the county. Officials green-lit the construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did exactly what the county allowed us to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That was what Leonard learned when she read the county\u2019s reply to her initial complaint in October.<\/p>\n
In an email dated October 16 from an official at Fairfax County\u2019s Land Development Services, Leonard was informed that the work \u201cappears consistent with the approved plans and within regulatory requirements\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to those requirements, any new construction had to be 2.5m away from Leonard\u2019s property line and remain under 10.5m in height. <\/p>\n
The county official wrote that a recent follow-up inspection confirmed compliance just days earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to express my deep frustration and disappointment with this situation. The County has approved an addition that directly and negatively impacts my property,\u201d Leonard wrote back. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m expected to simply accept a decision that so clearly diminishes my property and quality of life – with the County\u2019s apparent permission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard was most concerned about her home value and said that a real estate agent had told her in passing that it might have depreciated by US$300,000 ($535,480). She estimated that her home\u2019s previous value was in the US$800,000s.<\/p>\n
Frustrated, Leonard went to the media, appearing in a Fox 5 spot a week ago. The response quickly triggered follow-up pieces and drive-time FM radio discussions about the house. <\/p>\n
People started driving by to gawk. It also caught the attention of Fairfax Supervisor Pat Herrity, who represents the Greenbriar area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see pop-ups like this all the time in our older neighbourhoods,\u201d Herrity said, referring to construction that is tall but on a narrow plot. \u201cPeople buy and then they expand. Then they expand more.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the code stands, there is no rule keeping the height and width of construction within a specific required ratio, Herrity said. That blind spot has led to construction that looms over a neighbour\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the problem we have to address,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A stall in construction<\/p>\n
At last week\u2019s board meeting, Herrity and two other supervisors introduced a motion to review the height standards for possible changes. The motion passed easily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will start a process,\u201d Herrity said. \u201cBut that could be a long process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county also followed up with another inspection. This time, they determined Nguyen\u2019s construction in fact was in violation of the code. Rather than the required 2.5m, the inspectors found the construction was 2.3m from Leonard\u2019s property line.<\/p>\n
Standing in Leonard\u2019s backyard, Nguyen pointed out how the mistake was made: the fence line, not the property line, was used as the basis for the construction. There were 15.2cm between the two spots.<\/p>\n
That has forced a pause on construction as Nguyen discusses next steps with the county. He said the addition has already cost more than US$400,000. His likely option is to go to the board of zoning appeals for a variance, which could allow building to continue despite the code violation.<\/p>\n
Leonard said she never wanted the situation to explode in such a public way.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family is non-confrontational, I\u2019m non-confrontational. I don\u2019t love this,\u201d she said in her driveway, pointing up at the wall now looming above. \u201cBut you can\u2019t really put a cost on how much sunlight we\u2019ve lost now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Nguyen spoke with a man conducting a follow-up survey of the property line. His wife and 3-year-old daughter played in the front yard. He\u2019s been unable to sleep since the situation went public and said he never wanted to incur the anger of his neighbours, much less strangers.<\/p>\n
This week he was out the front with his daughter when a stranger pulled up to the house. The window rolled down. The driver started swearing and telling Nguyen the house was horrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI froze because you can\u2019t expect something like that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife was like, \u2018You should have taken your phone out to record it.\u2019 I told her, \u2018Baby, I can\u2019t think that fast.\u2019 I was frozen. I\u2019m old enough to take it, but in front of my kid?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked over at his daughter.<\/p>\n
Nguyen installed cameras on the house this week just to be safe.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve seen lots of other people in the neighbourhood do additions, so it didn\u2019t even cross my mind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6732,43863,80246,25808,6871,42,1345,78,20112,20587,4960,29436,3244,43,1536,423,1961,99689,61,40,38,41,39,34462,4524,5828,6730,197],"class_list":["post-149149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-addition","tag-certainly","tag-courtney","tag-divided","tag-has","tag-headlines","tag-home","tag-in","tag-lane","tag-leonard","tag-live","tag-marble","tag-neighbours","tag-news","tag-next","tag-point","tag-this","tag-threestorey","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-virginia","tag-want","tag-wanted","tag-would","tag-you"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}