The April Echo reported on the discovery by the Virginia Hills Citizens Association executive board that four streets had be moved out of the Virginia Hills assessment neighborhood for the current year, resulting in homes on those streets receiving smaller assessment reductions than they would have otherwise received. The executive board contacted the Department of Tax Administration (DTA) and Supervisor McKay's office about this error. The Echo article encouraged residents of those streets to contact DTA as well. The Echo has learned that DTA has recently sent notices of additional reductions in their assessments to residents of those streets, in at least one case by as much as $60,000.
DTA determines annual assessment changes based on the property sales in each assessment neighborhood. The change in the average sales price year over year is used to determine the change in all the assessments in that neighborhood. As reported in the previous issue, assessments in Virginia Hills were reduced by 9.5-12% this year, but assessments on the four streets in question were only flat to 4% down.
VHCA has reviewed assessments in Virginia Hills every year since 2000 and was thus able to catch DTA's error this year. Thanks to calls from residents and intervention by the Supervisor's office, the streets in question were put back into the correct assessment neighborhood and assessments reduced. DTA declined to provide comment for this story.
The Virginia Hills Citizens Association will hold elections for its officers at the June meeting. Officers serve two year terms from August 1, 2008 to July 31, 2010.
The VHCA executive board has proposed the following slate of officers. No other indications of interest in serving were made known to the board.
| President | Doug Boulter |
| Vice-President | Ralph Zecca |
| Secretary | Esther Miraco |
| Treasurer | Dick Wright |
| Membership Director | Andre Redmond |
| Echo Editor | Doug Boulter |
The executive board is looking for a volunteer to be the advertising agent for the Echo, and, if there is interest, a neighborhood watch coordinator.
The executive board would also like to re-form several committees, including one on traffic and one on neighborhood appearance. This can only happen if volunteers step forward to chair these committees.
The executive board proposes the following dates for VHCA meetings in 2008-2009:
Many new residents of Virginia Hills are unaware of the vast diversity of wildlife with which they share the neighborhood. Most of the animals only come out at night and all will avoid humans, but many can be heard at night, especially during their mating season. Deer are common in Virginia Hills back yards, mostly as overflow from Huntley Meadows Park, although hunts to thin the herd have made them less desperate for food than five or so years ago.
Even dedicated watchers of animals at night seldom see red foxes, but they turn up every now and again. Huntley Meadows personnel report grey foxes in the Park, and sightings occur occasionally in Virginia Hills. There are infrequent reports of coyotes in Virginia Hills, and they are known to roam the County. Coyotes are a major threat to cats left out at night.
Opossums, raccoons, and skunks are common night prowlers. All of them will try to get into garbage cans, though the County's large grey cans seem to pose a major challenge even to raccoons. Do not leave edible garbage in compost piles, and put edible garbage into garbage cans only on pickup day. All of these animals will run from humans unless cornered, although male raccoons may attack dogs left out at night during raccoon mating season in the spring - and will generally win the fight.
Beavers lived and built dams in Pike Branch Creek across Telegraph Road for a number of years, and of course Huntley Meadows Park is full of them. Mink are reported to live in County streams, and may live in stream beds in Virginia Hills.
Uncut tall grass attracts rats, and rats attract the snakes that will eat them. Keep grass cut to keep both away.
Because of the County's oral rabies vaccine drops in recent years, rabies has largely abated in this portion of Fairfax County, especially among raccoons. Still, wild animals are just that, and they may be watched, but should not be approached. Many will become somewhat accustomed to humans, but they should never be thought of as tame or as pets. They share our community and we should be grateful for their presence.
Quality of life — hard to describe when it's good but you know it when it's bad. When the property next door or down the block has a front yard jungle that defies a lawn mower to get through, you can't ignore the community impact. Most of us work hard to be good neighbors and we expect that those around us will share our sense of community. Sometimes, though, whether because of illness, age, geographic distance, or just plain irresponsibility, owners let their properties decline.
That's where government needs to step in and lend a hand. At the January 28 Board of Supervisors meeting, Chairman Connolly and I introduced a Board Matter asking County staff to act on code amendments that would streamline our grass enforcement process. We held a public hearing and subsequently approved the proposed amendments on April 28.
Grass is in violation of County code when it is over 12 inches high on a lot of a half acre or less in size. We streamlined our enforcement process so that compliance time is now reduced to 14 days. Before these amendments, the process was open ended with multiple notices of violation sent to the property owner over a period of 60 to 90 days. Only one notice is served, either in person or by posting it on the property. You can't miss the notice — it's an 8½ x 11 neon green sheet of paper. If the property appears to be vacant, the notice is also sent by registered mail to the owner's last known address.
If the property owner does not cut the grass 14 days after notice is served, the County will. If the property owner files an appeal, the process will take longer.
The cost of cutting the grass is charged to the property owner and collected in the same way that property taxes are collected. In most cases, the minimum cost for the County to cut the grass on a half-acre lot is $250.
If you would like copies of these Board Matters, please contact my office at 703-971-6262 or leedist@fairfaxcounty.gov. Keeping our neighborhoods healthy is as important to me as it is to you, so please don't hesitate to call my office if you have any concerns about overcrowding, zoning violations, or neglect. I look forward to the day when these problems are rare. In the meantime, my staff and I will ensure that the County investigates and acts.