While giving unanimous preliminary approval to an ordinance designed to ensure that the City of Falls Church’s 220 contiguous “substandard” residential lots “be considered combined” for purposes of zoning rulings, the F.C. City Council tonight extended for over a year the date when such a policy would become legally binding. The ordinance as first drafted and discussed at a Council work session month would have become binding on Aug. 1, 2013, but when it was pointed out during the hearing at tonight’s meeting that such a minimal amount of time could lead to a panic among impacted property owners, the Council was willing to follow the advice from the public to extend the date of formal implementation to Aug. 1, 2014.

The matter will come for a hearing before the Planning Commission on July 1, and for a final vote by the F.C. City Council on July 22. The vote was 5-0 with Vice Mayor David Snyder absent and Councilman David Tarter, who represents some developers with a potential interest in the matter, recusing himself.