| This letter gives instructions on how to get around the acrage size for pigs from Helga Davies,
Helga M. Davies
September 15, 2002
Hi Becky,
Here is the promised piggy stuff:
1) Fairfax County Zoning regarding the limitations on the keeping of animals.
On a minimum two acre lot a farmer can have 5 swine/acre. Now you figure how many potbellies equal one swine and then you multiply this figure by 5 to obtain the number of potbellies per acre that would equal 5 swine.
In our case we claimed Peggy’s weight to be 45 Ibs. (in reality - 55 lbs.), this is 1/10 of a big pig (you determine how “big” a big’ pig has to be), this gives us 10 x 5 = 50 “Peggy’s”/acre. Since we have only one Peggy, how much land do we need for this one little potbelly?
1/50 acre = 44264 sqft/acre x 1/50 acre =44264/50 = 885,3 sqft
Our Townhouse property is about 1700 sqft of land, adequate to house our little pig.
2) The zoning issue in our special permit case was that we did not have the two acres minimum, therefore I had to apply for this special permit with the Board of Zoning Appeals in Fairfax County.
Tlns is tile very same process that homeowner would go through for example to add a garage that would extend ilrto a 15 ft setback requirement from the lot line. The process is very democratic and is not intended to create a precedence but rather accommodate unusual circumstances.
Our Peggy case did not “fit” on the normal forms so I wrote a free hand application. My neighbors signed a “no objection’! letter and 10 other neighbors signed a no objection petition. The county caseworker assigned to my case performed a home inspection. There was an advertised public televised hearing during which I had 10 minutes to present to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) that Peggy’ is not a nuisance to the community. Then the chairman asks the public whether anyone would like to speak in favor of my application. Three people did. Afterwards the floor was open to anyone speaking against my request. Nobody did. The chairman briefly mentioned the letter on file by the association lawyer with was against our request but it did not keep the BZA from granting my Special Permit for Peggy. Peggy attended the hearing.
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