The Pimmit Hills Community is currently fighting against a plan by Washington Gas to route a large-diameter, high-pressure natural gas pipeline through the Pimmit Hills neighborhood. The planned pipe is 24" in diameter, will operate at pressures up to 325 psi, and will not serve homes in the neighborhood--it only exists to transmit large volume of gas through the neighborhood, to customers elsewhere in Virginia, DC, and Maryland.
This fight has broad implications for all Fairfax residents. Washington Gas is replacing a transmission pipeline that currently runs down a major road (Route 7 through Tysons Corner) with a new pipeline that instead meanders through narrow streets of a nearby neighborhood. As of October 2023, Washington Gas successfully convinced a Virginia court that they can route large-scale pipelines like this virtually anywhere in the county where they can obtain a VDOT permit, despite years of opposition from the affected residents and local officials, and in contradiction of a Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals decision in Feb 2022 that this project must obtain additional approval from the county before proceeding.
The planned pipeline would run on a zig-zag, 1.6 mile route from the intersection of Magarity Rd and Peabody Dr, down Peabody Dr, continuing on Fisher Dr, left on Cherri Dr, right on Leonard Rd, left on Cherri Dr again, right on Griffith Rd, right on Pimmit Dr, then out to the intersection of Pimmit Dr and Route 7.
See the this Google map for the planned route. You can zoom out on that map to also see the rest of the route for the Washington Gas Strip 1 Tysons project (red line) as well as other gas transmission pipelines in Fairfax County (blue lines), including the existing transmission pipeline that runs down Route 7 that Strip 1 Tysons project replaces.
In January and February 2022, Pimmit HIlls residents went before the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals to present a case that according to Fairfax County Zoning Code ("zMOD"), this project needs to obtain a "special exception" permit from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in order to continue. The seven-member BZA agreed with the Pimmit residents by a vote of six to one.
Washington Gas responded by suing the Pimmit Hills residents in Virginia Court. In a bench trial (no jury, just a single judge's decision), Washington Gas successfully convinced the judge that the BZA made the wrong decision. That decision is being appealed. Please help support the appeal by donating to this GoFundMe.
So there currently exists a fundamental problem with the zMOD code when it comes to the language related to gas pipelines:
- On the one hand, the Fairfax Board of Zoning Appeals, the highest authority in Fairfax County for interpreting the zoning code, feels that this project needs must undergo a "special exception" permit process before the Board of Supervisors.
- On the other hand, the Virginia Court system feels that a project like this does not need to obtain a "special exception" permit to move forward.
On March 4, 2024, at a Special Meeting, the PHCA Community elected to send the following letter to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Chairman Jeff McKay, strongly requesting clarification to zMOD code:
Pipeline Oversight Request from PHCA to Fairfax Board of Supervisors 03-04-2024.pdf
How can you help?
- Read the letter to learn more details about the issue
- Talk to your Fairfax neighbors about the issue
- Contact your Fairfax District Supervisor or Chairman McKay to let them know how you feel about this
- Donate to this GoFundMe to support the legal appeal of the October 2023 VA court decision
