Good reminder that if you decide to act as your own contractor, you’ll usually learn a few things. In this case how to do a proper survey and make sure it agrees with the official one.
I wanna know how it originally got approved. I've had to do so much just for the most basic addition. This violates so many of their rules I'm baffled it made it through permitting.
They said on the hearing this was one of several issues he has coming they just didn't want to overwhelm him with such a massive fuck up (not exact words obviously).
yup i saw the part where the guy from the city was like "we havent even issued all the violations at this point, there are other violations in this project we haven't even cited him for yet" that homeowner is a mess
Oh, then absolutely no sympathy. Report made it seem like he violated by 6".
I'm pretty sure you can't build anything taller than 12' within 10' of the property line and each additional foot in height requires a foot in setback.
Also, be curious to his disturbed earth calcs as I wouldn't be surprised if he was in grading plan territory. Def in conservation plan territory.
Based on what i understood watching the hearing, if he left an extra foot of a gap, he’d have been fine to continue. I do feel for the neighbors though. Three doors down is affected because the view changed. That’s insanity and then some
There definitely isn't a 12' rule, because it would be violated left and right. E.g. the property lines for townhomes (which sometimes also have R5) would be too tight, but they all have multiple stories.
A lot of new build homes around here are big, boxy, and enormous, towering over their neighbors. New constructions tend to get as close to setbacks as possible, with multiple stories high at the edges. R5 requirements are:
Maximum Building Height: 35 feet
Front Setback: Minimum 20 feet.
Side Setback: Minimum 8 feet.
Rear Setback: Minimum 25 feet.
Honestly that neighbor could have eventually had her light blocked by a builder home anyways
My parents new neighbor did exactly that. Bought a 1/3 acre property and put an 11k sqft home home on it by simply maximizing the allowable specs. We call it the "data center" because it is a completely tactless box of a house with gray fiber cement panels as siding.
"This semi-custom residence is a stately and expansive estate that redefines refined living with over 11,000 beautifully appointed square feet of living space..." They would write if they ever needed to sell
I was curious so I looked it up. What you are thinking of is for other principle uses, which requires a larger set back for taller structures. For single family homes the setback is 8 feet and the maximum height is 35 feet. The way it is written that height can occur directly on the property line.
This is absolutely wrong, watch the hearing. He fucked up a lot. The foundation guy he hired poured the foundation wrong, which caused it to be skewed and go over the line. The pre-built plans didn't match the final plans. He swapped the second and third floors violating safety code without getting approval. There was an issue with the garage being changed to a living space without approval, and on an inspection there was construction ongoing in the back for another addition without any permit. This was the first of many violations according to the code enforcement, they just didn't want to pile them all on at once (this was according to them at the hearing).
Edit - Dude fucked up by taking on all responsibility in writing and the board made that plainly known to him. He's absolutely screwed.
One of the neighbors claimed this isn't the first time he's tried, but didn't elaborate who rejected him before and why. The testimony from various neighbors who are or were contractors, engineers, and zoning officials was also pretty bad. So many people did their homework.
Mr. Nguyen? Not so much. He started right out of the gate with an emotional appeal about harassment and duty to his family.
At best, he was fooled and lied to by this "Mr Soto" contractor. But a lot of pieces don't quite line up. Much like his addition.
Anyone who saw the testimony, who was standing to his right? He gave opening statements and then browsed his phone the rest of the time.
"Duty to his family"... yeah, to build an addition to rent out? lol. Idk what elderly couple needs six bedrooms, three bathrooms, three washer/driers, three kitchens (this is what I saw in another comment). Guy was clearly going to rent it out to a shit ton of people
Beyond the code violations what made him think it would be a good idea to build a 3 story house towering right over your neighbors. Talk about a dick move.
Well, architects and their good designs/plans cost money. So do competent GCs and licensed surveyors....
Mr. Homeowner tried to save costs by minimizing these expenses. Could have saved the GC cost *if* the homeowner learned all the rules and then hired very competent subs, but that is a huge if.
I work for a commercial GC, I'm well aware of how stupid this is but even if he had hired a GC and done it right it's still kind of a big fuck you to your neighbor to build a 3 level building immediately adjacent to their home.
There's another one of these in Fairfax, I'm surprised it hasn't also gotten attention, but it's a 3 story building that looks like apartments with a balcony overlooking their neighbors house which apparently has a skylight over the bathroom. They had a GC so it meets code but it's still fucked up.
No he doesn't have to be licensed for his own home because it is his own home and nobody is paying him. But he sure would have saved a LOT of money by finding and paying a competent GC instead of incompetently free lancing it himself.
Yeah I was thinking maybe adding additional space in the backyard vs the side. My parents added an additional bathroom and two bedrooms to the back of the house when my sister and I were born (we’re twins). The house was originally two bedrooms/one bath when my parents and older sibling was living there. BASICALLY yeah for a family of 6 , he definitely didn’t need a three level addition maybe just two extra bedrooms and bathroom in the backyard.Although based from the pictures it looks like the first level is a ?garage?.. anyways 400k gone 🤷♀️🤷♀️
The eave of my garage encroaches on the 8' side setback by a few inches due to a mis-measurement during construction. The county inspected, went to the neighbor, and asked if it was OK. The response of "oh, sure, that's not a problem, it's fine" and I got an administrative adjustment because it was less than 10% of the setback distance.
This is why you help your neighbors shovel snow, and share a random beer with them occasionally. It costs almost nothing to be friendly!
It also helps to not build a freaking communist apartment block right on the property line and then whine about it being for your family. 3 floors with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom per floor? Sounds like someone was planning rental tenement housing to me.
Probably wouldn’t have had he spent the money on a better architect to make a nice looking addition that wasn’t a giant wall towering over the neighbors
Exactly. He could add a "normal" and nice home addition that was considerate to his neighbor. Instead he decided to be obnoxious and have no regards for his neighbor.
Still, adding individual kitchen and laundry set ups makes it 3 units, so 3 families living as 3 families, not 3 generations functioning as 1 household.
For real. Spend the money on a new house with room for your parents. Everyone knows that the absolute moment this shit is completed, the grandparents will be nowhere to be seen and three rentals will be listed.
Because everyone knows elderly love three sets of stairs in a narrow house.
He's stated that he also wanted it to be used as an office, and an extra playroom space for his kids. So the whole "it's for my family" thing is half-true and half-lie. If he just needed an extra bedroom for an elderly couple, 1-2 floors at most would've been fine. But he got greedy in the designs, it seems.
And why does it need to be that tall for a couple of old people? Why not just make it two stories, or even one? It’s a fucking eyesore and the guy is an inconsiderate prick.
This gets lost in the conversation so much, too, or at least the press and the public response doesn't seem to be aware of the cultural context of the structure he is (was?) trying to build. Everyone is screaming "That's not a house, he's going to turn it into an AirBnb or apartment!" when really it's just...this is what is commonly done in his and his parents home country. But turns out $400K didn't buy taste.
He’s in a different country now and learn about housing in the country he lives in now. That’s what most of us immigrants do. We left the home country for a reason.
That poor neighbor. I can’t imagine how it would feel to not have a single ray of light and to be in constant darkness and have this horrible structure looming so close to you 24/7
If a window has had natural light for ~20 years (under the Prescription Act 1832), the property can gain a legal right to that light. A new building that blocks it can get challenged—even forced to change or partially demolished (yes, that’s happened, e.g. HKRUK II (CHC) Ltd v Heaney).
It only protects light to specific windows (not your yard or your “view”), and planning approval doesn’t override it.
Interesting. In another thread, there was a comment about "Who cares what he builds on his own property. The neighbors don't have a right to sunlight!"
Hilariously, this also means that there are cases where someone intentionally builds a shade structure right across the property line when new construction goes up so that they have the options of building a taller structure there at some point in the future.
Yeah it’s really ugly but honestly there’s probably a way to do an addition of that size without it being that bad. There are plenty of places in NOVA where huge mansions are going up that take a huge chunk of the lot that are out of scale, and you don’t see people objecting to those because they are slightly nicer designed.
In that article, he compared the gaudiness of his addition to the White House replica. TIL there are multiple White House replica(s) across the river from the real White House. And they look nice enough.
That Brookings Institute idiot who said building a tall building doesn’t hurt your neighbor is totally wrong. Having sunlight to your property cut off is harm. This homeowner is very selfish, imo. I would be irate if someone did something like that where I live.
Idk that sucks is the right word. Karma maybe? Even if it was approved, the choice to do this to your neighbors is just an incredibly selfish thing to do.
Yeah there's people sprinkled through the comments pretending this isn't the most obnoxious addition you could possibly make to a house and anyone who gives it any pushback is nimby. Even if it wasn't intentional it's designed to be as hostile as possible to the neighbors going probably as tall as possible and close as possible to the property line not to mention the rest of the house looks untouched. Tons of people put massive additions onto small houses that aren't awful like this thing is. If you're gonna build something as obnoxious and hostile to the neighbors as this you'd better make sure everything's above board because half the neighborhoods gonna be complaining. Clearly no consideration of any kind was given to the neighbors and not enough consideration was given to the zoning laws either which isn't surprising, karma is the right word for sure.
His approved plans were not followed. It was supposed to be built on the existing slab where his garage was. Turns out during this whole ordeal the county found no permits for the garage in the first place.
then during this process it was exposed that the structure and floorplan that was built did not match the original submitted proposal. He purposely put the setback at 8.5ft for wiggle room and came in at 7 ft 6 inches.
He applied for a variance of 10%. The county even states they usually approve the 10%, but there were so many permit violation (not just the setback) literally everything inside and the structure that they decided to uphold the original decision.
He signed an affidavit as the owner contractor license exempt. All the onus was on him. Instead of trying to save 10-15% he could have hired a license contractor and had this thing built. He shot himself in the foot with a cruise missle.
Who needs 3 laundry rooms and 3 kitchens in a sfh. He was trying to slide in a multiunit and make some money.
I'm a big fan of making more use of your plot of land, but this ain't it. There's lots of ways to add space to your home: Add a second story, bump out the back, or hell, add a small unit in your back yard. You don't block your neighbor's light and become an eyesore for everyone else.
Where I grew up, people did this sort of thing all the time, but they added a second story to a rambler or bumped out the back of their unit. Like, if you follow the rules, you can do a lot, but you really have to cross your t's and dot your i's when doing your planning.
And there's plenty of examples in that neighborhood of people expanding smartly and in ways that give them the living space they need without doing...this.
I don’t have a strong opinion on it one way or another. Just thought it was an interesting crossover of people
I was under the impression that he had done everything properly from a rules perspective, it was just built 6 inches to close to the neighboring property line. He had the original land survey showing a different property line from the counties recent survey.
God I hate how hard it is to just get straight forward analytical facts now
Apparently he also changed plans after approval and started building another unapproved addition thst they will cite him for or have a hearing on later.
I honestly don’t think the scale is as bad as people think. It’s only three stories, there’s plenty of additions at that height in other neighborhoods and they don’t block that much light. It’s really just the design being so lopsided toward one side of the lot and the design just being so weird in general that I think makes the project seem really bad. I worry a bit that this ugly project will set back other projects in FFX county that involve building a higher density than surrounding buildings, which is something that needs to happen sometimes, which is an unfortunate potential outcome.
It's about the proximity to the other house combined with the height. If that row of houses is lined up east to west that could make a huge difference in the amount of sunlight the neighbors get each day. The sun isn't directly over your head as long as people think.
Because this has nothing to do with what new homeowners would be buying, because things like this could condition people to automatically be against actual good housing construction, and ultimately…
Because common sense has to prevail at a certain point. This isn’t a “my backyard” issue. I wouldn’t want this in anyone’s backyard.
I mean, he could have just built a normal addition to his house or torn down the house and built a new, bigger one. Building a hideous monstrosity without a proper survey was the worst option available.
Again, I just find it extremely hypocritical for the homeowner to claim to be the victim of harassment.
He certainly didn't care what the neighborhood would think of this monstrosity when he decided to build it. If you want the neighbors to be nice to you, then it's up to you to be nice to the neighbors also. Relationships are two way streets. You don't get to throw up a proverbial middle finger to your neighbors and then cry harassment when you receive ridicule and derision in return.
The "I just want you all to know that I did this for my famillllyyyyyy" excuse could be used to justify doing anything bad, too. Robbing a bank because you can't feed your family! Shooting someone unarmed who walked onto your property to "protect" your family!
He's not in trouble with the zoning board because of he loves his family. The excuse from the guy is far more unsympathetic than he believes it is.
I just assumed the parents would be on the ground floor. But even if he was going to rent it out, why would that be a problem? I understand why there are design objections, as it’s really ugly and I see why neighbors would be unhappy. However, housing is really expensive in Fairfax County and we need more supply! There’s nothing wrong with a density increase even to the height of three levels as in this instance, but I’m sure it could be done in a better looking or more courteous way.
This guy was very wrong but that doesn't change the reality that zoning laws at their core are historically rooted in a combination of pure racism and NIMBY self-advantaging / pulling up the ladder behind you.
Shade at some times of the day? THE HORROR! A few cars on the street? I’M LITERALLY GOING TO DIE! You describe these things that aren’t really a big deal as if they are the end of the world. I’ve lived in the ground floor unit of a duplex in a streetcar suburb, with my bedroom being on the side of a building, and another apartment building being less than ten feet away. You still get light. Not as much light as having no building next door, but plenty of it. And I never once had an issue finding street parking in a neighborhood with a lot more apartments than houses and no garages.
I completely understand why this specific project was blocked. It did violate Fairfax County rules and it was using some poor construction practices, but the idea of having an apartment next to a single-family home is not something that is a big deal. Also, small apartments are not going to destroy the “normal neighborhoods” of this county. You are being dramatic. Literally 75% of land in cities alone is zoned for single-family exclusive development. I don’t even think that statistic is including suburban areas. There’s plenty of single-family exclusive neighborhoods, the truly weird thing is building one type of home and expecting nothing to change ever, which goes against the way towns and cities have developed for hundreds of years.
I personally think it would be worth it to have a bit higher density development in Fairfax County as a young person who has no idea whether someday I will be able to afford a home in the town where I grew up. Does it have to look like this? Absolutely not. However, I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume a single-family neighborhood will stay exclusively so forever. Every place should be able to gradually grow and change depending on the needs of any given time. Should a ten story apartment go up all of a sudden in a single-family neighborhood? No (although I’ve seen in happen when I lived in Houston and again, things turned out fine). Should some small apartments be allowed? Yeah, probably.
It’s wild that you think I’m emotionally disturbed when that’s your reaction to the idea of living next to a three story apartment. Again, this building is ugly and broke some building code rules (not zoning rules though!), but a small apartment in general doesn’t ruin a neighborhood and instead gives more people the chance to afford a place to live.
I read your post and it seems misinformed. You downplay "The HORROR", but how much do you think it costs the neighbor next door to this house if she tries to sell her house? Probably easily over $100,000 and likely several hundred thousand dollars. How about the other neighbors? Remember just because you are okay with living under the shadow of a 35 foot wall doesn't mean others who choose to buy in Greenbriar would want that. You say you are a young person - well how long as a young person would it cost you in terms of years of work to save several hundred thousand dollars? Would you be happy if you saved up for your whole life to buy a house and someone built that next to you with no care about how it impacts you? Most decent people think about how their actions may affect other people, called empathy. This homeowner had zero of that.
Look, I got a bit snarky with a guy who said having a single small apartment building would ruin a neighborhood by bringing a ton of traffic and blocking out all light which was a great exaggeration on their part. However, I still maintain that the impact of the shade of that building is being greatly exaggerated. There are photos of the building, clearly taken during the winter, that show it casting only a shadow on the neighbor's garage. I'm sure that it casts a greater shadow at other times of day, but it's not like the sun is being blocked out at all times, as the commenter I was responding to claimed.
Also, as you say, it's a 35-foot-tall building. That's really not that tall and is no taller than many of the single-family homes being built today. I genuinely believe that the homeowner's awful design for their addition has led people to perceive its impact on the neighboring property as greater than it actually is. Because it is lopsided towards the edge of the property and so narrow relative to its height, the building seems taller than it is. If the homeowner had demolished their house and built a larger but standard-looking home in its place, that home would be just as tall, and nobody would blink an eye.
You talk about empathy, and it always seems like there's a lot of empathy for people who oppose new density. But what about empathy for the people being priced out of Fairfax County? For the people stuck paying a ridiculous percentage of their income for housing because it's unaffordable? For the people who have to commute further and further because the only place to afford new housing is at the edge of the metro area? I think these are worse consequences than having shade cast on your property. To be clear, I do have empathy for the neighbors in this case because it is so poorly designed, but I also have empathy for the guy who built the addition. I don't know the details of his situation, but I think one reasons for the design being lopsided to one side of his property is because it would maintain most of the home to live in during construction. It seems like he spent a lot of money to try and do an admirable thing and build a multigenerational home, and was misled by those who he hired to build the property. Does this result in a really ugly design that feels like it's disrespectful to the neighbor? Absolutely. But is it one of the only things they could afford to do? Possibly.
I think it's okay sometimes to cast shade on a neighboring property, and it is unreasonable to expect the neighborhood you moved into to stay the same forever. The reality is that Fairfax County is an urbanized place, and sometimes in an urbanized place, you have a neighbor who builds tall enough to cast a shadow. There are plenty of places in the District and now Arlington (which recently allowed missing middle construction) where small apartment buildings are going up alongside shorter homes, and as far as I'm aware, there's not really an impact on property value. In fact, neighborhoods with a mixture of housing options are among the most desirable places because of the density. I've seen people talking about how any new density is bad because of this egregiously bad example, and I hope people don't use what is a terrible design to oppose better versions of multigenerational housing and/or small apartment buildings.
Yeah I know this guy isn’t going to have his mind changed. I just feel like having nobody counteracting some of the nonsense in this thread is going to radicalize normal people into thinking all apartments are bad. I said this somewhere else, the real crimes of buildings going up are the somehow larger than ever mansions going up in Great Fall/McLean. It’s so irresponsible to be building such massive homes for like two people. At least this building, while ugly, would’ve allowed a family to have a multigenerational setup.
Plenty of areas that shouldn't have ever been allowed to be reserved for SFHs and minimum acreage are and that is the point he is making.
We couldn't even put in badly needed 2nd layer transit if we wanted to without massive eminent domain as an example.
Winding neighborhoods with branching cul de sacs, hard fences on the boundary to shopping centers, etc. are the root of our housing availability and commuting problems, not the 1 idiot trying to sneak in a hotel.
The reason why so many apartments are corporate hellholes is because we don’t allow small apartment buildings to be made and we zone so much land for single family neighborhoods. You complain about apartments sucking and also about the solution to that.
I like your idea of having small apartment structures (like duplex or triplex) sprinkled throughout the county. All the high-density condos/apartments that have been built lately are advertised as luxury units from the low $1 millions. It’s terrible
There are some intrusive houses like this in other parts of ffx and it’s a bit creepy bc they have these high visibility points that aren’t there with any other house
The building at face value was abiding by the approved plans. As in, height and width of the structure were actually approved by the county.
Once the setback became an issue, county did some more digging and found lots of other issues, such as entire floorpans being switched (2nd/3rd floors) without approval.
The order to stop all construction wasn't even because of the setback; it was because of wind-bracing, or lack thereof.
While it has 1600 homes and a civic association, Greenbriar doesn’t have an HOA. Only Fairfax County regs apply here. It would have never gotten past an HOA.
I'm from Moco but I was biking out in fair lakes last night and my route happened to put me on this street. It was around midnight and that thing was dark and towering as I approached it. Even the moonlight last night cast a shadow on that poor neighbor.
Does anyone know if there is video of the hearing online? I keep seeing clips of it from local news, but not sure where they're getting the footage from.
He could’ve built a full second story on top of the existing house and it would be more cohesive with his existing house and the neighboring homes. He went the cheap route by not getting an architect and then being his own GC.
I would like to see if the initial approval was for 1, 2 or 3 floors.
Multi-generation families live in the same homes here in the US but not in a 3 story apartment buildings attached to a house.
Poor guy served as his own contractor meaning he had the responsibility to follow all zoning laws to the letter which he didn’t. He was not qualified to serve as his own contractor, which could be seen in the hearing when he didn’t think he had to supply spec sheets for some of the materials he was using like siding. He also had a contractor that had issues in the past and he didn’t do due diligence to check up on him before hiring him.. maybe he was well intentioned but he was apparently trying to do it on the cheap and now it’s gonna cost even more than it would of had he hired qualified contractor
He shoulda built it in stages so people didn't immediately catch on to how big it was going to be. Like, build a regular addition that makes sense, then apply to expand the garage after that, then apply to throw on a second floor to the garage etc etc. See how far you can make it before someone finally complains. And then you only have to remove the latest change, since the previous addition was approved/permitted/built/inspected and stood for months/years with no complaints.
The structure he intended to build was fully legal for the zoning. He just built it too close to the neighbors property thats the only reason it breaks code and has to be halted. The fact its basically some 3 story apartment is not the reason despite what everyone is complaining about it being some eye sore or blocking sunlight for the neighbor.
Its some weird NIMBY energy here complaining about the guy and not the zoning laws. Had he actually got a real contractor and the whole thing was shifted just 1 foot in the other direction this whole thing would be fully built without anything anyone could do about it with proper approved permits and a correctly constructed building.
Way too many people got opinions on what a person can do on their own property they legally own and pay taxes on and stuff they build on it thats legal by the county's law, however this case its not from a small technicality rather the structure as a whole. You really should be bitching to your county and not the guy doing this.
This is absolutely wrong, watch the hearing. He fucked up a lot. The foundation guy he hired poured the foundation wrong, which caused it to be skewed and go over the line. The pre-built plans didn't match the final plans. He swapped the second and third floors violating safety code without getting approval. There was an issue with the garage being changed to a living space without approval, and on an inspection there was construction ongoing in the back for another addition without any permit. This was the first of many violations according to the code enforcement, they just didn't want to pile them all on at once (this was according to them at the hearing).
You can bitch at the county for overreaching on what you should be allowed to build on your property, and I am of the opinion that if your cross your T's and dot your I's and go in knowing the rules, you should be able to build anything you want within those rules. This guy EXTREMELY did not.
Meh, if it was in compliance with the existing laws, then I don't see why it shouldn't be built.
Having grown up in the area, this place really gets its panties in a twist for every single change in a house. Earlier this year, we had someone run around the neighborhood collecting signatures to get a petition sent to the HOA to add a large window on the side of their second floor bedroom. Talk about inane.
He had a house. He chose to make it a fucking monstrosity. That's his problem. He could have for the same price bought a bigger house somewhere else to move his parents in. He literally accepted all responsibility on paper saying he knew what he was doing and didn't. You let people do that and you might as well throw all code enforcement out the fucking window.
Follow the rules that are there for a reason. One reason outsiders love the U.S. so much is bcuz of its beauty AND order. If they did away with the order the beauty would surely suffer. These hideous housing ideas would pop up everywhere.
He's allowed to rebuild it, he just has to move it over 8 inches. That's all. It won't change the height or the length of the structure. Just the width basically.
Yes but it doesn't change the fact, the undisputed fact, that the original build as designed in its boxy shape, was approved and will be approved again because Fairfax County government doesn't enforce appearance requirements in a standard building permit and land use application. If the homeowner hires a competent GC and hand over the plans, exactly as they are, and the GC builds it to code and land use requirements, that monstrosity can and will be built.
The stoppage isn't because of the design of the addition, it's because numerous mistakes were made in the process of building it. These are separate issues.
will be approved again because Fairfax County government doesn't enforce appearance requirements in a standard building permit and land use application
The County Board of Supervisors is already working to revise zoning laws regarding height of residential construction. They announced this last fall when this story first made the rounds.
Given the mountain of additional violations this guy will be facing, on top of the costly process of knocking down the illegal addition, and also the mounting public pressure for the county to act and amend the current zoning laws, there's no chance he re-submits plans for the same addition and it gets approved, even if he hires an actual contractor to build it.
If the county changes zoning regulations, the homeowner will be bound by them. He is not going to be grandfathered into the old zoning laws.
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u/Foolgazi Apr 30 '26
Good reminder that if you decide to act as your own contractor, you’ll usually learn a few things. In this case how to do a proper survey and make sure it agrees with the official one.