In a prime example of the value of grassroots political action, Fairfax City, VA dealers with just 48 hours notice mounted an intense lobbying effort recently that successfully headed off a proposed zoning text amendment regarding vehicle sales and rental uses that would have been highly burdensome to dealers.
Springing from the fact that one automobile dealer also displayed motorcycles in the showroom, the Fairfax City Council proposed an amendment that would segregate all facets of sales licenses into separate categories cars, motorcycles, boats, etc. and require dealers to have special use permits (SUPs) for each.
The Fairfax City Auto Dealers Association got wind of this change just 48 hours before the council was due to vote on it. The associationês facilitator, Sharon Cavileer, along with Charlie Stringfellow, Brownês Automotive Group, who serves as president of the Fairfax City Auto Dealers, and Larry Pateros, Fair Oaks Dodge, immediately began alerting fellow dealers about the issue, urging them to contact the council in opposition to the proposed zoning change.
As a member of the WANADA Board of Directors, Stringfellow also informed WANADA, which stood ready to offer its assistance if necessary. As it turned out, Fairfax dealers where able to get the job done on their own.
We all started calling members of the city council to let them know we were very unhappy with this change, and asked them to defer their decision until we had a chance to meet with the council and talk about it, said Stringfellow.
Council members told dealers that council staff had gone too far on this amendment, and that it was not the councilês intention to harm dealers. As a result of this dialogue between dealers and the council, the amendment was revised to two categories one for car dealers and all related dealership sales and a second category for motorcycles only.
What started out as an issue between one dealer and the city council expanded to an issue between the dealers in general and the city council, and then, with the revised language, it was reduced back to an issue between one dealer and city council, Stringfellow explained. But that does not mean it will not raise its ugly head again.
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