The Board of Zoning Appeals for the City of Fairfax on Oct. 21 approved a special exception allowing Martin Heiser Inc., doing business as Happy Cat Hotel and Spa, to reduce the off‑street parking requirement for a proposed cat boarding and grooming business at 3220 Blenheim Boulevard.

Staff recommended approval, and the board voted 3-0 to adopt the special exception SE-25-00487 with conditions requiring that the use be consistent with the applicant’s statement of justification and that the applicant obtain all necessary local, state and federal permits before any on‑site construction.

The special-exception request arose because the zoning code’s general-services parking standard requires one space per 200 square feet of floor area. The existing building is 3,459 square feet, which under that standard produces a requirement of 17 parking spaces; the property currently provides eight spaces. Staff’s presentation noted a July 22, 2025 text amendment to the zoning ordinance that, after the applicant’s original filing, reclassified dog‑boarding uses to require one space per 400 square feet, effectively halving parking requirements for similar intensity uses. That change did not alter the parking standard applied to the applicant’s current classification, so the applicant moved forward with a special exception under the existing requirement.

City zoning administrator Joe Eisenberg introduced the staff presentation and turned the report to Savannah Newburn of the Berkeley Group, who described the site, the parking-counts and the management measures the applicant proposed. Newburn said the applicant provided a written parking management plan in the statement of justification that schedules arrivals and departures, manages employee parking and outlines overflow procedures.

Co‑owner Britney Lawsonheiser told the board the Alexandria sister location averages no more than about 4.8 check‑ins or check‑outs on a typical Sunday and that the Fairfax location expects no more than three employees on site at a time. Co‑owner Nicholas Martineff described the staffing pattern and said the business would rely on employee off‑site parking on especially busy days and had attempted, without success, to secure written lease agreements for shared parking with adjacent properties.

Board members asked about nearby parking and whether customers could park at adjacent shopping-center lots and walk to the business. Staff answered that shared‑parking lease agreements are an allowed mechanism under the zoning ordinance but require the willingness of neighboring property owners and that public on‑street parking generally falls outside the distance allowed for off‑site leased spaces.

In granting the exception, the board relied on staff’s finding that the existing building and the parking lot are physical constraints and that the proposed use is of similar intensity to neighboring businesses and therefore consistent with the comprehensive plan and the small area plan for the Fairfax Circle activity center. Staff noted the city’s adopted small area plan (July 2024) encourages multimodal access and parking‑management strategies such as parking maximums and on‑demand reservation systems.

The motion to approve included two conditions: that operations conform to the submitted statement of justification (the parking management plan) and that all required permits be obtained prior to construction. The board’s approval met the legal requirement that, with only three members present, any approval be unanimous. The motion passed 3-0.

The board’s decision preserves the applicant’s ability to open at the subject site under the parking management measures provided in their application; the decision did not adopt any additional physical modifications or require a written off‑site parking lease with neighboring lots.

The board then moved on to other routine business.