Alexandria residents sue city over zoning regulations

Alexandria sued by residents over zoning regulations

In Alexandria, a group of residents are now taking legal action and suing the city after the council voted to change zoning regulations. FOX 5's Sierra Fox has the story.

A group of Alexandria residents are now taking legal action and suing the city after the council voted to change zoning regulations.

As FOX 5 previously reported back in November, the city council approved a plan called The Zoning for Housing effort. It allows buildings to have as many as four units on any residential lot.

Ultimately, the initiative hurts single-family-only zoning.

The lawsuit argues the city violated its charter as well as the Virginia constitution by loosening zoning rules for its more suburban residential areas.

It also claims the city failed to properly study how the changes would impact people.

Missing Middle lawsuits costing Arlington taxpayers

Taxpayers in Arlington will reportedly have their taxpayer dollars footing the bill for hundreds of dollars an hour in attorney fees on a lawsuit over allowing mixed-use housing in neighborhoods with single-family homes.

Roy Byrd, chairman of the Coalition For a Livable Alexandria, is part of this fight to shut down the newly implemented policies.

"We think the city acted arbitrarily in this case," he told FOX 5 on Monday. "The City of Alexandria should be welcoming to everyone and there should be housing there for everyone; for seniors, for married folks, for single folks, and people should have a choice of living in the kind of house that they want."

In a statement sent to FOX 5, the City of Alexandria said, "The zoning for housing initiative was adopted in accordance with applicable law and the city is prepared to vigorously defend the amendments in court."