Virginia Proposes Ordinance Dictating How Many People Can Gather At Your Private Residence

You read that right. My good old home state of Virginia wants to regulate how many people can legally gather at your private residence and how often they can legally do it as well.

A plan to ban "frequent and large gatherings at neighborhood homes" is a lawsuit waiting to happen, a Fairfax County supervisor predicts.

Officials will get an idea Wednesday when public-comment hearings begin in Virginia's most populous county.

"I believe the county is risking a lawsuit and/or a Constitution challenge by interfering with peoples' right to assemble," Supervisor Pat Herrity said in a statement.

The proposed zoning ordinance limits "group assembly" at residences to 49 people a day. Such gatherings "shall not occur more frequently than three times in any 40-day period."

County officials say they have received complaints about group meetings at homes. But Herrity said "they haven't even reached 1 percent of the thousands of complaints our Department of Code Compliance investigates a year."

"This is yet another instance where we appear to be punishing the many for the actions of the few," said Herrity, who reported a total of six complaints were received last year.

Wow... 6 complaints. We might really want to crack down on this ever growing evil madness before it destroys us all.

Church groups, scouting organizations or even sports fans drawn to a home's big-screen TV during playoffs could be potential targets of the proposed county law. Realtors worry that even open houses would invite civil penalties.

I completely understand that some neighbors are indeed neighbors from hell. I wouldn't be too happy myself if I came home and there were cars blocking my driveway, parked in my yard, people blaring their music, and playing naked limbo with broomsticks on their own front lawn.... But I can get the police to come and rectify that situation already. Other than that why should I care how many people want to shack up in my neighbors house 2 nights a week to watch reruns of Mork and Mindy on their 2,000 inch television?

It's their house and they can certainly host as many Pampered Chef parties as they want with as many guests as they want as long as they aren't breaking any laws. I choose not to be offended that they are converting hundreds of folks a week to Pampered Chef from the tried and true Tupperware.

Would this ruling be going against people's right to assemble as the article ponders? Should it be perfectly ok for someone to make a law telling you how many people can visit your home at one time and in a certain period of time? Is this going too far? There are laws already against excessive noise, littering, damaging private property, etc. so a lot of the common complaints folks have against neighbors having a ton of guests is already covered under other laws. So why the need for this?

I guess we will have to wait and see how many people show up in support for this new law and wait yet again to see if it will fly.

How will they enforce this? Will they have officers just watching to see how many people go in/go out and how often they do it? How far will the invasion of privacy go in trying to figure out if one is compliant or not?

You can read more here:
www.foxnews.com...

And here:
watchdog.org...

I was really really prepared to be fired up but this is just a public-comment hearings for a proposed County ordinance. Make sure you show up and give them your opinion though!

a reply to: theantediluvian

I am planning on going sure enough. I edited my OP to ordinance instead of law to clarify (my error) but I certainly don't like the idea of anyone telling me how many people can visit me and how often.

I don't know 49 people and they certainly wouldn't fit in my tiny house, but one should still have the right to do so as long as it isn't interfering with other's rights.

originally posted by: Kangaruex4Ewe
a reply to: theantediluvian

I am planning on going sure enough. I edited my OP to ordinance instead of law to clarify (my error) but I certainly don't like the idea of anyone telling me how many people can visit me and how often.

I don't know 49 people and they certainly wouldn't fit in my tiny house, but one should still have the right to do so as long as it isn't interfering with other's rights.

Yeah it sounds like a slippery slope and 49 is an arbitrary number. What happens at 50? Do you reach critical mass and the house explodes?

EDIT:

Looks like there's already a thread about this here: Virginia proposal would limit size of gatherings at private homes...more rights at stake...

a reply to: theantediluvian

Ah geez... My search skill obviously reached critical mass. Thanks for the link. I alerted the mods so they could remove it.

BTW - I think that when you hit 50, it tears a hole in the space/time continuum.

Please add your thoughts to the existing thread as linked to above.

Thank you.

Thread closed.