http://www.manassasjm.com/servlet/Satel ... 0395&path=

City moves toward ordinance repeal


By JACLYN PITTS
jpitts@manassasjm.com
Thursday, January 12, 2006


After more than two hours of discussion in a closed session Wednesday night, Manassas City Council members voted unanimously to use the previous definition of family, in place of the definition adopted Dec. 5.

The Zoning Text Amendment would delete the words "the second degree of collateral consanguinity," as well as the definition of head of household.

The "second degree of collateral consanguinity," adopted with the Dec. 5 amendment, essentially limited households to immediate family members plus one non-related person.

In returning to the previous definition, a family is two or more persons related by blood, marriage, adoption or guardianship, living and cooking together as a single housekeeping unit.

However, this initiation does not mean the immediate repeal of the Dec. 5 amendment, City Manager Larry Hughes said.

The initiated amendment must go before the city's Planning Commission for review and recommendation, he said. Then the proposed ammendment will be discussed at a public hearing. The Council will vote on the ammendment later.

Also, city officials have planned to expand and broaden representation and membership of the city's Staff Overcrowding Task Force, which Hughes said would incorporate members of the community at large.

Hughes said the city may eventually adopt a new task force as well, to address residential overcrowding and community maintenance.

The city also plans to develop for the FY 2007 budget a new community maintenance program to be available to all city neighborhoods.

Ricardo Juarez of Woodbridge, a sub-coordinator with Mexicanos Sin Fronteras (Mexicans Without Frontiers), said he "initially can say [he is] satisfied with the [council's] decision."

Juarez' group and others, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Washington Lawyers Committee, have questioned the constitutionality of the Dec. 5 ordinance since its adoption.

In fact, the Virginia ACLU announced Jan. 4 it was prepared to file a lawsuit against the city "if necessary," citing the ordinance as an "unconstitutional government infringement" on families' rights.

However, some residents have been in favor of the Dec. 5 ordinance, citing parking, garbage and other problems they associated with overcrowded housing and, generally, people they assumed to be illegal immigrants.

The city suspended enforcement of the ordinance after the Virginia ACLU threatened litigation against the city.

Until the zoning code is amended, the city will continue suspending enforcement activity related to the family definition, according to a statement released Wednesday evening.

"I do think [council members] have learned from this and the Hispanic community responded," Manassas resident Maribel Alvarez said. "[They realized] we are organized and we are going to have a say."