City or county: which Manassas?
A Manassas mailing address does not settle who reviews a pavilion. The City of Manassas is a city of its own: its residents are not liable for Prince William County taxes, and the county's Development Services does not provide services for the Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. The City's own answer is that a home is in the City of Manassas only if its ZIP code is 20110, while a county address can carry 20109, 20111 or 20112, and Manassas Park homes use 20111. Prince William County's Development Services page checks an address or a parcel GPIN for its jurisdiction and points anyone outside the county to the City's offices at 9027 Center Street.
A pavilion inside the City
The City's zoning permit page puts accessory structures, carports, garages and sheds on its list of yard work that takes a zoning certificate, and it recommends calling Development Services before any exterior change to a yard. The certificate is filed with a house location survey showing the existing and proposed improvements, and the same page notes that a shed over 256 square feet requires a building permit. Construction permits in the City are required to enforce the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code; the City accepts third-party building inspections from an approved list of inspectors, and some inspections can be done virtually.
City of Manassas or Prince William County?
Send us the street and the ZIP code, and we will confirm which office reviews the pavilion.
The City's historic districts
The City has three historic districts. The Manassas Local Historic District is the largest of them and holds over 300 structures; the Liberia Mansion district covers an 18-acre site, and the Mayfield Fort district an 11.5-acre one. Inside them, the Architectural Review Board issues certificates of appropriateness for construction, reconstruction and substantial exterior alteration, as well as demolition and relocation. Its own list of the work it reviews includes fences, sheds, garages, decks and porches, and the City asks owners to contact its Planning and Development Office before starting any project on a property in a district. The board meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month, as needed, and it reviews against the City's Historic District Design Guidelines, which are based on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
How we plan a Manassas pavilion
From the shop on Gum Spring Road, Manassas is roughly 11 miles as the crow flies. The ZIP code and the parcel come first, since they decide whether the City or the county reviews the work. Inside the City, the pavilion is drawn on the house location survey for the zoning certificate, and in a historic district for the Architectural Review Board as well. Outside the City, Prince William County's zoning approval and building permit apply, as our Prince William County page sets out. How a pavilion's posts, frame and roof go up is on our pavilions page.
Other Manassas projects we take on
- Outdoor kitchens and fire pits beside a pavilion
- Paver patios and seating walls
- Composite decks and three-season rooms