What’s up with the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite?

By Laura Longley

After a year when Covid has limited public participation in the rewrite of Loudoun County’s zoning laws, the Zoning Ordinance Committee, which is tasked with moving this onerous project forward, is now meeting regularly and taking on some of the more controversial topics. Already, as James David, County liaison to the committee, put it, staff is receiving “copious input,” and that’s sure to mushroom in the many months ahead of us.

Here’s what happening now:

At this point, input is focused on two of the broad areas of zoning: residential and commercial mixed use. Later the Zoning Ordinance Committee will move on to agricultural and public, civic, and institutional uses.

In the past few weeks, it’s been the voices of citizens interested in short-term residential rentals, cluster subdivisions, and rural businesses that have become the loudest.

Rural businesses: One committee member who recently attended a gathering of rural business groups—the Loudoun County Bed and Breakfast Guild, a rural brewers’ guild, and a group representing wineries—reported that owners of these businesses felt they were not considered stakeholder groups or being consulted before regulations were written.

The County’s James David assured them there are plenty of ways to engage—through the Rural Economic Development Council and Visit Loudoun, for example—and there will be plenty of opportunities to weigh in on the draft ordinances.

However, adding more groups to the established committee structure raised concerns. It also is clear that when it comes to ordinances that address the impact of rural businesses, there are bound to be fireworks over parcel versus proximity. In other words, will regulations apply to a business on single parcel or the business’s impact on the area?

Cluster subdivisions: This topic is also moving up on the agenda. Directed by the County Transportation and Land Use Committee, the staff has done additional outreach to appraisers, attorneys, and owners of large properties. The appraisers believe that the zoning regulations now in place for clusters are basically working and fulfilling their primary purpose—to protect prime agricultural soils. At the same time, they want to make sure that any amendment does not impact the development potential of cluster subdivisions.

According to James David, the County staff has started to draft some concepts on clusters; once they have draft text, they’ll begin outreach.

Short-term residential rentals: The devil will be in the details for this rewrite. Sit in on any Zoom meeting of the referral group addressing these rentals, and you’ll soon find yourself immersed in debate over how quickly a property owner or manager must respond in person to a renter’s call, how many beds or how many people should be used to measure capacity, or the number of days per year any one renter may legally occupy the facility as “short-term.”

The next round of outreach will include groups such as the Bed and Breakfast Guild and property owners who want to do short-term rentals.

Stay tuned: Look for zoning ordinance rewrite updates here in the months to come as the process proceeds. If you live or conduct business in one of the County’s seven incorporated towns, this rewrite process is unlikely to impact you.