Revised Zoning Ordinances: Will they rewrite Loudoun’s future?

By Laura Longley

“Loudoun County features more than 40 wineries and tasting rooms on rolling hills and cliff-edged slopes… but you come to DC’s Wine Country for more than tastings and tours. Unique winery experiences include barrel tastings with vintners (blend and label your own bottle), grape stomping, vinotherapy spa treatments, yoga classes…and music concerts…If the bacchanal gets too much, check into a boutique bed and breakfast and wake up to the best vineyard views this side of Tuscany…” proclaims Visit Loudoun. 

With the boom in breweries, Loudoun also boasts the LoCo Ale Trail: “With 30+ breweries and counting, Loudoun is one of the most vibrant craft beer destinations in the US…There’s live music most nights, trivia evenings, multiple Oktoberfest events, Virginia Craft Beer Month in August… Grab your Ale Trail passport and fill your glass!”

Visit Loudoun, the destination marketing organization for Loudoun County, along with the County’s Rural Economic Development programs, can take well-deserved bows for western Loudoun’s thriving rural economy. But they may face challenges in the not-so-distant future.

With the July 18 close of the 90-day public feedback period for the County’s Draft Zoning Ordinance Rewrite, it’s clear residents and conservation organizations want to see tightened regulations, particularly for agritainment enterprises. Of the 3,000 comments received by the ZOR County staff, the majority are calling for more special exception requirements and limits on locations, multiple property uses, food trucks, hours of operation, exterior lighting, outdoor music (especially amplified), parking, number of guests and groups, security and safety measures.

Changes to zoning ordinances can be inconsequential or monumental. A zoning ordinance, the Piedmont Environmental Council explains on its website, “directs how much, where, and what type of development can occur. It controls how land is managed and how natural resources and historic resources are protected. It establishes requirements for affordable housing and strategies for ensuring sustainability, and so on. Importantly, the zoning ordinance provides many specific details on how the County can accomplish these and other land use objectives.”

Loudoun County’s current rewrite is a legally required process intended to fulfill the vision of the County’s Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2019, by aligning ordinances with that document. The final, revised draft should reach the Board of Supervisors by next spring. Meanwhile, work is also going forward on Zoning Ordinance Amendments [ZOAMs] addressing “cluster” subdivisions and prime agricultural soils, short-term residential rentals, airport overlay districts, and a Dulles solar project. 

At this juncture, existing ordinances under review include attainable and group (congregate) housing, equestrian businesses, water and waste treatment systems, farming, and the tourism attractions, among many others.

Perhaps the most consequential question addressed to the rewrite committee is the simplest one: “What is a farm?”

The current ordinance definition is: “Farm: An agricultural use of one or more parcels of land, whether abutting or not, having a minimum of 5 acres and operated under the same ownership or stewardship, used for the production, cultivation, growing, harvesting or processing of agricultural or horticultural products or for animal husbandry purposes.”

At present, “farm-based businesses” do not require a special exception to operate. Eliminating the word “processing” may impact some businesses, such as craft beer operations that do not cultivate, grow, or harvest their own hops.

One resident wrote, “[We] need to make sure ‘processing’ in and of itself doesn’t make a property a ‘farm’…

“Because agricultural processing is a separate use, there is no need to include ‘processing” in the definition of farm. Delete processing from the definition. That way processing could be permitted on a farm, but solely processing wouldn’t make the property a farm.” 

Another resident zeroed in on the word “historic.” 

“The zoning ordinance does not define the word ‘historic.’ It is absolutely essential that this word be precisely defined in order to establish standards to protect our priceless historic sites and resources. We recommend using the criteria for evaluation on the National Register of Historic Places, as found in 36 CFR § 60.4 – Criteria for evaluation.” 

“Event management regulations need to be consistent throughout the zoning ordinance, primarily for high-intensity uses to ensure compliance with 2019 Comp Plan Policy Commission and BOS,” wrote the leader of a preservation organization.

“The County should establish a ‘tier’ or ’levels’ system based on intensity of the use to be consistent and equitable with the application of ‘tiers’ or ‘levels” for other existing Uses (e.g., B&B, Rural Resorts, Campgrounds, Farm-Based Tourism, Ag Support Uses, etc.). 

“The ordinance provides no mechanism to consider or evaluate properties with more than one primary use in terms of scale (location, total acreage), and intensity impacts. Provide standards to evaluate and address multiple principal uses on a parcel to ensure compatible scale, use, intensity, character, and environmental protections, including, but not limited to, acres calculation, scale, intensity, hours of operation, parking calculations, quantity of events and attendees, setbacks, buffering, road access, noise, etc. 

“Brewery, Limited, Missing Regulations. As indicated in 2017-2018 case studies and review of other county ordinances, Loudoun County can add regulations for the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Virginia Counties Comparison Report summarizes regulations other counties have approved and implemented for: 1) minimum crop acre production, 2) maximum attendees for events and special events, 3) yard standards for front yard, side yard, rear yard, 4) landscaping, buffering, screening, 5) road access and heavy equipment, 6) exterior lighting, including dark sky requirements for lighting on ridge lines/slopes in MDOD [Mountainside Development Overlay District]  (seasonal or otherwise), 7) noise, 8) hours of operation.” *Virginia Counties Comparison Report 2021 Update https://loudouncoalition.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/04/ZOR-2021-V” 

At present, “farm-based businesses do not require a special exception to operate.” The writer added, “Draft zoning ordinance should protect residents against ‘personal recreational fields’ or unpermitted dumps.”

Concerns also surfaced about forest management and grading, tree cover, and noise regulations. One stakeholder contended: “The [Zoning Ordinance] requirements must require the prerequisite information for full development plans be submitted before grading permits are granted…Similarly, grading permits relying on ‘Forest Management Plan’ must include mechanisms for onsite review/inspection to not allow site clearing on mountainside as a loophole for residential or business site preparation without permits…No large tree should be allowed to be torn down, as this interferes and weakens the networks of other trees.”

The future of historic villages concerned many correspondents. “I strongly urge you to revise the zoning ordinance to appropriately protect our important historic resources,” wrote the resident of a village. “These resources provide cultural and recreational activities for all Loudoun County residents and have a positive fiscal impact on the County.” Among the writer’s specific recommendations:  

Protect Loudoun’s historic villages and districts, including during the period prior to completion of Comprehensive Plan-mandated criteria to officially designate rural historic villages and complete small area plans.

Reduce the ease of approval for uses and use exceptions that compromise the scenic and historic integrity of our landscape. 

“I grew up in Lincoln,” she noted “where my mother lived until her death in 2020 at nearly 101. We put her farm in easement with the Land Trust of Virginia that same year. She wanted, as she said at 99, to ‘look outside and see cows, horses, open fields—just as it looks now, somewhere you can breathe.’ The conservation of her farm, which touches Lincoln and connects with other farms in easement, provides a ‘green link’ into the village. 

“I realize the importance of Historic Villages and Districts, now own property in the village of Upperville, and fully realize the benefits of keeping our villages just that—places one enters that have a sense of being, of having a presence. ‘You’ve arrived somewhere,’ said my sister who made preservation her life’s work, ‘when you enter a village.’”

The Zoning Ordinance Rewrite draft, with public comments incorporated in it, will move on to the Planning Commission in September. 

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Caption: Hops, shown here, are needed to make beer. The issue with “farm” craft breweries around here is they aren’t growing hops … just buying picked ones in bulk for “processing.”