A Citizen’s Guide: Input to the Western Loudoun Zoning Amendment

By Lawrence Malone

Note to the reader: As the author, I apologize for a ridiculously complicated article. However, I hope you will bear with me because the article accurately describes the process that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has set for citizen input to the Western Loudoun Zoning Amendment (ZOAM). This ZOAM is going to set the ground rules for development in our beautiful backyard for a generation.  You — as one who cares about the Blue Ridge Mountains — need to know exactly how you can shape this important piece of legislation.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (BOS) has authorized a zoning amendment specifically to address zoning issues in Western Loudoun that were not addressed in the new zoning ordinance adopted in December 2023.

In many ways this zoning amendment – technically known as Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM) 2024-0002 – is more important to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the interests of Western Loudoun County than the new zoning ordinance adopted in December 2023. This ZOAM will deal specifically with the Mountain Overlay District (MOD) and all of Western Loudoun. It will establish the ground rules for development — or restrictions on development – in the west for a decade or more.

The BOS has actually set up two complex processes to proceed simultaneously – the preparation of the ZOAM and a Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM).

The issues to be addressed include performance standards for wineries and limited breweries such as hours of operation and outdoor music plus appropriate protections for proximate residences; restrictions on what can be built in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD); as well as regulations governing liveries, stables, and outdoor recreation.

At this early stage in the process, it is important to understand exactly how individual citizens and community groups are going to be able to influence the initial drafting of the ZOAM.

The BOS has set up a comprehensive – and complicated – process for citizen input. The process for preparing the ZOAM, including citizen input component was approved by the BOS at the September 17thbusiness meeting.

TLUC Meetings

The major structured component of the citizen input process will be a series of public Input meetings hosted by the Transportation and Land Use Committee (TLUC) of the BOS.

There will be seven meetings. Each meeting will focus on a different topic:

1. Liveries, Stables and Outdoor Recreation
2. Agriculture processing / other Farm Related Uses
3. Value Added Farming/Other Farm Related Issues / Conservation Easement Density Transfer
4. Mountainside Overlay District/Signage
5. Farm Wineries, Limited Breweries, and Limited Distilleries/Events
6. Food Trucks/Food Service and Rural Restaurants
7. Outstanding Issues

A total of nine (9) selected citizens will be invited to participate in each meeting. The nine citizens will be selected to represent three broad categories of interest groups in Western Loudoun – residents; business and tourism interest; and agriculture and conservation interests.

For example, at the meeting on liveries, stables and outdoor recreation there will be a total of nine (9) citizens. Three (3) will be representing the interests of residents of Western Loudoun; three (3) will be representing the interests of businesses and tourism in Western Loudoun; and three (3) will be representing the interests of farmers and conservationists in Western Loudoun.

In addition to the nine citizens there will be a TLUC supervisor and two (2) members of the Planning Commission. Presumably there will also be several staff from the Planning Department however that is not specified in the formal project plan.

For each of the other six focus areas – agriculture processing, value added farming, mountainside overlay district, farm wineries, food trucks and outstanding issues — there will be an identically structured meeting – 9 citizens representing three different Western Loudoun interests. This means there could be a total of 63 different citizens participating in these meetings (9 citizens X 7 focus area meetings = 63 citizens).

However, there is no requirement that different citizens participate in the different meetings. For example, the three (3) citizens representing Western Loudoun residents in the meeting focusing on liveries and stables could also be the same three (3) citizens representing residents in the meeting focused on wineries. Alternatively, one of the citizens representing residents could participate in the meetings on all four of the focus areas and the other two could change with each focus area.

Who selects the citizens representing the different Western Loudoun interest groups? Good Question. The citizens representing Western Loudoun residents will be selected by the two supervisors for Western Loudoun – Caleb A. Kershner for the Catoctin District and Laura A. Tekrony for the Little River District.

The citizens representing Western Loudoun business and tourism interests will be selected by Beth Erickson, President and CEO of Visit Loudoun.

The citizens representing agriculture and conservation interests will be selected by Chris Van Vlack, Urban/Agriculture Conservationist, Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District. Chris was the subject of the “People You Should Know” column in the August 8th edition of Happenings Around the Blue Ridge.

Other Public Participation Opportunities

In addition to the TLUC meetings there will be other structured opportunities for citizens and community groups to participate in the development of the Western Loudoun ZOAM. The planning commission will of course have public meetings on the draft ZOAM, and the Zoning Ordinance Committee (ZOC) will have an opportunity to review and comment on the draft. However, both of these public participation processes begin after a draft has been prepared and preliminary decisions have been made.

Timing

This will be a multi-year process extending from September 2024 to as late as April 2027.

 The current schedule calls for six of the citizen input TULC meetings to take place November 2024 through October 2025. The seventh citizen input meeting — — Outstanding Issues – will take place in December 2025. The Planning and Zoning staff will draft the ZOAM during calendar 2025 (January 2025 to December 2025). The draft will be referred to the Zoning Ordinance Committee for review January through April 2026. The Planning Commission will hold public hearings and workshops July through October 2026. The BOS will hold public hearing December 2026 through April 2027.

Continued FBRM focus

The Blue Ridge Mountains are an incredible natural resource of worldwide significance. We have an obligation to ourselves, to future generations, and even to the world community to preserve, protect and celebrate them.

ZOAM 2024-0002 is one important tool for doing that.

FBRM will continue to follow this issue closely and to keep you informed.