Supervisors Temporarily Suspend Zoning Enforcement Lawsuit in the MOD

At its April 15 business meeting, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors agreed to temporarily suspend filing a lawsuit regarding an apparent zoning violation in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD).

The issue was introduced by Supervisor Kershner seeking a delay in filing a lawsuit regarding an apparent zoning violation on a property in his Catoctin district.   The county attorney advised that they had been working with the property owner to resolve the issue but the current zoning ordinance does not permit any relief for the violation and the county is now required to file a lawsuit.

Supervisor Kershner’s original motion was to have the county’s planning staff prepare amendments that would provide greater flexibility within the overlay and bring it back for the board’s consideration. As an alternative, County Chair Phyllis J. Randall proposed sending the issue to the Transportation and Land Use Committee (TLUC) for review and recommendation to the Board.

After considerable discussion the Board did not approve sending the issue to TLUC. According to a 4/17/2025 article in Loudoun Now by Hanna Pampaloni, Supervisor Laura A. TeKrony said she was not sure why special board action was needed because review of the district is already included in the ongoing Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance Western Loudoun and Rural Uses amendment process. The Mountainside Overlay District is expected to be reviewed in September by the stakeholder group.

“There are so many people who have come to us and said it is rigid; our Zoning Ordinance is rigid. … We’re fixing that, so I’d rather fix it in a comprehensive, wholistic view than look at it as a one-off. Because I could bring a bunch of these as one-offs,” TeKrony said.

Vice Chair Michael R. Turner said by pulling this one item out of the rural Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM) and Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM) review process, the Board gives it priority over everything else in that process.

The Loudoun Now article further quotes Supervisor Turner: “If the board took a vote on this dais at a public meeting to absolve one person from a zoning violation, doesn’t that establish a legal precedent that if anybody in the county has a zoning violation that we’re going to prosecute? They’d have every right to come before this board with precedent and say, ‘I’d like a vote of the Board to waive your enforcement of my violation in that Zoning Ordinance?”

County attorney Leo Rogers said he did not think so because the board is already slated to discuss the regulations in September.

Rogers proposed an approach that would suspend lawsuits related to existing zoning ordinance violations in the MOD until after the September discussions.

Ultimately, and after considerable and sometimes heated discussion, the Board agreed to temporarily suspend filing a lawsuit regarding existing zoning violations in the MOD.