Happenings Around the Blue Ridge – November 2, 2023

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (BOS) continues to move forward with the objective of enacting the new zoning ordinance in 2023. Currently the final public hearing is scheduled for 6:00 PM Wednesday December 13^th and it is very possible that the BOS will take the official vote to adopt the ordinance at the meeting on the 13^th.

The Board will hold the final Zoning Ordinance Rewrite session October 30^th which will focus on Zoning Districts (Chapter 2); Use Specific Standards (Chapter 4); Development Standards (Chapter 7); and Procedures (Chapter 10).

Over the course of the past two years Friends, in cooperation with many other environmental and conservation organizations, has been working closely with the Planning Staff and the Planning Commission to strengthen the zoning protections against overdevelopment in Western Loudoun, particularly in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). With our partners we have had some notable successes and the protections as currently drafted in the new ordinance are stronger than the protections in the previous ordinance.

However, significant work remains to be done once the new ordinance is adopted. Friends, and many other organizations, have repeatedly emphasized that the new ordinance will still permit certain kinds of commercial development — such as rural retreats and sit-down restaurants — in the Blue Ridge that are inappropriate for the steep slopes, thin soils, thick tree cover, and diverse flora and fauna that characterize our mountains.

Friends and our partner organizations will work with the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to introduce a Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM) to correct these and similar problems upon adoption of the new Zoning Ordinance. LPM