Loudoun County has changed a lot since the current 1993 zoning ordinance was approved, and County staff needs to hear feedback from residents to ensure a balanced zoning ordinance will match the current vision of Loudoun County.

The completion of the 2019 Comprehensive Plan was the first step initiating a major update with the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite, which has entered its final stages in 2023 . As with the Comprehensive Plan process, Loudoun Wildlife is collaborating with nonprofit partners of the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition to provide public input throughout this process, but it is vital that members of the public also submit comments and feedback.

Through June of 2023, the Planning Commission held work sessions to review the latest draft texts of the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite (ZOR). The Planning Commission forwarded the draft of the new Zoning Ordinance to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of approval following their work sessions on June 5th and 8th. County staff has incorporated changes into the draft text as a result of motions made during the Planning Commission’s work sessions. This updated draft text was released on July 6th, 2023 in preparation for the July 26th Board of Supervisors Public Hearing when the new draft text underwent its first review by the Board of Supervisors. This will be followed by work sessions to review individual chapters and sections in the fall of 2023.

Loudoun Wildlife wishes to thank everyone who submitted public comments on behalf of protecting wildlife during the initial public comment period. We thank those that showed up to the July 26th Public Hearing to voice support for wildlife-friendly zoning. We will be providing information in advance of the relevant chapter-specific work sessions for topics that still warrant additional wildlife protections. The first will be the September 26 work session on Rural Uses.

For more information on the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite:

• Visit Loudoun Coalition’s Zoning Committee webpage. Here you will find more detailed information on this process, including in-depth input and analysis from members of the Loudoun Coalition.
• View Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s recommendations for revisions to the January draft text.
• Go to https://www.loudoun.gov/zoningordinancerewrite to stay up-to-date on the Rewrite process, and access the current versions of the draft text.  This page also has the schedule for the Board of Supervisors Fall Work Sessions

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