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Leesburg opens public review of zoning ordinance rewrite; comment period runs through May 5
Summary
Town staff described a draft rewrite of Leesburg's zoning ordinance, highlighting a new open-space district, fewer articles, and incentives for sustainability. The public review draft is online and the town is taking comments through May 5; the Planning Commission will review the draft before it goes to the Town Council in winter 2025.
James David, director of community development, told the Leesburg Environmental Advisory Commission that the town has posted a public review draft of a zoning ordinance rewrite and is seeking public comment through May 5.
"Once we get the zoning ordinance updated, it's our governing document for development review," David said, explaining that the draft is intended to align the town's development rules with the Legacy Leesburg town plan adopted in February 2022. He said the public review draft went online March 6 on an interactive platform and that the Planning Commission is doing an article-by-article review before the draft moves to the Town Council in winter 2025.
The draft proposes several structural and substantive changes meant to streamline the code and better reflect the town plan. David said the rewrite reduces the ordinance from 18 articles to nine, consolidates many zoning districts, and adds a dedicated open space and parks zoning district to protect green space. He also called attention to three articles he recommended the commission focus on: Article 2 (zoning districts and dimensional standards), Article 3 (use regulations), and Article 4 (development standards).
Key provisions David described include a conservation development pattern option for residential subdivisions that concentrates open space; clearer definitions of what will count as community amenities and open space so developers cannot count small landscaping strips as usable public space; and a new set of development standards that add bike-parking ratios, landscape buffers (including an existing Creek Valley buffer yard), and expanded tree-preservation rules.
David said the Crescent District master plan (the area around Catoctin Circle between King Street and Market Street) and other town capital-intensity factors will inform negotiations with developers, including possible cash contributions to cover impacts such as school and road capacity.
On sustainability, David said the draft introduces "sustainability incentives" designed to encourage green building and site-planning practices but that the town attorney advised those incentives could not be written as requirements at this time. "I was hoping I could require those, but the town attorney told me I'm not allowed to. So they're just incentives for right now," he said.
David demonstrated the draft on the ENCODEplus platform, showing a table-of-contents view, a search function, and an interactive GIS map that displays draft zoning districts and environmental overlays (floodplains and the Creek Valley buffer). He explained how users can submit section-tagged comments directly through the platform: comments are recorded in real time and will be printed for Planning Commission work sessions.
Commission members asked about coordination with Loudoun County trail planning. Laura Kowalski, a commission member, asked whether the county's linear parks and trails plan would connect to Leesburg's trails. David replied that county zoning does not govern land inside the town and so the county plan does not automatically apply inside the town borders, but said coordination is possible and that the town is beginning an update to its parks and recreation master plan.
David encouraged the commission to submit consolidated comments where appropriate, and suggested commissions and advisory bodies form small subcommittees if they want to review large sections of the draft in detail. He said staff, including Whitney Hughes from the town manager's office, will circulate slides and links and assist with a view-only review if the commission wants staff to draft consolidated comments.
The public review draft and comment portal are available on the town's ENCODEplus site; David said the public comment period closes May 5. After Planning Commission review the draft will be scheduled for Town Council consideration in winter 2025.
No formal votes or ordinance adoptions were taken during the presentation; the meeting served as an informational briefing and an invitation for the commission to review and comment.
