Leesburg launches zoning ordinance rewrite; staff to post draft Feb. 20 and run 60-day public comment

Director David opened the Planning Commission work session to kick off an in-depth zoning ordinance rewrite that staff and a consultant will carry out over the coming months. He told the commission that the rewrite’s key inputs include the 2022 town plan (Legacy Leesburg), a recently adopted Crescent District Master Plan, a consultant code audit, and prior public focus groups.

David said staff expects to release the first complete draft of the proposed zoning text on Feb. 20 and to open a 60-day public comment period. “We anticipate releasing the first draft of the text, end of February. February 20th is our target date,” he said. The commission’s work sessions will review the new ordinance article by article, with an optimistic schedule to hold a Planning Commission public hearing on Aug. 7 and for town council review in fall 2025.

David and staff demonstrated the ENCODE Plus online review platform that will host the new zoning ordinance and related regulatory documents. The demonstration showed searchable text, hyperlinked cross-references and an “archive” tool for viewing prior ordinance versions. As an example of the platform’s functionality, David showed a tooltip and said reviewers can “hover over the word bed and breakfast” to see definitions or click links to jump between the use table and the definition glossary. Staff encouraged commissioners to use the online comment feature tied to specific sections and said staff will compile comments into a public matrix.

Commission discussion covered the proposed map and district renaming (the draft map reduces the number of base districts and proposes labels that align with town-plan character areas), consolidation of planned development districts into legacy appendices, and sequencing. David said the Crescent District Master Plan will be a guiding document for the Crescent-area form-based codes included in the rewrite. He also noted a legislative application already scheduled for Feb. 20 (Greenway Manor) that may occupy much of that meeting’s agenda.

Staff presented a tentative article-by-article work plan. Article 1 and 2 are scheduled for March 6, with articles 3 and 4 to follow in successive meetings; the draft will be accessible in ENCODE Plus so commissioners can review sections in advance. Staff recommended commissioners review the town plan and the consultant code audit before February and suggested subcommittees could form for the most substantial topics (uses, development standards, and districts/dimensional standards).

David said staff will provide highlight cover memos for each work session identifying the most meaningful changes and claimed staff and consultants already performed significant background review to reduce the commission’s workload. Staff named Brian Boucher, Mike Watkins and Tina Newton as ongoing project contacts. The commission requested exportable comment and public-input lists; staff said it will provide PDFs and an exportable comment matrix for offline review if needed.

David closed by asking commissioners to begin reviewing assigned pages and to return specific questions in advance of upcoming work sessions so staff can prepare responses.