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Chesterfield County planning director reviews 2025 zoning reforms and case trends
Summary
Andy Gillies, the county's director of planning, told the Board the 2025 year included adoption of the new zoning ordinance (ZOMOD) and subdivision ordinance, 104 zoning actions with a roughly two-thirds approval rate at the commission level, and a Plan Mod schedule with upcoming housekeeping amendments.
Andy Gillies, Chesterfield County's director of planning, presented the Planning Commission's 2025 annual report to the Board of Supervisors, highlighting adoption of the new zoning ordinance (ZOMOD), updates to the subdivision ordinance and a year of heavy community engagement.
"ZOMOD was a six-year effort for us to get through," Gillies said, noting the county also revised the subdivision ordinance (chapter 17.1) and advanced a December amendment that moved auto sales to a conditional-use requirement to align with the new code and utility chapter 18 provisions.
The report summarized case activity and outcomes. Gillies told the Board the department recorded 247 formal zoning-opinion requests in 2025; of those, 139 led to pre-application meetings and 109 became formal filings. In total the office processed 104 zoning actions, of which Gillies said 86 received recommendations for approval by the Planning Commission, five were denied and 13 were deferred.
Gillies cautioned that some headline unit totals include previously approved entitlements that returned to the commission. "There are examples where units approved decades ago are carried into this total because they were part of a zoning case we reviewed last year," he said, noting the office has more detailed data to distinguish net-new units from historical approvals.
On the mix of development, Gillies reported roughly a one-third split among single-family (about 34 percent), townhouses (31 percent) and multifamily (35 percent) for entitled units in 2025, and he emphasized these figures represent zoning entitlements, not building permits or units actually constructed.
The presentation also reviewed Plan Mod, the comprehensive plan modernization. Gillies described Plan Mod as the county's longer-term vision (10'0 years) for land use and density and said a draft will go before the Planning Commission in July with public engagement through October and planned public hearings in the fall.
Looking ahead, Gillies said the department will bring housekeeping amendments to ZOMOD in May to correct language identified during six months of implementation, with the Board likely to see an approval package in June or July. He added that some changes tied to recently passed General Assembly bills take effect in 2027 and may be included in a later December 2026 housekeeping round.
Board members praised staff outreach and civility in public engagement. "This Board job could be really great if you didn't have to do zoning cases," one member said, thanking Gillies and his team for steady management of a difficult docket.
The work session closed with additional questions about how to present entitlements vs. net-new units in future reports and appreciation for the department's community engagement efforts.
The Board did not take formal votes on policy changes during this presentation; next procedural steps include the planning commission's May consideration of ZOMOD housekeeping edits and the July work session on Plan Mod.
