The revised Clarke County Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances (Code of Clarke County Chapter 200) (effective Aug. 17, 2021) were developed in a multi-year project to review, clarify, organize, and modernize the county’s current ordinances and to ensure compliance with Code of Virginia requirements. The scope of this review project was limited to ensure the county’s approach to land use decision-making was preserved. Regulations that were not substantively changed include:

• Lot size requirements, residential density, and scale of allowable development.
• Rules for allocating dwelling unit rights (DURs) in the Agricultural-Open Space-Conservation (AOC) and Forestal-Open Space-Conservation (FOC) zoning districts.
• Current zoning districts.

This project also produced no changes to the county Zoning Map and the zoning district classifications for county properties.

Some of the major changes that were made include:

• Creation of a combined definitions section (Article III) for the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances containing terms from both current Ordinances with amendments, additions, and deletions where necessary.
• Reorganization of the Ordinances in a customer-friendly format including grouping of related provisions, use of a new section numbering system, and expanded descriptions of review processes and regulations. 
• Comprehensive update of uses including changes to use terms, use regulations and definitions, and deletion of some outdated and inconsistent uses. Specific examples include modifications to the regulations for home occupations and accessory dwellings, and creation of new regulations for temporary uses including agritourism activities.
• Clarification and modernization of zoning and subdivision review processes including creation of new processes to reflect current application practices, updates to the review factors for rezoning and special use permit applications, and elimination of the preliminary plat process.
• Revisions to design criteria and development regulations including substantive changes to sign regulations, landscaping standards, and private access easement and private driveway requirements and standards.
• Mandatory revisions to the Flood Plain Overlay District regulations to comply with the requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

All adopted changes are consistent with the 2013 Clarke County Comprehensive Plan and implementing component plans.