Leesburg, Virginia Officials Discuss Bed-and-Breakfast Limits, October 26, 2026

At the October 26, 2026 Leesburg, Virginia meeting, officials reviewed proposed zoning changes affecting bed-and-breakfast and hotel uses in the downtown district. The main point of contention was a proposed increase in the bed-and-breakfast room cap to 15; members called that too high and converged on eight. They also compared the definitions of bed-and-breakfasts and hotels and discussed streamlining downtown hotel approvals.

Discussion Items

• The draft amendment would raise the bed-and-breakfast room cap to 15 across the board. Staff member Mr. Watkins confirmed the existing ordinance limits bed-and-breakfasts to five rooms.
• A bed-and-breakfast in the residential-historic district would remain a special exception requiring planning commission and town council approval; the existing cap in that district is five rooms. The transcript contains a conflict on this point: one exchange suggests the residential-historic cap was unchanged, but staff then said the 15-room cap applied 'across the board.'
• Staff described a bed-and-breakfast as overnight accommodations with a morning meal in a single-family detached residence that is currently permitted as a single-family dwelling, has a resident manager living on site, and has no cooking facilities in guest rooms. The ordinance does not distinguish new versus old construction.
• The draft would make downtown hotels a limited use instead of a minor special exception, subject to no more than 50 rooms and a requirement that at least 60 percent of gross floor area be used for lodging.

Member Positions

• The mayor questioned whether a 15-room house could still function as a bed-and-breakfast, said lowering the 15-room cap is important, and noted five might be a little low; they said some localities require the house to be at least 50 years old.
• Dr. Simena Johnson cited Virginia Code 35.1, which defines a bed-and-breakfast as having no more than 18 transient guests on a single day, and said she was comfortable with nine rooms but not 15.
• Mr. Cummings said he would support lowering the cap to a number in the five-to-eight range and would have no problem leaving it at five; he noted the Colonial Inn has roughly five rooms, later corrected to ten guest rooms.
• Another member said eight rooms could be the 'sweet spot' because known eight-bedroom homes would make excellent bed-and-breakfasts, while noting that one of the eight rooms would have to be used by the owner or manager.

Key Outcomes

• Members informally converged on eight rooms as a compromise bed-and-breakfast cap after considering five, six, seven, and nine; at least four members indicated support for eight.
• No formal vote was recorded in the transcript excerpt, and final action on the zoning amendment was not shown. The hotel limited-use proposal remained under discussion.