Loudoun County Transportation and Land Use Committee Meeting – March 18, 2026

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Transportation and Land Use Committee met on March 18, 2026, to receive staff updates, hear public testimony, and take action on land-use items. Supervisor Sylvia Glass was absent. The committee approved the consent agenda, recommended one floodplain active-recreation option to the full board, and advanced most Western Loudoun rural uses and standards motions to the Board of Supervisors.

Consent Calendar

• The committee approved the consent agenda containing the Transit Advisory Board Bylaws Amendment, Transit Advisory Board 2025 Annual Report, and Environmental Commission Bylaws Amendment. The vote was 3-0-2, with two members not voting.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Donnie Walker, a business owner and vice president of the Bed and Breakfast Guild, supported tenant-housing expansion, reclassifying sawmills as a minor special exception with portable sawmills by right, rebuilding landmark structures, and adding an education component. He opposed the lodging and events motion as drafted, recommending that language focus only on noise, lighting, and disturbances.
• Sherry Shields, owner of Hidden View Bed and Breakfast and president of the Loudoun County Bed and Breakfast Guild, thanked the committee for its January 29 motion increasing private-party opportunities but opposed staff's draft reconsideration language. She supported the industry's tiered framework: up to 10 annual parties above daily limits for B&B homestays, up to 20 for one-bedroom B&B inns, and up to 25 for larger B&B inns and country inns, while enforcing current noise, traffic, and lighting rules.
• Avis Renshaw, president of the Loudoun County Farm Bureau and owner of Lost Corner Farm and Mom's Apple Pie, urged the county to emphasize local and Loudoun-grown products in on-farm processing rules, allow flexibility for shared arrangements with other Loudoun farmers, and recognize on-farm processing as a food-security asset.
• Sage Devlin, a resident and farmer at Rockland Farm, said the Western Loudoun ZOAM is unfair to residents, production farmers, and the land. She cited delayed zoning-enforcement funding and asserted that a nearby limited farm brewery was built within 25 feet of the property line, clear-cut toward the Potomac River, and had trash from an overflowing dumpster going into the river. She asked the committee to reconsider setbacks, hours, and event sizes.
• Rosemary Lawler, a resident on Limestone School Road, opposed the lodging motion that would allow 25 parties with no defined attendee maximum. She stated that inventory showed lodging venues currently offering events up to 400 people and more than 25 venues without current private party permits, and raised fire-inspection and noise concerns about assembly structures.
• Georgianne Overman, legislation committee chair for the Bed and Breakfast Guild, said the annual private-party zoning permit form is often misunderstood as a one-time submission and asked to work with staff to revise it.
• Tia Earman, speaking for the Piedmont Environmental Council, thanked staff for balanced motions and praised the farm-worker housing approach, but urged the board to revisit weakened Mountainside Overlay District protections. She cited that of 62 ABC licensed businesses in AR1 and AR2, only three are fully in the Mountainside Overlay District, 44 have no MOD area, and seven have only a thin sliver.

Discussion Items

Administrative and Legislative Land Use Review Assessment

• Staff and Alvarez & Marsal consultant Nancy Zelke provided the third update on the 69-recommendation land-use process improvement plan. The effort includes 13 task-force groups, over 80 county staff, and over 30 industry representatives. As of March 1, 2026, the steering committee had formally approved 10 recommendations, with 2 still under discussion.
• Fifty-one percent of the tasks supporting the 69 recommendations have been completed. Reported quick wins included filling 12 vacant Planning and Zoning positions, hiring a county attorney position and proffer-management staff, consolidating bond-release templates, eliminating the bond-release backlog, shortening referral review from 45 days to 25 days, creating new zoning application checklists, and developing 18 standard proffer templates.
• Building and Development inventoried 120 separate processes and is developing standardized operating procedures; the full rollout is expected to extend into 2027. Technology work is roughly 75 percent complete, with 42 automation opportunities and more than 160 new reporting requests identified.
• In response to questions, staff said total time savings are not yet quantified, but earlier and better communication should eliminate two or three review cycles. Staff confirmed that an earlier district-supervisor awareness step is under consideration. The consultant described stakeholder ups and downs, some frustration over pace, but renewed synergy in recent weeks; a task-force meeting that day was described as one of the best.

2025 Intersection Improvement Program Update

• The committee received the 2025 Intersection Improvement Program update. The program ranks intersections every three years. The 2025 ranking produced 36 rank-five intersections: 3 unsignalized and 33 signalized. The full board endorsed the ranking in November 2025, and staff is beginning the planning phase for all 36.
• The 2025 methodology added future crash risk and pedestrian and bicycle risk to crash history, operations, road characteristics, built environment, and health and community equity factors.
• Staff said the analysis considers nearby schools and pedestrian facilities, but not driver experience. Signal versus roundabout choices are made through traffic analysis reviewed by VDOT. There is currently no formal mid-cycle re-ranking process; a board member initiative would be needed to elevate an intersection before the next cycle.

Active Recreation in Rivers, Streams, and Corridor Resources Associated with Major Floodplain

• Staff identified a discrepancy between the 2019 General Plan, which only supports active recreation in RSCR buffer associated with minor floodplain, and the zoning ordinance, which currently permits active recreation in major and minor floodplain. Staff presented four options and recommended option one: remove active recreation as a permitted use in the major floodplain, continue to allow it in the minor floodplain and RSCR buffer associated with minor floodplain, and allow existing uses to continue without becoming nonconforming.
• Options two, three, and four would have expanded active-recreation permission, required a special exception in some cases, or initiated a broader legislative review. The committee discussed golf courses, existing parks, pesticide and runoff concerns, property-rights effects, and the need for more information.
• The committee voted 3-1-1 to recommend option one to the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Kirshner opposed, expressing a preference for option four and additional study.

Western Loudoun Rural Uses and Standards (CPAM-2024-0002 and ZOAM-2024-0002)

• Staff said this was the third direction meeting. Recommendations approved by TLUC are scheduled to go to the May 5, 2026 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting. Draft language is planned for Zoning Ordinance Committee review beginning June 2026, a Planning Commission hearing around March 2027, and final Board action around late 2027.
• The committee first approved a group of staff-supported motions by a 4-0-1 vote: create a by-right slaughterhouse use, reduce the required square footage for a seasonal labor dormitory, reinstate the guest farm or ranch use, and reclassify sawmills as a minor special exception use.
• Agricultural processing: The committee passed a motion allowing accessory agricultural processing to be considered part of an on-site agricultural operation when products are grown or raised by the operator on the same property or other properties owned or leased in Loudoun County, rather than regulating it as a separate agricultural support use. It also passed a motion to allow principal-use agricultural processing to source up to 51 percent of products within a 50-mile radius of the parcel, replacing the abutting-county approach, and to simplify and make flexible the use-specific standards. Both votes were 4-0-1.
• Farm worker housing: The committee passed four motions by 4-0-1 votes: establish a seasonal agricultural worker camp use consistent with Virginia Code 32.1-203; allow one tenant dwelling per 10 acres plus one per additional 10 acres, up to eight per parcel, with standards preventing placement in sensitive environmental areas, inaccessible areas, or incompatible settings, and limit the provision to bona fide agricultural operations after a subsequent amendment replaced the word parcels; allow tenant-dwelling residents to derive income from any parcel in Loudoun County with an agricultural operation; and allow non-permanent structures, particularly tiny homes on wheels and recreational vehicles, to serve as farm worker housing. Tents and yurts were not added because they could not be permitted or inspected under the building code.
• Equestrian uses: The committee passed four motions by 4-0-1 votes. Equestrian event facilities and private and livery stables would have a 60-foot setback from lot lines abutting a dwelling existing or under construction; if the nearest dwelling is more than 60 feet from the common lot line, district minimum yards apply. Public-facing equestrian hours of operation would be 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., with non-public horse care, boarder access, warm-up, preparation, and maintenance allowed outside those hours. Rural lighting standards would cap parking and non-arena lighting at 25 feet and riding-arena lighting at 35 feet, subject to existing dark-sky and illumination requirements. Equestrian event facilities would receive event-based parking standards instead of fixed vehicle limits.
• Recreation: The committee passed two motions by 4-0-1 votes: separate outdoor and major recreation into a less-intensive outdoor recreation category and a more-intensive major recreation category, and reevaluate parking ratios to reflect the intensity of each recreation use. Discussion noted that the current eight spaces per 1,000 square feet standard was too onerous for uses such as a cricket field.
• Nonconforming agricultural structures: The committee passed a 4-0-1 motion to allow replacement or reconstruction of legally established nonconforming agricultural structures regardless of whether the damage was caused by a casualty or event beyond the owner's control, while retaining existing footprint, floor area, height, permitting, and nonconformity limits.
• Lodging: The committee passed a 4-0-1 motion directing staff to draft language allowing B&B homestays to host up to 10 annual parties above the daily limit, one-bedroom B&B inns to host up to 20, larger B&B inns and country inns to host up to 25, while enforcing current noise, traffic, and lighting rules. This reflected the industry amendment rather than the earlier staff draft.
• Consistency: The committee passed a 4-0-1 motion directing staff to make any necessary zoning ordinance revisions to ensure consistency among uses and use-specific standards related to ZOAM-2024-0002 and to avoid creating conflicts. Staff said any substantive redline changes would be reported to the committee.
• Additional motions: A motion to separate the conservation-easement density amendment from the Western Loudoun ZOAM and advance it as a standalone quick fix failed on a tie vote. County counsel described the issue as preventing double dipping, where land under conservation easement could be used to increase density on adjacent uneased land. Opponents cited the DPZ work plan and scheduling concerns. Three other motions offered by the chair, on tiered assembly and event standards for uses with 200 or more attendees, Mountainside Overlay District protections, and road access, were deferred without objection to the May 5, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting so stakeholders could review them.

Key Outcomes

• Consent agenda adopted.
• Committee recommended floodplain active-recreation option one to the Board of Supervisors by a 3-1-1 vote.
• A package of Western Loudoun rural uses and standards recommendations was approved, nearly all by 4-0-1 votes, for full Board consideration on May 5, 2026.
• The conservation-easement standalone amendment failed on a tie vote.
• Three late additional motions were referred to the May 5, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting without objection.
• Staff will begin IIP planning work for 36 rank-five intersections and will prepare Western Loudoun draft text, with Zoning Ordinance Committee review beginning June 2026.