City of Norfolk Zoning Ordinance: Districts, Overlays & Variances

The Norfolk zoning ordinance is the city’s rulebook for what you can build, where you can build it, and how any parcel of land can be used. It was adopted by City Council in January 2018 and has been in effect since March 1 of that year.¹ It draws its authority from the Code of Virginia, which lets every locality divide its territory into zoning districts and regulate land use, building size and height, and lot dimensions.² If you own property in Norfolk or plan to build here, the ordinance decides most of what you’re allowed to do.

Zoning Districts and the Official Map

Article 3 of the ordinance divides the city into zoning districts shown on an official zoning map. Every parcel has a designation that controls what can happen on it. The main categories are:

Single-family residential districts, R-8 through R-15, which set different density levels. The number roughly corresponds to the minimum lot width in feet, so lower numbers allow denser development on narrower lots.
Commercial districts such as C-4 (Large Scale Commercial), which accommodate retail, office, and service businesses at varying intensities.
Transit-oriented development districts like TOD-S, which encourage walkable, higher-density projects near transit corridors.
Downtown districts such as D-4 (Downtown Arts and Design), which reflect the mixed-use character of the city center.
Special-purpose districts like East Beach Harbor (EBH) that address specific architectural and environmental needs along the waterfront.
Overlay districts, which add extra requirements on top of the base zoning. Examples include the 35th Street Pedestrian Commercial Overlay and the Coastal Resilience Overlay.

You can look up your property’s district on the city’s official zoning map, available through the Norfolk Department of City Planning.³ Confirm the district before anything else: it determines which use rules, dimensional standards, and overlays apply.

What You Can Do on Your Property

Within each district, the use tables in Article 3 spell out which activities are allowed on any given parcel. These tables, numbered 3.2.12, 3.3.9, and 3.7.13 for different district families, sort every land use into categories such as household living, group living, retail, office, and industrial.⁴

Each use gets one of three designations in a given district. A P means permitted by right: you can proceed as long as your project meets all other requirements, with no public hearing needed. A C means a conditional use permit is required, which involves a more detailed review and typically a public hearing because the use could affect the surrounding area. A blank cell means the use is prohibited in that district.

Even for permitted uses, performance standards in Article 4 set operating rules such as noise limits and hours of operation.⁴ A use being allowed on paper doesn’t mean it operates without conditions.

Accessory Dwelling Units

Norfolk allows accessory dwelling units on residential lots, but the rules are tight. An ADU can be no larger than 500 square feet or 25 percent of the main home’s floor area, whichever is smaller. It must share the same driveway as the principal dwelling, utilities have to tie into the existing home’s systems, and you need to provide one additional parking space. In the city’s least-dense residential districts, ADUs are allowed by right. In other residential zones, you need a conditional use permit, which adds time and cost.

As of early 2025, Norfolk has been considering loosening these requirements to allow larger ADUs in more districts by right, so check the current ordinance text before starting a project.

Dimensional and Site Development Standards

Article 5 governs the physical shape of development: how tall your building can be, how far it must sit from property lines, how much of the lot it can cover, and how much open space must remain. Setbacks keep structures from crowding each other. Height limits protect sight lines and ensure sunlight reaches neighboring properties. Lot coverage ratios prevent a single building from consuming an entire parcel and overwhelming stormwater systems.

Beyond the building itself, site development standards address the surrounding property. Landscaping and buffering requirements apply wherever a more intensive use borders a less intensive one. Parking minimums are calculated based on the type and intensity of your proposed use. Signage rules control the size, placement, and illumination of signs. Any new construction or major renovation must satisfy all of these standards before a permit is issued.

Fence Regulations

Fences in residential districts and in historic or cultural conservation districts are limited to six feet in side and rear yards.⁵ Front-yard fences face stricter height limits to preserve street visibility. Corner lots have additional restrictions near the intersection to maintain sight lines for drivers and pedestrians. The city’s fence brochure, available on the Department of City Planning website, details the specific measurements for each yard type and district.

The Coastal Resilience Overlay

Norfolk floods, and that reality shapes a significant piece of the ordinance. The Coastal Resilience Overlay (CRO) zone applies to properties within the one-percent annual chance flood zone and imposes construction requirements that go well beyond federal minimums. If you’re building or substantially renovating in the CRO zone, your structure must be elevated at least three feet above the base flood elevation. That freeboard requirement is two feet higher than what the city previously mandated.⁶

The CRO zone also bans basements, requires electrical systems to be raised at least one foot above the finished floor elevation, and mandates that all landscaping use native, salt-tolerant plants. Open space must be maintained on the site, and paved parking is limited to reduce stormwater runoff.⁶ These standards aren’t optional upgrades. If your parcel falls within the overlay, every one of them applies on top of whatever the base zoning district already requires. Check the official zoning map for the CRO before planning any project near the waterfront or in low-lying areas.

How to Apply for Zoning Approval

Any development project starts with a zoning review. The application you need depends on what you’re proposing, but the general process begins at the Norfolk Department of City Planning, where forms are available online.⁷ At a minimum, you’ll need a completed application form, a site plan drawn to scale showing building placement and parking areas, and a legal description of the property from a recent survey.

One detail that trips people up: Norfolk no longer accepts paper plan submissions for site plan review. All plans must be submitted digitally through a shared drive or Dropbox link. Minor revisions involving three or fewer plan sheets can be submitted as updated sheets with the changes clearly marked. Revisions touching four or more sheets are treated as a new submission.⁸

Administrative fees are due at the time of submission. The city publishes a fee schedule on its website, and amounts vary by the type and complexity of the application.⁹ Budget for a professional boundary survey as well if you don’t have a recent one.

Review Timelines

For straightforward projects that comply with all zoning requirements, staff conducts an administrative review and can issue a zoning certificate without a public hearing. These reviews typically take a few weeks. Projects that need a conditional use permit go through a longer process involving the Planning Commission and often City Council, with public hearings where neighbors can weigh in. That process can stretch to several months. Rezonings, which change the actual district designation on your property, involve a legislative review with both the Planning Commission and City Council and multiple public hearings along the way.

Variances and the Board of Zoning Appeals

Sometimes you can’t meet a specific zoning requirement, and the ordinance doesn’t have a built-in exception that helps. A variance is permission to deviate from a specific standard, such as a setback or height limit, without changing the overall zoning of your property.

Norfolk’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) handles two kinds of cases: appeals from decisions made by the zoning administrator, and requests for variances from the ordinance’s requirements. To apply for a variance, you need a completed application, a site plan drawn to scale, and a check or money order for the filing fee. The BZA operates on a 60-day timeline from application to decision.¹⁰

Getting a variance is not automatic. Under Virginia law, you must show that strictly applying the ordinance would unreasonably restrict how you can use your property, or that the variance would relieve a hardship caused by the property’s physical condition at the time the ordinance took effect. The BZA will also consider whether the hardship was self-created, whether granting the variance would harm neighboring properties, and whether the relief you want could be achieved another way, such as through a special use permit or an ordinance amendment. You or your representative must appear at the public hearing in person.

Nonconforming Uses and Structures

If your property was legally used for a certain purpose before the 2018 ordinance took effect, and that use is now prohibited or doesn’t meet current standards, it’s classified as nonconforming. You don’t have to stop using it immediately. Under Virginia law, a nonconforming use can continue as long as it isn’t abandoned for more than two years and the building is kept in its existing structural condition.¹¹

Once you stop the nonconforming use for two consecutive years, you lose the right to resume it. You generally cannot expand a nonconforming use or enlarge a nonconforming structure, and substantial alterations can trigger a requirement that the entire property comply with current zoning. Virginia law also protects property owners who built in good faith under a valid building permit, who incurred major expenses relying on a permit, or who have paid local property taxes on a structure for more than 15 years. In those situations, the city cannot declare the structure illegal and order its removal solely because of the nonconformity.¹¹

Enforcement and Penalties

Norfolk takes zoning violations seriously. If the city identifies a violation, it issues a notice giving you a deadline to correct the problem. Ignoring that notice can result in penalties of up to $2,500 per day and up to 12 months in jail.¹² The city can also pursue abatement, meaning it corrects the problem itself and bills you for the cost. Unpaid abatement costs can become a lien on your property.

The per-day structure matters. A violation that persists for weeks while you argue about it can generate a bill that far exceeds the cost of simply fixing the problem. If you believe a notice was issued in error, the proper response is to appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals rather than letting the clock run.¹⁰

1
Municode Library. Code of the City of Norfolk, Virginia – Zoning Ordinance
2
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 15.2-2280 – Zoning Ordinances Generally
3
City of Norfolk. Norfolk Zoning Ordinance Rewrite
4
City of Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk Zoning Ordinance Use Tables
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City of Norfolk, Virginia. Fence Regulations
6
NOAA Digital Coast. Zoning Ordinance Overhauled to Increase Community Resilience to Flooding
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City of Norfolk, Virginia. Land Use Applications and Forms
8
City of Norfolk, Virginia. Site Plan Review
9
City of Norfolk, Virginia. Permits and Fees
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City of Norfolk, Virginia. Board of Zoning Appeals
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 15.2-2307 – Vested Rights Not Impaired; Nonconforming Uses
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City of Norfolk, Virginia. Code Enforcement