The Henrico County zoning ordinance, codified as Chapter 24 of the county code, divides every parcel in the county into a zoning district and sets the rules for what you can build, how large it can be, and how it has to operate. If your plans fit within the district your property already sits in, you follow the standards in Article 5 and pull permits. If they don’t, you’ll need a rezoning, a provisional use permit, or a variance before you can move forward. Virginia grants localities this authority under Title 15.2, Chapter 22 of the Code of Virginia.1Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia – Chapter 22. Planning, Subdivision of Land and Zoning
Find Your Property’s Zoning First
Nothing else in the ordinance matters until you know which district your parcel is in. Henrico County’s Geographic Information Systems division publishes a free online Map Viewer that lets you search by address or parcel number and see the current zoning overlay.2Henrico County, Virginia. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) If a boundary line or classification is unclear from the map, the Planning Department and the Real Estate Assessment Division both answer questions about specific parcels.
The Zoning Districts
Chapter 24 sorts land into residential, business, office/service, industrial, and agricultural districts. Each carries its own permitted uses, density limits, and dimensional standards, and the county’s Zoning Districts and Uses page summarizes them all.3Henrico County, Virginia. Zoning Districts and Uses
Residential (R-0 Through R-6)
Residential districts step from R-0, which requires a minimum one-acre lot and 200 feet of road frontage for single-family homes, up to R-6, which allows townhouses at 12 units per acre and multifamily dwellings at roughly 20 units per acre. Mid-range districts like R-3A and R-4 use lots between roughly 7,750 and 9,500 square feet with 35-foot front-yard setbacks.
Business (B-1, B-2, B-3)
B-1 covers low-intensity retail and personal services meant to serve a small surrounding area, with limits on building size and hours of operation to keep the district compatible with adjacent homes. B-2 handles community-scale shopping, recreation, and services on major collector or arterial roads and adds uses like drive-through restaurants and automotive filling stations. B-3 sits on arterial roads and permits the most intense commercial mix, including auto sales and repair, theaters, stadiums, and kennels alongside general retail.
Office/Service
The O/S district works as a transition between residential neighborhoods and busier commercial areas. Permitted uses include offices, childcare and adult care facilities, trade schools, hotels, limited retail like restaurants and convenience stores, and some light manufacturing or warehousing under unified operational standards.
Industrial (M-1, M-2, M-3)
M-1 (Light Industrial) permits light manufacturing, laboratories, warehouses, and recycling, with most activities required to happen inside enclosed buildings. M-2 (General Industrial) allows manufacturing and warehousing that may produce low-to-moderate noise and odor, and many uses must sit a minimum distance from adjacent residential zoning. M-3 (Heavy Industrial) accommodates heavy manufacturing, large distribution warehouses, and salvage operations, generally with wider residential buffers. The tiers are not interchangeable: an M-1 parcel cannot host heavy manufacturing without a full rezoning to M-3.
Agricultural
The A-1 Agricultural District preserves farmland and rural character. It permits agriculture, single-family dwellings on lots of at least one acre, and limited institutional and commercial uses. That effective one-home-per-acre cap is why A-1 dominates the county’s western and northern fringes.
Development Standards That Apply Once You Know Your District
Article 5 sets the physical rules for every property: setbacks, height, parking, landscaping, and protections for nearby residential lots.4Municode Library. Henrico County Code – Article 5 Development Standards The specific numbers depend on your district, but a few rules cut across most of the county.
Height Depends on Distance From Homes
Building height in Henrico County is tied to how close a structure sits to single-family homes, not just the district cap. Within 75 feet of a single-family dwelling or lot, a building cannot exceed 45 feet. Between 75 and 150 feet, the cap is 55 feet. Beyond 150 feet, the zoning district’s own maximum controls. That sliding scale is the county’s main tool against a four-story building looming over a one-story house next door.
Setbacks, Parking, and Landscaping
Front-yard setbacks in the mid-range residential districts typically run 35 feet, though exact lot dimensions vary. Parking lots in townhouse, office, business, and industrial developments must sit at least 15 feet from any public right-of-way. Parking areas also have to dedicate at least five percent of their total parking-space area to interior landscaping, no unbroken row can exceed 19 spaces without a planted island, and every space must be within 100 feet of a canopy tree. Vegetative buffers and screening walls separate incompatible uses where commercial parcels meet single-family homes.
Operational Limits Near Residential Lots
When a commercial use sits within 150 feet of a residential lot, operational rules kick in. Outdoor dining and activities cannot run before 7:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, extended to 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Deliveries, recycling, and refuse collection are limited to 7:00 a.m. through 11:00 p.m. Amplified music audible at a shared lot line must stop at 9:00 p.m. on weeknights and 11:00 p.m. on weekend nights. Signs within 100 feet of a single-family lot cannot exceed 32 square feet or eight feet in height.
Nonconforming Uses and Structures
If a use, structure, lot, sign, or site feature was legal when built but no longer complies with the current ordinance, Article 6 of Chapter 24 treats it as nonconforming and generally allows it to continue.5Henrico County. Henrico County Zoning Ordinance Update A structure built under a variance is not treated as nonconforming just because it deviates from the ordinance, but any future expansion has to sit in a part of the site where no variance is needed, unless you obtain a new variance covering the expansion. Nonconforming status is not a permanent free pass; what you can and cannot do with such a property depends on the type of nonconformity and Article 6’s detailed provisions.
Rezoning, Provisional Use Permits, and Variances
Three separate paths let you do something the current ordinance would otherwise block. Which one you need depends on what you’re trying to change.
Rezoning
If your intended use is not permitted in the property’s current district, you need a rezoning. The process starts with a mandatory pre-application meeting with the Planning Department, which is required for rezoning, conditional rezoning, provisional use permits, and planned development applications.6Henrico County, Virginia. Pre-Application Meeting for Rezoning and Provisional Use Permits Bring a written description of the proposed use and a conceptual plan. After the meeting, you file through the county’s Build Henrico portal, and the Planning Department reviews the application for completeness before accepting it.7Henrico County. Rezoning/PUP Application Process
Filing fees from the county’s 2020 fee schedule:8Henrico County. Planning Applications Fee Schedule
- Regular rezoning, single-family residential: $650 plus $15 per acre up to 30 acres, then $8 per acre beyond that
- Regular rezoning, business or industrial: $800 plus $50 per acre
- Conditional rezoning, single-family residential: $1,050 plus $15 per acre up to 30 acres, then $8 per acre
- Conditional rezoning, business or industrial: $1,400 plus $50 per acre
- Provisional use permit: $750
- Variance: $300
Once accepted, the application goes to a public hearing before the Planning Commission. Virginia law requires written notice to the property owner and to the owners or occupants of all abutting parcels and any properties directly across the street.9Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 15.2 Chapter 22 – Article 1. General Provisions The county typically sends those notices about two weeks before the hearing.10Henrico County. A Citizens Guide to Participating The Planning Commission recommends; the Board of Supervisors makes the final decision at its own public meeting. If a rezoning is denied, the county may impose a waiting period before a substantially similar application can be refiled for the same property.
Provisional Use Permits
Some uses are technically allowed in a district but only with a provisional use permit, which lets the county attach specific conditions to make the use compatible with its surroundings.11Henrico County, Virginia. Rezoning and Provisional Use Permits The path mirrors a rezoning — pre-application meeting, $750 filing fee, Planning Commission hearing, Board of Supervisors decision — but the underlying district does not change. The permit grants a specific activity subject to conditions the county can revoke if the operator fails to comply.
Variances Through the Board of Zoning Appeals
When strict enforcement of the ordinance creates a genuine hardship tied to the physical characteristics of your property, a variance is a narrower alternative to rezoning. The Henrico County Board of Zoning Appeals is a quasi-judicial body that hears variance requests, appeals from administrative decisions, and certain conditional use applications delegated by the Board of Supervisors.12Henrico County, Virginia. Board of Zoning Appeals
Under Virginia law, the BZA must find three things before granting a variance: an undue hardship tied to the specific property rather than general inconvenience or cost; a hardship unique to the property, typically from physical conditions like unusual lot shape, narrowness, topography, or the situation of adjacent development; and no substantial harm to adjacent property or the character of the district. A self-created hardship generally does not qualify, but buying the property with knowledge of existing conditions that might justify a variance is not treated as self-created.13Virginia Law. Code of Virginia 15.2-2309 – Board of Zoning Appeals Powers
Proffers in Conditional Rezoning
A conditional rezoning lets you voluntarily offer written conditions, called proffers, that go beyond what the base district requires. These might cover building materials, hours of operation, dedicated green space, or off-site road improvements. The county publishes a standard proffer form referencing Section 24-2304 of the County Code.14Henrico County. Proffers for Conditional Rezoning
Under Virginia Code § 15.2-2303, once proffers are accepted as part of a zoning map amendment, they become legally binding conditions that stay in effect until a later amendment changes the zoning.15Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 15.2-2303 – Conditional Zoning in Certain Localities The governing body can accept amended proffers after the public hearing has begun, provided the changes do not materially alter the overall proposal. Proffers run with the land, so they bind future owners, not just the developer who made them. Amending them after approval requires another legislative cycle.
Violations and Penalties
Using property in a way that violates the zoning ordinance carries both civil and criminal exposure. Under Virginia Code § 15.2-2209, localities may impose civil penalties of up to $200 for an initial violation and up to $500 for each subsequent summons. Each day the violation continues counts as a separate offense, though summonses arising from the same set of facts cannot be issued more than once every 10 days, and civil penalties from a single violation generally cannot exceed $5,000 in total.16Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 15.2-2209 – Civil Penalties for Violations of Zoning Ordinance
When civil penalties reach $5,000 or more, the violation can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor. Henrico County’s ordinance treats zoning violations as misdemeanor offenses with fines that escalate from $1,000 on the initial conviction, to $1,500 for a continued violation during the next 10-day period, and up to $2,000 for each subsequent 10-day period. The court will order correction within a specified timeframe, and failing to comply triggers the escalating penalties. Enforcement begins with a written notice of violation from the Planning Director describing the problem, ordering correction by a deadline, and explaining what happens if you ignore it. Most notices can be appealed within 30 days, though short-term issues like parking commercial trucks in residential districts must be appealed within 10 days; if no appeal is filed in time, the notice becomes final.
The Comprehensive Plan and Discretion
Henrico County maintains a comprehensive plan that establishes long-term guidelines for land use, transportation, and community development. Its General Development Policies apply countywide and serve as the framework against which rezoning and development proposals are evaluated.17Henrico County. Chapter 05 – Land Use The zoning ordinance is the binding legal tool, but the comprehensive plan shapes how officials exercise discretion. A rezoning request that conflicts with the plan’s vision for an area faces an uphill road at both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, even when nothing in the ordinance itself technically prohibits it.