Fourth and Fifth Stakeholder Sessions on Wednesday, June 18 and July 16
This text was taken from an email alert sent out on June 11, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Meeting canceled! After sending the email below on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, we learned that the Loudoun Transportation & Land Use Committee stakeholder working session on ABC Licensed Businesses, scheduled for Wednesday, June 18, has been canceled. As of Friday, June 13, 2025, there is no new meeting date. We will let you know as soon as we hear when it has been rescheduled, or when we know more.
Dear Supporter,
Loudoun County staff and Supervisors have been working hard since last November on the update to the Zoning Ordinance and Comprehensive Plan for Western Loudoun.
On June 18 and July 16 at 5 p.m. in the main board room at the County Government Center, the Transportation and Land Use Committee will hold its fourth and fifth stakeholder work sessions for the Western Loudoun ordinance and comprehensive plan update. These two sessions will cover the regulations and standards surrounding the ABC licensed businesses of Western Loudoun, including wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries. Discussions will address the substantial regulatory inconsistencies between other rural businesses and wineries and breweries, and ensure consistency with new regulations that will also allow farm distilleries and cideries for the first time. We hope this will address the negative impacts of some of these businesses on other farms and surrounding residents.
For years, we have heard from many residents about the impacts some of these uses have had on community and quality of life. Now is the time to share your experiences, both positive and negative, with your supervisor and the county staff and make your voices heard. You can submit public comments in advance of the meetings on the county’s website. You can also email your supervisor and the County Chair to share your experiences and input on this issue.
Rural Area Stakeholder Meeting: ABC Licensed Businesses including Wineries, Breweries, Cideries and Distilleries
When: June 18 and July 16 at 5 p.m.
Where: Main Board Room, Loudoun County Office Building
1 Harrison Street, S.E., LeesburgComments from the general public will not be permitted during the meeting. Please submit written comments online — submitting your experiences and comments as ordinance language is drafted can help inform the discussion!
The rural section of the ordinance has not been fully updated in more than 20 years. While PEC is in favor of many changes that will help the county actively support innovative farming operations, we are also working to help ensure farms with active onsite agriculture are also prioritized, and that inconsistent regulations that negatively impact those businesses as well as neighboring residents within Loudoun’s Rural Policy Area are addressed.
Thus far in the year-long update process, the county has held three stakeholder work sessions to focus on sections of the zoning ordinance covering: equine uses, indoor recreational uses, agricultural processing, farm worker housing and overnight stay accommodations. These productive discussions have included county staff, Western Loudoun supervisors and planning commissioners, Board Chair Phyllis Randall, and the farmers, business owners and board-selected residents who live, work and operate businesses under the current ordinance.
We hope the update process will ultimately produce a draft zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan that adequately address ongoing issues affecting the industries and residents of Western Loudoun.
What’s a Comprehensive Plan?
The comprehensive plan represents the community’s vision for the future and, under Virginia law, must be updated every five years. It outlines long-range recommendations for growth and development for the next 5-20 years. While it doesn’t carry the same force of law as a zoning ordinance, the comprehensive plan can form the basis of a decision to approve or deny a rezoning or special use permit.
What’s a Zoning Ordinance?
While the comprehensive plan serves as a guide, the zoning ordinance actually dictates how land is to be used. The zoning ordinance expressly states what landowners are and are not allowed to do with their property, with greater granularity and enforcement, according to the zoning district in which the property is located. It also specifies how natural resources and historic resources are protected. Zoning districts specify the types of land uses allowed in a given area, such as conservation, agricultural, residential, business, mixed or industrial uses.
Differing Standards for ABC Licensed Uses for Wineries and Breweries Are a Concern for Farmers
The piecemeal addition of multiple ABC licensed uses to the ordinance over the past 20+ years has resulted in widely varied standards. The vastly different requirements for different types of businesses (e.g., the number of vehicles permitted on site, buffers and screens, and hours of operation) have caused many issues for the residents living near these businesses. In addition, the uneven standards of agricultural production have put purely agricultural operations at a disadvantage, because businesses that have no agricultural production requirements/enforcement (such as many/most breweries) are not held to the same standards as wineries and ag processing operations. Some of our neighboring counties, including Albemarle and Clarke counties, do require agricultural production for these businesses verified by the county in order to operate and host events.
The Winery Model
Dominion’s alternate routes would each create a new 100-foot wide corridor for an additional 500 kV line. The existing corridor and towers would remain, Wineries have always been held to a high standard for onsite agricultural production as part of the requirements of the Virginia Farm Winery Act, which were well-implemented by Loudoun’s ordinance. As a result, an economic ecosystem has grown to sustain agriculture-forward operations and has turned our region into a premier wine destination for Virginia and the nation. It has also consistently placed Loudoun as first or second in grape production in the Commonwealth. Loudoun has set a high standard, and the wineries of Loudoun rose to meet it – and then some. As a result, when tourists visit a Loudoun County winery, the high quality product on offer can be proudly called Loudoun Grown! The wine growers of Loudoun are farmers first and have not only built strong businesses, but have supported the residents, as well as the county’s complete vision for the rural policy area, of preserving a farm centered community that prioritizes active agriculture.
Recently added to the ordinance, the “Limited Brewery” licensed use has minimal zoning standards and a lack of regulation to bolster and support a farming component. Although the goal may have been to mirror the successful winery industry, many of the newer brewery establishments created under this use do not conduct any notable agricultural activity onsite and purchase few, if any, locally grown ingredients like small grains (barley, wheat, rye, oats), fruit or vegetable inputs from other local producers.
Yet, despite the lack of farming or local farm products, some breweries claim agricultural exemptions from zoning requirements for structures for onsite visitors by stating they are for agricultural use.
Breweries in rural Loudoun also lack adequate standards for issues like number of vehicles onsite, setbacks and buffers, and regulation of events compared to many other rural uses. Popular venues have drastically altered the community’s sense of place and impacted public safety by generating high traffic, providing inadequate onsite parking and creating numerous offsite impacts, including but not limited to noise and light. This has led to quality of life impacts for many rural residents and resulted in limited contributions to the county’s vision of an agriculturally centered rural region. NOTE: Cideries and distilleries are relatively new in Loudoun and will be added to the ordinance through this process.
Priority Areas for June 18 and July 16 Stakeholder Meetings
PEC believes the following topics need to be addressed at the June 18 and July 16 stakeholder meetings:
- Support food service options for wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries.
Aside from the obvious importance of having food available when and where alcohol is consumed, allowing food service at wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries opens the door to connect more consumers with locally produced food and supports high quality experiences for visitors to Western Loudoun. While many of our local tasting rooms do not have the space, capacity or desire to open a full-size restaurant, many would like to continue to enhance their visitor experience by offering a variety of small plate food options. - Directly support the county’s agricultural vision by requiring substantive onsite agricultural production by all ABC licensed use producers in Loudoun.
As addressed above, Loudoun’s wineries are a gold standard of blending agricultural production with highly successful agritourism operations, and we believe that the other ABC licensed businesses should be held to comparable standards. Requiring substantive onsite agricultural production verified by the county and maintained by the business owner ensures a fair playing field for all rural businesses, upholds the standards and ideals set out in our county-wide comprehensive plan, and results in the creation of true Loudoun Grown branding! It will also feed the market for additional Loudoun and regionally grown agricultural crops, spurring additional economic benefits. - Ensure consistent standards for onsite activities, from hours of operation to set backs and number of vehicles on site.
Aligning the standards for land use impacts from high intensity uses with standards and regulations for other agricultural uses creates consistency for residents and a fair playing field for the various industries involved. - Implement standards for amplified music that take into account the quality of life of local residents.
Residents regularly complain about nearby outdoor amplified music in the late evening, particularly on weeknights. Since many of these businesses can be established on properties as small as 10 acres, they have a much greater impact on neighbors than other, larger music venues that may have hundreds of acres to act as a buffer. The size of a property, as well as distance from other farms and residential properties, should be taken into consideration when determining noise and event regulations. - Determine what constitutes an event and when “special events permits” must actually be filed.
As anyone who has visited a winery or brewery on a Saturday afternoon can attest, it is common to see multiple group events happening in different areas of the property, as well as regular patrons scattered throughout. These are not classified as large events and thus are not required to obtain a “special event permit.” But when 100+ people are visiting a site, they have the same impact on the surrounding community as a similarly sized wedding. The regulations surrounding events and number of people onsite should be revisited and the size of a property, combined with its proximity to residential neighbors, should be taken into consideration.
Review Process and Stakeholder Groups
The stakeholder input process will take place over the rest of this year, with three out of an eight anticipated meetings having been completed and the final session tentatively planned for January 2026 (see below). These meetings are facilitated by the Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) Transportation Land Use Committee and are open for the public to attend in person or livestream from home.
An official schedule has been removed from the county webpage, however in meetings it is discussed with the tentative plan shown below; this is subject to change.
Meeting Schedule
Past:
Meeting 1 – November 21, 2024 [View recording]
– Liveries
– Stables
– Outdoor Recreation
Meeting 2 – January 29, 2025 [View recording]
– Ag Processing
– Other Farm Related Uses
Meeting 3 – April 24, 2025
“Value Added Agriculture” (i.e., agro tourism/conservation easement density/other farm related issues)
Next Meeting (Meeting 4) – June 18 and July 16, 2025
– Farm Wineries
– Limited Breweries
– Limited Distilleries
– Events
Upcoming:
Meeting 5 – August / September 2025
– Mountainside Overlay District
– Signage
Meeting 6 – October 2025
– Food Trucks
– Food Service
– Rural Restaurants
Meeting 7 – January 2026
– Outstanding Issues
Meeting 8 – February 2026
– Second pass at Overnight Stay accommodations
Given the number of topics and the emergence of new issues, the timeline will likely need to be adjusted. We’re excited to be a part of Loudoun County’s Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance Amendment process and will continue to push for issues impacting both residents and businesses in Western Loudoun to get the attention they deserve.
While there is no public comment, the BOS has approved the coordination of three distinct groups of stakeholders:
- Residents: These will be nominated individually by the three supervisors whose districts comprise Western Loudoun. Contact Supervisors Laura TeKrony or Caleb Kershner, or Chair Phyllis Randall if you’re interested in serving as one of these representatives.
- Agribusinesses: For these meetings, this group represents an array of business interests chosen by Beth Erickson of Visit Loudoun. They will largely focus on the diverse agritourism sector including you-pick farms, wineries, breweries and equine event centers.
- Preservation and Agriculture: This group represents all other agricultural businesses and farmers of Western Loudoun. Loudoun leads the Commonwealth of Virginia in 11 different agricultural industries, including equine, vegetable production, cut flowers, berries and goats. Representatives from this stakeholder group will be chosen by Chris Van Vlack of Loudoun Farm Bureau.
Please check out the official Western Loudoun County Rural Uses and Standards webpage, where all of the documents and schedule updates pertaining to the Zoning Ordinance/Comprehensive Plan Amendment are available.
We also encourage you to fill out and submit the official public comment form before the work session on June 18, even if you have given comments in the past, because newer input relevant to the topic at hand has the greatest impact on the process and none of the past input has been referenced during the first three sessions.
What happens next?
County staff are developing draft language for the comprehensive plan and zoning amendments, beginning with the topics that have already been addressed in the first two meetings. These first text changes are expected to be presented to the Zoning Ordinance Committee (ZOC) beginning in late summer. Following input from ZOC, the amendments will move on to a Planning Commission public hearing, work sessions and a Board of Supervisors public hearing for any final revisions and adoption. This process is expected to conclude in 2027.
Although the process will include opportunities for public input at each of these phases, it is vital that the public and interested parties give their input now, while there is ample time to address the most pressing issues before the new language is drafted.
PEC and partner advocacy groups have worked hard to support residents’ needs and keep active agriculture thriving in Western Loudoun for many years. We will keep you updated as this process moves along and share our concerns in advance of each meeting.
Thank you for submitting your input to show the Board of Supervisors that the public is paying attention and engaged on these issues.
Thank you for all of your support and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Tia Earman
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Loudoun and Clarke counties
[email protected]
(540) 347-2334 x7040
