Arlington County, VA · Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO)
C-1-O is a limited commercial office district for nonretail commercial uses such as offices and financial institutions (ACZO §7.9). Height 35ft, FAR 0.40-0.60 by site area. Buildings must present a residential appearance.
Development standards in C-1-O
Maximum height
35 ft
7.9
Maximum FAR
Set by site-area tier: 0.40 (<10,000 sq ft) / 0.50 (10,000-19,999) / 0.60 (20,000+) — see 7.9
Maximum FAR is banded in the ordinance — it depends on what you build or on the lot itself, so no single figure is true for the whole zone. The cited table is the authority; read the tier that matches your intended structure.
By-right FAR is tiered by site area: 0.40 (<10,000 sq ft), 0.50 (10,000-19,999), 0.60 (20,000+) (ACZO §7.9). The scalar is withdrawn because the tier depends on site area, which is not resolved at render time.
Read from Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO), effective through 2026-06-13. We last checked with the publisher on 2026-09-14 and found nothing newer -- a check on that date, not a promise about today.
How complete is this market? Across 38,683 parcels we answer 65.5% of the 6 questions this site is built to answer, each with a source you can check. The rest are shown as “not recorded” rather than filled in — we would rather be short than wrong.
Permitted uses in C-1-O
AllowedOffice By-right: all three office rows in the ACZO §7.1.2 use table read P for C-1-O (p88) -- 'Offices, business and professional', 'Offices, federal, state and local', and 'Offices or clinics, medical or dental' (§12.5.16).
AllowedFinancial Services By-right: ACZO §7.1.2 use table rows 'Financial services' (p88) and 'Branch banks' (p89) both read P for C-1-O.
AllowedSTR - Short-Term Rentals By-right (P) in the ACZO accessory use tables, subject to an accessory homestay permit issued by the zoning administrator (ACZO §12.9.12). The permit application requires proof that the property is the applicant's permanent residence (ACZO §12.9.12.B.2).
"Conditional" means the use generally requires a public hearing or special-exception approval — a very different timeline and risk profile from a by-right permit.
This is the zone. What about the parcel?
Zone rules are the starting point — the answer for a specific property also depends on lot
size, overlays, existing improvements and site conditions. Run a free address lookup to see
what applies to one property.
Standards as recorded by Zonescore: Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO), Effective June 13, 2026
Values are read from the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO). Where a district allows more density through site plan approval than by right, both are shown -- they are very different entitlement paths.