Arlington County, VA · Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO)
C-O is a mixed-use commercial office district for office and mixed-use development in Arlington's key corridors (ACZO §7.13). Height 35ft, FAR 0.40-0.60 by-right. By special exception allows significant height and density increases near Metro stations. Common along the Rosslyn-Ballston and Crystal City corridors.
Development standards in C-O
Maximum height
35 ft
7.13
Maximum FAR
Set by site-area tier: 0.40 (<10,000 sq ft) / 0.50 (10,000-19,999) / 0.60 (20,000+) — see 7.13
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+). By site plan, FAR up to 3.8 for commercial and 4.8 for residential/hotel uses (ACZO §7.13).
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-O
AllowedOffice By-right: all three office rows in the ACZO §7.1.2 use table read P for C-O (p88) -- 'Offices, business and professional', 'Offices, federal, state and local', and 'Offices or clinics, medical or dental' (§12.5.16).
ConditionalRetail (Ground Floor) Site plan approval required: ACZO §7.1.2 use table row 'All other retail sales uses' reads S for C-O (p89; use standard §12.5.21), as do the named retail sales rows; 'Large-format retail' carries no C-O entry (not permitted).
ConditionalHotel Site plan approval required: ACZO §7.1.2 use table row 'Hotels or motels' reads S for C-O (p88; use standard §12.5.11).
ConditionalMulti-Family Residential Site plan approval required: ACZO §7.1.2 use table row 'Multiple-family' reads S for C-O (p86).
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.