Where can I put a rural retreat in Loudoun County, VA?

Loudoun County, VA, excluding the incorporated towns, which run their own zoning.

Rural Retreat

It depends in 2 districts

District	Properties loaded	Code	What says so
A-10 Varies Depends: by right if the use meets the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B, otherwise special exception the use table's own cell	186 20132 (54), 20135 (2), 20141 (1), 20175 (6), 20176 (35), 20180 (64), 20197 (24)	P/S	Table 3.02.04-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.04-1 on PDF page 192, row "Rural Retreat", column "A-10", reads "P/S" (P/S = Varies -- Permitted or Special Exception, per Chapter 4).
A-10 (same district) when the use meets the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B	186 20132 (54), 20135 (2), 20141 (1), 20175 (6), 20176 (35), 20180 (64), 20197 (24)	P	Sec. 4.05.17.B B. Approval. Permitted Rural Retreats must meet the development standards provided in Section 4.05.17.C. Any Rural Retreat that does not meet the development standards of Section 4.05.17.C requires Special Exception approval.
A-10 (same district) when the use does not meet the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B	186 20132 (54), 20135 (2), 20141 (1), 20175 (6), 20176 (35), 20180 (64), 20197 (24)	S	Sec. 4.05.17.B B. Approval. Permitted Rural Retreats must meet the development standards provided in Section 4.05.17.C. Any Rural Retreat that does not meet the development standards of Section 4.05.17.C requires Special Exception approval.
A-3 Varies Depends: by right if the use meets the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B, otherwise special exception the use table's own cell	317 20105 (66), 20117 (4), 20129 (11), 20132 (2), 20135 (5), 20147 (101), 20148 (10), 20158 (5), 20165 (79), 20175 (34)	P/S	Table 3.02.04-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.04-1 on PDF page 192, row "Rural Retreat", column "A-3", reads "P/S" (P/S = Varies -- Permitted or Special Exception, per Chapter 4).
A-3 (same district) when the use meets the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B	317 20105 (66), 20117 (4), 20129 (11), 20132 (2), 20135 (5), 20147 (101), 20148 (10), 20158 (5), 20165 (79), 20175 (34)	P	Sec. 4.05.17.B B. Approval. Permitted Rural Retreats must meet the development standards provided in Section 4.05.17.C. Any Rural Retreat that does not meet the development standards of Section 4.05.17.C requires Special Exception approval.
A-3 (same district) when the use does not meet the development standards in Sec. 4.05.17.B	317 20105 (66), 20117 (4), 20129 (11), 20132 (2), 20135 (5), 20147 (101), 20148 (10), 20158 (5), 20165 (79), 20175 (34)	S	Sec. 4.05.17.B B. Approval. Permitted Rural Retreats must meet the development standards provided in Section 4.05.17.C. Any Rural Retreat that does not meet the development standards of Section 4.05.17.C requires Special Exception approval.

Allowed only with a discretionary approval in 7 districts

These require a hearing or an approval from the county. They are not a “no”, and they are not a “yes” either.

District	Properties loaded	Code	What says so
AR-1 the use table's own cell	11,820 20105 (73), 20129 (153), 20132 (2,972), 20135 (128), 20141 (851), 20158 (818), 20175 (2,026), 20176 (1,895), 20180 (2,087), 20197 (817)	P/M	Table 3.02.03-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.03-1 on PDF page 184, row "Rural Retreat", column "AR-1", reads "P/M" (P/M = Varies -- Permitted or Minor Special Exception, per Chapter 4).
AR-1 (same district) when the case described in Sec. 4.05.17.C applies	11,820 20105 (73), 20129 (153), 20132 (2,972), 20135 (128), 20141 (851), 20158 (818), 20175 (2,026), 20176 (1,895), 20180 (2,087), 20197 (817)	M	Sec. 4.05.17.C C. AR Cluster Subdivisions. Rural Retreat uses are permitted by Minor Special Exception review and approval on Rural Economy Cluster Lots. Such uses are not permitted on Residential Cluster Lots, Preservation Farm Lots, or Common Open Space Lots.
AR-2 the use table's own cell	1,782 20105 (346), 20117 (740), 20130 (25), 20132 (46), 20135 (238), 20141 (180), 20175 (81), 20184 (119), 20198 (7)	P/M	Table 3.02.03-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.03-1 on PDF page 184, row "Rural Retreat", column "AR-2", reads "P/M" (P/M = Varies -- Permitted or Minor Special Exception, per Chapter 4).
AR-2 (same district) when the case described in Sec. 4.05.17.C applies	1,782 20105 (346), 20117 (740), 20130 (25), 20132 (46), 20135 (238), 20141 (180), 20175 (81), 20184 (119), 20198 (7)	M	Sec. 4.05.17.C C. AR Cluster Subdivisions. Rural Retreat uses are permitted by Minor Special Exception review and approval on Rural Economy Cluster Lots. Such uses are not permitted on Residential Cluster Lots, Preservation Farm Lots, or Common Open Space Lots.
JLMA-20 the use table's own cell	7 20175 (7)	S	Table 3.02.04-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.04-1 on PDF page 192, row "Rural Retreat", column "JLMA-20", reads "S" (S = Special Exception).
JLMA-3 the use table's own cell	481 20132 (291), 20141 (112), 20158 (66), 20175 (3), 20176 (9)	S	Table 3.02.03-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.03-1 on PDF page 184, row "Rural Retreat", column "JLMA-3", reads "S" (S = Special Exception).
PD-RV Con the use table's own cell	no parcels loaded	S	Table 3.02.04-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.04-1 on PDF page 192, row "Rural Retreat", column "PD-RV Con", reads "S" (S = Special Exception).
PD-RV Work the use table's own cell	no parcels loaded	S	Table 3.02.04-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.04-1 on PDF page 192, row "Rural Retreat", column "PD-RV Work", reads "S" (S = Special Exception).
TR-10 the use table's own cell	246 20148 (86), 20152 (2), 20175 (158)	S	Table 3.02.03-1 Read from the use table: Table 3.02.03-1 on PDF page 184, row "Rural Retreat", column "TR-10", reads "S" (S = Special Exception).

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The planned districts are a different answer, not a missing one

61415 of the loaded properties are in a planned district. For those, what you may build is set by an approved Concept Development Plan for that development, not by the county-wide use table. That is a real answer: the plan governs, and it is held by the county.

Concept Development Plan (CDP): Part of a Zoning Map Amendment (ZMAP) or Zoning Concept Plan Amendment (ZCPA) application. The CDP may consist of both a visual and a written representation depicting the layout and/or design of the development, and all associated proffers. When the CDP is approved through the legislative process, the CDP then becomes binding on the developer and his successors in interests.

Chapter 12, Definitions -- Concept Development Plan (CDP)

We cannot retrieve the plan for you — the county publishes the rezoning case as a polygon layer but the plan document itself is not machine-addressable (measured S199). Ask Loudoun County Building & Development for the approved plan covering the property.

This answer is good through March 18, 2025 — that is the date the ordinance we hold runs to, as published by Loudoun County. We last checked with the county on September 14, 2026 and found nothing newer. That is a check on that date, not a promise about today.

Ask another one in Loudoun County, VA

What this does not cover

122,892 properties are loaded, covering every ZIP code in the county (24 of 24). These are the parcels that carry an address in the county's own address layer. A further 9,894 parcels — open space, common area, rights of way and other unaddressed land — have no address point in that layer and are not counted here.
61,415 of those properties (50%) sit in a planned district (PDCH, PDGI, PDH3, PDH4, PDH6, PDIP, PDOP, PDRV, PDSC), where the limits come from an approved Concept Development Plan rather than the use table above. Those are not included in the counts above.
A further 26,126 properties carry a parcel zone code this page cannot match to a single column of the use table: (none), C, TC, TOWNS, TR (5 variants, e.g. TR1LF), TRC.
7,581 of those carry a code that looks like one of the districts above and is not one. TR1LF, TR1UBF, TR3LBR, TR3LF, TR3UBF, TRC — these are separate zone classifications in their own right, not the same zone with something added, and the use table has no column for them. We do not fold them in.
TC and TRC are not the same thing as a column above. The county's parcel data uses one code (TC, TRC) where the ordinance names several districts — TC Core and TC Fringe, or the three TRC districts. Those districts DO appear in the table above, because the ordinance names them; we simply cannot tell which one a given parcel is in, and we do not guess. So the districts are listed and the parcels are not counted.
(none) above means a parcel with no zone code assigned in the county's own data — 56 of them.
Owner filters. We have an owner of record for 121,379 of Loudoun County’s 122,892 parcels, of which 18,055 are owned by a company, trust or other organization, including 352 owned by public bodies — governments, authorities, schools, churches. That split is Zonescore’s reading of the owner’s name, not something the county published, and we keep the two apart rather than deciding for you which counts as an investor. 4,455 have an owner whose mailing address is outside VA — read off the end of the county’s own address string, where the state actually is, because “MD” also occurs inside “RICHMOND”. We could read a state on 121,360 of them; the rest are not counted either way. 17,933 are owned by somebody this county writes to at a different address — not the property itself. That is where the tax bill goes, which is not the same as where the owner sleeps — an owner can collect mail at a property they rent out, and one who is written to elsewhere may still live here. We can tell you the two addresses differ; we cannot tell you the owner does not live at the property. 13,726 of them are written to an address inside VA, so the out-of-state filter above cannot see them at all. That count is out of the 119,057 properties where we could compare the two addresses. On 2,322 more we could not — the owner is written to a post-office box, or the county’s own record of the property names a street and no building number — and those are left out rather than counted as living at home. Matching two addresses is Zonescore’s reading, not something the county published: we treat “123 Main St” and “123 Main Street” as one place, ignore an apartment number, and compare the ZIP code rather than the town name — a jurisdiction’s record of a property and its record of that property’s owner often name the same place by different towns, and treating those as two addresses would count somebody living in their own house as an absentee.
Owner data from Loudoun County Commissioner of the Revenue's 2026 owner legal address records, retrieved September 4, 2026.
TOWNS is land zoned by an incorporated town, which runs its own ordinance, not the county's.
326 of them (0.3%) carry a ZIP that does not start 201 — the prefixes covering 99% of the addresses this county publishes. These are the county’s own values, shown as published; some are neighbouring ZIPs along the county line. We have not audited them, and we neither correct them nor drop them, so the count you see is the count that exists.
Overlay districts are not modeled here. An overlay can change what a property allows.
Some cells in this ordinance state two outcomes without saying what separates them; those are shown with their code and their source, and not guessed at.

Built from scripts/build_reverse_index.py, generated 2026-10-11T20:59:04+00:00.