Comprehensive Planning & Zoning

Roanoke County Community Plan

The Roanoke County Community Plan is a blueprint for County growth and development over the next 10 to 15 years. It provides a way for the community to envision its future: what it will look like, where things will be located, how it will function, who will live in it and affect it, and when and where changes will take place. The Plan allows decision makers to study the long-term consequences of current decisions and recognize how today’s actions will impact the County for many years to come.

The Community Plan is a charting document that reflects the community’s goals and visions of what the future might be. It allows the Board of Supervisors to present a snapshot of the County’s long-range goals, policies and strategies to the community. This includes those involved in private land development, neighborhood organizations and civic groups, neighboring jurisdictions, county departments, commissions, boards and the general public. It also provides those in the land development process the opportunity to anticipate Board decisions and to actively work in concert with the Plan rather than in conflict with it.

Developed with a great deal of public participation, the Community Plan encourages individual participation in public affairs and the long-range planning process of the County. It also ensures citizens that decisions based on the Plan are well thought out and in the best interests of the County as a whole.

History

Roanoke County has a long history of comprehensive planning. In 1939, the County established the Planning Commission, and within the next year the county’s first Community Plan was adopted. Subsequently, the first zoning ordinance was in place by 1941. Revisions to the Community Plan were adopted in 1974, 1985, 1998 and 2005.

View the Plan

The Community Plan and the Roanoke County Zoning Ordinance may be viewed on the Roanoke County Planning and Zoning page.