The Clarke County Board of Supervisors is providing notice of an intention to propose ordinances for passage and will conduct three public hearings in the Berryville Clarke County Government Center Main Meeting Room, 101 Chalmers Court, 2nd Floor, Berryville, VA, on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 6:30 pm, or as soon thereafter as the matters may be heard, to hear public comment on the following:

PH2026-01: TA-25-05. Compliance with Senate Bill 974 Mandates and Related Procedural Amendments. Proposed text amendment to amend County Code Chapter 200, Zoning Ordinance (Article I), Subdivision Ordinance (Article II), and Definitions (Article III). The purpose is to comply with new Code of Virginia mandates, which require transferring authority for site development plan and subdivision plat approvals from the Planning Commission, Berryville Area Development Authority, and Board of Supervisors to a “designated agent,” which the County has identified as the Zoning Administrator or, in their absence, the Director of Planning. The text amendment also modifies procedural requirements for application reviews including, but not limited to, creating new minimum requirements for a complete application for all application types; restructures the requirements for what constitutes minor and major subdivisions; eliminates pre-application conference requirements and public hearing requirements for site development plans and subdivision plats; replaces the maximum lot size exception process with an administrative process for an exception to the maximum area requirement in the Agricultural-Open Space-Conservation (AOC) District and a variance process for lots with low quality land characteristics, and transfers approval authority to the Zoning Administrator or Board of Zoning Appeals as applicable; and makes various changes to the traffic impact study requirements, off-street parking requirements, private access easement design waivers, court-ordered partitions of land, and required plat statements.

Information regarding the above matters, including copies of the proposed text amendment, may be examined on the County’s website (www.clarkecounty.gov) and at the County Administration office located in the Berryville-Clarke County Government Center, 101 Chalmers Court, Berryville, Virginia. Any person desiring to speak on the above matters should appear at the appointed time and place. Clarke County does not discriminate on the basis of handicapped status in admission to its programs and activities. Accommodations will be made for handicapped persons upon prior request.

Public Hearing Notice & Supporting Documentation