zoneoptics
Alexandria, Virginia · General provision

Section 4-700

RegionalAll Alexandria districts0

Dimensional standards

lot requirementsSTREETMIN LOT AREA40 acMAX HEIGHT77 ftMAX FAR1
Plan view of the district’s stated lot requirements. Solid line: the property line. Dashed: the setback lines the ordinance imposes; a building must stay inside the tinted envelope. Drawn from the figures extracted below — illustrative, not a survey.

Lot

Minimum lot areaMinimum lot areaThe smallest parcel on which the district allows anything to be built.
1,742,400 sq ftsq ftSquare feet. An acre is 43,560 sq ft; a typical suburban lot is 7,000–10,000. (40 acacre43,560 square feet — about the size of an American football field without the end zones.)

Height & bulk

Maximum heightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first.
77 ft
Maximum floor area ratioFloor area ratio (FAR)Total floor area divided by lot area — an FAR of 2.0 permits 20,000 sq ft of floor on a 10,000 sq ft lot.
1

Uses

Permitted by right15

Conditional / special use14

Extracted standards

4 individual requirements pulled out of this section’s prose, each with the sentence it came from.

Other

  • All operations within enclosed building

    All operations, including storage, shall be conducted within a completely enclosed building with the exception of outdoor uses pursuant to this section 4-700 and City Code section 5-2-29, as applicable.

  • Day careDay careSupervised care for children or adults during part of the day. pick-up/drop-off plan

    A day care center shall submit for the director's review a pick-up and drop-off plan that adequately ensures the safe transfer of children and creates minimal impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

  • Tobacco retail proximity restriction1,000 ft

    Retail shopping establishments with a principal use selling tobacco products... are prohibited on property within 1,000 linear feet of a child day care center, or a public or private academic early childhood, elementary, middle, or high school.

  • Window transparencyGround-floor transparencyThe share of a ground-floor street wall that must be windows rather than blank surface.

    The placement or construction of items that block the visibility through windows of the interior of the commercial space from the street and sidewalk... shall be prohibited. All windows shall remain transparent.

From the ordinance

The maximum permitted floor area ratio is 1.0. The maximum permitted height of a building is 77 feet except that the height may be increased to an amount not to exceed 150 feet with a special use permit. No site shall be zoned to CR unless it contains a minimum of 40 acres of land and no development proposal shall be approved unless it can accommodate 500,000 square feet of gross leasable floor space.
Section 4-700