Dimensional standards
Lot
Density
Height & bulk
Housing
- Two-family
- by_right
- Three-family
- by_right
- Four-plus family
- by_right
Uses
Permitted by right25
- Single-unit dwelling
- Two-unit dwelling
- Townhouse dwelling
- Multi-unit dwelling
- Auxiliary dwelling (not to exceed four units)
- Business and professional office
- Cemetery
- Church
- Day care center
- Health and athletic club or fitness studio
- Medical laboratory
- Health profession office
- Motor vehicle parking or storage for 20 vehicles or fewer
- Outdoor dining located on private property at a commercial complex
- Personal service establishment
- Private school, commercial
- Public school
- Radio or TV broadcasting office and studio
- Recreation and entertainment use, indoor
- Retail shopping establishment, up to 20,000 gross square feet
- Restaurant located within a commercial complex or hotel
- Seminary, convent or monastery
- Social service use
- Utilities
- Accessory uses
Conditional / special use37
- Animal care facility with overnight accommodation (if in commercial complex)
- Co-living dwelling (not to exceed two units)
- Restaurant
- Outdoor garden center
- Outdoor market
- Outdoor dining on private property
- Valet parking
- Any use with live entertainment
- Animal care facility with overnight accommodation (other than admin)
- Automobile service station
- Bus shelter on private property
- Catering operation
- Co-living dwelling (other than admin)
- Congregate housing facility
- Continuum of care facility
- Day labor agency
- Drive through facility
- Food and beverage production exceeding 5,000 sq ft with retail
- Fraternal or private club
- Funeral home
- Homeless shelter
- Hospital
- Hotel
- Interstate bus station
- Light automobile repair
- Medical care facility
- Motor vehicle parking or storage for more than 20 vehicles
- Nursing or convalescent home or hospice
- Outdoor dining on private property (other than permitted)
- Outdoor market (other than admin)
- Outdoor garden center (other than admin)
- Private school, academic, with more than 20 students
- Public building
- Research and testing laboratory
- Recreation and entertainment use, outdoor
- Retail shopping establishment, larger than 20,000 gross square feet
- Wholesale business
Prohibited1
Extracted standards
11 individual requirements pulled out of this section’s prose, each with the sentence it came from.
Frontage
- TownhouseTownhouseA single-family home sharing side walls with its neighbours, each on its own lot. frontageFrontageThe length of a lot line that touches a public street. requirements
Each townhouse dwelling requires a minimum of 18 feet of frontage for interior lots, 26 feet of frontage for end lots and 38 feet of frontage for interior corner lots.
Other
- Auxiliary dwelling unitsDwelling unitOne independent home: its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance.4 units
Up to four auxiliary dwelling units are permitted and shall be categorized as nonresidential for the purpose of applying the area and bulk regulations of this zone. Such dwellings shall comply with section 8-200(A)(16) for parking and where parking is required spaces may be compact size or tandem.
- Co-living dwellings2 units
Up to two co-living dwellings shall be categorized as nonresidential for the purpose of applying the area and bulk regulations of this zone, and each such co-living dwelling shall provide the parking required under section 8-200(A)(22).
- Continuum of care FARFloor 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.1.25 ratio
The maximum permitted floor area ratio shall not exceed 1.25 and a maximum of 50 percent of the floor space of the proposed development may be residential use. If a special use permit is approved, a maximum of 70 percent of the floor space of the proposed development may be residential use.
- All operations enclosed
All operations, including storage, be conducted within a completely enclosed building with the exception of outdoor uses pursuant to this section 4-800 and City Code section 5-2-29, as applicable.
- Nonresidential FARFloor 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 ratio
The maximum permitted floor area ratio for nonresidential uses is 1.00.
- Residential FARFloor 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. in Old Town/Parker-Gray1.5 ratio
For single-unit, two-unit, and townhouse dwellings within the Old and Historic Alexandria and Parker-Gray Districts only, the maximum permitted floor area ratio is 1.50 not to exceed a maximum of 30 dwelling units for each acre.
- Side yardYardThe open space left between a building and its lot line — the space a setback creates. setbackSetbackThe distance a building must be held back from a lot line. ratio
Each single-unit, two-unit, and townhouse dwelling shall provide two side yards, each based on a setback ratio of 1:3 and a minimum of eight feet. Each multi-unit dwelling shall provide two side yards, each based on a setback ratio of 1:2 and a minimum of 16 feet.
- Tobacco retail prohibition near schools1,000 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.
- Two-unit lot areaMinimum lot areaThe smallest parcel on which the district allows anything to be built. per unit2,500 sqftsq ftSquare feet. An acre is 43,560 sq ft; a typical suburban lot is 7,000–10,000.
In the case of a two-unit dwelling, the lot shall contain 2,500 square feet of land area for each dwelling unit.
- Window visibility
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
Each single-unit dwelling shall be located on a lot with a minimum land area of 5,000 square feet. In the case of a two-unit dwelling, the lot shall contain 2,500 square feet of land area for each dwelling unit. Each townhouse use shall provide a minimum land area of 1,600 square feet.