Frederick County, VA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

01 of the Zoning Ordinance, spells out the setback grid that every new house and outbuilding in the county's Rural Areas District has to clear. The front setback is 60 feet for a principal structure and, for an accessory structure, 60 feet where the lot fronts a public right-of-way or 45 feet where it fronts a private right-of-way or easement. Side and rear setbacks for the principal structure scale with the size of the adjoining parcel: 50 feet where the adjoining parcel is six acres or less, 100 feet where it is larger than six acres, and 200 feet where the adjoining parcel exceeds six acres and sits in an Agricultural and Forest District or an orchard use.

Accessory structures get a flat 15-foot side setback and a flat 15-foot rear setback regardless of parcel size. Rural preservation lots, a subdivision option under Chapter 144, run on a separate but similar grid: 60 feet from the right-of-way of an existing state-maintained road or 45 feet from a private ingress and egress easement for the front, 15 feet on the side once a lot borders another rural preservation lot, and 15 feet for accessory structures on the rear. 03 also lets the Zoning Administrator average the front setback to the developed lots within 200 feet where the neighborhood's existing setbacks run tighter than the district minimum.