Frederick County, VA Ordinances (2026)

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the subdivision ordinance requires any subdivider building in the RP, R4, R5 or MH1 zoning districts to organize a…

Frederick County requires every Property Owners' Association created under its subdivision ordinance to elect officers or directors through equal voting rights spelled out in the deed…

Frederick County's subdivision ordinance sets the assessment framework for every Property Owners' Association it requires: lot owners, including the developer, are assessed on an equal…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, curbside refuse containers must be watertight, durable, rust-resistant and either tight-covered or sealed plastic…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, 'yard waste' means grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, brush and tree prunings, but not roots or stumps over six…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Section 142-28(A) lets the County provide curbside refuse and recyclables collection based on population density…

Frederick County's curbside program will not take bulky items. Under § 142-28K(1) of the County Code, furniture, mattresses, white goods, tires and yard waste are excluded from…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the County's curbside program under § 142-28 limits residential collection to single-family homes and manufactured…

Frederick County treats curbside recycling as voluntary. Under § 142-28M of the County Code, residents who choose to participate bundle or box newspaper, metal, glass and plastic and…

Frederick County bans dumping litter anywhere in the county outside authorized receptacles. Section 142-101 of the County Code makes it unlawful to drop, deposit, discard or otherwise…

Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown does not regulate or require permits for rainwater harvesting. Installing rain barrels is one of the voluntary…

During a drought warning in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, lawn and landscape watering is limited to alternate days by street address, and it is…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Section 122-5 bans grass, weeds and foreign growth over 18 inches tall within 100 feet of a dwelling on developed…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Section 142-6(E) protects household composting and lets agricultural operations compost yard waste, subject to…

Once a drought warning is declared in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Frederick Water customers given a five-day notice to fix a leak who fail to do…

Frederick County requires the valves and switches on automatic sprinkler systems to be electronically supervised by a listed fire alarm control unit, but the code exempts systems…

Plumbing work in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown falls under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, administered by the county's Chief Building…

Frederick County requires a building permit before construction work covered by the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code begins in the unincorporated county. The Department of…

Electrical work in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown needs a permit under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, and utilities may not energize a…

Frederick County's Department of Building Inspections, headed by the Chief Building Official, administers every construction permit and inspection in the unincorporated county outside…

Frederick County's noise ordinance applies only from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each day, and only to noise coming from property in the county's residential-type zoning districts, outside…

Frederick County bars playing a radio, amplifier, musical instrument or similar device so it is plainly audible or exceeds 60 decibels across a property line, within a shared building…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Airport Overlay District requires the Winchester Regional Airport Authority to hand the County a noise…

Frederick County treats a persistently noisy dog as a noise violation only after the Sheriff has given written notice: § 48-23 of the County Code makes it unlawful for an owner to let…

Frederick County defines 'plainly audible' noise to specifically include rhythmic bass tones, so music that carries mainly as thumping bass across a property line can violate the noise…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, § 165-705.01.A(2) confines data center generator testing and cycling to weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, § 165-705.01.A(5)(c) requires every data center's cooling, ventilating and power-supply equipment, ground-mounted…

Frederick County lets owners of structures at least 50 years old apply for local historic designation under Chapter 97. The Historic Resources Advisory Board (HRAB) reviews…

Frederick County enforces the Virginia Maintenance Code against unsafe, substandard structures in the unincorporated county through the Chief Building Official, designated the Building…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Section 122-6 separately bars owners of any lot in a platted subdivision from letting weeds and undergrowth grow…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, one accessory dwelling is allowed with any single-family home if its floor area stays at or below 25% of the…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a shed or other accessory structure cannot sit inside the front yard setback of its zoning district. Any accessory…

Anyone who carries goods from place to place in Frederick County to sell or barter, including door-to-door sellers without a fixed storefront, must hold a peddler's license under…

Frederick County requires anyone running a pawnbroking business in the unincorporated county to hold a business license taxed on gross receipts, the same as a retailer, under County…

A residential auto-repair operation in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown must meet the home-occupation standards of § 165-702.05: no offensive noise…

Frederick County requires every massage parlor to hold a business license under Code § 155-96C(3), at a flat $200 per year that cannot be prorated for a partial year or transferred to…

Frederick County requires junk dealers with an established place of business to hold a business license under Code § 155-101, taxed the same as retailers under the county's…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, an adult retail use must sit at least 2,500 feet from the property line of any school, church, park, day-care…

Frederick County's general parking restrictions, set out in § 158-4, ban double-parking, blocking a driveway, parking on a sidewalk, parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant or 20 feet…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, off-street parking lots and driveways generally must be paved with concrete, bituminous concrete or a similar…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Zoning Ordinance bars parking tractor-trailers, buses, dump trucks, cement mixers, tow trucks, garbage trucks…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Zoning Ordinance requires business and industrial uses to provide off-street loading spaces sized to Table…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, storing an inoperable motor vehicle or trailer outside a completely enclosed building is prohibited in every…

Any person may file a zoning complaint with the Frederick County Zoning Administrator under § 165-204.02, who must record it immediately and investigate. If a violation is confirmed, a…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Chapter 122 Nuisances covers the violations residents most often report: noxious or offensive matter…

Frederick County makes it a traffic infraction to beg or solicit money or other things of value in a street, highway or law-enforcement right-of-way under § 158-6.1, with fines up to…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Section 122-3 of the County Code requires every container used to store noxious or offensive matter to completely…

Frederick County lets household sharps go out with regular trash if they are packaged safely first. Under § 142-28N(8)(d) of the County Code, sharps generated at a residence must go…

A home occupation in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown can't bring more than five non-resident people onto the property in a single day, counting both…

Frederick County's Zoning Ordinance, § 165-702.05, lets residents outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown run a home occupation only inside the principal dwelling, except in…

Frederick County's Zoning Ordinance bars any exterior sign, display or indication that a home occupation exists on a residential property outside Winchester, Stephens City and…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the zoning ordinance recognizes in-home child care for up to four children as a Family Day Home (1-4 Children)…

Outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Frederick County Zoning Ordinance caps structure height by district: the Rural Areas (RA) District tops out at 35 feet for every…

In the Rural Areas (RA) District, which covers most of Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Table IV-2 of the Zoning Ordinance sets a 60-foot front…

In the Residential Performance (RP) District outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, Table IV-5 of the Zoning Ordinance caps the site's impervious surface at 0.60, or 60…

Frederick County zones nearly all of its unincorporated land outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown as RA, Rural Areas, and Table IV-2 of the Zoning Ordinance caps density…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, backyard chickens are allowed only in the R4 and R5 zoning districts under § 165-701.02 of the Zoning Ordinance…

Frederick County prohibits allowing a dog to run at large anywhere in the unincorporated county outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, all year round, under § 48-3 of the…

Frederick County has no breed ban and no breed-specific licensing surcharge: § 48-3.1(C) of the County Code states that no dog may be found a dangerous or vicious dog, and no breed's…

Frederick County does not license cats or regulate them for running at large: the only rule in the County Code that names cats directly is the rabies vaccination mandate in § 48-22(A)…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, new and substantially improved buildings inside a mapped Special Flood Hazard Area must sit at least one foot…

Frederick County requires a stormwater permit before most land-disturbing projects break ground. Under §§ 143-125(B) and 143-165 of the County Code, the Public Works Department runs…

Frederick County requires an approved erosion and sediment control plan before any land-disturbing construction starts. Under § 143-125(A) of the County Code, no land-disturbing permit…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, any use, activity or development inside the Floodplain Overlay District needs a permit before work starts. New and…

Short-term lodging in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown is capped at 10 unrelated lodgers per night and five guest rooms, with only one rental contract…

Before any short-term lodging activity can begin in Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Department of Planning and Development must approve a…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, operating a short-term lodging or tourist home requires an administrative permit from the Department of Planning…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a short-term lodging permit under § 165-702.08.C(3)(e) requires at least two designated off-street parking spaces…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, businesses near an interstate interchange can qualify for the IA, Interstate Area Overlay District to put up a…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a garage-sale sign counts as a temporary sign under the Zoning Ordinance. It skips the normal sign permit but is…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Zoning Ordinance's outdoor lighting standards, including full-cutoff shielding and property-line brightness…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, an electronic message sign is allowed in every zoning district but must hold each display static for at least 15…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a temporary sign, the category covering campaign and yard signs, on private property is exempt from a sign permit…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, residential developments that need a Master Development Plan, subdivision design plan or Site Plan must plant one…

Frederick County places the duty to keep sidewalks clear on the property owner, not the County. Sections 142-102 and 142-103 of the County Code make it unlawful to deposit litter onto…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the only local density bonus is earned through the Transfer of Development Rights program. A landowner who buys…

Frederick County bans open burning outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown: no owner may kindle an open fire in any public or private place outside a building unless a listed…

Frederick County allows cooking and recreational fires, including campfires, as an explicit exception to its open-burning ban under § 45-6(C)(4) of the County Code. The exception is…

Anyone selling fireworks or explosives from a temporary stand in Frederick County must first clear the Fire Marshal's office and the Zoning Administrator's office, then take out a…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, every dwelling or manufactured home operated as short-term lodging must carry a working multipurpose fire…

Outdoor swimming pools in unincorporated Frederick County must be completely enclosed by a fence at least four feet tall that blocks passage of anything larger than a four-inch sphere…

Frederick County levies a 6% transient occupancy tax on every accommodation rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days, including hotels, motels, inns, campgrounds and short-term…

Frederick County classifies every licensed business by gross receipts and by type of enterprise under Code §§ 155-95 and 155-96. Businesses grossing under $100,000 pay a flat $30 or…

Anyone selling goods at a festival or a prearranged event of more than 100 people in Frederick County needs a vendor license under Code § 155-100F, at a flat $30 per festival or event…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a data center rezoning or conditional use permit application must include an Environmental Noise Impact Assessment…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, a data center rezoning or CUP application must include site assessments on ground and surface water, agriculture…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, the Zoning Ordinance requires every new or replacement outdoor lighting fixture to be fully shielded, aimed…

In Frederick County outside Winchester, Stephens City and Middletown, nonresidential outdoor lighting cannot exceed 0.2 footcandle measured at a property line adjoining agricultural or…