Roanoke County, VA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

1-11(a) requires that an erosion and sediment control plan, a component of the county's broader soil erosion control and stormwater management (ESM) plan, "be filed for a development and the buildings constructed within, regardless of the phasing of construction," and that it contain the conservation decisions needed to meet the state's minimum standards at 9VAC25-875-560. The plan must be built from a current topographic field survey referenced to NAVD 88 and NAD 83, prepared by a licensed professional, though development disturbing less than 10,000 square feet on parcels of an acre or larger is exempt from the survey requirement unless the administrator says otherwise.

1-11(c) requires a signed erosion and sediment control plan or "agreement in lieu of a plan" when individual lots in a residential development are built out by different owners. 1-13 lets an agreement in lieu of a plan substitute for a full plan on any activity disturbing under 10,000 square feet, with a plot plan required once disturbance hits 5,000 square feet. 1-12(c) layers on stream buffer protection, requiring a minimum 25-foot buffer on each side of a perennial stream or contiguous wetland on undeveloped land, kept in as natural a condition as possible.

3 percent to comply with the International Building Code's foundation-clearance rules and limits constructed steep slopes to no more than two reverse benches per parcel.