Hanover County, VA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

7 sets special design standards for commercial, institutional and mixed-use development within the HV Historic Village District, the zoning classification applied to the three areas the Comprehensive Plan designates "Rural Village": Beaverdam, Hanover Courthouse and Montpelier. Item 12 of that section, "Dumpster enclosures," requires that commercial containers be screened on three sides by durable, sight-obscuring walls built of brick, masonry, stone or a similar material, with a wood or metal gate closing the fourth side. The screening walls and gate must stand at least one foot taller than the container itself, and the outward-facing sides of the enclosure walls need a finished surface, textured or painted, plus evergreen tree or shrub landscaping at the base on three sides.

7(16)(d), so enclosure placement is reviewed at the plan-approval stage rather than left to the property owner after construction. Outside the HV district, Hanover applies its general screening and planting standard, § 26-263, wherever a district or supplemental regulation calls for a "masonry wall," "fence" or "screening," but that section addresses fence height and materials rather than a dumpster-specific design. The HV standards apply to any nonresidential development in those three villages, from a small retail storefront to a mixed-use building with ground-floor commercial space, whenever the applicant submits plans for review by the Planning Department.