Community Input Sought on Loudoun’s Rural Historic Villages

Members of the public are invited to attend a community meeting to learn more about and to provide input on Loudoun County's Rural Historic Villages and other historic communities. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. at the Carver Senior Center, 200 E. Willie Parker Way, in Purcellville. During the meeting, county staff will provide a presentation on the existing Rural Historic Villages and other historic communities, as well as outline the current planning project, and then accept comments from the public.

Throughout Loudoun County's history, residents established numerous small rural communities across its landscape. Over time, some of those communities have grown, some have changed very little, and many have vanished.

The 2019 Loudoun County Comprehensive Plan currently designates 12 existing communities as Rural Historic Villages, which is a planning area or "place type" in the county's Rural Policy Area. As part of the county's ongoing efforts to update its Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance in the future, the county is seeking input from the public to help determine whether the current list of Rural Historic Villages should be updated or expanded.

Rural Historic Villages may be eligible for future small area plans that would provide a policy framework to guide, manage and/or limit future growth within the villages and their immediate surroundings.

The Rural Historic Village place type designation considers the physical, cultural and social characteristics of a community. Other features include a mix of land uses, an identifiable settlement pattern, a community of common interest and some type of cultural or historical significance.

In addition to reviewing Rural Historic Villages, the county is working to identify all historic communities that have been established at any time anywhere in the county, to ensure these places and the stories of historic communities are not lost to history. Residents are asked to provide information about any communities that are not currently identified on the county's map of historic communities. Maps of both the Rural Historic Villages and other known historic communities are posted on the county's website at loudoun.gov/ruralvillages.

In addition to providing input during the upcoming community meeting, Loudoun residents may provide input on Rural Historic Villages and other historic communities at any time by submitting an online form posted at loudoun.gov/ruralvillages.

Anyone who requires any type of reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting as a result of a physical, sensory or mental disability may email the Department of Planning and Zoning. Three days' notice is requested.

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