To provide for adequate light, air, convenience of access, and safety from fire, flood, impounding structure failure, crime, and other dangers;

To reduce or prevent congestion in the public streets;

To facilitate the creation of a convenient, attractive, and harmonious community;

To facilitate the provision of adequate police and fire protection, disaster evacuation, civil defense, transportation, water, sewerage, flood protection, schools, parks, forests, playgrounds, recreational facilities, and other public requirements;

To protect against destruction of or encroachment upon historic areas;

To protect against overcrowding of land, undue density of population in relation to community facilities existing or available, obstruction of light and air, danger and congestion in travel and transportation, or loss of life, health, or property from fire, flood, impounding structure failure, panic, or other dangers;

To encourage economic development activities that provide desirable employment, including high wage jobs, and enlarge the tax base;

To provide for the preservation of lands of significance for the protection of the natural environment and to establish reasonable provisions to protect surface water and groundwater;

To promote the creation and preservation of affordable housing suitable for meeting the current and future needs of the City, as well as a reasonable proportion of the current and future needs of the planning district within which the locality is situated;

To implement the Fredericksburg Comprehensive Plan and any special area plans adopted by the City;

To assure the orderly subdivision of land and its development;

To implement the General Assembly's stated intention for localities to take action, through local regulations, to achieve the following ends: that transportation systems be carefully planned; that new community centers be developed with adequate highway, utility, health, educational and recreational facilities; that the needs of industry and business be recognized in future growth; that residential areas be provided with healthy surroundings for family life; and that the growth of the community be consonant with the efficient and economical use of public funds.

This chapter applies to the use and development of all land within the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, including new territory which comes within the City limits by annexation, boundary adjustment, or otherwise, unless expressly exempted by a specific section or subsection of this chapter.

Any territory coming into the territorial jurisdiction of the City, by annexation or otherwise shall be temporarily assigned a zoning district classification most like its previous zoning in terms of permitted uses, as determined by the Zoning Administrator, pending the orderly amendment of the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Map by City Council.

Unless otherwise provided for in this chapter, the following structures and uses, when located in the public rights-of-way, shall be exempt from the regulations of this chapter: streetlights; traffic signalization equipment and traffic signs; fire hydrants; utility poles, antennas, small cell facilities, wireless support structures, wires, cables, conduits, vaults, for the distribution to customers of communications, cable television, or electricity; the installation, placement, maintenance, or replacement of micro-wireless facilities that are suspended on cables or lines that are strung between existing utility poles in compliance with national safety codes; laterals, pipes, mains, valves or any other similar structures or equipment for the distribution to customers of water, sanitary sewer, or stormwater services. Such structures and uses may be subject to other chapters of the City Code, and certain of these structures may further be subject to review under Code of Virginia, § 15.2-2232, regarding their conformity with the Comprehensive Plan.

The following structures shall be exempt from the minimum yard requirements set forth in this chapter: telephone booths and pedestals, underground utility equipment, mailboxes, bus shelters, streetlights, public bus shelters or any similar structures or devices which are determined by the zoning administrator to similarly support normal public commerce, provided that the location of such structures does not present a safety risk, does not interfere with the normal flow of pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic and does not obscure the visibility of buildings, signs and other lawfully erected structures which are subject to the yard requirements of this chapter.

Use and development of land, buildings, and structures by the Commonwealth of Virginia; or

Use and development of land, buildings, and structures by the government of the United States.

No land, building or structure shall be subdivided, used, developed, constructed, improved, or altered unless such actions or activities are in compliance with the provisions of this chapter and with all other applicable City, state, and federal laws and regulations.

All departments, officials, and public employees of the City who are vested with the authority to issue permits, approvals, decisions, determinations, or licenses shall exercise such authority only in conformity with the applicable provisions of this chapter. Except as otherwise provided by state law, an approval, decision, determination or license approved, issued or rendered in conflict with any provision(s) of this chapter, shall be null and void.

Contents. Subject to the approval of City Council, the Zoning Administrator and Development Administrator shall develop and publish a single coordinated and integrated supplemental Procedures Manual. All revisions to the Procedures Manual shall be approved by City Council with a recommendation from the Technical Review Committee, as identified in the Manual. The Manual shall set forth the details for the following requirements:

Consistent with Code of Virginia requirements. The requirements of the Procedures Manual shall be consistent with the applicable requirements of the Code of Virginia and federal and state regulations.

Does not override UDO. In the event of a conflict between the requirements of the Procedures Manual and any provision(s) of this chapter, the provision(s) of this chapter shall govern.

The City shall not be responsible for monitoring or enforcing private easements, covenants, and restrictions, although the City may inquire as to whether land is subject to easements, covenants, and restrictions during the review of development applications.

Notwithstanding conflicting provision(s) within any private easement, covenants or restrictions, the regulations and requirements set forth within this chapter shall govern the use, development and subdivision of buildings, structures and land.

Any condominium development shall be treated the same as a physically identical project or development under a different form of ownership.

A condominium declarant is not required to obtain subdivision approval prior to recording condominium instruments, if site plan approval for the land being submitted to the condominium has previously been obtained. Except as provided in Code of Virginia § 55-79.43C, and except as provided within Subsection C, following below, once a property has complied with subdivision, site plan, zoning, or other applicable land use regulations, no further review or approval of the City is required prior to recordation of condominium instruments.

Any proposed conversion condominium, and the use thereof, which does not conform to the requirements of this chapter shall secure a special use permit or variance, as may be applicable, prior to such property becoming a conversion condominium. A request for such a special use permit or variance shall be granted if the applicant can demonstrate to the reasonable satisfaction of the City Council that the nonconformities are not likely to be adversely affected by the proposed conversion.

The Zoning Ordinance of Fredericksburg, Virginia, as originally adopted on April 24, 1984, as previously set forth within Chapter 78, Article III, of the Fredericksburg City Code.

The subdivision Ordinance of Fredericksburg, Virginia, as originally adopted on April 24, 1984, as previously set forth within Chapter 78, Article IV, of the Fredericksburg City Code.

Any application submitted and accepted as complete before October 8, 2013, but still awaiting final action as of that date, shall be reviewed and decided in accordance with the regulations in effect when the application was accepted. To the extent such an application is approved and proposes development that does not comply with this chapter, the subsequent development, although permitted, shall be lawfully nonconforming and subject to the provisions of Article 72-6, Nonconformities.

Applications submitted and accepted as complete before October 8, 2013, shall be processed in compliance with any time frames for review, approval, and completion as established in the regulations in effect at the time of application acceptance. If the applicant fails to comply with the required filing, submission, or revision time frames, his application shall expire and future applications shall be subject to the requirements of this chapter.

An applicant with a pending application accepted before October 8, 2013, may choose to have the proposed development reviewed and decided under the standards of this chapter by submitting a formal request, in writing, to the Zoning Administrator and ensuring the application complies with the standards in § 72-21, Standard application procedures.