In our previous commodity post, nosotros discussed the Iii Things to Check Earlier Ownership and Renovating a House in the Hampton Roads expanse. To brand a long story short, those 3 things are: Zoning, Floodplain Ordinance and the Chesapeake Bay Protection Area. As suggested in that article, there are multiple ways to find the information, including calling the zoning staff of your city, checking online resource, or working with professionals. In this article, nosotros will focus on how to actually wait up the zoning requirements in the Metropolis of Norfolk every bit an example, as well equally highlight some valuable resource available and how to use them.

Method 1: Norfolk's Interactive Zoning Map

In order to find zoning requirements for your property, you will demand to find out what zone your property is located in offset. One way you tin look that up is to input your address falls under the Established Residential Base of operations Zoning Districts at Norfolk'southward Interactive Zoning Map.

One time you navigate to the Interactive Zoning Map web page, you will want to insert the address y'all are looking for in the text box located at the lesser left of the screen. (For research purposes, nosotros will exist using an accost that was available for auction at the fourth dimension this article was written.)

Norfolk'southward Interactive Zoning Map

Your next screen will testify the accost and likely the District it is in with the map overlays:

Accost location with Zoning District Overlay.

We suggest that you press the "zoom in" button (the "+" sign) located at the lesser left of the menu bar, at least in one case and then employ your mouse to click on your property to see your property with a little more item as shown below:

 Address location with Zoning District Overlay, after pressing the "zoom in" ("+") key

In this example, the property address we are looking at is in a SF-six: Unmarried Family half dozen Commune.

Congratulations! Y'all know your Zoning District!! Now what??

From here, yous volition click on the "More than info" hyperlink that will bring yous to the online version of Norfolk Zoning Ordinance. For case, the "More info" link from the above example will bring you straight to the department of Norfolk Zoning Ordinance that relates to the SF-vi: Single family half dozen District Zone requirements.

Zoning requirements for a SF-6: Single Family Commune Zone half dozen

Method 2: Norfolk Air 2.0

Slightly unlike from Method i, we tin can find both our Zone and our Requirements by but plugging in our address and navigating through another great interactive online resource called Norfolk Air. To offset, we will navigate to the home page, then we will enter the property address.

Norfolk Air 2.0 Homepage

In the text box at the homepage, we will need to start typing the address of the belongings we are interested in. As we type in the address, a drib down carte du jour will appear with available addresses (shown in the motion-picture show above), we will use our mouse to select the address we want and then click on "search".

The adjacent page we arrive at shows us two pictures of the address we entered in our text box on the previous page. The picture on the left is the near recent "street view" picture of the belongings and the on the right side of the screen is a plan view of the property lines. For our purposes in this article, we will want to select "Planning" from the options available on the blue menu bar located at the lower office of the screen and circled in ruby-red in the picture beneath.

Planning menu choice selection circled in red

Equally shown in the picture below, clicking the "Planning" section brings us to the "Zoning" section. The data presented on that screen has the Zoning District assignment, the Overlay District(southward) and if there are whatsoever considerations regarding the Chesapeake Bay Protection Areas.

Norfolk Air 2.0 address search event with
"Planning" selected from the carte selections

In our current case, we accept found that our Zone District to be Single Family – six (SF-half dozen). It is also in a Coastal Resilience Overlay district, too as CBPA Intensely Adult Surface area (IDA), both of which will have additional requirements besides zoning requirements for zone SF-6.

How to locate Norfolk Air Zoning data

Before we travel to the Norfolk Zoning Ordinance website to find more data on zoning requirements, we can stay here in the Norfolk Air website and besides locate the Floodplain information that is attributed to this accost. We can practice so by selecting "More" on the blue carte du jour bar, and and then selecting "Public Safety" as shown in the to a higher place picture.

How to locate Norfolk Air Zoning information

For our example, we know our property is located in a Flood Zone "AE (High Run a risk)". Clicking on the link for the Flood Zone "AE (High Risk)" will take you to FEMA's website and will provide a description of the different overflowing hazard areas in greater detail. Clicking on the link for the "LiMWA" will bring you to Norfolk'southward Zoning website that as well defines and offers a more detailed description of the overlay district.

As nosotros discussed in our recent commodity nearly each City'due south Floodplain Ordinance requirements, we highly suggest getting a physical survey with floodplain delineation lines, and an Pinnacle Document that is using NAVD88 Datum. Doing so ensures the most electric current and accurate information, and too is required by the City if you want to do any additions or new construction.

Now we can notice where the Zoning Requirement information is by navigating to Norfolk'south Zoning Ordinance Page and clicking whatsoever of the links in the "Planning" drop downwards menu, and reviewing the data presented.

From hither, as in Method 1 to a higher place, clicking on the designated Zone (in this case SF-6), the overlay district(south) or whatsoever other hyperlink in this window will navigate y'all to Norfolk's Zoning Ordinance website. At that site, we can find more of the specific information we need. In this example, nosotros are directed to the SF-6 "Section A" showing pictures of the types of homes typically found in this blazon of expanse. Scrolling down to "Section B", nosotros can run across that our Setback Requirements for the dorsum thou is 25 anxiety, 5 feet for the side k and 25 feet for the front.

Zoning requirements for a SF-6: Unmarried Family Commune Zone 6

Voila! Piece of cake peasy, right? Yous now know your Zoning Commune and standard requirements for your zone! Nosotros also know that for the address we used in this instance, there will be boosted requirements we volition take to consider for being located in a high risk Alluvion Zone (AE 8) and Littoral Overlay District.

Of course, there are also other factors to consider, and for those variables, it is highly recommended to continue your research through these websites, contact your city zoning officials or connect with a professional person to aid navigate to get the data you are seeking and understand what are the implications of those info on your project.Being armed with the proper information tin amend prepare you for each step in making the vision of your projection a reality.

Another great resource we have institute for the city of Norfolk is their Zoning Ordinance Procedures Transmission. This manual does a really wonderful job of explaining what kind of activities require zoning approving, what types of applications there are, who approves the applications and some of the costs for each application.

As always, please attain out to u.s.a. if you have questions about any aspects of your projection!

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Telephone: 757-761-3680

Or leave us a bulletin on the contact folio of our websites