Danville's New Zoning Code, Explained

Danville's first full zoning rewrite in over 20 years

City Council approved Danville's new Unified Development Code at its December 2, 2025 meeting, and the code took effect January 1, 2026 -- with two remaining updates still to be finalized and added to the document in summer 2026. Local reporting describes this as the city's first zoning code update in more than 20 years, replacing a patchwork ordinance that had been amended piecemeal for decades with a single, reorganized document. As with any wholesale rewrite, any pre-2026 assumption about a Danville parcel's zoning district or permitted uses should be treated as potentially outdated.

New districts, a Comprehensive Use Table, and an Urban Agriculture zone

The new code introduces several specific new districts and tools. A Metro Plaza District and a dedicated North Main Street district were both created -- the latter covering the corridor from Route 58 north to East Thomas Street, intended by the city as a zone of business and growth opportunity. An architectural-review overlay now groups the North Main Business District together with the Old West End and River District historic areas, extending the same design-review framework that has shaped the River District's tobacco-warehouse and mill-building redevelopment (see this city's general overview) to a wider swath of historic Danville. A new Comprehensive Use Table replaces the old code's more scattered use listings, giving a clearer, single reference for what's allowed in each district.

For anyone evaluating agricultural or garden-scale use on a Danville property, the most directly relevant addition is a new Urban Agriculture (UA) zone, which allows agricultural uses in multiple areas throughout the city -- a meaningful expansion from a code that, before this rewrite, treated the city's built environment as almost entirely non-agricultural. The code also replaced the older "transitional housing" concept with a broader Supportive Housing designation -- housing for more than four unrelated people under supervision for care, treatment, or training -- which the new code allows, subject to a special-use permit, in urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods, commercial areas, and the River District. Commercial developments also face increased landscaping requirements under the new code compared with the prior ordinance.

A mid-2026 amendment: manufactured housing

On June 2, 2026, City Council amended the new code again -- this time to comply with new statewide legislation (House Bill 655 and Senate Bill 346) that took effect July 1, 2026 and required every Virginia locality to update any zoning rule that treated manufactured homes differently from site-built single-family homes in the same district solely because a home is manufactured. In practical terms, Danville residents who own or want to place a qualifying manufactured home now have more opportunity to locate it on residential lots where a site-built single-family house is already allowed, in whichever district that lot sits under the new Unified Development Code. The council vote was not unanimous -- Vice Mayor James Buckner and Councilman Danny Marshall voted against the amendment -- worth knowing if you're following how the city's zoning politics may continue to evolve around this change.

What this means if you're buying land or property in Danville

Confirm a specific Danville parcel's zoning district and permitted uses directly with the city's Planning & Zoning office before relying on any pre-2026 information -- the underlying district boundaries, names, and use tables have all changed. If your plan involves urban agriculture, a supportive-housing use, or placing a manufactured home, ask specifically whether the new code's UA zone, Supportive Housing designation, or the June 2026 manufactured-housing amendment applies to your parcel, since each is new enough that older listings or general assumptions about Danville zoning won't reflect it. And if you're evaluating a River District or North Main Street adaptive-reuse project, confirm whether the architectural-review overlay -- not just the base zoning district -- applies to your building, since it can add design requirements beyond what the base district alone would require.