Buying Land in Greene County, Virginia

A 1975 ordinance built around protecting farming and rural character

Greene County has administered its own Zoning Ordinance since it took effect on March 1, 1975 -- a genuinely long regulatory history for a Virginia county of its size. The ordinance's Agricultural District, covering land outside designated growth clusters and land presently used for or well-suited to farming, states its purpose plainly: to protect farming in the county while accommodating kindred rural occupations and limited residential use, and to ensure that any residential growth in the district happens in an orderly, well-planned way that isn't fundamentally injurious to current or future agricultural viability or to the county's predominantly rural quality of life.

For a land buyer, that stated purpose is worth taking at face value as a signal of the county's regulatory posture -- Greene is not writing its agricultural zoning as a placeholder waiting to be rezoned into subdivisions, but is fairly explicit that preserving working farmland and rural character is a real planning goal. That doesn't mean every use is unrestricted; it means the county's own framing supports a buyer whose plans are agricultural, low-density-residential, or otherwise consistent with rural land use, while a plan for denser development is more likely to run into the ordinance's growth-cluster structure.

What to confirm directly before you rely on this page

This research pass located Greene County's Agricultural District purpose language directly in the county's own published Zoning Ordinance and its Municode-hosted text, but did not work through the full ordinance to confirm the Agricultural District's specific minimum lot size, setback distances from property lines and roads, or its complete by-right and conditional-use lists. Those specifics are exactly the numbers that determine whether a given parcel can be subdivided, how close a structure can sit to a boundary line, and whether your intended use (a second dwelling, a home business, an agritourism operation) is permitted outright or requires a conditional-use hearing. Confirm all of that directly with the Greene County Zoning Administrator before you commit to a purchase built around a specific plan.

Greene's location at the base of the Blue Ridge, immediately adjacent to Shenandoah National Park, is well-established regional geography and supports a real market dimension beyond straightforward row-crop agricultural value -- proximity to the Park and to Charlottesville (in neighboring Albemarle County) drives recreation- and second-home-oriented demand in parts of the county. This page did not, however, identify a specific zoning overlay or ordinance provision tied directly to the Park boundary itself, so treat Park proximity as a market factor to weigh in comparable-sales analysis rather than a confirmed additional regulatory layer -- if your parcel borders Park land directly, confirm the exact boundary with the National Park Service.

Septic, well, and title basics

As in every Virginia county, septic and well permitting in Greene runs through the state health system: the local Virginia Department of Health district office serving the county reviews site and soil suitability and issues the construction permit for a typical single-family system, under the same statewide framework described on our Virginia state page. Given Greene's proximity to the mountains, soil and slope conditions can vary meaningfully within short distances, so a perc test early in due diligence is worth prioritizing over assuming a flat-county norm. A title search at the Greene County Circuit Court Clerk's office remains the reliable way to confirm recorded easements, right-of-way access, and boundary history for a specific parcel.

Ruckersville: the exception to the county's rural zoning posture

Greene's rural, farming-protective zoning posture doesn't apply everywhere in the county. Since 2010, Ruckersville -- at the intersection of US 29 and US 33 -- has been the county's one designated growth area, formalized through a Ruckersville Area Plan first adopted in 2018. That designation has produced real, currently unfolding zoning activity: in April 2024, the Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a commercial rezoning at the heart of that intersection, while in 2025 the Planning Commission recommended approval of a different, 18.55-acre commercial rezoning along the same corridor.

See our dedicated page on zoning at the Ruckersville growth area for the full, still-evolving picture -- essential context if your target parcel sits anywhere near that boundary, whichever direction you want the zoning to go.