Virginia’s First Comprehensive Zoning Map is Now Available

Across Virginia, demand for homes has risen in recent years while supply has stagnated, and the costs of both owning a home and renting one have risen. One part of increasing affordable housing is understanding zoning and its role in shaping communities. HousingForward Virginia recently announced the completion of the Virginia Zoning Atlas, an interactive map resource that shows the zoning code in nearly every locality in the state. Virginia Housing supported the creation of the Zoning Atlas as part of our effort to expand housing supply and address housing affordability challenges in the Commonwealth.

The Virginia Zoning Atlas provides a visualization of zoning codes from 321 jurisdictions, allowing users to zoom from the national level down to specific cities and counties in Virginia. From there, you can find information on what type of housing is allowed, lot size and parking minimums, protected land and flood zones, transit access and more.

“Zoning plays an important role in shaping housing opportunity for all Virginians,” said Virginia Housing CEO Tammy Neale. “Virginia Housing’s investment in this initiative is an important step to ensuring communities have the data and information needed to create policies that support the creation and preservation of affordable housing across Virginia.”

HousingForward Virginia, an organization focused on education, research and data on affordable housing, created the Zoning Atlas in partnership with National Zoning Atlas, whose aim is to illuminate information about land use regulations across the country. Capital One was also a financial supporter of the Zoning Atlas through its Community Impact and Investment team.

Virginia Housing provided financial support for both the atlas and Zoned Out, an initiative that will launch in February 2026 to help policymakers, housing professionals and local governments use the atlas in their efforts to increase affordable housing in their community.

“Virginia Housing is excited to support the development of the Virginia Zoning Atlas,” said Director of Strategic Housing Chris Thompson. “We regularly discuss land use and zoning and its impact on housing development with localities, developers, policymakers and more. We’ve long supported zoning ordinance analyses that identify obstacles to development, and the Zoning Atlas is going to be a valuable resource to help continue those discussions and inform future policy discussions.”

You can explore the Virginia Zoning Atlas and learn more at ZoningAtlas.org/Atlas. To begin, click “Explore the NZA,” navigate to “Zoom and Filter” and select “Virginia” from the state drop-down menu.