Floyd VA real estatea zoned town inside an unzoned county
The Town of Floyd is a rectangle holding 0.456 square miles of land by the Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer, set where Virginia Route 8 crosses U.S. Route 221 in the central portion of Floyd County. Inside that line the Town zones its land, so a lot here is read district by district.
Where the Census Bureau places the Town of Floyd
The Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer gives Floyd town an internal point at latitude 36.91216 and longitude -80.318117, and that point is what this map marks. A pin cannot show the rectangle or the districts inside it; those are drawn on the Official Zoning Map kept in the Town Offices.
Floyd, Virginia: 36.9122 N, 80.3181 W. Open this spot on OpenStreetMap.
Map tiles by Esri with OpenStreetMap data. Pins mark the town, not a parcel; ask Lowell for a parcel map.
A rectangle of 0.456 square miles
The Town of Floyd's boundary has a distinct rectangular shape, the Town's 2012 comprehensive plan says, and the Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer measures the land inside it at 0.456 square miles, with another 0.001 square miles of water.
Older figures run larger: the Town's 2012 plan and the county's comprehensive plan both give about 0.6 square mile, which the county plan puts at about 384 acres. This page uses the Census measurement.
USGS lists Floyd as a populated place in Floyd County, and the Town is the county seat, in the central portion of the county. For Floyd VA real estate the line matters more than the name: Floyd County around the Town has no zoning, while every lot inside the rectangle sits in a Town zoning district.
Locust Street, Main Street and the crossing downtown
The Town of Floyd's through roads are two highways: Virginia Route 8, which the county plan names Locust Street in town, and U.S. Route 221, which it names Main Street, meeting in the downtown area.
Beyond those two, the Town's 2012 plan says, the road network in town consists of residential streets and alleys. The same 2012 plan calls that downtown crossing the only intersection in the county with a traffic light, a point also carried where the seven jurisdictions Bowman Real Estate works in are compared.
The whole Town inside the PSA service area, by the 2012 plan
Public water and sewer in the Town of Floyd come from the Floyd-Floyd County Public Service Authority, not from the Town, and the Town's 2012 comprehensive plan says all areas of the Town are inside the PSA service area and able to connect.
Its drinking water, by the PSA's own report for calendar year 2024, is groundwater from five wells located in the Courthouse District, and the county's comprehensive plan says the PSA operates the wastewater treatment plant on Dodd Creek serving the Town and surrounding county. The PSA office is at 169 PSA Road, P.O. Box 407, Floyd, VA 24091, 540-745-2169, and the 2021 hearing on monthly water and sewer rates, though noticed on the Town's site, was on an adjustment the PSA proposed.
Being inside the service area is not the same as a main along a given frontage. What the listing phrase public water and sewer available leaves open for one lot, the PSA answers.
The county's lot-size ladder keyed to public water and sewer stops at this line: Floyd County's Land Division Ordinance applies to all property in the county excluding the incorporated boundaries of the Town of Floyd. How the county side works is answered under does Floyd County have zoning; inside the Town, the districts below set the minimums.
Eleven districts in the 2020 text, two sections held in reserve
The Town of Floyd Zoning Ordinance, in its posted 2020 text, divides the Town into eleven active zoning districts plus two sections printed as "Reserved", and the Official Zoning Map in the Zoning Administrator's office is the final authority on which district a piece of land is in.
| District | Purpose or status in the ordinance | Minimum lot area as printed |
|---|---|---|
| AR-1 Agricultural/Residential | Agriculture, conservation, single-family dwellings on large lots; one principal dwelling per lot of record, a single-family dwelling or a manufactured home | 14,520 sq. ft., with 100 ft. of road frontage |
| R-1 Residential Limited | Low density single-family detached houses | 10,890 sq. ft or 0.25 acre, with 100 ft. of public road frontage |
| R-2 Residential | Low or medium density: single-family, two-family, triplex, quadruplex, townhouse | 8,712 square feet (0.21 acre) for a single-family lot |
| R-3 Medium Density Residential | A variety of residential development, including multi-family dwellings | 6,500 square feet for a single-family lot |
| R-4 Manufactured Home | Manufactured homes and manufactured home subdivisions | 6,900 sq. ft |
| R4-MHP Manufactured Home Park | Applied to a property through the zoning amendment process | Not quoted here; ask the Zoning Administrator |
| R-5 Planned Development | A floating zone authorized for future use and not mapped on the zoning map | Considered only if conditions are met, including 2 acres |
| B-1 Central Business | Downtown, the traditional commercial center: retail, services, banks, restaurants | 6,000 sq. ft., with 50 ft. of public road frontage |
| B-2 General Business | Medium-intensity commercial uses without constant heavy trucking | Not quoted here; ask the Zoning Administrator |
| B-3 Planned Business | Innovative and creative designs for a variety of commercial uses where there is adequate infrastructure | Considered only if conditions are met, including an area of 2 acres |
| I-1 Industrial | Wholesale, warehouse, industrial and heavy commercial activities | 10,000 Square feet, with 100 feet of public road frontage |
| FH-1 Flood Hazard | Printed as "Reserved" | None printed |
| H-1 Town of Floyd Historic District | Printed as "Reserved" | None printed |
The minimum areas printed in the last column are measured in square feet, from 6,000 in B-1 to 14,520 in AR-1, while the two planned districts, R-5 and B-3, may be considered for a tract only if it meets conditions that include a 2-acre area.
Those planned districts carry more conditions than a table holds. For R-5 they include a gross residential density not exceeding an average of 10.5 dwelling units per acre and a location where public water and sewer systems are available or community systems can be developed as part of the project; for B-3, the same utilities test, stormwater management and all utilities below ground. Each section lists more than these.
Housing is not confined to the residential districts: B-1 and B-2 list single-family and two-family dwellings on a lot of record, upper-story dwellings over ground-floor commercial space, and live/work units among their permitted uses.
Manufactured homes have a passage of their own. General requirements printed in the R-4 section, and repeated in the R4-MHP section, say any manufactured home placed in the Town after the ordinance's enactment or amendment "shall be supplied with public water and wastewater disposal." Whether that passage reaches a manufactured home on an AR-1 lot is the Zoning Administrator's reading. The county's separate rules for putting a manufactured home on land outside the Town are a different set of ordinances.
What a Town zoning permit waits on
A zoning permit for a permitted use in the Town of Floyd is issued by the Zoning Administrator when the application and site plan conform to the zoning ordinance and to the Town's other codes and regulations.
Article 12 of the ordinance names some of those other codes and approvals, in a list it introduces as not limited to the items named:
- The Virginia Statewide Uniform Building Code
- Health Department approval
- Virginia Department of Transportation approval
- The floodplain ordinance
- The erosion and sediment control ordinance plan
- The Superintendent of the Public Service Authority
A conditional use takes a longer path. In the eight districts whose sections carry a conditional-use list, AR-1, R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, B-1, B-2 and I-1, the listed uses "may be permitted with appropriate conditions after review by the Planning Commission and approval of the Floyd Town Council" under Article 12.
Dividing a lot has its own paper: the ordinance defines a plat as a drawing reviewed and approved by the Town Council, the Public Service Authority and the Virginia Department of Transportation. The Town office is at 203 East Oxford Street, Floyd, VA 24091. Why a use question arises inside the town line and not outside it is the subject of zoning versus no zoning.
A town set on a drainage divide
The Town of Floyd sits on top of a drainage divide, its 2012 comprehensive plan says, a position that minimizes flooding and erosion problems to some extent.
Portions of Old Field Creek and a fork of Dodd Creek lie in the Town, by the same plan. Around it, the county plan says the county sits atop the Blue Ridge Plateau, and the Town's plan places the Floyd area in the Blue Ridge Uplands. The 2012 plan gives the Town's elevation as 2,496 feet above sea level, one published number for the town and not a reading for any lot in it.
Buffalo Mountain, a Floyd County summit inside a natural area preserve that DCR owns, rises above that upland, and its figures sit with the county band on the page about Floyd County's elevation.
Current listings
Status and price come from the SW VA Association of REALTORS MLS record at every build; a listing that leaves the market leaves this page the same day.
No active Bowman Real Estate listings in Floyd right now. Lowell knows what is about to come on the market here; ask him, or see every current listing.
A lot inside the Town of Floyd, read district by district
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Good questions, straight answers.
Does a lot inside the Town of Floyd follow the county's Land Division Ordinance?
No. Floyd County's Land Division Ordinance applies to all property in the county excluding the incorporated boundaries of the Town of Floyd. Inside the Town, the zoning district on the Official Zoning Map sets the minimum lot area, and the posted 2020 text prints minimum areas such as 6,000 square feet in B-1 and 14,520 square feet in AR-1.
Must a manufactured home placed in the Town of Floyd have public water and sewer?
Yes, in the ordinance's words: general requirements printed in the R-4 and R4-MHP sections of the 2020 Town of Floyd Zoning Ordinance say any manufactured home placed in the Town after enactment or amendment shall be supplied with public water and wastewater disposal. Whether that passage governs a manufactured home in another district, such as AR-1, is the Town Zoning Administrator's reading.
Who runs the water and sewer a Town of Floyd lot connects to?
The Floyd-Floyd County Public Service Authority, not the Town. The Town's 2012 comprehensive plan says all areas of the Town are inside the PSA service area, and the PSA issues its own annual drinking water report. The PSA office is at 169 PSA Road, Floyd, VA 24091, 540-745-2169.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Zoning Ordinance, final 2020 text (districts, lot minimums, manufactured home requirements, Article 12 permits) Town of Floyd
- Comprehensive Plan, adopted July 19, 2012 (boundary, highways, PSA service area, creeks, elevation) Town of Floyd
- Comprehensive plan page (adoption date) Town of Floyd
- Town office contact, 203 East Oxford Street Town of Floyd
- Public hearing notice, proposed PSA water and sewer rates, 2021 Town of Floyd
- Comprehensive Plan (town area, Locust and Main streets, PSA treatment plant, historic district) Floyd County, Virginia
- Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 (excludes the Town of Floyd) Floyd County, Virginia
- Office address and phone Floyd-Floyd County Public Service Authority
- Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, calendar year 2024 Floyd-Floyd County Public Service Authority
- 2023 Gazetteer, Virginia places (Floyd town land area and internal point) U.S. Census Bureau
- Geographic Names Information System, Floyd, Virginia U.S. Geological Survey
- Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation