Manufacturing Industrial (M-1) Zoning08/2022
Manufacturing (M-1)
M-1 District: Established to provide for economic development and job opportunities by accommodating a mix of industrial uses and
industrial-related business uses. Activities in the M-1 district shall have limited traffic and other impacts on uses in other districts through
proper location on major streets, adherence to ordinance performance standards and provision of space and physical buffers as
prescribed. Lands qualifying for inclusion in the M-1 district shall be lands within areas mapped as urban expansion in the Comprehensive
Plan which are served by or planned for connections to public sewer and water or other lands concurrently rezoned and granted a special
use permit for either natural resource extraction or processing in any area of the county. The minimum area required to create a district
shall be five (5) acres of total contiguous land.
What can I do by right in an M-1 district?
There are uses that are designated as "by right" which means you do not have to apply for a special use permit. The uses do, however,
have to comply with all approved plans and permits, development standards, and performance standards included in the Montgomery
County Zoning Ordinance and with all other applicable regulations. The "by right" uses include:
• Amateur radio tower
• Assembly of electrical appliances, electronic
instruments and devices, radios and phonographs,
including the manufacturing of small parts
• Automobile or mobile home assembling, painting,
public garages, upholstering repairing, rebuilding,
reconditioning, truck repairing or overhauling and tire
retreading or recapping
• Cabinets, furniture and upholstery shop
• Civic club
• Contractor service establishment
• Crematorium
• Custom meat cutting, processing and sales
• Data pole
• Daycare center
• Equipment sales and service
• Feed and seed store and mill
• Fire, police, rescue facility
• Fruit processing and storage
• Laboratory
• Laundry, dry cleaning plant
• Manufacture of musical instruments, toys, novelties,
rubber and metal stamps
• Manufacture of pottery and figurines or other similar
ceramic products, see 10-30(4)(p)
•
• Manufacturing, compounding, assembling or treatment
of articles of merchandise from previously prepared
materials, see 10-30(4)(q).
• Manufacturing, compounding, processing, packaging
or treatment of such products as bakery goods, candy,
cosmetics, dairy products, drugs, perfumes,
pharmaceuticals, perfumed toilet soap, toiletries, food
and tobacco products
• Monument stone works
• Park and ride lot, of 50 or fewer spaces
• Public Use/Public Facility
• Public utility lines, water, sewer, or other
• Railroad facility
• Recycling facility
• Retail sales and service incidental to any other
permitted use
• Solar energy system, minor (no more than 50% of
parcel or 1 acre, whichever is less)
• Telecommunications tower, attached
• Truck terminal
• Welding or machine shop
• Wholesale business, storage warehouse
• Wood preserving operation
Accessory structures are also allowed, subject to the requirements of Sec. 10-41 (1).
What uses require a Special Use Permit?
Some uses are allowed in the M-1 district with the permission of the Board of Supervisors through the Special Use Permit process
(applications available from the Planning Dept.). These include:
• Airport
• Amateur radio tower greater than 75 ft.
• Building materials sales yard
• Cement manufacturing, concrete mixing plant, block
plant and production of other concrete and asphaltic
products
• Contractor service establishment with permitted
outdoor storage of equipment and/or materials
• Contractors’ storage yard and/or rental of equipment
commonly used by contractors
• Extractive industries & accessory uses (see 10-
30(4)(e))
• Fertilizer manufacturing
• Junkyards and automobile graveyards provided the use
is not within 300 feet of an existing dwelling
• Kennel, commercial
• Park and ride lot of more than 50 spaces
• Public utility plant, water or other
• Public utility substation
• Refining, processing or distribution of petroleum,
petroleum products, natural gas and other forms of
liquid fuel, aboveground
• Sawmill and plaining mill, coal and wood yard
• Slaughterhouse
• Solar energy system, major (more than 50% of parcel
or greater than 1 acre in project area)
• Storage of bulk petroleum products
• Telecommunications facility, micro wireless
• Telecommunications facility, small cell
• Telecommunications tower, freestanding.
• Travel Center
• Uses listed under 10-30(3) if a manufacturing process
is to take place outside.
• Uses similar to those listed above
08/2022
Building & Lot Requirements
Minimum Lot Area:
Three (3) acres, except for public utility or public water
or sewer installations (in accordance with Subdivision
Ordinance).
Lot Access:
Lots shall be accessed from a road in the VDOT system
or from a hard-surfaced road designed by a professional
engineer to accommodate projected volumes, loads and
vehicle types and approved by the zoning administrator
and the fire marshal. Lot access for M-1 uses shall avoid
impacting residential subdivisions with primary access
and through traffic.
Maximum Building Coverage:
Seventy (70) percent.
Total Impervious Surface:
Eighty-five (85) percent of the gross site area.
Minimum Width:
Seventy-five (75) feet for lots sharing access with
another lot, one hundred fifty (150) feet otherwise.
Minimum Yards:
• Front: Seventy five (75) feet when opposing
street frontage is residential district; thirty five
(35) feet otherwise.
• Side: Thirty five (35) feet when adjacent lot is
residential district; ten (10) feet otherwise.
• Rear: Thirty five (35) feet when adjacent lot is
residential district; ten (10) feet otherwise.
Maximum Building Height:
Fifty (50) feet.
Use Limitations
Screening & Buffering: Notwithstanding other buffer, landscaping, and screening requirements of this chapter, outside
storage areas for materials, heavy equipment or trash must be screened from adjacent streets or from adjacent land not
zoned for industrial use. The purpose of such screening shall be to substantially reduce, but not necessarily eliminate,
public views of outside storage areas. Acceptable screening shall be approved by the zoning administrator.
Off-street parking and loading: Off street parking is permitted in front yard, and shall be provided in accordance with
section 10-44.
Indoor/outdoor operations: All manufacturing operations must take place within a completely enclosed building, unless
permission for outside operations is specifically granted by the Board of Supervisors in a special use permit.
Separation of certain uses: Junkyards and automobile graveyards must be one thousand (1,000) feet from the nearest
edge of the right of way of any interstate or primary highway or five hundred (500) feet from the nearest edge of the right
of way of any other highway or street, unless the facility is screened so as to be not visible from the main traveled way of
the highway or street.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Montgomery County Planning & GIS Services
755 Roanoke Street Suite 2A, Christiansburg, VA 24073
CALL 540-394-2148 | EMAIL mcplan@montgomerycountyva.gov
VISIT www.MontgomeryCountyVA.gov/Planning
A zoning permit and/or site plan may be required to proceed with the uses listed on this data sheet. See section 10-53 of the Montgomery
County Code, or call the Planning Department, to determine the required development approvals.
This sheet is intended to only be a guide for development regulations in this zoning district. Please see Chapter 10 of the Montgomery County
Code for the specific regulations. The full texts of the zoning and subdivision ordinances are available at the Planning Department Webpage or
at www.municode.com.