Custom homes and additions in Purcellville, Virginia
Purcellville sits in the Loudoun Valley, about nine miles west of Leesburg, with the Blue Ridge in view from much of town. It was incorporated as a town in 1908. For a custom home builder, the setting offers room for a new house on its own land, a garage with a workshop, a porch that faces the mountains.
Blackline Builders is based in Manassas. For Purcellville properties, our work covers custom and modern farmhouse homes, additions, garages and the concrete that ties them to the ground. The first question on every project is simple: is the property inside town limits or outside them?
Building in Purcellville
Town zoning, then county building. Inside town limits, the Town of Purcellville issues a zoning permit, and Loudoun County will not issue the building permit until it has. The town lists the projects that need its zoning permit: home additions, home alterations, finished basements, decks, fences and accessory structures such as sheds. Every building permit in the town still comes from the county.
What the Board of Architectural Review covers. Purcellville's board reviews new construction, additions and repainting on non-residential properties, and the town describes its review as covering projects other than single-family homes. Its one role that can touch a house: it must approve the demolition or relocation of any historic structure in the Historic Corridor Overlay District, which takes in properties next to Main, 21st, 23rd and 32nd Streets and the Berlin Turnpike.
An honorary listing. The Purcellville Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The town is clear that the listing is honorary and places no regulation on what owners do with their property.
The town's own environmental rules. Purcellville's zoning ordinance carries its own provisions for scenic creek buffers, floodplains and steep slopes. A lot beside one of the town's creeks should have those checked before a footprint is drawn.
Just past the town line. Outside town limits, zoning moves to Loudoun County. The county maps sensitive soils, including shrink-swell, limestone-derived and mountainside soils, and enforces extra standards for land disturbance in them. Around Purcellville, the county's comprehensive plan sets a joint land management area, planned with the town and expected eventually to be served by town water and sewer. Farther out lies the county's rural policy area, and a lot served by its own well and septic system needs the Health Department's approval before permit applications.
Where the driveway meets the road. The town maintains its own streets, while VDOT maintains most roads in the county around it. Work where a driveway meets the street therefore starts with the right owner: the town, or VDOT, whose right of way cannot be worked in without a land use permit.
What we build in Purcellville
- Custom homes inside town under Purcellville zoning, or on county land nearby, with footings designed for what the soil can carry.
- Modern farmhouse homes, a style at ease in the valley: gabled volumes, vertical board-and-batten, metal roofs and wide porches.
- Garages, attached or detached. A detached garage or workshop needs a town zoning permit, and the town's permit table adds a county building permit once it exceeds 256 square feet.
- Additions and finished basements, both on the town's zoning permit list.
- Covered porches and pavilions for views toward the Blue Ridge.
- Concrete driveways, with the entrance permit coming from whichever body maintains the road.
How a Purcellville project comes together
We begin with the property's place on the map: inside town, in the joint land management area, or out in the rural county. That answer sets the zoning path, and it can change the utilities, the setbacks and the soils work that follow. Then we walk the land, study views and sun, and shape a house or addition to suit them. A price follows once the land has been walked. The town zoning application and the county building permit set come from the same drawings.
Questions about Purcellville properties
No. The town describes the board's review as covering projects other than single-family homes, chiefly new construction and alterations on non-residential properties. Its one responsibility that can involve a house is approving the demolition or relocation of a historic structure in the Historic Corridor Overlay District, along Main, 21st, 23rd and 32nd Streets and the Berlin Turnpike.
Every building permit in the town is issued by Loudoun County's Department of Building and Development. Before it will, the Town of Purcellville must issue its zoning permit for the project. Outside town limits, the county handles zoning as well.
Not by itself. The town describes the Purcellville Historic District's listing as honorary, with no regulation of what owners do with their property. Town zoning still applies, and the Historic Corridor Overlay still governs demolition or relocation of historic structures.
Zoning moves from the town to Loudoun County, and the county's sensitive-soils standards can come into play. Land in the joint land management area is expected eventually to be served by town water and sewer, while more rural lots may use a well and septic system, which brings in the Health Department before permits.
Book a free on-site estimate for your Purcellville property, or call 571-200-3100.
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