Driveways, parking pads and walks may sit in a required yard
Section 4.6 of the Town of Rural Retreat's zoning ordinance, in the file the town posts titled revised 2014 and read on September 27, 2026, says "Required yard areas may be occupied by driveways, loading, parking and sidewalks unless otherwise specified in this ordinance." Under that section a concrete drive, a parking pad or a walk may sit in the part of a lot a district regulation keeps "open from the ground to the sky", where a garage or shed may not. The drive still needs the town's zoning permit, since the town's guidelines name driveways among what it covers, and our Wythe County permit guide has that desk.
Section 4.17 calls for off-street parking when a principal building is erected or enlarged, two spaces for each dwelling unit outside elderly housing, on the dwelling's own lot. Under a heading for parking lots, section 4.17-1 sets a parking space at a minimum of 9 by 20 feet and says parking space "shall be served by a driveway with a minimum width of twenty (20) feet". Ask the Zoning Administrator whether that width reaches a single house's drive before the forms are set, since width drives the yardage.
A lot with parking for more than four cars carries more: section 4.17-2 wants the parking area and its access surfaced with crushed rock, gravel, asphalt or concrete and "drained in such a manner that the adjoining property does not receive storm water therefrom", applies the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation design standards for access driveways, and caps a driveway or curb cut at 25 feet. On concrete, that drainage clause is settled by the fall set in the forms. Base, joints and mix are on our concrete driveways page.
Detached garage, shop and shed slabs stay out of the required yards
A detached garage, shop or shed serving a house is read against the ordinance's accessory rules. Section 4.7 says an accessory building "cannot be established unless a principal use exists on the property", and that no accessory building "may be erected in any required yard, or within five (5) feet of any other building except as provided in the district regulations." The slab under one goes where the building may stand.
In R-1, section 3.2-6 puts the side and rear yard for an accessory structure at 12 feet. In R-2, section 3.3-6 sets the accessory side yard at a minimum of 10 feet and says the accessory structure "may be located within ten (10) feet of the rear lot line". On a corner lot the side yard is 40 feet in R-1 and 30 feet in R-2, from the nearest street right-of-way, for main and accessory structures alike. In A-C, section 3.1-6 gives an accessory structure a 10 foot side and rear yard in one item and a 35 foot rear yard "for both main and accessory structures" in the item before it.
Those are the ordinance's figures by district, not a distance for any one lot. The district comes off the Official Zoning Map, which section 2.3 makes "the final authority as to the current zoning status", and the R-2 rear-line wording and the A-C rear figure are the Zoning Administrator's to read. Our answer on how close concrete can go to a property line routes setbacks the same way.
Two measurements move the slab. The town's application measures a setback from the overhang, eaves and gable included, so a garage slab sits the width of the overhang farther from the line than the setback figure. Lot coverage, capped at 30 percent in A-C, 35 percent in R-1 and 45 percent in R-2, counts what a building covers "when viewed directly from above", roof included. For thickness and the base under the floor, see garage and shop slabs.
Fence footings, poured walls, sidewalks and the corner lot
Section 4.5 says "Fences, walls and hedges may be permitted in any required yard or along the edge of any yard except as prohibited in Article 4.4", and caps them at 6 feet. Section 4.4, the corner rule, says that on a corner lot in any district "nothing shall be erected, placed, planted" so as to block vision between 2.5 and 10 feet of height within 20 feet of the intersecting streets. A flat slab sits under that band; a poured wall or a fence on concrete footings can rise into it, so check the line against the corner first. We place the locate request for the digging we do.
Two of the ordinance's sidewalk lines reach a pour. Where a sidewalk exists and the property line is questioned, section 7.69 treats "the edge of the sidewalk farthest from the traveled street" as the street line, the line a street setback runs from. In the Commercial General district, section 3.5-9 says "Sidewalks shall be required to be constructed to equal the existing width along a property frontage with no less than five (5) feet if non-existent." We found no trigger written into that section, so ask the Zoning Administrator before a C-G site's commercial flatwork is laid out.
The site plan the town asks for, and the check after the pour
The town's guidelines ask for a site plan to the Town Manager showing the property's dimensions, the size and placement of the structure with any porches or decks, the "distances from all sides of the structure to the appropriate property lines", and any other structures on the lot. The ordinance itself, in section 5.2-5, asks for three copies of a plan drawn to scale, and section 5.2-6 lets the administrator accept an owner prepared sketch for single-family construction. Those distances are the numbers a crew sets forms to, so the plan and the slab should agree.
Once the Zoning Administrator finds a plan conforms, section 5.2-5 has the permit issue with one copy going "to the Building Inspector for his/her files"; which building office that is inside town is a question for the town office. For new construction, section 5.2-4 has the finished premises inspected and certified "to be in conformity with the plans and specifications upon which the zoning permit were based", with a Certificate of Zoning Compliance issued within five working days after completion. A slab that grows or moves on site no longer matches that plan, so the change goes to the town office before the pour.
Farm ground inside the town line and just past it
Where the Official Zoning Map puts land in the A-C district, section 3.1-4 sets the setback line for "livestock barns, sheds or feeding areas" at 200 feet from the adjacent property line if the A-C boundary adjoins a residential district. Section 4.2-1 asks for at least 5 acres of open acreage for horses, cattle and the other animals it lists, with their housing at least 200 feet from adjoining houses. A feed pad or barn floor inside the line gets sited against those lines before anyone stakes it.
Past the line the town's ordinance stops, since section 1.4 applies it to "all land within the corporate limits of the Town of Rural Retreat", and a barn floor out there is on Wythe County's desk. The county's Engineering page on its agricultural exemption, in its October 2025 version, says the exemption "specifically is for disturbance of land or excavating of land" and, where topsoil comes off for a farm structure, to "Contact the County Building Official for an exemption for the structure." On a barn pad that strips topsoil, that call comes first, and the state exemption has its own answer on whether farm buildings are exempt from permits.
When the trailer line pump comes along on a Rural Retreat pour
A pump earns its place on a foundation, on a pour of about 8 cubic yards or more, or where access is tight. A 24 by 24 foot garage floor poured 5 inches thick is 24 x 24 x 5/12, divided by 27, or about 8.9 cubic yards before the roughly 10 percent ordered over for waste, so that floor already clears the mark.
In town, tight access can mean a garage behind the house where a mixer cannot reach the forms; past the town line, a barn floor off the lane or across ground too soft for a loaded truck. Bowman Griffin owns a trailer-mounted line pump on 2.5 inch and 3 inch line, run by an operator and a hose hand. Plenty of crews bring in a pump for the jobs that need one; we own ours and do the pumping for you.
Cold-weather planning is in our guide to pouring concrete in winter in Virginia, and our page on concrete pumping walks through the pump. For a price, call 276-733-3750 or start a free written estimate with the address and the rough size.