Road frontage
Road frontage is the length of a lot's boundary along the street or road it abuts. Carroll County's subdivision ordinance measures it at the front setback line, a parcel's own figure comes from its recorded plat, and county permit forms and division rules ask for that number.
One county measures at the setback line, another names the side on the street
Two county ordinances in this footprint define the same word, and they do not put the tape in the same place.
FRONTAGE - The length of the property line of any lot, lots or tract of land Measured at the front setback line along a street, road or highway against which land abuts.
Carroll County Subdivision of Land ordinance (county-hosted copy with April 14, 2014 amendments)
Frontage: The side of a lot that abuts a street; the front lot line.
Pulaski County Unified Development Ordinance (amended July 27, 2025)
Pulaski's version names a side of the lot. Carroll's version names a length, and it says where that length is taken: at the front setback line, not at the edge of the road. The setback is the distance a building has to stay back from a line, so Carroll's frontage is read back from the road, along the line a building has to stay behind.
On a rectangle the two readings give the same number. On an irregular lot they may not. A lot that fans out as it runs back from the road measures wider at the setback line than along its front lot line, and a lot that pinches in behind a wide opening measures narrower. Two figures for the same parcel can both be honest and still differ, because they were taken on different lines.
The road side has a broad meaning too. In the planning chapter of the Code of Virginia, "street" means "highway, street, avenue, boulevard, road, lane, alley, or any public way." Carroll's own definition names a street, road or highway, so its frontage is not limited to roads anyone would call a street.
A recorded plat supplies the number, and a permit form asks for it
Frontage is rarely argued about in the abstract. It turns up as a blank on a form that someone has to fill in.
Grayson County's zoning permit application (Form 0100, revised October 25, 2024) asks, for a primary structure, whether the parcel has "At least 30 feet of road frontage on a state road?" or a 30-foot-wide legal access to a state road, or some other access. It then asks for the distance in linear feet of the state road frontage, or the legal width of the right-of-way that reaches the property.
Carroll County's subdivision ordinance, as the county's posted copy reads, uses frontage in a different way. A Class A subdivision has to be served by state maintained public roads, and the ordinance treats property as served by a state road if it meets that road at a point where a driveway could be built. Touching the road is part of the test; where along the frontage the driveway could go is the rest of it.
Whether the road is in the state system or privately kept changes what a given length of frontage allows, and that comparison is the whole subject of whether frontage on a state road matters more than a private road. Road frontage is also one of the land facts printed on each card among the current Bowman listings.
Some minimums change with the kind of division, and some lots need none
A frontage minimum belongs to a particular ordinance and a particular kind of division, and some lots need none.
Floyd County's Land Division Ordinance shows how far the number can move inside one division type: in a Large Lot Division the figure differs for a lot that fronts a road, one that abuts a cul-de-sac and one reached only by a right-of-way. Pulaski's ordinance ties frontage to the flag lot shape instead, and the pole widths, lengths and count limits ordinances add are set out under what a flag lot is and when one can be created.
The full set of rules that tie frontage to entrances, to access and to dividing land, county by county, is laid out in road frontage explained. This entry holds to the word and where its number is measured.
Not sure what the frontage figure on your parcel really measures?
Send the address or tax map number with any plat, and the reply will cover what the frontage figure measures and what the county will ask about it. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Is frontage measured along the pavement or along the property line?
Along the property line. Carroll County's subdivision ordinance measures the length of a lot's property line at the front setback line along the road it abuts, so the edge of the pavement is not the measuring line. The recorded plat carries the figure, and a surveyor locates the line on the ground.
Does a lot at the end of a cul-de-sac need less frontage?
In a Floyd County Large Lot Division it does: a lot abutting a cul-de-sac needs at least 30 feet of frontage, against 100 feet for a lot fronting a public road or an approved private division road. That figure is Floyd's; other localities set their own in their own ordinances.
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.
- Subdivision of Land ordinance, county-hosted copy with April 14, 2014 amendments (PDF) Carroll County
- Unified Development Ordinance, July 2025 (PDF) Pulaski County
- Va. Code 15.2-2201: definitions for the planning chapter Code of Virginia
- Zoning Permit Application, Form 0100, revised 10-25-2024 (PDF) Grayson County
- Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 (PDF) Floyd County