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Suffolk City Council voted unanimously on June 18 to approve a zoning text amendment that brings the city’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) into compliance with new state-mandated timelines for reviewing subdivision plats and site plans.

The change, introduced as Ordinance Text Amendment (OTA) 2025-005, updates Section 31-506(D) of the UDO, which governs the city’s administrative review process for preliminary plats, construction plans and final subdivision plats. The amendment removes the city’s existing tables and language that previously set its own review timeframes and instead incorporates the deadlines now required under the Code of Virginia.

Planning and Community Development Director Kevin Wyne told the council during the June 4 work session, the new law will heavily impact how applications are processed internally.

“We’re going to have to be much more diligent on the front end,” Wyne said.

Historically, Suffolk has followed a 30-day internal policy for reviewing plans, providing applicants with city comments within that window and allowing the process to continue until plans are fully approved. HB2660 changes that model by mandating that cities must:

• Complete the first round of plan review within 40 days (reduced from 60).

• Respond within 30 days on second submissions, and

• Return final comments within 14 days on third submissions.

Wyne said that the new timeframes make the front-end intake process more important. Wyne explained the law limits reviewers to only citing deficiencies previously identified in earlier rounds. If a new issue is discovered later in the process, the city cannot bring it up without risking noncompliance with the law.

 

Councilman John Rector expressed strong concerns about the implications of the state’s mandate.

“I think this is a classic example of the state trying to put a one-size-fits-all approach on this process,” Rector said. “I don’t believe, based on my 16 years on the planning commission, that the City of Suffolk in their plan review process is in any way responsible for this reaction from the state … ”

Despite his reservations, Rector ultimately joined the 8-0 vote in favor of the amendment, acknowledging that the city had little choice but to comply with the new state law by the July 1 deadline.

“I just don’t simply agree with [it], but like I said, it is state law,” Rector said. “We’re going to have to agree with it. I think probably in a couple of years, we’re going to probably see a revision to this legislation from the state, and they’re going to go back to a more reasonable time frame for allowing for plan approval.”

Mayor Michael Duman agreed with Rector, saying he did not feel “there was a lot of forethought put into this requirement”.

“I think someone had the idea that they could expedite plan approval by shortening this process,” Duman said. “But what they may not have considered is that once a plan is submitted and comments are provided, there’s really only enough time to go through that process once. The applications that come in are going to have to be a lot more accurate from the outset, because, as the expression goes, they’re only going to get one bite at the apple. In the long run, I think it’s going to blow up somewhere along the line. But just like you [Rector] said, the state, in their infinite wisdom, has decided this is how it’s supposed to be, so we have no choice but to deal with it.”

With council’s vote, the updated ordinance now takes effect, aligning Suffolk’s development review process with current state law and ensuring legal compliance going forward.