BILLY SHIELDS: Just off of Old Hundred Road lies an anomaly in Chesterfield County, Chester Village.

It's one of a few mixed use developments there.

It has businesses, restaurants and residential units.

But building it required a patchwork of zoning exceptions and variances.

The county is embarking on a widespread zoning modification to change that.

RACHEL CHIEPPA: Should be a document that is always evolving and changing.

If things aren't working, we should be fixing it.

And we've band-aided things and tweaked things over the years.

BILLY SHIELDS: It's called ZoMOD.

It's five years in the making.

It's an effort to revamp the county's antiquated zoning rules, and residents are giving their input.

EDVA KASHI: I would love to see more public transit in the county, especially where we live on the Route 10 corridor.

And so something that I'm thinking about is how will the new zoning allow for transit, allow for bus stops, things like that.

DOUG PEEL: When it gets down to particular zoning cases and when land is going to get a different classification, I think thats when a lot of people, myself included, get concerned about what you're next to.

You know, it's not that you don't want anything, but you want something of good quality.

BILLY SHIELDS: County officials point out the updated rules would keep new developments consistent with their environs.

THOMAS FITZPATRICK: Thank you all for joining us today.

BILLY SHIELDS: Meanwhile, HOME of VA, a fair housing advocacy group, is largely happy with the proposed zoning changes, with some reservations.

THOMAS FITZPATRICK: We do think that, as they think about land use and think about apartments that they can allow for more three bedroom, four bedroom apartments.

BILLY SHIELDS: Officials like Chieppa point out there are provisions to encourage affordable housing in the new plan.

HOME RVA says it's a needed step.

LAURA DOBBS: Are they going to lay down the welcome mat, or are they going to close the gates and say, ‘sorry if you didn't move here in 1970 with your single family home, and no one else could live here.

BILLY SHIELDS: The new proposal could streamline things.

Laura Dobbs says she remembers advocating for a first generation American family who just wanted to do business by a residential neighborhood and operate an ice cream truck in a parking lot.

LAURA DOBBS: Sorry, it's just not lawful under our current zoning to even grant you a conditional use permit to operate your ice cream business here, because its within 1,000 feet of a residential neighborhood.

So what that means for the families living in the neighborhood is they simply can't walk around the corner to go buy some ice cream.

BILLY SHIELDS: If Chesterfield Village is a sort of a model for the new comprehensive plan, there is good news.

>> Thanks you.

It does have a place where a family can buy ice cream.

Billy Shields, VPM News.