Current Land Use areas for Essex County, VA.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service Cropland Data Layer was clipped to within 1 mile of Essex County, VA and reclassified into the forest, shrubland, wetlands, agriculture, developed, water, and barren categories. The reason for the one mile buffer is to include tax parcels that spill over the county boundary.The Cropland Data Layer makes use of Landsat imagery from different times of the year to estimate crop or land use for that pixel.

Land use is a type of conservation measure wherein a portion of the county taxes on the property are deferred for as long as the land is maintained in the agreed upon state. If activities that are not permitted occur, then the landowner is responsible for five years' worth of the deferred taxes, as well as any applicable fees.There are 1,387 parcels in land use, but only 1,372 parcels identified in the GIS layer as land use. The remaining 15 are likely the result of tax parcel changes that have not yet been updated in the tax parcel web layer.

View maps of the population in Essex County and within a 50 mile drive of Tappahannock!

Tax map index for Essex County, Virginia.

Please read through this section of Essex County's draft Comprehensive Plan. You can do so in either the interactive StoryMap or through the pdf document. If you would prefer, you can obtain a paper copy from the County Zoning Office. Once you have finished, we would love it if you would give your feedback by writing a letter, emailing the County, or attending a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan to give verbal feedback.

Flood hazard areas identified on the Flood Insurance Rate Map are identified as a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). SFHA are defined as the area that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 1-percent annual chance flood is also referred to as the base flood or 100-year flood. SFHAs are labeled as Zone A, Zone AO, Zone AH, Zones A1-A30, Zone AE, Zone A99, Zone AR, Zone AR/AE, Zone AR/AO, Zone AR/A1-A30, Zone AR/A, Zone V, Zone VE, and Zones V1-V30. Moderate flood hazard areas, labeled Zone B or Zone X (shaded) are also shown on the FIRM, and are the areas between the limits of the base flood and the 0.2-percent-annual-chance (or 500-year) flood. The areas of minimal flood hazard, which are the areas outside the SFHA and higher than the elevation of the 0.2-percent-annual-chance flood, are labeled Zone C or Zone X (unshaded). (https://www.fema.gov/glossary/flood-zones)Data obtained from FEMA Flood Map Service Center, Product ID NFHL_51_20230211 for the full state of Virginia, then cropped to Essex County, VA. The "Latest Study Effective Date" for the data is 02/09/2023. (https://msc.fema.gov/portal/advanceSearch#searchresultsanchor)

The 10 foot contour intervals were created in QGIS from the LiDAR DEM provided by the Virginia Geographic Information Network from Flight Year 2021

These are the 9-1-1 addresses in Essex County, Virginia as of July 1, 2025

Wear sunscreen and carry plenty of waterLet someone know where you will be and when you expect to returnPersonal Floatation Devices should always be worn on the waterDon't paddle alonePlease see the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources Boating Safety and Education pageYou can check the tide schedule through NOAA's Tides and Currents

The Educational Facilities in Essex County, Virginia layer was created by performing a Google Search of "Schools in Essex County, VA", and selecting each result that had a functioning website. The website requirement was a way to verify that they were still in operation. The search was performed on March 1, 2023.

The Boundaries were updated on September 6, 2024 to comply with the Boundary Line Adjustment between Essex and King and Queen Counties ordered by the Circuit Court in Case Number CL24000137-00

Orient yourself to the unincorporated communities of Essex County!

These districts are from the redistricting completed in December 2021

View land cover maps for each year from 2008 to 2023, as well as a graph showing the acreage of each land cover type each year. These land cover maps were created using data from the US Department of Agriculture National Statistics Service Cropland Data Layers (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/index.php).

There are currently seven trails open at the Rotary Poor House Park! As you scroll down, you will get a close-up view, as well as a description of each trail. Additionally, you can download the pdf of the trail map and the descriptions below the interactive map tour.Each trail has been given a difficulty rating, which is explained in the table below.The trail hours are Monday through Saturday, from 7am to 4:45pm.

Download the elevation certificate (everyone will need this)

Police Stations in Essex County, Virginia.

View the locations and rules for the areas of the county that are zoned either Business, Light Industrial, or Industrial

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) wetlands layer for Virginia (obtained from https://www.fws.gov/node/264847 on April 27, 2023) was clipped to a 200 foot buffer around Essex County, Virginia. Then, a 100 foot buffer was created around those wetlands within 200 feet of Essex County. Then, that 100 foot buffer around the wetlands was clipped to the boundaries of Essex County. Because the NWI water line for the Rappahannock River was set back from the land, according to visual inspection of the imagery, the Mean High Water (MHW) for 2020 was obtained from the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, Open Data Portal (https://crmp-vdcr.hub.arcgis.com/content/2245e46c13c54b089786cef25ea14263/about). The data file covered the entire Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay tributary system, so the data was clipped to the 200 foot buffer around Essex County. Then, a 100 foot buffer from the MHW line was created, and then merged with the wetlands buffer. The resulting combined buffer was then clipped to a 200 foot buffer of the Census cartographic boundary of Essex County, so that the whole Rappahannock would not be marked as an RPA. This is the Resource Protection Area, following the guidance from https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title9/agency25/chapter830/section80/.