Potomac Hills is not zoned uniformly — the eastern side near Kirby Road is R-2 and the western side is R-3, so two similar-looking lots can permit different things.
Most McLean neighborhoods sit in a single zoning district. Potomac Hills does not. A seam runs through it: R-2 on the eastern side near Kirby Road, R-3 on the western side. In Fairfax County's ordinance R-2 means two dwelling units per acre and R-3 means three, so the district a lot falls in helps set the arithmetic of any addition or rebuild. The neighborhood counts more than 400 homes according to the Potomac Hills association site (potomachills.net) as of August 2026, entered from Loch Raven, Kellogg and Mori Drives on the eastern side of McLean.
Two houses that look like siblings from the street can sit in different districts here, and the district travels with the parcel, not with the neighborhood name. That governs what a lot could hold and what a lot next door could hold — relevant whether you plan to build or simply want to know what could go up beside you. Setbacks, maximum height, lot coverage and tree preservation requirements do the rest of the work; the footprint of the existing house does not entitle you to rebuild the same footprint. Pull the zoning for the specific parcel from Fairfax County rather than inferring it from the block.
Potomac Hills is not one recording. Sections 1 and 6 sit alongside the Reynolds Potomac Hills 1st, 3rd and 4th Additions, and pieces platted at different times can carry different lot dimensions and different covenant language, or none at all. When a listing says Potomac Hills, that is a neighborhood name covering several recorded subdivisions. Have the title company identify which section or addition the parcel actually belongs to, and read the covenants recorded against that one — they are what run with the land.
The whole neighborhood lies in the Pimmit Run watershed, and Resource Protection Areas are mapped inside its boundaries. Fairfax County's Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance sets a 100-foot buffer along perennial streams and connected wetlands that is meant to stay undisturbed: no clear-cutting, no removing vegetation to create lawn, and prior approval from Land Development Services for land disturbance, with an exception route through the county's Exception Review Committee that can require a water quality impact assessment. As of August 2026, check an address in the county's Watersheds and Resource Protection Areas viewer before planning anything in the back yard — a deck, a pool, a shed or a fence.
As of August 2026, Potomac Hills addresses are served by Chesterbrook Elementary, Longfellow Middle and McLean High School — the same pyramid as neighboring Franklin Park on this side of McLean. Because the Fairfax County School Board has revised McLean-area boundaries as recently as February 4, 2021, confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the FCPS boundary locator.
Potomac Hills sits within McLean — that guide covers the zoning, permitting and site constraints that apply across the wider area.
Artur can confirm what applies to a specific address here — lot, zoning, association documents and school assignment — before you write an offer.
