Withams

Accomack County does NOT maintain a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance with codified definitional and dimensional standards specific to ADUs. ADU-style use cases in Accomack County are governed indirectly through the Zoning Ordinance's treatment of 'accessory use,' 'accessory structure,' 'family dwelling' (the ordinance's term for a limited second-dwelling allowance tied to family-member or farm-labor occupancy), and 'tourist home' / 'short-term rental' provisions in combination with the per-district use schedules. In the Agricultural (A) district that covers most county acreage, a 'farm-labor housing unit' or 'family-member dwelling' is typically permitted subject to minimum lot area, demonstrated bona fide agricultural use, and Zoning Administrator approval; a fully independent second dwelling for general (non-family, non-farm-labor) occupancy typically requires a Special Use Permit from the Board of Supervisors after Planning Commission recommendation. In the Rural Village (RV) and Residential (R) districts, the ordinance allows accessory structures (including detached garages with above-garage living quarters, traditional 'guest cottages' without independent kitchen facilities, etc.) by-right subject to setback, height, and lot-coverage standards; an independent second dwelling on the same parcel in those districts generally requires an SUP. The Town of Chincoteague administers a separately-adopted town ordinance with its own ADU / short-term-rental provisions, and several other small incorporated towns within Accomack County administer their own independent zoning. Applicants must confirm jurisdiction (county vs. town) as the first step in any ADU pro forma — the county's ordinance does not reach into incorporated-town limits, and Chincoteague in particular operates a materially different regulatory regime tied to the island's vacation-rental economy.

Accomack County administers several overlay regimes that bear materially on ADU projects. The dominant constraints, in approximate order of how often they bind on a typical project, are: (1) a Floodplain Overlay District tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, covering a very large share of county parcels because the entire county is a low-elevation peninsula (maximum elevation roughly 50 feet, median parcel elevation in the 15-30 foot range) with the Chesapeake Bay on the west, the Atlantic barrier-island chain and Chincoteague Bay on the east, and a dense network of internal tidal creeks; (2) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act jurisdiction county-wide (Accomack is a Tidewater locality designated under Va. Code § 62.1-44.15:67 et seq.) with Resource Protection Area buffers of 100 feet from perennial water bodies and tidal wetlands and Resource Management Area coverage on essentially all remaining landward extent; (3) Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) tidal-wetlands, subaqueous-bottom, and coastal-primary-sand-dunes jurisdiction reaching any project touching tidal waters, wetlands, dunes, or beaches; (4) the Wallops Research Park Overlay and the associated FAA Part 77 imaginary-surface envelope of NASA Wallops Flight Facility / Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch pads — a uniquely Accomack-County constraint not present in any other Virginia county, imposing height limits and launch-corridor coordination obligations on parcels within the overlay; (5) Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the Virginia portion of Assateague Island National Seashore (federal land outside county jurisdiction; only relevant insofar as boundary surveys and federal-nexus reviews touch adjacent fee-simple parcels); (6) Airport Approach Overlay around the Accomack County Airport at Melfa and around the Tangier Island Airport; (7) Town-administered historic and zoning overlays inside the incorporated towns — the Town of Accomac Historic District, the Onancock Historic District, the Chincoteague Historic District, and several smaller town overlays — administered by those towns rather than by the county. Like Northampton County, Accomack has NO California-style coastal commission (Virginia has no coastal-commission analog), NO CalFire-equivalent WUI overlay (Virginia has no statewide WUI overlay), and NO seismic-retrofit overlay. The combination of pervasive floodplain, pervasive CBPA, frequent VMRC review, and the launch-corridor overlay makes Accomack arguably the single most overlay-distinct county in the Commonwealth.

• Floodplain Overlay District
• Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) Resource Protection Area and Resource Management Area
• Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) tidal-wetlands, subaqueous-bottom, and coastal-primary-sand-dune jurisdiction
• Wallops Research Park Overlay and NASA Wallops / Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch-corridor coordination
• Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and Assateague Island National Seashore (Virginia portion)
• Airport Approach Overlay (Accomack County Airport at Melfa; Tangier Island Airport; Wallops Research Park Airport — overlapping with the Wallops Research Park Overlay above)
• Town of Accomac Historic District, Onancock Historic District, Chincoteague Historic District, and NRHP-listed rural properties

Accomack County's Department of Planning & Community Development and Department of Building Inspections jointly handle permitting for unincorporated parcels — that is, parcels outside the limits of any of the eleven-plus incorporated towns within the county. Inside town limits (Chincoteague, Onancock, Parksley, Onley, Bloxom, Hallwood, Keller, Melfa, Painter, Saxis, Tangier, Wachapreague — and the county seat Town of Accomac), permitting follows the town's own process; the county is not the issuing authority within those limits. A typical ADU-like permit bundle for an unincorporated Accomack County parcel includes: (1) a Special Use Permit from the Board of Supervisors with Planning Commission recommendation, unless the project qualifies for an Agricultural-district family-member or farm-labor housing allowance, (2) a Zoning Permit confirming use eligibility and setback compliance, (3) a Building Permit with stamped residential plans, (4) Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical trade permits, (5) a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) - Eastern Shore Health District construction permit for well and/or septic on parcels not served by public water or sewer (which is the great majority of parcels — public water and sewer in Accomack County are concentrated in Chincoteague, Onancock, Onley, and parts of the Wallops-area service district), (6) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel is within the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), which intersects a substantial majority of parcels because the entire county is a low-elevation peninsula with extensive tidal-creek and marsh systems, (7) a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act review (Accomack County is a Tidewater locality subject to the CBPA, with Resource Protection Area and Resource Management Area rules applying across nearly the entire county), (8) a Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) joint-permit for any work in tidal wetlands, subaqueous bottom, or sand dunes (the Atlantic barrier-island lagoons, the Chincoteague Bay system, and the Chesapeake Bay frontage all trigger VMRC review frequently), (9) coordination with NASA Wallops / Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport for parcels within the FAA Part 77 imaginary-surface envelope of the Wallops Research Park Airport (a uniquely Accomack-specific constraint not present in any other Virginia county), and (10) Historic District review where applicable (the Town of Accomac Historic District, the Onancock Historic District, the Pungoteague rural historic district, and numerous NRHP-listed properties).