ADU Pass
Staunton
Augusta County portion
Also in: No County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
ADU feasibility on Staunton parcels is driven primarily by district lot-area sufficiency and ACSA service availability.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $2,050 | $54,000 | $56,050 |
| 600 | 600 | $2,050 | $162,000 | $164,050 |
| midpoint | 600 | $2,050 | $162,000 | $164,050 |
| maximum | 1,000 | $2,250 | $270,000 | $272,250 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-04)
Permitting process
- Pre-application zoning inquiry with City of Staunton Department of Community Development
Pre-application zoning inquiry with City of Staunton Department of Community Development - Zoning Permit application
Zoning Permit application - Building Permit application with stamped plans, energy-code compliance, structural calculations, residential site plan
Building Permit application with stamped plans, energy-code compliance, structural calculations, residential site plan - Trade permits (Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical) filed by Virginia-licensed contractors
Trade permits (Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical) filed by Virginia-licensed contractors - ACSA water/sewer connection coordination and tap fees
ACSA water/sewer connection coordination and tap fees - Construction inspections through completion
Construction inspections through completion - Certificate of Occupancy issued; Commissioner of the Revenue notified for supplemental assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3292
Certificate of Occupancy issued; Commissioner of the Revenue notified for supplemental assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3292
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of an ADU is permitted; Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act applies.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Augusta County zones STR as a separately classified use; transient-occupancy tax applies under Va. Code § 58.1-3819 et seq. Staunton is a Virginia heritage-tourism magnet — Mary Baldwin University, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, the American Shakespeare Center / Blackfriars Playhouse, and the Frontier Culture Museum drive substantial STR demand. The city has a Historic District Architectural Review Board with mandatory review for ADUs in the historic districts.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental requires home occupation permit or different district classification.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted with restrictions on signage and customer traffic.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist or craft studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited urban agriculture permitted in residential zones; livestock varies by district.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is the most permissive accessory-dwelling pathway.
Incentives
Contacts
Staff: City of Staunton Department of Community Development - Planning Division, City of Staunton Department of Community Development - Building Inspections Division, Augusta County Fire Rescue (Fire Marshal), Augusta County Service Authority (ACSA)
Utilities
- Water: City of Staunton Public Works (water) · 30d connect · $4,200
- Sewer: City of Staunton Public Works (sewer) · 30d connect · $5,400
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia · 21d connect · $1,800
- Gas: Propane (no natural-gas main) · 14d connect · $1,500
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 6mo · typical 9mo · worst 14mo
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Virginia has no HOA-ADU preemption (Va. Code Title 55.1). HOA prevalence is low; conservation easements and subdivision plats are the more common deed restrictions.
Regulatory overlays (3)
- other
Staunton is inside the ACSA Urban Service Area. Public water and sewer availability removes the VDH onsite-sewage gating that constrains rural Augusta County ADU projects. - historic-district
Multiple Staunton historic districts (Beverley, Wharf, Gospel Hill, Newtown, Stuart Addition) are listed on the National Register and subject to City of Staunton Historic Preservation Commission / Architectural Review Board approval for ADUs. Plan for an additional 30-60 days and a public hearing. - flood-zone
Lewis Creek runs through downtown Staunton with mapped FEMA SFHA on portions of the West Beverley / Lewis Creek corridor.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Augusta County Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 25), adopted ongoing — periodically amended, last amended Confirm with the City of Staunton Department of Community Development for the most recent amendment date.
- 2024-01-01 — City of Staunton Zoning Ordinance — Accessory Dwelling Units (city-ordinance)
Staunton has periodically amended its zoning ordinance to address accessory dwelling units; confirm the current ADU section text with City of Staunton Community Development.
Effect: Staunton permits accessory dwelling units in single-family residential districts subject to lot-area, setback, and parking standards plus historic-district review where applicable. - 2026-01-01 — Augusta County Zoning Ordinance (most recent in-force version) (county-ordinance)
Accessory-use provisions govern second dwellings.
Effect: ADU feasibility depends on lot area and septic capacity rather than a separate ADU ordinance.
Known issues (2)
- other — Avoid the common error of routing a Staunton parcel's ADU project to the Augusta County Government Center in Verona. The City of Staunton building department on Beverley Street is the correct point of contact.
- other — Plan for an additional 30-60 days and a Historic Preservation Commission public hearing. Compatible architectural detailing (window proportions, siding, roofing materials) is mandatory.
Augusta County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Augusta County regulates accessory dwelling units primarily through accessory-use provisions in its zoning ordinance rather than through a standalone ADU chapter. The county's residential and general-agriculture districts permit one accessory dwelling unit on a qualifying lot subject to minimum lot size, setback, and public-health requirements (well and septic sizing), with the ADU treated as subordinate to the primary dwelling. The county does not operate a Northern-Virginia-style ADU ordinance with an explicit size cap; instead, ADU feasibility is driven primarily by (1) the district's minimum lot area, (2) onsite-sewage capacity under Virginia Department of Health rules, and (3) the Uniform Statewide Building Code's residential-occupancy requirements. The county's ADU posture is materially more permissive on rural acreage than in the small residential R-1/R-2 subdivisions, where setback and lot-area minimums often make a second dwelling infeasible without a variance. Short-term rental is a separately regulated use under the county's zoning ordinance. Confirm the current accessory-dwelling section text and any by-right vs. Special Use Permit classification with the Augusta County Community Development department before pricing a project.
County regulatory overlays
Augusta County administers three overlay regimes that bear materially on ADU projects: (1) a Floodplain Overlay District tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Middle River, South River, North River, Christians Creek, and other Shenandoah Valley drainages; (2) Scenic Corridor / Agricultural-Preservation overlays reflecting the county's Shenandoah Valley agricultural heritage and the visual character of US 11 / I-81 / the Shenandoah National Park / George Washington National Forest gateway routes; and (3) a public water-and-sewer service-area framework run by the Augusta County Service Authority (ACSA) inside the county's designated Urban Service Areas (Fishersville, Stuarts Draft, Verona, Weyers Cave, and adjoining growth areas) that sharply separates ADU feasibility inside vs. outside those service areas. Augusta County has NO coastal-commission jurisdiction (it is entirely inland, outside the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act boundary), NO CalFire-equivalent WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has no statewide WUI program; the Virginia Department of Forestry coordinates wildfire response without a permit-constraining overlay), NO seismic-retrofit overlay (standard IRC/IBC provisions as adopted in the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code govern), and NO FAA Part 150 airport-noise overlay for a commercial airport (Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport / KSHD is a commercial airport partly in Augusta County but has no Part 150 noise-exposure overlay imposed on surrounding parcels).
- Augusta County Floodplain Overlay District
- Augusta County Urban Service Area / Public Water and Sewer Overlay
- Scenic Corridor / Agricultural-Preservation Context (I-81, US 11, Shenandoah National Park / George Washington National Forest gateway)
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Augusta County's Department of Community Development issues ADU building permits for every parcel in the county except those inside the independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro (each of which operates its own building department) and, for zoning matters, those inside the Town of Craigsville and the Town of Grottoes where the town has displaced the county code. All unincorporated CDPs including Fishersville, Stuarts Draft, Verona, Weyers Cave, Churchville, Mount Sidney, New Hope, Crimora, and Lyndhurst route through the county. A typical Augusta County ADU permit bundle includes: (1) a Zoning Permit from the county Zoning Division confirming district eligibility, setbacks, and any overlay triggers, (2) a Building Permit with stamped residential plans filed with the Building Inspections Division, (3) Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical trade permits, (4) a Virginia Department of Health onsite-sewage / well construction permit from the Central Shenandoah Health District for parcels not served by public water and sewer (the majority of county parcels), (5) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel is within the mapped 100-year floodplain under the county's Floodplain Overlay, and (6) any town-level review if the parcel is inside Craigsville or Grottoes.
Virginia state — ADU law and programs
State ADU law
Virginia has NOT enacted a statewide ADU preemption law. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state — localities possess only those powers expressly granted by the General Assembly — and the statutes granting zoning authority (Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq.) leave ADU regulation to local ordinances. ADU permission, setbacks, parking, size, and owner-occupancy rules therefore vary by county, independent city, and town. Virginia is unique in that it has 38 independent cities that function as counties (neither in nor subordinate to the surrounding county), meaning 'the county' for any given Virginia property may be an independent city rather than a true county. Several ADU preemption bills have been introduced in recent General Assembly sessions (2022 through 2025) without enactment; none have advanced past committee as of the Assembly's 2026 regular session adjournment.
State financing programs
Virginia does not operate an ADU-specific statewide loan, grant, or forgivable-loan program. Virginia Housing (formerly the Virginia Housing Development Authority, VHDA — rebranded 2020) administers general first-time-homebuyer, down-payment-assistance (DPA), mortgage-credit-certificate, and rehabilitation products that can be applied to ADU-adjacent purchases or improvements when eligibility criteria are met, but none target ADU construction as a distinct product. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administers federal HOME and CDBG pass-through funds that local jurisdictions can direct toward ADU-adjacent rehab, but there is no state-level ADU-dedicated line item. Federally available products (FHA 203(k), Fannie Mae HomeReady and HomeStyle Renovation, Freddie Mac CHOICERenovation) remain the primary ADU financing path for Virginia homeowners.
State housing programs
Virginia does not run a state-level pre-approved-ADU-plan catalog, statewide impact-fee-waiver statute for ADUs, or streamlined-review mandate. State-level programs that touch ADU-adjacent policy are coordinated primarily through the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and Virginia Housing, and act by funding or assisting local jurisdictions rather than by preemption. Local ADU activity — Arlington County's Accessory Dwellings program (detached ADUs permitted since 2008, liberalized 2020), Alexandria's accessory-dwelling ordinance, Fairfax County's accessory-living-unit program, and Charlottesville's 2021 zoning-code changes — is authorized under the localities' Va. Code § 15.2-2280 zoning authority, not by state mandate.
- DHCD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program — Federal CDBG funds administered by DHCD to eligible non-entitlement Virginia localities for community-revitalization, housing-rehab, and infrastructure projects. Not ADU-specific. Participating localities can direct CDBG funds toward housing-rehab projects where local policy supports ADUs.
- DHCD HOME Investment Partnerships Program — Federal HOME funds administered by DHCD to Virginia participating jurisdictions and non-profits for affordable-housing acquisition, rehab, and new construction. Not ADU-specific; can be directed to ADU-adjacent rehab at local discretion.
- Virginia Housing Commission — Permanent advisory commission of the General Assembly that studies housing-policy questions and recommends legislation. Has periodically studied ADU preemption and missing-middle housing without recommending statewide enactment as of 2026-04-21.
- Local ADU ordinances under Va. Code § 15.2-2280 authority — Not a state program — listed here because Virginia ADU policy is executed entirely at the locality level under the § 15.2-2280 zoning grant. A homeowner seeking to build an ADU consults the zoning ordinance of the specific county, city, or town where the parcel is located.
Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs
Federal ADU law
The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.
Federal financing programs
Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.
Federal tax credits
There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.
Federal housing programs
HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.
ZIP Code
- 24401
Post Office
- 1430 N Augusta St, 24401