New Canton

Buckingham County does NOT have a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit (ADU) ordinance. The county's zoning ordinance (adopted 2018-05-15) regulates accessory structures and accessory uses through per-district permitted-use tables, with single-family detached dwellings and accessory structures and uses listed as permitted in the residential and rural districts under the one-principal-dwelling-per-lot default. The ordinance does not define 'accessory dwelling unit' as a distinct use category; a detached second dwelling typically requires either (a) a Special Use Permit, (b) subdivision of the parcel into two conforming lots, or (c) a Farm Building and Structure Affidavit path (Form available on the Building Inspections forms page) for bona fide working-farm labor housing under Va. Code § 15.2-2288. Third-party ADU-industry websites that quote flat 1,200-square-foot caps or percent-of-primary formulas for Buckingham County appear to reflect Virginia-generic template language rather than Buckingham ordinance text; the ordinance's own quantitative caps are set per-district through minimum lot size, setback, and coverage rules, plus the separate building-permit layer under the 2021 Virginia Construction Code. No statewide ADU preemption is in force in Virginia as of 2026-04-21 (per the state-adu-research file — SB 304 passed the 2024 Virginia Senate 22-18 but was sent to the Virginia Housing Commission by the House and was not enacted; subsequent preemption bills in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 sessions have not been enacted; no Virginia ADU preemption has advanced through the 2026 regular session). Buckingham's silence on ADUs is therefore the operative rule.

Buckingham County administers three principal overlay regimes that bear on second-dwelling and accessory-structure projects: (1) Floodplain Zoning administered by Zoning/Planning Administrator Nicci Edmondston as Floodplain Administrator, tied to the FEMA Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Map for Buckingham County; this overlay reaches the James River corridor on the northern and western boundaries (the James is a State Scenic River for approximately 57 miles along Buckingham from Allens Creek to Stearnes per Va. Code § 10.1-413), the Appomattox River corridor and its tributary Holliday Creek on the southern boundary, the Willis River, the Slate River, and their tributaries. (2) the Land Use (use-value) assessment program administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue under Va. Code § 58.1-3230, which does not restrict ADU construction but can be breached by one, removing the deferred-assessment benefit and triggering up to six years of rollback taxes. (3) the James River State Scenic River corridor under Va. Code § 10.1-413, which establishes scenic-river status for the segment between Allens Creek and Stearnes running along Buckingham's northern/western boundary — this does not itself restrict private construction on riparian parcels but signals state-level interest in the corridor that often attracts conservation-easement activity. Buckingham has no coastal-commission jurisdiction (no tidal waters; well outside the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Tidewater boundary — the James main stem upriver of Richmond is not CBPA-covered). Virginia has no statewide WUI regulatory overlay (the state has substantial wildfire risk in its forested counties — and Buckingham is heavily forested — but no permit-constraining WUI overlay). Buckingham sits south of the Central Virginia Seismic Zone that caused 2011 damage in Louisa and Albemarle — hazard-awareness only, not a permit-constraining overlay. There is no FAA Part 150 airport-noise overlay (the nearest commercial airport, Richmond International, does not reach Buckingham; the nearest general-aviation airport is Farmville Regional in Prince Edward County). Buckingham does NOT operate a county-administered local Architectural Review Board for historic districts — National Register-listed sites in the county (including properties associated with the Historic Village at Lee Wayside and Civil War Lee Retreat Route stops) impose no private-parcel design-review constraint absent a local overlay, which Buckingham has not adopted.

• Floodplain Zoning (NFIP-participating community ordinance)
• Land Use (use-value) assessment program
• James River State Scenic River corridor (Va. Code § 10.1-413)

An accessory-dwelling or second-dwelling project in unincorporated Buckingham County routes through two county departments sharing the 13380 West James Anderson Highway office. Planning & Zoning handles the Zoning Permit (the approval that must precede any Building Permit), any required Special Use Permit (the likely path for a detached second dwelling given the absence of a by-right ADU category), Rezoning (if reclassification is needed), Home Occupation Permit, and floodplain development review. Building Inspections handles the Building Permit under the 2021 Virginia Construction Code (adopted into 13 VAC 5-62 with Virginia amendments), enforces the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (13 VAC 5-63), issues the Mechanical Permit, and coordinates electrical permits (2025 Electrical Permit Application on file at Planning & Zoning). Because Buckingham is overwhelmingly rural with limited public water and sewer (public-utility service is concentrated around the Buckingham Courthouse area, Dillwyn, and the courthouse-area Buckingham County Administration corridor), the Piedmont Health District (Virginia Department of Health local office covering Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, and Prince Edward) issues the well-and-septic construction permit for parcels outside public-utility service areas via a DPOR-licensed private-sector onsite-sewage consultant (required for all applications submitted after 2019-08-11 under the VDH onsite program reform). Applications are submitted in person at 13380 West James Anderson Highway or by email to the Zoning/Planning Administrator (nedmondston@buckinghamcounty.virginia.gov) or the Building Official (transon@buckinghamcounty.virginia.gov).