Charlotte County

An accessory-dwelling or second-dwelling project on an unincorporated Charlotte County parcel routes through two county departments sharing the 250 LeGrande Avenue, Suite A, Charlotte Court House office. Planning & Zoning handles the zoning-permit approval (required before any building permit can issue), any Conditional Use Permit (the likely path for a second dwelling given the absence of a by-right ADU category), Subdivision Plat Review (if the subdivision path is chosen), and BZA Variance review. Building Inspection handles the building permit under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (13 VAC 5-63) and issues trade permits (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, generator). Because most rural Charlotte County parcels lack public water and sewer, the Piedmont Health District (Virginia Department of Health local office covering Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, and Prince Edward; Farmville office at 111 South Street, Farmville, VA 23901) issues the well-and-septic construction permit for such parcels; the VDH permit must be in hand before the county will issue the building permit. Zoning applications can be submitted by email to rnapier@charlottecountyva.gov (Permit Technician) or in person at the County Administration Office. Building-permit applications go to the Building Inspection Department at the same address.

Charlotte County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue (Naisha Pridgen Carter, elected Commissioner) under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32 (Real Property Tax). The office maintains county tax maps, assesses real and personal property, and prepares the real-estate and personal-property tax book; it also serves as a Virginia DMV Select Office. The most recent general reassessment was completed by Pearson's Appraisal Services with new values effective 2025-07-01, six years after the prior 2019-07-01 reassessment (Va. Code § 58.1-3252 six-year minimum cadence for counties below 50,000 population). The 2025 reassessment produced substantial valuation increases: site-built and modular homes generally up 50-65% (newer homes at the upper end), manufactured doublewides up to 70%, land up 30-50% depending on access, size, and features, and commercial/industrial up 10-20%. The Board of Supervisors concurrently reduced the real-estate tax rate from $0.62 to $0.41 per $100 of assessed value to cap total revenue growth at approximately 1%. A second dwelling or accessory-dwelling addition is captured via supplemental assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3292 once the building permit and Certificate of Occupancy are received from Building Inspection; the existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle as a result.

Assessment policy: A second dwelling or accessory structure added to a Charlotte County parcel is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32, specifically as a supplemental assessment under § 58.1-3292. On receipt of the building permit and Certificate of Occupancy from Charlotte County Building Inspection, the Commissioner of the Revenue's office adds the new improvement at its assessed fair-market value on top of the existing parcel's land and improvement value, prorated from the completion date through the tax year-end. The existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle. Charlotte County has no ADU-specific assessment exemption or carve-out. Standard Virginia real-estate tax-relief programs apply: elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code § 58.1-3210 (local option as implemented by Charlotte County), disabled-veteran exemption under § 58.1-3219.5, and the Land Use (use-value) assessment program under § 58.1-3230 et seq. for qualifying agricultural, horticultural, forest, and open-space parcels. The 2025-07-01 reassessment produced 50-65% residential-structure value increases combined with a reduction in the real-estate tax rate from $0.62 to $0.41 per $100 of assessed value; a second-dwelling pro forma must therefore model the post-2025 rate not the legacy rate.

Charlotte County administers or is subject to four principal overlay regimes that bear on second-dwelling and accessory-structure projects: (1) Floodplain regulation within the Master Zoning Ordinance, tied to the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map — updated FIRM went through a 90-day public appeal period beginning 2024-07-17 and was integrated into the 2026-03-11 Master Zoning Ordinance amendment cycle; the overlay reaches the Staunton River corridor along the county's southwestern boundary (the Roanoke River, locally called the Staunton), Roanoke Creek, Little Roanoke Creek, Cub Creek, and Tibbs Creek plus their tributaries. (2) Dam-break inundation zone review, which under the Master Zoning Ordinance automatically triggers a Conditional Use Permit for any proposed development within a mapped inundation zone, regardless of the underlying use — a hazard overlay specific to this ordinance that often surprises applicants near Lake Charlotte, Briery Creek Lake (edge; mostly in Prince Edward), and other impoundment-affected parcels. (3) the Virginia Land Use (use-value) assessment program administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue under Va. Code § 58.1-3230 et seq., which does not restrict construction but can be breached by a second dwelling, removing the deferred-assessment benefit and triggering up to six years of rollback taxes under § 58.1-3237 — high exposure in Charlotte given the county's 100%-rural census classification and heavy agricultural/forest land base. (4) Federal and state conservation interests including Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial (the 1,183-acre property near Brookneal, with portions in southwestern Charlotte County, where Patrick Henry's grave and memorial are sited — administered by the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation) and Staunton River Battlefield State Park (which straddles the Staunton River in Halifax and Charlotte counties with a Roanoke visitor center in Randolph, Virginia) — both are state/federal-held and are not locations where private ADU construction is possible, but they constrain regional land-use character. Charlotte has NO coastal-commission jurisdiction (inland Piedmont; no tidal waters; well outside the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Tidewater boundary), NO statewide WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has none), NO seismic-retrofit overlay, and NO Part 150 airport-noise overlay (no commercial airport inside the county; nearest general-aviation airport is Crewe Municipal or William M. Tuck Airport in South Boston). The county does not operate a county-administered local Architectural Review Board for historic districts.

• Floodplain regulation within the Master Zoning Ordinance (FEMA FIRM updated 2024)
• Dam-Break Inundation Zone CUP trigger
• Land Use (use-value) assessment program
• Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial / Staunton River Battlefield State Park adjacency