Clinchco

Dickenson County does NOT maintain a countywide zoning ordinance and does NOT have a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance. ADU regulation in Dickenson is essentially absent at the zoning level: a property owner can build a second dwelling on a parcel without zoning approval because there is no zoning ordinance to require approval. The constraints that govern ADU construction in Dickenson are therefore (a) the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (VUSBC, 13 VAC 5-63), administered through the County Building Inspector, which sets construction standards for any habitable structure regardless of zoning; (b) the county's subdivision regulations, which govern the creation of new parcels but do not directly regulate dwelling-unit count on existing parcels; (c) the county Floodplain Management Ordinance, which restricts construction within FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas as required for NFIP participation; (d) onsite-sewage and well regulations administered through the Virginia Department of Health LENOWISCO Health District; (e) federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) restrictions on construction over abandoned mine lands, active mine permits, or subsidence-prone areas; and (f) deed restrictions, mortgage covenants, and any utility-service-area requirements imposed by the local water and sewer authorities. The Towns of Clintwood, Clinchco, and Haysi maintain their own ordinances, which may include zoning provisions affecting parcels inside town limits. The absence of countywide zoning is characteristic of much of rural southwest Virginia and reflects the Dillon Rule baseline: Virginia counties have no inherent zoning power and may exercise zoning authority only as enabled by Va. Code Section 15.2-2280 et seq., and historically many rural southwest Virginia counties have declined to adopt comprehensive zoning. The practical effect is that ADUs are essentially un-regulated at the zoning level, but the building-permit, septic, floodplain, and SMCRA layers remain binding constraints on construction.

Dickenson County does not maintain a comprehensive countywide zoning ordinance, so the typical overlay framework (R-1 / R-2 / A-1 / A-2 districts with overlay districts on top) does not apply. The constraints that function as overlays in Dickenson are: (1) the Floodplain Management Overlay tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, with material coverage along the Russell Fork (which has carved one of the deepest gorges in the eastern United States and has a powerful flood-flow regime), the McClure River, the Pound River, and Cranks Creek; (2) federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) jurisdiction across the substantial fraction of the county affected by historic underground coal mining and active or recently-released SMCRA permits - this is the most distinctive overlay constraint in Dickenson and reflects the county's century-plus history as a major bituminous coal producer; (3) federal lands at the Jefferson National Forest portions inside the county and the bi-state Breaks Interstate Park (administered jointly by Virginia and Kentucky); (4) the National Park Service-administered Big Sandy National Recreation Trail / Spearhead Trails interface where ATV/UTV trail systems and other tourism-tied land uses interact with private development; (5) limited local historic resources, primarily concentrated in Clintwood and the Clinchco / Haysi former coal-company-town corridors (Clinchco was a notable Clinchfield Coal Company town with company-owned housing, and the historic fabric of the company town remains partially intact). Dickenson County is NOT a Tidewater locality under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (the county is in the Big Sandy / Ohio River drainage, not the Chesapeake Bay drainage, and is far west of the Fall Line). Dickenson has NO California-style coastal commission, NO CalFire-equivalent WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has no statewide WUI overlay despite the elevated wildfire exposure on Cumberland Mountain forested parcels), and NO seismic-retrofit overlay.

• Floodplain Management Overlay (Floodplain Management Ordinance)
• Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) jurisdiction and abandoned mine land risk
• Breaks Interstate Park, Jefferson National Forest, and federal land adjacency
• Clinchco, Clintwood, and Haysi historic resources

Dickenson County's Building Inspector handles building permits and trade permits for every parcel in the county except those inside the Towns of Clintwood, Clinchco, and Haysi (which administer their own building permits under arrangements with the county). Because there is no countywide zoning ordinance, there is no Department of Planning and Zoning per se; subdivision regulations, the Floodplain Management Ordinance, and the Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance are administered through the County Administrator's Office. A typical ADU-like permit bundle in Dickenson includes: (1) a Building Permit from the Building Inspector with stamped residential plans, (2) Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical trade permits, (3) a VDH LENOWISCO Health District construction permit for well and septic on parcels not served by public water or sewer (which is the great majority of parcels - Dickenson's public water and sewer service is limited to the towns and a few service-district extensions), (4) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel is within the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area along the Russell Fork, McClure River, Pound River, Cranks Creek, or other tributaries, (5) SMCRA review through the Virginia Department of Energy / Division of Mined Land Repurposing where the parcel sits over abandoned mine lands, an active mine permit, or known subsidence-prone areas - this is a frequent and material constraint in Dickenson because much of the county sits over historic underground coal mines, and (6) coordination with the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) for projects on parcels with active SMCRA permits or recently-released bond areas.