Fluvanna County

An accessory-dwelling project in Fluvanna County routes through two county-level departments sharing the 132 Main Street, Palmyra office. Planning & Zoning issues the zoning permit confirming the accessory-dwelling eligibility under Section 22-22-1, the applicable district use table, and the size and unit-count caps. Building Inspections issues the building permit, enforces the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (13 VAC 5-63), and coordinates trade permits and inspections. For parcels not served by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority / Fluvanna County Utility service areas (which cover the Lake Monticello system and limited corridor service), the Thomas Jefferson Health District (VDH local office covering Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Charlottesville/Albemarle) issues the well-and-septic construction permit, which must be in hand before the county will issue the building permit. Applications are filed by email to planning@fluvannacounty.org or building@fluvannacounty.org or in person at 132 Main Street.

Fluvanna County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue (Andrew M. 'Mel' Sheridan, Jr., elected Commissioner) through a contracted third-party mass-appraisal vendor, Pearson Mass Appraisal Service, on a two-year general reassessment cycle. Fluvanna moved off the Virginia default four-year cycle (Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3252) to a two-year cadence by Board of Supervisors action. The most recent cycle produced reassessment notices issued following the January 22, 2025 Board of Supervisors meeting, with an average countywide valuation increase of approximately 25 percent over the 2022 assessment (homes exceeding 1,200 square feet saw increases of 35-60 percent in some cases). An ADU or Section 22-22-1 accessory-dwelling addition is captured via the supplemental-assessment process under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3292: on receipt of the building permit and (later) the Certificate of Occupancy from Building Inspections, the Commissioner of the Revenue's office prorates the supplemental assessment from the completion date through the end of the tax year. The primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle as a result of the accessory-dwelling addition; only the new improvement is added at its assessed fair-market value.

Assessment policy: An accessory dwelling added under Section 22-22-1 is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32 and specifically as a supplemental assessment under Sec. 58.1-3292. On receipt of the building permit and Certificate of Occupancy from Building Inspections, the Commissioner of the Revenue's office (via the contracted Pearson Mass Appraisal Service vendor during reassessment years, or through in-office supplemental assessment between reassessments) adds the new improvement at its assessed fair-market value on top of the existing parcel land and improvement value. The existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle. Fluvanna has no ADU-specific assessment exemption. Standard Virginia tax-relief programs apply: elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3210 (local option implemented by Fluvanna County) and disabled-veteran exemption under Sec. 58.1-3219.5, neither of which creates a separate carve-out for the accessory dwelling itself. Fluvanna administers a Land Use (use-value) assessment program under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3230 et seq. for qualifying agricultural, horticultural, forest, and open-space parcels; a parcel in Land Use must continue to meet program eligibility after the accessory-dwelling addition to retain the deferred assessment. Rollback taxes (up to six years) apply under Sec. 58.1-3237 if the addition drops the parcel below program minimums.

Fluvanna County administers three principal overlay regimes that bear on accessory-dwelling and second-dwelling projects: (1) the Floodplain Districts under Chapter 22 Article 17 Section 22-17-8A tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Rivanna River, James River, Hardware River, and their tributaries (Ballenger Creek, Byrd Creek, Cunningham Creek, Raccoon Creek, Totier Creek); (2) the Land Use (use-value) assessment program administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3230, which does not restrict ADU construction but can be breached by one, removing the deferred-assessment benefit and triggering rollback taxes; (3) conservation easements held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the Piedmont Environmental Council, and other land trusts — approximately 14,700 acres of conservation and historic easements in the county, roughly 6% of the county's land area, including some of Virginia's most important historic properties such as Bremo Historic District. Fluvanna County has three National Register historic districts (Fluvanna Courthouse Historic District in Palmyra, Seven Islands Archeological and Historic District, and the Fluvanna portion of the Scottsville Historic District) but does NOT operate a county-administered local Architectural Review Board with exterior-change review authority (National Register listing alone does not restrict private alteration in the absence of a local overlay). Fluvanna has no coastal-commission jurisdiction (no tidal waters; 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, though the Central Virginia Seismic Zone per VEMA hazard mapping does include Fluvanna alongside Louisa and Albemarle, which is a hazard-awareness designation rather than a permit-constraining overlay). Lake Monticello is a major private HOA layer that functions as a de-facto overlay for the ~4,000 households inside its gated boundary but is a private-law regime, not a county overlay.

• Floodplain Districts (Chapter 22 Sec. 22-17-8A)
• Conservation Easement Overlay (VOF, PEC, land trusts)
• Land Use (use-value) assessment program