Boones Mill

Franklin County regulates accessory dwelling units through its county Zoning Ordinance (codified as Chapter 25 of the Franklin County Code, with the subdivision ordinance as Chapter 20), administered by the Franklin County Department of Planning and Community Development under the authority of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state and the General Assembly has not enacted any statewide ADU preemption; Franklin County's authority to regulate or prohibit ADUs derives solely from the general zoning enabling statute at Va. Code § 15.2-2280 and the ordinance-content provisions of § 15.2-2286. The county ordinance establishes Agricultural (A-1), Residential (R-1, R-2, R-3), Waterfront Residential (SLR, Smith Mountain Lake Residential), Commercial, and Industrial districts; a single dwelling per lot is the default in the standard residential and agricultural districts, and a true detached second dwelling on a single parcel requires either a family/kinship-dwelling exemption where recognized, a Special Use Permit approved by the Board of Supervisors following Planning Commission recommendation, or lot subdivision to place the second dwelling on its own parcel. Franklin County does not have a standalone ministerial ADU ordinance of the California / Oregon / Washington type — ADU-style second dwellings are typically approved either (a) as family/kinship dwellings in A-1 or certain residential districts where the zoning ordinance so provides, (b) via Special Use Permit, or (c) by recording a minor subdivision. The practical effect is that a homeowner cannot rely on an 'ADU by-right' framework; each project is subject to zoning-district analysis and, in the common case of a non-kin renter on a lake-area parcel, a discretionary Special Use Permit process. The county seat is Rocky Mount, which is a separate town within Franklin County with its own zoning ordinance; the Town of Boones Mill and Town of Rocky Mount corporate limits are both carved out of the county's unincorporated geography.

• Franklin County Code Chapter 25 — Zoning Ordinance
• Franklin County Department of Planning and Community Development
• Franklin County Board of Supervisors — adopting body for zoning ordinance amendments and Special Use Permits
• Franklin County Planning Commission

State-floor overlay: Virginia has not enacted any statewide ADU preemption statute. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state (see Commonwealth v. County Bd. of Arlington County, 217 Va. 558 (1977)); localities have only those powers expressly granted by the General Assembly. The general zoning enabling statute at Va. Code § 15.2-2280 grants counties, cities, and towns broad authority to regulate land use, and § 15.2-2286 enumerates the specific ordinance provisions that may be included. Neither statute, nor any section of Title 15.2 Chapter 22 Article 7, mandates that a locality permit ADUs, requires ministerial review of ADU applications, caps parking requirements, caps fees, or voids owner-occupancy requirements. Franklin County is therefore free to permit, restrict, or prohibit second dwellings under its zoning ordinance within the ordinary constitutional limits on land-use regulation. ADU preemption bills have been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in multiple recent sessions (2022-2025) without enactment; the statewide regulatory picture at the county level is unchanged.

Franklin County administers or is subject to several overlay regimes that materially affect ADU siting on unincorporated parcels: (1) Smith Mountain Lake Shoreline Management Plan — the single most significant county-level overlay for ADU purposes. Smith Mountain Lake is an approximately 20,600-acre reservoir impounded by Appalachian Power Company (a subsidiary of AEP) under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the Smith Mountain Pumped Storage Project (FERC Project No. 2210). Franklin County shares the lake with Bedford County and Pittsylvania County; Franklin County has the largest share of lake frontage and the majority of lakeside residential development (Hardy, Moneta, Scruggs, Penhook, Union Hall, Westlake, Hales Ford areas). Shoreline development on lake-frontage parcels is subject to Appalachian Power's Shoreline Management Plan in addition to county zoning, which materially constrains accessory structures and second dwellings near the shoreline; (2) FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Blackwater River, Pigg River, Roanoke River backwaters (Smith Mountain Lake), Maggodee Creek, and other tributaries, with NFIP floodplain regulations administered through the county's floodplain ordinance; (3) Agricultural and Forestal Districts (AFDs) established under Va. Code § 15.2-4300 et seq., which provide participating landowners use-value taxation and subdivision-deferral protections in exchange for a commitment to keep land in agricultural or forestal use — an ADU on an AFD-enrolled parcel is permitted but subject to AFD-specific review; (4) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act applicability — Franklin County is NOT in the Tidewater area covered by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (Va. Code § 62.1-44.15:67 et seq.), so Resource Protection Areas (RPAs) and Resource Management Areas (RMAs) do not apply; (5) wildfire risk — Franklin County has wildfire risk tracked by the Virginia Department of Forestry, particularly in the Blue Ridge foothills in the western and southern parts of the county and on parcels adjacent to forest land, but Virginia does not have a California-style Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone regulatory overlay with mandatory ignition-resistant-construction requirements (the Virginia Statewide Building Code does incorporate limited wildland-urban interface provisions only where locally adopted); (6) Blue Ridge Parkway adjacency — Franklin County's western edge includes Blue Ridge Parkway frontage in the Callaway/Ferrum vicinity, with scenic-corridor considerations for parcels in the Parkway viewshed. Franklin County does not have a historic district overlay of the federal or state type covering large portions of the unincorporated county, though individual properties may be listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register or National Register — and the county's moonshine-era sites and early-20th-century rural architecture have produced scattered individual listings rather than a contiguous district.

• Smith Mountain Lake Shoreline Management Plan (Appalachian Power / FERC Project 2210) — Smith Mountain Lake is an artificial reservoir created by the Smith Mountain Dam and the downstream Leesville Dam, owned and operated by Appalachian Power Company under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the Smith Mountain Pumped Storage Project (FERC Project No. 2210, relicensed in 2009 for 30 years through 2039). Franklin County has the largest share of the lake's approximately 500 miles of shoreline. Appalachian Power administers a Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) that establishes permitting requirements for docks, boathouses, shoreline stabilization, vegetation clearing, and any structure within the licensed project boundary (generally the 800-foot elevation contour plus a defined project-boundary setback). For an ADU-style project proposed on a lake-frontage parcel, the Appalachian Power SMP is the controlling additional permit beyond county zoning: accessory structures within the project boundary require an SMP permit, and structures above the project boundary but on lake-frontage parcels are still subject to the county's SLR zoning-district standards and any subdivision covenants. Franklin County's zoning ordinance codifies an SLR (Smith Mountain Lake Residential) district that applies specific lake-oriented standards to lake-frontage parcels, including setbacks, maximum impervious coverage, and vegetation retention. This is the single most distinctive county-level overlay in Franklin County for ADU purposes. Owners of lake-frontage parcels should contact Appalachian Power Shoreline Management in Roanoke as well as Franklin County Planning at the earliest planning stage. Lake-frontage ADU projects frequently require sequenced SMP/county-zoning/building-permit/VDH approvals and cannot proceed out of order.
• FEMA National Flood Insurance Program — Special Flood Hazard Areas — Franklin County participates in the National Flood Insurance Program and administers a county floodplain ordinance satisfying the NFIP minimum standards. Principal Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) extents in the county are along the Blackwater River (Rocky Mount area), Pigg River, Maggodee Creek, and the backwaters and tributaries feeding Smith Mountain Lake. An ADU in an SFHA must comply with NFIP elevation requirements (lowest finished floor at or above Base Flood Elevation plus any county freeboard), flood vent requirements on enclosed areas below BFE, anchoring requirements, and post-construction Elevation Certificate filing. Lake-adjacent parcels may be partly in SFHA and partly outside; the exact floodplain boundary and effective BFE must be determined from the current-effective FIRM panel and any parcel-specific Letter of Map Amendment/Revision. Owners should confirm current-effective FIRM panel at the FEMA Map Service Center before design; FEMA periodically updates Virginia county maps and the Smith Mountain Lake panels have been restudied in the post-2010 map-modernization cycle.
• Franklin County SLR — Smith Mountain Lake Residential zoning district and lake-area subdivision standards — Franklin County's zoning ordinance establishes a Smith Mountain Lake Residential (SLR) district that applies to most lake-frontage parcels in the northern and northwestern part of the county. SLR incorporates lake-oriented standards including shoreline setbacks, maximum impervious coverage to protect water quality, vegetation-retention requirements, and dock/pier integration with the Appalachian Power SMP. For ADU-style projects on SLR parcels, the county's lake-district standards apply in addition to (not in lieu of) the SMP requirements. The county's subdivision ordinance also contains lake-area-specific provisions limiting lot creation density on the lake side of certain roads. Applicants on lake-frontage parcels should obtain a current zoning-verification letter from the Planning and Community Development office early in the project to confirm SLR applicability and lake-area subdivision constraints.
• Virginia Agricultural and Forestal Districts (local option under state law) — Franklin County has established Agricultural and Forestal Districts under the state AFD Act. Enrollment is voluntary; participating landowners commit to keeping land in agricultural or forestal use for a period (typically 4-10 years) in exchange for use-value assessment (Va. Code § 58.1-3230 et seq.) and limited protection from certain governmental actions that would disrupt agricultural use. Franklin County has a substantial agricultural base (tobacco historically, cattle, timber, wine grapes in the Ferrum/Callaway vicinity); a significant acreage is in AFD enrollment. An ADU on an AFD-enrolled parcel is generally permitted if it is an accessory use to continued agricultural operation (e.g., a farm-labor dwelling or family-kinship dwelling), but non-agricultural commercial-rental ADUs may conflict with AFD purposes and trigger AFD Advisory Committee review. Owners should consult the Franklin County AFD Advisory Committee and the zoning administrator before assuming ADU compatibility.
• Virginia Department of Forestry wildfire risk and Virginia Statewide Building Code WUI provisions — Virginia has wildfire risk in the Blue Ridge and Appalachian counties, and Franklin County's western and southern edges in the Blue Ridge foothills (Ferrum, Callaway, Endicott, Charity) have elevated wildfire exposure, particularly on forest-adjacent and steep-slope parcels. Unlike California, Virginia does not have a statewide Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone overlay that mandates WUI-rated construction materials on a per-parcel basis. The Virginia Department of Forestry publishes wildfire risk assessments and promotes defensible-space practices, but enforcement is advisory rather than regulatory. The Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, which is the single statewide building code (localities cannot impose more stringent building standards), does include Appendix K of the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code only where adopted; Virginia has not statewide-adopted the IWUIC. Owners in wildfire-exposed Franklin County locations should follow best practices but face no locality-imposed WUI construction overlay analogous to California Chapter 7A.
• Blue Ridge Parkway adjacency (federal scenic corridor) — Franklin County's western edge includes Blue Ridge Parkway frontage in the Callaway/Ferrum vicinity. The Parkway is federally managed by the National Park Service; federal regulation applies to activities within the Parkway boundary, not to private parcels outside it. However, county zoning and subdivision have historically considered scenic-corridor impacts on the Parkway viewshed (per National Park Service cooperative policy), and individual deed restrictions or scenic easements may apply to specific parcels along the corridor. Owners of parcels adjacent to the Parkway should check the zoning overlay (if any) in effect for their specific parcel and any recorded scenic easements before designing an accessory dwelling with visibility from the Parkway.

The Franklin County Department of Planning and Community Development (zoning side) together with the Franklin County Building Inspections Department (construction side) is the permitting authority for building permits, zoning permits, and Special Use Permits on parcels within the unincorporated county (i.e., parcels outside the corporate limits of the Town of Rocky Mount and the Town of Boones Mill). Franklin County comprises approximately 692 square miles of mixed rural, agricultural, forest, and lakefront territory in southwestern Virginia south of Roanoke, with Smith Mountain Lake dominating the northern third of the county and creating a distinctive waterfront submarket. The Town of Rocky Mount (the county seat) and the Town of Boones Mill are the only incorporated places inside the county; all other populated places (Ferrum, Callaway, Glade Hill, Hardy, Henry, Penhook, Union Hall, Wirtz, Moneta [shared with Bedford County], Westlake Corner, Hales Ford, Scruggs, etc.) are unincorporated communities permitted by the county. For an ADU-style project in the unincorporated county, the typical sequence is: (a) zoning determination (permitted by right, permitted via Special Use Permit, or prohibited); (b) if SUP required, application to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors; (c) on lake-frontage parcels, coordination with Appalachian Power's Smith Mountain Lake Shoreline Management Plan (FERC Project 2210); (d) Virginia Department of Health approval for well and septic on unserved parcels; (e) building permit application to county Building Inspections; (f) inspections through construction; (g) certificate of occupancy.