Goochland County

An accessory-family-housing-unit project in Goochland County routes through the Department of Community Development, which houses both Planning & Zoning and Building Inspection divisions at 1800 Sandy Hook Road. For an ATTACHED AFU (by-right in the eight residential and agricultural districts), Planning & Zoning confirms Section 15-285.A eligibility, the property owner records the Accessory Family Housing Unit Affidavit with the Goochland County Circuit Court Clerk and provides proof of filing to Community Development, and Building Inspection issues the building permit. For a DETACHED AFU (Conditional Use Permit required), the owner first files a CUP application ($750 fee), which runs through Planning Commission public hearing and Board of Supervisors approval before the zoning and building permits can issue. For parcels not served by public water and sewer (the large majority of Goochland outside the West Creek and Tuckahoe corridor public-utility footprint), the Chickahominy Health District (Virginia Department of Health local office covering Goochland, Hanover, Charles City, and New Kent) issues the well-and-septic construction permit, which must be in hand before the county building permit is released. Applications are accepted in person at 1800 Sandy Hook Road between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; permits arriving after 4:00 p.m. are not accepted that day. The permit-fee calculator is published at goochlandva.us/permitcalc.

Goochland County real estate is assessed by the Goochland County Assessor's Office (Mary Ann Davis, Assessor) on an ANNUAL reassessment cycle with assessments effective each January 1 and notices typically mailed by mid-January. Goochland's annual cadence is materially faster than the Virginia default four-year cycle under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3252 and faster than the two-year cycles used by counties like Fluvanna. The Goochland real-estate tax rate has remained at $0.53 per $100 of assessed value since 2008, one of the lowest rates in the Richmond MSA and a material factor in the county's sustained residential growth. An accessory family housing unit or other improvement is captured via supplemental assessment under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3292 on receipt of the building permit and Certificate of Occupancy from Community Development; because Goochland reassesses annually, the improvement typically appears in the next full January 1 reassessment rather than requiring a mid-year supplemental entry for most pro-forma purposes, though the Assessor may issue a mid-year prorated supplemental in higher-value cases. The primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle as a direct result of the AFU addition; only the improvement is added to the assessed value.

Assessment policy: An accessory family housing unit added under Section 15-285.A is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32. Because Goochland reassesses annually (January 1 effective date), the improvement is normally picked up in the next annual reassessment cycle rather than requiring an immediate off-cycle supplemental entry; a supplemental assessment under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3292 may issue mid-year if the Assessor elects to prorate from the Certificate of Occupancy date, more commonly for higher-value improvements or properties in active sale transactions. Goochland has NO ADU-specific assessment exemption or incentive. Standard Virginia tax-relief programs apply: elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3210 (local option as implemented by Goochland) and disabled-veteran exemption under Sec. 58.1-3219.5, neither of which creates an accessory-dwelling carve-out. Goochland 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 AFU 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.

Goochland County administers three principal overlay regimes that bear on accessory-family-housing-unit projects: (1) the Floodplain Overlay under Chapter 15 Article 28 tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the James River (the county's southern boundary) and its tributaries including Tuckahoe Creek, Lickinghole Creek, Dover Creek, Beaverdam Creek, Byrd Creek (Goochland side), and other perennial streams draining to the James; (2) conservation easements held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), Capital Region Land Conservancy, and other land trusts, covering over 800 acres in the county and anchored historically by the FIRST recorded conservation easement in Virginia (104 acres donated in June 1968 by James M. Ball Jr. to VOF on a Goochland parcel gifted to the University of Richmond); (3) the Land Use (use-value) assessment program administered by the Assessor's Office under Va. Code Sec. 58.1-3230, which does not restrict AFU construction but can be breached by one, removing the deferred-assessment benefit and triggering rollback taxes. Goochland is NOT a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act locality - the county sits well west of the Tidewater Virginia boundary defined in Va. Code Sec. 62.1-44.15:68, and the James River as it passes Goochland is non-tidal main-stem river above the Richmond fall line, outside the CBPA jurisdictional footprint. Goochland has no coastal-commission jurisdiction (no Atlantic or Chesapeake coastline), no statewide WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has none), no seismic-retrofit overlay (though the Central Virginia Seismic Zone boundary runs through nearby Louisa/Fluvanna to the west), and no Part 150 airport-noise overlay (no commercial airport inside the county; Richmond International KRIC to the east does not generate Part 150 coverage reaching Goochland parcels). Goochland has no formal county-administered Architectural Review Board with design-review authority; the county does have a Certificate of Approval process (Chapter 15) for specific site-improvement types in specific districts, but it is not a general historic-district overlay.

• Floodplain Overlay (Chapter 15 Article 28)
• Conservation Easement Overlay (VOF, Capital Region Land Conservancy, land trusts)
• Land Use (use-value) assessment program