Sandy Hook

Goochland County's accessory-dwelling regime is the 'Accessory Family Housing Unit' (AFU) framework codified in Chapter 15 Section 15-285.A. The county distinguishes sharply between ATTACHED AFUs (by-right) and DETACHED AFUs (Conditional Use Permit required under Section 15-132). An attached AFU - a second dwelling unit contained within or attached as part of the same structure as the principal dwelling - is a permitted-by-right accessory use in the A-1 (Agricultural General), A-2 (Agricultural Limited), R-R (Residential Rural), R-P (Residential Preservation), R-1 (Residential Limited), R-3 (Residential General), R-N (Residential Neighborhood), and R-O (Residential Office) districts, subject to the Section 15-285.A development standards: (1) one additional attached unit per lot; (2) occupancy restricted to persons RELATED to a resident of the principal dwelling; (3) the second unit CANNOT be rented separately from the principal dwelling; (4) a working smoke detector and working carbon monoxide monitor must be installed and maintained in the second unit; (5) emergency vehicle access must be provided and maintained; (6) the property owner must file an AFFIDAVIT (the published Accessory Family Housing Unit Affidavit form) with the Goochland County Circuit Court Clerk recording the AFU on the land records and committing to compliance, and must provide proof of that filing to the Community Development department; on transfer, the seller must notify the purchaser in writing of the use standards and file a copy of that written notice with the department. A detached AFU is NOT by-right in any district and requires a Conditional Use Permit ($750 application fee under the published Development Review Fee schedule) reviewed by the Planning Commission and approved by the Board of Supervisors; CUP conditions typically mirror Section 15-285.A (family relation, no separate rental, safety devices, emergency access). Goochland's ordinance does NOT codify a square-foot cap on the accessory unit - the binding size constraint is the Section 15-500 definition language 'clearly subordinate to the principal dwelling unit.' Violation of the AFU standards is a Class misdemeanor under Section 15-52, with continuing violations prosecutable as separate violations and knowingly false affidavit statements punishable separately. Because Goochland's ordinance predates January 1, 2025 and does NOT deem an ATTACHED AFU a special use (only DETACHED AFUs require CUP), Goochland's attached-AFU track qualifies for the Virginia HB 1832 (2025) grandfather clause when that statute takes effect July 1, 2026 - but the detached CUP requirement likely does NOT survive HB 1832 on its face because HB 1832 requires ADUs as a PERMITTED accessory use (by-right) in single-family residential districts, which reaches detached units. A Board-of-Supervisors ordinance amendment to align the detached-AFU track with HB 1832 is expected in 2026-2027.

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

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.