ADU Pass
Greene County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Greene County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. We cover 2 cities and 3 ZIP codes in this county.
Map
County ADU details
County ADU ordinance
Greene County does not use the 'accessory dwelling unit' term as a formal zoning category with its own size cap. Instead, the county's additional-residential-unit mechanism is Section 16-1-5 of the Zoning Ordinance: in the A-1 (Agricultural) and C-1 (Conservation) zoning districts, 'one additional single-family dwelling may be constructed on a parcel of record in addition to the principal dwelling at the density not to exceed one additional single-family dwelling to every 16 acres of land.' The additional dwelling is not subject to a square-foot cap under Section 16-1-5; it is simply counted as a full second single-family dwelling subject to the same setback, lot-coverage, and building-code requirements as the principal dwelling, but density is capped at one extra unit per 16 acres. In the R-1 (Residential) and other urbanized districts, the one-principal-building-per-lot rule of Section 16-1-4 applies and a second full dwelling is not by-right; true 'accessory dwelling unit' style (attached or detached subordinate living quarters to a principal dwelling) is handled case-by-case by the Zoning Administrator under the Article 5 R-1 accessory-use provisions, typically as an attached in-dwelling family apartment within the principal structure footprint. Third-party ADU-regulation summaries (Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission) describe Greene as 'allowed by-right in C-1, A-1, R-1 zones, owner must live on site'; the primary-source ordinance confirms the A-1 and C-1 paths via Section 16-1-5 but treats R-1 accessory living quarters as an accessory-use determination rather than an enumerated ADU category. Detached accessory dwellings on the same lot as a principal dwelling are not by-right under Section 16-1-4 and require either the Section 16-1-5 density path (A-1/C-1 only) or a zoning determination / special use permit. Greene County's Comprehensive Plan commits the county to developing an ADU implementation guide and toolkit to promote ADU affordability benefits; as of 2026 the toolkit is in development and no formal ADU-specific ordinance amendment has been enacted.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
An ADU / second-dwelling project in Greene County routes through two county-level departments. Planning & Zoning (Director James F. Frydl, Deputy Director Stephanie Golon, Zoning Officer Earl Keys, Permit Technician Cristy Snead) issues the zoning permit confirming use eligibility under Section 16-1-5 (A-1/C-1 second-dwelling) or the R-1 accessory-use path. 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 public water and sewer, the Thomas Jefferson Health District (VDH local office serving Greene County) issues the well-and-septic construction permit, which must be in hand before the county will issue the building permit. Applications are filed online through the county's CivicGov project portal or by email to inspections@gcva.us. Detailed building permits typically take two to three weeks of plan-review time.
County assessor
Greene County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue (Kimberly Tate, elected Commissioner) through a contracted third-party mass-appraisal vendor on a two-year general reassessment cycle. The county moved off the Virginia default four-year cycle (Va. Code § 58.1-3252) to a two-year cadence by Board of Supervisors action; reassessment notices for the current cycle were mailed on February 14, 2025 with an appointment-scheduling deadline of March 3, 2025 for informal assessor review and March 28, 2025 for the Board of Equalization. An ADU or Section 16-1-5 second-dwelling addition is captured via the supplemental-assessment process under Va. Code § 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 ADU or Section 16-1-5 second dwelling is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32 and specifically as a supplemental assessment under § 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 mass-appraisal 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. Greene County has no ADU-specific assessment exemption. Standard Virginia tax-relief programs apply: elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code § 58.1-3210 (local option implemented by Greene County) and disabled-veteran exemption under § 58.1-3219.5, neither of which creates a separate carve-out for the accessory dwelling itself. Greene County administers a Land Use (use-value) assessment program under Va. Code § 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 second-dwelling addition to retain the deferred assessment.
County overlays (3)
Greene County administers three principal overlay regimes that bear on ADU and second-dwelling projects: (1) a General Floodplain District (FP) under the county zoning ordinance (FP section revised 3/23/2021) tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas on the Rapidan, Rivanna, and their tributaries; (2) conservation easements held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the Piedmont Environmental Council, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, with material concentration along the Shenandoah National Park boundary on the county's west edge (Shenandoah Borderlands Conservation Initiative); (3) the Land Use (use-value) program administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue under Va. Code § 58.1-3230, which does not restrict ADU construction but can be breached by one, removing the deferred-assessment benefit. Greene County has no coastal-commission jurisdiction (it is a fully inland Piedmont county with no Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act reach), no statewide WUI-equivalent regulatory overlay (Virginia has none), no seismic-retrofit overlay, and no Part 150 airport-noise overlay (no commercial airport inside the county). Shenandoah National Park occupies the county's western boundary ridge along the Blue Ridge but is federal land and does not extend regulatory reach into private parcels; however, the National Park Service's cultural and dark-sky values inform the PEC Shenandoah Borderlands easement push on privately held adjacent lands.
- General Floodplain District (FP)
- Conservation Easement Overlay (VOF, PEC, NRCS / Shenandoah Borderlands)
- Land Use (use-value) assessment program
Known county issues (4)
- policy-review — Owners looking for a compact (300-800 sqft) detached ADU on a small R-1 lot in Ruckersville or Stanardsville cannot rely on a formal by-right ADU allowance; the project requires a Zoning Administrator accessory-use determination or a special use permit, with outcome dependent on the Administrator's interpretation. Owners with 16 or more acres in A-1 or C-1 have a clear by-right path under Section 16-1-5, but the resulting unit is a full second single-family dwelling (no size cap), which may be more structure than the owner wanted. Until the Comprehensive Plan's ADU toolkit lands in an ordinance amendment, proformas must be built against the current ordinance's two-track structure rather than a single clean ADU category.
- other — A Section 16-1-5 second dwelling on a rural A-1 or C-1 parcel typically requires either an expansion of the existing septic system or an entirely new septic system and well for the second unit, which adds a VDH-administered timeline (30 to 90 days for a new system evaluation and permit) and several thousand dollars in design and construction costs beyond the county's building-permit fees. Parcels with shallow bedrock or poor percolation on the Blue Ridge foothills may face further siting constraints.
- other — 'Zoning permits a second dwelling under Section 16-1-5' is frequently not the binding constraint on western Greene County parcels - the recorded easement is. Many VOF and NRCS easements cap residential density at one dwelling per parcel or at a density below the zoning ordinance's one-per-16-acres rate, which would prohibit the Section 16-1-5 additional dwelling even where the zoning ordinance would otherwise allow it. Owners must pull the recorded easement and consult the easement holder before pursuing a zoning permit.
- policy-review — An accessory-dwelling or Section 16-1-5 second-dwelling project completing across a cycle boundary will see a supplemental assessment during the improvement year under Va. Code § 58.1-3292 and a fresh full reassessment at the next two-year cycle reset rather than waiting three or four years. This compresses the time between an additional dwelling being built and being fully re-valued at fair-market value, accelerating the property-tax impact relative to a traditional four-year-cycle county.
Virginia state — ADU law and programs
State ADU law
Virginia has NOT enacted a statewide ADU preemption law. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state — localities possess only those powers expressly granted by the General Assembly — and the statutes granting zoning authority (Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq.) leave ADU regulation to local ordinances. ADU permission, setbacks, parking, size, and owner-occupancy rules therefore vary by county, independent city, and town. Virginia is unique in that it has 38 independent cities that function as counties (neither in nor subordinate to the surrounding county), meaning 'the county' for any given Virginia property may be an independent city rather than a true county. Several ADU preemption bills have been introduced in recent General Assembly sessions (2022 through 2025) without enactment; none have advanced past committee as of the Assembly's 2026 regular session adjournment.
State financing programs
Virginia does not operate an ADU-specific statewide loan, grant, or forgivable-loan program. Virginia Housing (formerly the Virginia Housing Development Authority, VHDA — rebranded 2020) administers general first-time-homebuyer, down-payment-assistance (DPA), mortgage-credit-certificate, and rehabilitation products that can be applied to ADU-adjacent purchases or improvements when eligibility criteria are met, but none target ADU construction as a distinct product. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administers federal HOME and CDBG pass-through funds that local jurisdictions can direct toward ADU-adjacent rehab, but there is no state-level ADU-dedicated line item. Federally available products (FHA 203(k), Fannie Mae HomeReady and HomeStyle Renovation, Freddie Mac CHOICERenovation) remain the primary ADU financing path for Virginia homeowners.
State housing programs
Virginia does not run a state-level pre-approved-ADU-plan catalog, statewide impact-fee-waiver statute for ADUs, or streamlined-review mandate. State-level programs that touch ADU-adjacent policy are coordinated primarily through the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and Virginia Housing, and act by funding or assisting local jurisdictions rather than by preemption. Local ADU activity — Arlington County's Accessory Dwellings program (detached ADUs permitted since 2008, liberalized 2020), Alexandria's accessory-dwelling ordinance, Fairfax County's accessory-living-unit program, and Charlottesville's 2021 zoning-code changes — is authorized under the localities' Va. Code § 15.2-2280 zoning authority, not by state mandate.
- DHCD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program — Federal CDBG funds administered by DHCD to eligible non-entitlement Virginia localities for community-revitalization, housing-rehab, and infrastructure projects. Not ADU-specific. Participating localities can direct CDBG funds toward housing-rehab projects where local policy supports ADUs.
- DHCD HOME Investment Partnerships Program — Federal HOME funds administered by DHCD to Virginia participating jurisdictions and non-profits for affordable-housing acquisition, rehab, and new construction. Not ADU-specific; can be directed to ADU-adjacent rehab at local discretion.
- Virginia Housing Commission — Permanent advisory commission of the General Assembly that studies housing-policy questions and recommends legislation. Has periodically studied ADU preemption and missing-middle housing without recommending statewide enactment as of 2026-04-21.
- Local ADU ordinances under Va. Code § 15.2-2280 authority — Not a state program — listed here because Virginia ADU policy is executed entirely at the locality level under the § 15.2-2280 zoning grant. A homeowner seeking to build an ADU consults the zoning ordinance of the specific county, city, or town where the parcel is located.
Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs
Federal ADU law
The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.
Federal financing programs
Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.
Federal tax credits
There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.
Federal housing programs
HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.