ADU Pass
King and Queen County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in King and Queen County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. We cover 9 cities and 16 ZIP codes in this county.
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County ADU details
County ADU ordinance
King and Queen County does NOT maintain a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance with dedicated definitional or dimensional standards. ADUs in the county are regulated indirectly through the Zoning Ordinance's treatment of 'accessory use,' 'accessory structure,' and 'dwelling, single-family detached,' combined with the per-district use schedules in Chapter 86. In the Agricultural (A-1, Agricultural Limited) and Rural Residential / Conservation districts, which cover the great majority of county acreage, one principal dwelling per lot is permitted by right with customary accessory structures; a second independent dwelling unit with kitchen facilities typically requires a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) from the Board of Supervisors after Planning Commission recommendation. A 'family-member' or 'tenant dwelling / farm labor dwelling' allowance is recognized in agricultural districts subject to minimum lot area and agricultural-use demonstration. In Residential Single-Family districts, a second dwelling also requires a Conditional Use Permit. A 'guest house' accessory structure without independent kitchen facilities (no cooking facilities) is generally permitted as a by-right accessory structure subject to district setback, height, and lot-coverage standards. Applicants should confirm current ordinance text with the Zoning Administrator (Donna Elliott Sprouse, Director of Community Development, 804-785-5975 x2 option 1) before committing to a project pro forma.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
King and Queen County's Department of Community Development handles zoning permits, Conditional Use Permits, site plan review, subdivision review, Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act review, and floodplain development permits. Codes Compliance handles land disturbance, wetlands, and environmental codes. Because the county has no incorporated towns, the county is the only local permitting authority for every parcel (unlike neighboring counties where a town carve-out exists). A typical ADU-like permit bundle (where a second dwelling is permitted) includes: (1) a Conditional Use Permit from the Board of Supervisors with Planning Commission recommendation, unless the parcel qualifies for an agricultural tenant or farm-labor dwelling allowance, (2) a Zoning Permit confirming use compliance and district setback compliance, (3) a Building Permit with stamped residential plans, (4) Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical trade permits, (5) a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) - Three Rivers Health District construction permit for well and/or septic — the great majority of parcels in the county rely on private wells and onsite septic, as there is no material public utility coverage in the county, (6) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel is within the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area along the Mattaponi River or its tidal tributaries, (7) a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act review — King and Queen County IS a Tidewater locality subject to the CBPA, so Resource Protection Area (RPA) and Resource Management Area (RMA) rules apply across tidal-water-adjacent parcels, and (8) Wetlands permits where applicable.
County assessor
King and Queen County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue. The Commissioner's office prepares the land book and personal property book annually, assesses all new construction and changes to improvements on real estate, and administers state income-tax processing for county residents. An ADU or second-dwelling addition is captured through the supplemental real-estate-improvement process under Va. Code § 58.1-3292: the Commissioner of the Revenue receives the building-permit record and Certificate of Occupancy from Community Development / Codes Compliance, and adds the ADU's assessed value to the parcel's land and improvement base, prorated to the completion date. The primary dwelling is NOT re-valued off-cycle as a result of the ADU addition. The county operates on the Virginia default general-reassessment cadence under Va. Code § 58.1-3252, with reassessments typically contracted to an outside assessment firm. Real Estate Tax is due December 5 annually.
Assessment policy: An ADU is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32. On receipt of the building permit and (later) the Certificate of Occupancy from Community Development / Codes Compliance, the Commissioner of the Revenue prorates the supplemental assessment from the completion date through the end of the tax year under Va. Code § 58.1-3292. The ADU is added at its assessed fair-market value (typically derived from cost approach using residential cost multipliers calibrated to the current reassessment-cycle base) on top of the parcel's existing land and improvement value; the existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle. There is no King-and-Queen-County-specific ADU assessment exemption. Standard Virginia real-estate tax relief programs (elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code § 58.1-3210 as adopted locally, disabled-veteran exemption under Va. Code § 58.1-3219.5) apply to the homeowner's principal residence and may extend to the parcel as a whole depending on local-option rules; they do not create a separate carve-out for the ADU itself.
County overlays (4)
King and Queen County administers several overlay regimes that bear materially on ADU projects: (1) a Floodplain Overlay District tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Mattaponi River and its tidal tributaries — the county is river-bounded on the south (Mattaponi) and drained on the north by Dragon Run, so a meaningful share of low-lying parcels are in-mapped floodplain; (2) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act jurisdiction across the county (King and Queen is a Tidewater locality designated under Va. Code § 62.1-44.15:67 et seq.), with Resource Protection Area (RPA) buffers of 100 feet from perennial water bodies and tidal wetlands, and Resource Management Area (RMA) coverage across additional landward extent; RPA Exception Applications are processed through Community Development; (3) locally-adopted wetlands protections administered through Codes Compliance. King and Queen County has NO California-style coastal commission (Virginia has no coastal-commission analog; coastal regulation flows through the CBPA, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for tidal-wetlands permits, and local ordinances), NO CalFire-equivalent WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has no statewide WUI overlay), and NO seismic-retrofit overlay. There are no FAA Part 150 airport noise zones reaching the county.
Known county issues (6)
- other — ADU pro formas that would pencil as by-right or ministerial projects in jurisdictions with codified ADU ordinances require a discretionary CUP cycle in King and Queen County. This adds roughly 90-180 days of wall-clock, a CUP application fee of $1,000 + $10/acre, neighbor-notification and public-hearing burdens, and case-by-case conditions imposed by the Board of Supervisors. Applicants should budget accordingly and should confirm whether an A-1 tenant or farm-labor dwelling allowance or a no-kitchen 'guest house' accessory structure path can satisfy the use case without a CUP.
- other — On tidal-frontage and creek-frontage parcels, the CBPA RPA is often the binding constraint on ADU siting — more binding than the zoning ordinance's use rules. Applicants should (a) pull the county GIS (kingandqueengis.timmons.com) to confirm RPA / RMA footprint before committing to a detached ADU, (b) budget 30-60 days for CBPA review where the project approaches the buffer, and (c) prepare a Water Quality Impact Assessment if encroachment is unavoidable. Exceptions to the RPA buffer for new residential structures are rarely granted.
- other — A parcel title check for public or private conservation easements is an essential early step for any ADU project on a parcel in or near the Dragon Run corridor. Easement terms can preclude new accessory construction regardless of county zoning approval — applicants who skip this check risk a full CUP cycle and building-permit approval followed by an easement-violation blocker. Budget for a parcel-level title review and an early conversation with the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission if the parcel is in the Dragon Run watershed.
- other — VDH well-and-septic evaluation is a separate timeline from county permit review and has experienced episodic backlogs as post-pandemic permit volume rose against a stable VDH staffing baseline. Applicants should initiate VDH application in parallel with — not after — the county pre-application inquiry. Parcels with marginal soils for conventional septic may need alternative onsite-sewage (AOSS) design, which adds cost ($15k-$40k incremental over conventional) and a longer engineering-and-permit timeline. Existing primary-dwelling septic systems may not have capacity for a second dwelling, requiring a system upgrade before the ADU can be permitted.
- staffing-shortage — Plan-review and CUP-processing timelines in King and Queen County can run longer than comparable projects in more-staffed counties simply because reviewer capacity is limited. Schedule a pre-application meeting early and expect less same-day responsiveness than in Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, or Fairfax Counties. Applicants with complex CUP projects should factor in 15-30 days additional scheduling latency vs. the statutory timelines. Direct contact (804-785-5975 x2 option 1) with the Director is often faster than email queue.
- policy-review — Applicants should confirm the current ordinance text with the Zoning Administrator (804-785-5975 x2 option 1) rather than relying on prior summaries, and should be alert to General Assembly session outcomes in any year when an ADU preemption bill is introduced. A pre-application zoning inquiry is strongly recommended before architectural or engineering investment — the Zoning Administrator's interpretation is frequently the difference between a by-right accessory-structure path and a full CUP cycle.
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.