Lee County

Lee County's Department of Community Development is a one-stop department combining planning, zoning, building, and code-enforcement functions. A typical ADU-like permit bundle includes: (1) pre-application zoning inquiry to determine whether the project qualifies for a by-right accessory-structure path or requires a Conditional Use Permit, (2) zoning permit confirming use compliance and per-district performance standards, (3) building permit with stamped residential plans, (4) electrical, plumbing, and mechanical trade permits, (5) Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Lenowisco Health District construction permit for well and onsite septic for parcels not served by Lee County Public Service Authority (LCPSA) public water and (where applicable) sewer, (6) floodplain development permit if any portion of the parcel is within the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area along the Powell River, North Fork Powell, or their tributaries, and (7) erosion-and-sediment-control / land-disturbance permit. For parcels with a coal-mining or coal-bed-methane history, additional title and surface-rights review is recommended; severed mineral rights are common in the Central Appalachian coalfield and can affect surface use, structure siting, and subsidence risk.

Lee County real estate is assessed under the supervision of the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue, with periodic general reassessments contracted to an outside assessment firm hired by the Board of Supervisors (the Commissioner of the Revenue does not perform the general reassessment in-house). The Commissioner administers the land book annually, processes personal property and business tangible assessments, processes state income-tax returns, and (distinctively for Lee) administers a Severance Tax on coal under the county Severance Ordinance: 1.5% on monthly gross receipts under 10,000 tons and 2% on monthly gross receipts of 10,000 tons or more. Mineral interest reporting flows through the Commissioner's office. An ADU or second-dwelling addition is captured through the supplemental real-estate-improvement process under Va. Code § 58.1-3292.

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 Certificate of Occupancy from Community Development, the Commissioner of the Revenue's office initiates the supplemental assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3292, prorated from the completion date through the end of the tax year. The ADU is added at its assessed fair-market value (typically derived by the contracted reassessment firm using cost-approach residential cost multipliers) on top of the parcel's existing land and improvement value; the existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle. There is no Lee-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, Land Use Assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3230 et seq. for qualifying agricultural / forestal / horticultural / open-space land) apply per local-option rules. For parcels with severed mineral rights, the surface owner's real-estate tax base does not include the mineral interest, which is separately assessed.

Lee County administers a Floodplain Overlay tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Powell River, North Fork Powell, Wallen Creek, Indian Creek, and other tributaries. The county is NOT a Tidewater locality and is therefore NOT subject to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act — Lee's drainages flow to the Tennessee River system via the Powell River, not the Chesapeake Bay. The county includes Cumberland Gap National Historical Park federal land at the tri-state corner, which is outside county zoning jurisdiction. Karst geology is significant in portions of the county (Powell Valley limestone), with associated sinkhole, cave, and groundwater-protection considerations. A long history of underground coal mining underlies surface parcels in the central and northern county, with associated subsidence risk and severed-mineral title issues. Locally adopted Agricultural and Forestal Districts (Va. Code § 15.2-4300 et seq.) preserve farmland on a renewable petition basis. Lee County has NO designated coastal-commission analog (none exists in Virginia), NO statewide WUI regulatory overlay, and NO seismic-retrofit overlay. There are no FAA Part 150 commercial-airport noise zones reaching the county.

• Floodplain Overlay District
• Karst geology and severed-mineral / coal-subsidence considerations
• Cumberland Gap National Historical Park federal-land buffer
• Agricultural and Forestal District (state-enabled, locally-adopted)