ADU Pass
Ewing
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Ewing, Lee County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 2 ZIP codes.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Ewing is a small unincorporated community at the western tip of Lee County on US 58, immediately east of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (NPS) and the Virginia / Kentucky / Tennessee tri-state corner. The federal-fee NPS land at Cumberland Gap NHP is outside county jurisdiction; surrounding parcels are governed by the Lee County Zoning Ordinance (2014 adoption). ADUs are regulated through accessory-use and Conditional Use Permit provisions. STR demand is moderate due to NHP visitor traffic and the Wilderness Road State Park nearby. The Powell River and the Powell Valley Floodplain affect lower-elevation parcels; the Central Appalachian coalfield SMCRA subsidence overlay affects parcels with historic mining.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $1,500 | $45,120 | $46,620 |
| 600 | 600 | $1,500 | $135,360 | $136,860 |
| maximum | 900 | $1,500 | $203,040 | $204,540 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-04)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of an ADU is generally permitted; Virginia landlord-tenant law (Va. Code Section 55.1-1200 et seq., the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) governs.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Lee County regulates STRs through its zoning ordinance; STR of an ADU typically requires registration and Transient Occupancy Tax compliance.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental requires a home-occupation permit or rezoning under home-occupation provisions.
- Home office: yes Home occupation is permitted in residential and rural districts with restrictions on signage, customer traffic, and outside storage.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio (artist, music, woodworking) is a permitted accessory use in residential and agricultural districts.
- Agriculture: yes Agricultural / Rural districts expressly permit farm structures and the keeping of livestock subject to setback rules; Lee County and the Tidewater counties have substantial Agricultural and Rural Conservation district acreage.
- Relative support: yes Family / multi-generational accessory dwelling is the most common pattern and is expressly permitted.
Contacts
Staff: Planning Counter (Zoning Administrator), Building Inspections (Building Official)
Utilities
- Water: Mostly private well; LCPSA serves limited US 58 corridor areas · 60d connect · $8,500
- Sewer: Mostly private septic; VDH-Lenowisco Health District permits and inspects · 90d connect · $14,500
- Electric: Powell Valley Electric Cooperative and Old Dominion Power (Kentucky Utilities) · 35d connect · $2,400
- Gas: Limited natural-gas distribution; bottled propane is the norm in most of Lee County · 14d connect · $1,900
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 9mo · typical 14mo · worst 24mo
Modular pathway inspectors are novice with modular
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Virginia has no HOA-ADU preemption. HOA covenants restricting ADUs are enforceable.
Regulatory overlays (3)
- flood-zone
FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area mapping along major rivers and tributaries. Floodplain Development Permit required when any portion of the parcel is in the SFHA; finished floor must clear Base Flood Elevation plus Virginia freeboard. (map) - other
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) records and historic underground-mining maps must be reviewed for parcels in the Central Appalachian coalfield. Severed mineral rights are common in Lee County (a meaningful share of parcels have surface rights separated from mineral / coal-bed-methane rights), and historic underground mines can pose subsidence risk. Title work should include surface-rights and severed-mineral review. (map) - other
Cumberland Gap NHP is federal NPS land at the Virginia / Kentucky / Tennessee tri-state corner; the federal-fee parcels are outside Lee County zoning. Surrounding Lee County parcels are subject to county zoning and the Lee County Zoning Ordinance (2014). Visual / scenic considerations from NPS overlooks may inform Conditional Use Permit conditions for visible structures. (map)
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Lee County Zoning Ordinance (2014 adoption, as amended) (governs Ewing), adopted 2014-01-01, last amended 2023-01-01
- 1979-01-01 — Va. Code Section 15.2-2280 zoning authority codified (Dillon Rule baseline) (state-statute)
Virginia delegated zoning authority to counties, cities, and towns without an ADU-specific preemption.
Effect: Each Virginia locality regulates ADUs through its own zoning ordinance; ADUs are not automatically permitted statewide.
Known issues (2)
- other — Title work should include severed-mineral and SMCRA-record review before architectural design; some parcels may be unbuildable or require deep-foundation engineering with substantial cost premium.
- other — Septic capacity for the existing primary dwelling plus the proposed ADU must be demonstrated; existing systems may need upgrade or AOSS design.
Lee County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Lee County does NOT maintain a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance with codified ADU-specific size caps, owner-occupancy provisions, or by-right paths. ADUs are regulated through the 2014 Zoning Ordinance's general treatment of 'accessory use,' 'accessory structure,' and the per-district use schedules. In the Agricultural and Rural Residential districts that 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 full 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 generally recognized in the agricultural district subject to minimum lot area. A no-kitchen 'guest house' accessory structure is generally permitted as a by-right accessory structure subject to district setbacks, height, and lot-coverage. Manufactured / mobile homes are an additional path in some districts, subject to specific manufactured-home siting standards. Confirm current ordinance text with the Zoning Department at 276-346-7766 before committing to a project pro forma — the ordinance is updated periodically and administrative interpretation is load-bearing.
County regulatory overlays
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.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
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.
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.
ZIP Codes
- 24248
- 24281
Post Office
- 1579 Dr Thomas Walker Rd, 24248