New Kent County

Because New Kent County contains NO incorporated towns or cities, every parcel in the county is 'unincorporated' and is permitted directly by the county. Three county departments coordinate ADU-relevant review: (1) the Planning Division (under Community Development) handles zoning compliance, rezoning, Conditional / Special Use Permits, site plan review, and subdivision review under Chapter 98; (2) the Department of Building Development enforces the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) — plan review, permit issuance, inspections; (3) the Environmental Department administers the local Chesapeake Bay Preservation Program (RPA/RMA) and floodplain review. A typical ADU-like permit bundle includes a Planning zoning determination, a Building Development building permit and trade permits, an Environmental Department CBPA review where applicable, a Virginia Department of Health (VDH — Three Rivers or Chickahominy Health District) onsite-sewage and well evaluation for parcels not on public utilities (the great majority), and a Floodplain Development Permit where any portion of the parcel is within the mapped FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area along the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, York, or Mattaponi drainages and their tributaries.

New Kent County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue (Real Estate Division). New Kent operates on a periodic general-reassessment cycle under Va. Code § 58.1-3252 and completed a county-wide reassessment effective January 1, 2026 — so values on the current tax rolls reflect that reassessment baseline. 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 and Certificate of Occupancy from Building Development, and the Real Estate Division adds the ADU's assessed fair-market 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. New Kent County's real-estate data is published on Vision Government Solutions' hosted portal at gis.vgsi.com/newkentcountyva and is also accessible through the Munis Self Service portal at newkentva.munisselfservice.com.

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 the Department of Building Development, the Real Estate Division 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 the Vision Government Solutions residential cost model calibrated to the January 2026 reassessment baseline) on top of the parcel's existing land and improvement value; the existing primary dwelling is NOT re-valued off-cycle. There is no New-Kent-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.

New Kent 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 Pamunkey River (northern county boundary, tidal throughout New Kent's frontage), the Chickahominy River (southern county boundary, tidal throughout its New Kent frontage), their confluence into the York River at the county's east end, and a dense dendritic network of tidal tributaries — New Kent's river-bounded geometry means a substantial fraction of low-lying parcels are in-mapped floodplain; (2) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act jurisdiction across the entire county (New Kent is a designated Tidewater locality 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 — administered by the New Kent Environmental Department; (3) locally-adopted historic overlays along the county-seat cluster at New Kent Courthouse and along the colonial-era Route 60 / Route 249 corridors, with NRHP-listed properties scattered throughout (New Kent has deep colonial and Civil War history — the Battle of Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, and Savage's Station engagements of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign crossed parts of the county). New Kent County has NO California-style coastal commission (Virginia has no coastal-commission analog), NO CalFire-equivalent WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has no statewide WUI overlay), and NO seismic-retrofit overlay. There is no commercial airport inside New Kent County, so no FAA Part 150 noise zone applies; Richmond International (RIC) to the west and Newport News / Williamsburg (PHF) to the east have noise contours that stop well short of New Kent.

• Floodplain Overlay District
• Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) Resource Protection Area and Resource Management Area
• New Kent County historic overlays and NRHP-listed rural corridors