New Kent

New Kent County, Virginia does NOT maintain a standalone modern accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance with codified size caps, setback standards, and by-right ministerial paths. Chapter 98 instead regulates accessory residential use through two defined use categories: a 'guest house' (living quarters in an attached accessory building located on the same premises as the main dwelling, for use by guests of the occupants of the premises, NOT rented or otherwise used as a separate dwelling — i.e., no independent kitchen-for-rent / no separate lease), and a 'tenant house' (living quarters within a portion of a main building or in an accessory building located on the same lot, used for persons EMPLOYED on the premises — an employment-nexus allowance, not a market-rent ADU). A fully independent detached second dwelling with kitchen facilities and separate household is NOT a defined use category; such a second dwelling typically requires either (a) subdivision of the parcel into two lots meeting the district's minimum lot area (as small as well-and-septic soils allow, with no statutory acreage minimum in A-1), or (b) a Special Use Permit (called 'Conditional Use Permit' in some Chapter 98 contexts) from the Board of Supervisors with Planning Commission recommendation. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state with NO statewide ADU preemption (see src/data/state-adu-research/virginia.json for the full state framework) — ADU preemption bills have been introduced in every General Assembly session 2022 through 2025 without enactment. New Kent County's Chapter 98 therefore operates without any state floor that would mandate permissibility, ministerial review, fee caps, or removal of owner-occupancy conditions. Applicants planning an accessory dwelling in New Kent should (a) confirm the parcel's zoning district on the County GIS at gis.vgsi.com/newkentcountyva, (b) consult the Chapter 98 use table for the applicable district, (c) identify whether the parcel sits in the Resource Protection Area (RPA) or Resource Management Area (RMA) under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Program or within a mapped FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, and (d) engage the Planning Division pre-application.

• New Kent County Code, Chapter 98 (Zoning) — the ordinance in effect county-wide; definitions (guest house, tenant house, accessory building, accessory use, dwelling, family), use tables and supplementary regulations per district, Conditional / Special Use Permit provisions, and overlay districts.
• New Kent County Code, Chapter 18 (Chesapeake Bay Preservation / Environmental) and companion county-environment chapters implementing the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act locally.
• Virginia Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. (zoning enabling authority for Virginia counties); § 15.2-2286 (provisions that may be included in a zoning ordinance); § 15.2-2285 (procedure for adopting and amending a zoning ordinance); § 15.2-2309 (Board of Zoning Appeals authority); Dillon Rule doctrine.
• Virginia Code § 62.1-44.15:67 et seq. (Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act); 9 VAC 25-830 et seq. (CBPA implementing regulations including § 9VAC25-830-120 general performance criteria).

State-floor overlay: Virginia has NOT enacted a statewide ADU preemption law. Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. delegates zoning authority to counties, independent cities, and towns, subject to planning-commission procedure and advertised public hearing under § 15.2-2285. No state floor mandates ADU permissibility, ministerial review, minimum allowed size, parking-requirement ceilings, or removal of owner-occupancy requirements. Localities can and do heavily condition or prohibit independent second dwellings under this framework. ADU preemption bills have been introduced in the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Virginia General Assembly sessions without enactment; 2026 session activity is summarized in the state file. New Kent County's Chapter 98 therefore operates without a state ceiling on local restrictions.

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

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.