ADU Pass
Newport News
Newport News city portion
Also in: No County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Newport News, Newport News city, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 8 ZIP codes.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Newport News allows ADUs by-right in all single-family-permitting districts (October 2024 ordinance). STR is PROHIBITED for ADUs; minimum lease is 30 consecutive days. CBPA, coastal flooding, and Joint Base Langley-Eustis (Fort Eustis component) noise contours affect specific neighborhoods.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $2,400 | $60,000 | $62,400 |
| midpoint | 600 | $2,400 | $180,000 | $182,400 |
| 600 | 600 | $2,400 | $180,000 | $182,400 |
| 1000 | 1,000 | $2,400 | $300,000 | $302,400 |
| maximum | 1,000 | $2,400 | $300,000 | $302,400 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted with 30-day minimum lease term. Virginia landlord-tenant law governs.
- Short-term rental: no PROHIBITED. The 2024 Newport News ADU ordinance expressly prohibits short-term rental (Airbnb / VRBO) use of an ADU. Minimum lease term is 30 consecutive days. This is unusually restrictive among Virginia jurisdictions and the principal investor-economics constraint in Newport News ADU planning.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental requires home-occupation approval; not the design pathway for the 2024 ADU ordinance.
- Home office: yes Home occupation is permitted in residential districts.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: no Newport News is fully urban; agricultural use is not a relevant pathway.
- Relative support: yes Family member dwelling / in-law suite is a principal use case under the 2024 ordinance, and the absence of STR restrictions on relatives makes this the cleanest ADU pathway.
Contacts
Staff: Newport News Zoning Division (Zoning Administrator), Newport News Codes Compliance (Building Official)
Utilities
- Water: Newport News Waterworks (regional water provider; also serves Hampton, James City, York, and parts of Poquoson) · 30d connect · $4,500
- Sewer: Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) for treatment; Newport News municipal collection · 45d connect · $7,000
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia · 30d connect · $2,300
- Gas: Virginia Natural Gas serves Newport News · 21d connect · $1,800
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 7mo · typical 11mo · worst 16mo
Modular pathway inspectors are experienced with modular
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
HOA prevalence is meaningful in newer Newport News subdivisions (Kiln Creek, Lee Hall, etc.) but absent in older historic neighborhoods (Hilton Village, East End, Hidenwood, Riverside). HOA covenants may prohibit ADUs even where city zoning permits them.
Regulatory overlays (4)
- wetland-overlay
Newport News is fully Tidewater. RPA 100-ft buffers apply along James River, Hampton Creek, Salters Creek, Lake Maury / Mariner's Park tributaries. (map) - flood-zone
Coastal Plain geography means a substantial share of Newport News parcels intersect mapped SFHA, particularly south of I-64 and along James River and tributary frontage. (map) - airport-noise-zone
Northern Newport News parcels can fall within PHF approach contours; Fort Eustis-vicinity parcels under Felker Army Airfield contours. (map) - historic-district
Multiple NRHP-listed districts exist in Newport News; ADU additions to contributing structures may trigger additional DHR / federal review. (map)
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: City of Newport News Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 8 of Code; ADU provisions added 2024), adopted 1958-07-01, last amended 2024-10-01
- 1958-07-01 — Newport News and Warwick consolidate to form modern Newport News (state-statute)
The independent City of Newport News merged with the former Warwick County (which had been re-chartered as the City of Warwick in 1952) on July 1, 1958, forming the modern City of Newport News with its present 119-square-mile boundary.
Effect: Established the modern Newport News city boundary; ADU policy applies to a much larger geography than the pre-1958 historic Newport News. - 1988-07-01 — Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act applies to Newport News (state-statute)
Newport News is fully within the Tidewater CBPA region; RPA 100-ft buffers apply along the James River shoreline and tidal tributaries (Salters Creek, Hampton Creek, Lake Maury / Mariner's Park).
Effect: RPA buffer constraints affect ADU siting on a meaningful share of city parcels. - 2024-09-23 — Newport News City Council unanimously approves ADU ordinance (city-ordinance)
City Council voted unanimously to permit accessory dwelling units in all zoning districts in which single-family dwellings are permitted. Effective October 1, 2024. ADUs must comply with size / height / architectural-compatibility standards.
Effect: Made Newport News one of the more ADU-friendly Virginia jurisdictions in zoning terms - but prohibited STR use of the ADUs and imposed a 30-day minimum lease, which materially constrains investor-return profile.
Known issues (2)
- other — Substantially reduces payback-period attractiveness compared with jurisdictions that permit STR; aligns ADU investment with long-term-rental cash flow only.
- other — Adds $5K-$15K to typical ADU project for design compliance.
Newport News (independent city) — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Newport News adopted an Accessory Dwelling Unit ordinance in September 2024 (effective October 1, 2024) that PERMITS ADUs as a use within all zoning districts in which single-family dwellings are permitted. The ordinance is one of the more permissive ADU regimes in Tidewater Virginia. Per the City Council action: ADUs are smaller, self-contained living spaces with their own kitchen, bathroom, and living areas, created by converting garages, building carriage houses, or adding in-law suites; size and height limits apply; the ADU must match the architectural style of the primary residence. Specific numeric size caps, owner-occupancy provisions, parking requirements, and short-term-rental treatment are codified in the Chapter 45 Zoning Ordinance amendment text and the Codes Compliance implementing materials. Confirm current ordinance text with the Department of Planning at 757-933-2311 and the Codes Compliance permit office before architectural design — the ordinance is recent (2024) and post-adoption administrative interpretation continues to evolve. Newport News took the legislative step that many Virginia localities have not: by-right ADU permission in single-family-permitted districts, motivated by 'pro-growth' housing-supply policy in a city that City Council described as 'essentially built out.'
County regulatory overlays
Newport News administers a Floodplain Overlay tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas — given the city's lower-elevation Tidewater geography and extensive shoreline along the James River, Hampton Roads, Warwick River, and other waterbodies, a substantial share of parcels are in-mapped SFHA, including coastal high-hazard (V / VE) zones along Bay-facing reaches. The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Overlay covers the entire city under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Joint Base Langley-Eustis spans into Newport News and creates an FAA / Department of Defense airspace and noise-coordination overlay around Langley Air Force Base operations and Joint Base Langley-Eustis Army aviation. Newport News / Williamsburg International Airport (PHF) generates an FAA Part 150 noise contour reaching adjacent neighborhoods. The Newport News Shipbuilding industrial waterfront and the Hampton Roads port generate significant industrial-residential adjacency in older neighborhoods. Newport News has NO designated coastal-commission analog beyond the CBPA / VMRC / Army Corps stack, NO statewide WUI regulatory overlay, and NO seismic-retrofit overlay.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
A typical ADU permit bundle in Newport News under the 2024 ordinance includes: (1) pre-application zoning inquiry to confirm by-right eligibility and review architectural-compatibility requirements, (2) zoning permit confirming ADU use compliance and Chapter 45 performance standards, (3) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act review (Newport News is a designated Tidewater locality under the CBPA; RPA / RMA buffer review applies on parcels with proximity to the James River, Hampton Roads, Lake Maury, the Warwick River, and other waterbodies), (4) building permit application via the Citizen Self Service Portal at the Department of Codes Compliance with stamped residential plans complying with the 2021 Virginia Construction Code (Part I of the Virginia USBC, effective January 18, 2024), (5) electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and (where applicable) fuel gas, fire protection, and elevator trade permits, (6) connection to city water and sewer (Newport News Waterworks and Hampton Roads Sanitation District; the city is fully served by public utilities — well and onsite septic are essentially absent in the modern city), (7) floodplain development permit where the parcel is within the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area (much of the lower-elevation city near tidal water is in-mapped), and (8) erosion-and-sediment-control / land-disturbance permit (Tidewater 2,500 sqft threshold).
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
- 23601
- 23602
- 23603
- 23604
- 23605
- 23606
- 23607
- 23608
Post Office
- 101 25th St, 23607
- 10830 Warwick Blvd, 23601
- 14104 Warwick Blvd, 23602
- 17415 Warwick Blvd, 23603
- 25 Hidenwood Shopping Ctr, 23606
- 636 79th St, 23605
- 685 Turnberry Blvd, 23608
- 759 J Clyde Morris Blvd, 23601