ADU Pass
Ben Hur
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Ben Hur, No County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Lee County zoning ordinance governs Ben Hur. Light county enforcement and large rural lot sizes make ADU permitting comparatively straightforward, but private septic and county sign-off are still required.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted under Lee County zoning subject to standard accessory-dwelling conditions.
- Short-term rental: unclear Limited tourism demand in far-southwest VA coalfield country; STR economics weak.
- Office rental: unclear Commercial office use of accessory structure typically requires district-specific allowance.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupation permitted under standard county conditions.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/studio is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: yes Lee County is heavily rural/agricultural; livestock and farm accessory uses are common.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is the canonical use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Lee County Public Service Authority (limited coverage along US-58 Alt corridor) or private well
- Sewer: Private septic (Virginia Department of Health regulated)
- Electric: Powell Valley Electric Cooperative
- Gas: No piped natural gas in most of Lee County; propane only
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
US Route 58 Alternate is a winding two-lane mountain road through the Powell Valley; oversize-load modular delivery requires a Tennessee-side approach via I-81 and route survey.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Rural coalfield region with essentially no HOA presence.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- other
Lee County is in Virginia's coalfield region; some parcels overlie historic underground coal mines or active surface-mining permits. Title and subsidence review recommended before significant new investment.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Lee County, Virginia Zoning Ordinance (2014), adopted 2014-01-01
- 1921-01-01 — Ben Hur post office established (community-founding)
Community founded by Auburn Pridemore and named for the Lew Wallace novel; ZIP 24218.
Effect: Defines the community boundary recognized in Lee County addressing. - 2014-01-01 — Lee County, Virginia Zoning Ordinance — 2014 adoption (final-for-public-hearing version) (county-ordinance)
Lee County's comprehensive zoning ordinance, adopted in 2014, governs land use across the county including unincorporated hamlets like Ben Hur.
Effect: Established district map, dimensional standards, and permit-application requirements for new construction including accessory dwellings. - 2024-07-01 — Virginia HB1832 (2025) — statewide ADU framework with delayed 2026-07-01 effective date (state-law)
By-right ADUs in single-family residential zones statewide; $500 fee cap.
Effect: Lee County will need to align its discretionary review framework with state by-right standard.
Known issues (2)
County: no attribution (synthetic bucket)
No county
This city sits in the state's "no county" bucket — its ADU rules derive directly from state law and city ordinance without a county intermediary. No county-level sections apply.
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 Code
- 24218
Post Office
- 37997 Veterans Memorial Hwy, 24218