ADU Pass
Bena
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Bena, 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
Gloucester County permits ADUs subject to size caps and owner-occupancy. Bena's location on the Guinea Neck peninsula imposes Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and FEMA SFHA overlays similar to neighboring Achilles.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted subject to county owner-occupancy requirement.
- Short-term rental: unclear Guinea Neck has modest waterfront tourism demand (fishing, boating). Confirm current county STR ordinance separately.
- Office rental: unclear Typically requires rezoning in residential districts.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupation permitted under standard conditions.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/studio is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited agricultural accessory uses in RC; livestock varies.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is the canonical use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (no public water main on Guinea Neck)
- Sewer: Private septic (Virginia Department of Health regulated)
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia
- Gas: No piped natural gas; propane only
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Route 216 from Gloucester Point to Bena is a two-lane peninsula road with limited turnaround room; modular delivery requires route survey.
Insurance impact
Flood insurance essentially mandatory on Guinea Neck regardless of lender requirements.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Regulatory overlays (2)
- flood-zone
Bena sits on the Guinea Neck peninsula at low elevation; large portions of the area are FEMA AE or VE Special Flood Hazard Areas with finished-floor elevation requirements. - wetland-overlay
Shoreline-adjacent parcels along Bena's tidal frontage fall within the CBPA RPA, restricting disturbance within 100 ft of tidal waters and tributaries.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Gloucester County Code of Ordinances, Appendix B — Zoning
- 2024-06-26 — Gloucester County Zoning Ordinance comprehensive rewrite — Planning Commission public hearing (county-ordinance)
Final draft of comprehensive zoning ordinance presented to the Planning Commission.
Effect: Retains accessory-apartment / accessory-dwelling framework with refined definitions. - 2024-07-01 — Virginia HB1832 (2025) — statewide ADU framework, delayed 2026-07-01 effective date (state-law)
By-right ADUs in single-family residential zones statewide; $500 fee cap.
Effect: Would override Gloucester's discretionary review when effective.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — Virginia HB1832 (2026-07-01 effective date) would override Gloucester's discretionary review for single-family-zone ADUs. (source)
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
- 23018
Post Office
- 8833 Guinea Rd, 23018