ADU Pass
Falls Church
No County portion
Also in: Fairfax County · Falls Church city
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Falls Church, 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
Falls Church is one of the most ADU-friendly jurisdictions in NoVA following the April 2025 ordinance update. ADs allow up to 4 persons, both attached and detached permitted by-right in R-1A/R-1B, owner-occupancy required. Special Use Permit pathway exists for conversion of existing non-conforming detached accessory structures.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 250 | $2,300 | $117,500 | $119,800 |
| 600 | 600 | $2,500 | $282,000 | $284,500 |
| midpoint | 575 | $2,500 | $270,250 | $272,750 |
| maximum | 900 | $2,700 | $423,000 | $425,700 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Long-term rental allowed in ADs subject to owner-occupancy requirement (owner occupies principal OR the AD). Maximum 4 persons in AD.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Falls Church regulates STRs separately; transient occupancy tax applies. STR not currently permitted in ADs; check current Section 48-1223.E compliance.
- Office rental: no Office rental to third parties not permitted in residential zones.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupation permitted with Falls Church Sec. 48 restrictions on signage and customer traffic.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/musician studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: no Falls Church is fully urbanized; no agricultural zones. Urban garden permitted; no livestock or commercial agriculture.
- Relative support: yes Family-member occupancy of AD explicitly permitted; owner-occupancy requirement satisfied if family-member-owner occupies.
Incentives
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Falls Church Water (wholesale from Fairfax Water) · 30d connect · $6,800
- Sewer: Falls Church Wastewater (treatment via Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant) · 35d connect · $7,800
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia · 30d connect · $2,300
- Gas: Washington Gas · 45d connect · $2,900
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 8mo · typical 12mo · worst 18mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Falls Church streets are narrow and densely platted; wide-load transport for modular sections requires careful route planning through Tysons or Arlington.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Falls Church has mostly single-family detached housing stock; HOA prevalence is low compared to suburban Fairfax County PD communities. Some townhouse/condo associations exist.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- historic-district
Falls Church Village Preservation District and several local historic-district overlays cover central Falls Church; ADs in these districts require Historic Architectural Review Board approval adding 60-90 days.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: City of Falls Church Zoning Ordinance Section 48-1223 (Accessory Dwellings), adopted 2020-01-01, last amended 2025-04-14
- 2024-04-16 — VPIS public summary of pre-amendment AD rules (city-ordinance)
Village Preservation and Improvement Society published summary of pre-amendment AD code as part of public-comment process leading to April 2025 update.
Effect: Public-record documentation of legacy interior-only AD framework prior to April 2025 expansion. - 2025-04-14 — Falls Church Accessory Dwelling Zoning Code Amendment adopted (city-ordinance)
City Council approved comprehensive update to Section 48-1223 of the Zoning Ordinance, expanding from interior-only ADs to allow detached accessory dwellings by-right in R-1A and R-1B zones.
Effect: Made Falls Church one of the first NoVA jurisdictions to expressly permit detached ADUs by-right; established 4-person occupancy cap and owner-occupancy requirement.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — Adds 2-6 weeks to plan review for early detached-AD applicants while staff develops consistent interpretation.
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
- 22040
Post Office
- 800 W Broad St Ste 100, 22046
Locale Names
- Falls Church Finance