ADU Pass
Hague
No County portion
Also in: Westmoreland County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Hague, 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
Westmoreland is relatively permissive for rural Virginia: 1,200 sqft cap is generous, one-per-lot rule is clear, online portal exists. Most Hague parcels are on private well and septic and within Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act overlay. The 1,200 sqft cap is higher than the typical 800 sqft NoVA/Goochland cap.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $550 | $52,000 | $52,550 |
| 600 | 600 | $850 | $156,000 | $156,850 |
| midpoint | 700 | $900 | $182,000 | $182,900 |
| maximum | 1,200 | $1,150 | $312,000 | $313,150 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of permitted ADU is allowed under Chapter 70.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Westmoreland permits STRs subject to county registration; Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay tourism supports modest STR demand.
- Office rental: no Office rental to third parties not permitted in residential zones.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under Westmoreland zoning with restrictions.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/workshop studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: yes Hague is largely A-1 / A-2 agricultural; ADU may explicitly be sited in an agricultural structure under Chapter 70.
- Relative support: yes Multigenerational family-member occupancy is permitted.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (most Hague parcels) · 30d connect · $7,000
- Sewer: Private septic (most Hague parcels); waterfront parcels have CBPA constraints on drainfield siting · 50d connect · $14,000
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia or Northern Neck Electric Cooperative depending on parcel · 30d connect · $2,100
- Gas: Propane delivered (no natural gas mains) · 14d connect · $1,850
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 6mo · typical 9mo · worst 14mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Route 3 and Route 202 are the main Northern Neck corridors; secondary routes to Hague are narrow rural roads requiring route surveys for modular sections.
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Hague is rural with limited subdivision activity; HOA presence low. Some Northern Neck waterfront subdivisions exist but most parcels are independent farm or homestead tracts.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- wetland-overlay
Virginia Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act applies to most Hague parcels. 100-foot tidal RPA buffer and 50-foot RMA buffer add 30-60 days for waterfront construction reviews. - flood-zone
Portions of Hague along Yeocomico River are in FEMA Zone AE; new construction requires flood-resistant design.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Westmoreland County Code Chapter 70 (Zoning), adopted 2010-01-01, last amended 2023-11-01
- 2023-11-01 — Westmoreland County Code Chapter 70 (Zoning) recodification (county-ordinance)
County refreshed and republished its zoning ordinance through Municode in November 2023, including Chapter 70 ADU provisions.
Effect: Established current 1,200 sqft cap and one-per-lot rule governing Hague parcels. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 signed into law (state-bill)
Statewide ADU mandate effective July 2027 with permit fee cap of $500 and prohibition on family-relation restrictions.
Effect: Westmoreland's pre-2026 ordinance likely exempts the county; current 1,200 sqft cap and one-per-lot rule remain in force.
Known issues (1)
- other — Reduces buildable footprint by 20-60 percent on Yeocomico River waterfront parcels; adds engineered drainfield costs.
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
- 22442
Post Office
- 256 Long Point Rd, 22469
Locale Names
- Coles Point