ADU Pass
Henrico
No County portion
Also in: Goochland County · Henrico County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Henrico, No County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 2 ZIP codes.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Henrico County has explicit pre-existing ADU framework (Section 24-4406). Net effect: ADUs are legal subject to CUP, hard 800-sqft cap, no STR. SB531's July 2027 by-right mandate likely does not apply because Henrico's pre-2026 ordinance is qualifying.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $850 | $70,000 | $70,850 |
| 600 | 600 | $1,450 | $210,000 | $211,450 |
| midpoint | 600 | $1,450 | $210,000 | $211,450 |
| maximum | 800 | $1,750 | $280,000 | $281,750 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Long-term rental allowed pending CUP approval; strong Richmond-suburb tenant pool with VCU and state-government workforce.
- Short-term rental: no Henrico Section 24-4406 EXPRESSLY PROHIBITS short-term rental use of ADUs. Long-term-only restriction is a strict ordinance condition.
- Office rental: no Office rental to third parties not permitted; ADU must be a dwelling.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under Henrico zoning.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Henrico has some A-1 Agricultural areas in eastern and northern county; farm-related structures permitted in A-1.
- Relative support: with-restrictions Multigenerational ADU use permitted via CUP; common use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Henrico County Department of Public Utilities (county operates own water system) · 30d connect · $3,500 · separate meter required
- Sewer: Henrico County Department of Public Utilities (county sewer) · 45d connect · $6,800
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia (most parcels) · 28d connect · $1,900
- Gas: Virginia Natural Gas or Columbia Gas (varies by part of county) · 21d connect · $2,100
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 10mo · typical 14mo · worst 22mo
Modular pathway inspectors are experienced with modular
Henrico is on I-64, I-95, and US-1 corridors; modular delivery generally straightforward except in older urban Henrico/Highland Springs side streets.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Henrico has many active HOAs across newer subdivisions; HOAs can impose additional ADU restrictions on top of county code.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- wetland-overlay
Virginia CBPA Resource Protection Area buffers apply to Henrico parcels along the James River and Chickahominy tributaries. Henrico is a Tidewater CBPA locality.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Henrico County Code Chapter 24 Zoning, Section 24-4406 Accessory Dwelling Unit, adopted 2021-06-02, last amended 2024-01-01
- 2021-06-02 — Henrico County Board of Supervisors adopted Chapter 24 Zoning final draft (local-ordinance)
Henrico County's current Zoning Ordinance Chapter 24 (final draft June 2, 2021) includes Section 24-4406 Accessory Dwelling Unit codifying the explicit 800-sqft/35-percent ADU framework.
Effect: Establishes Henrico's pre-2026 explicit ADU framework that likely exempts the county from SB531's July 2027 by-right mandate. - 2025-01-01 — Henrico FY2025 Local Housing Policies report (local-ordinance)
Henrico's annual reporting to Virginia DHCD confirms no changes to ADU ordinance during FY2025.
Effect: Confirms stability of 800-sqft/35-percent CUP framework into 2025. - 2026-04-13 — Virginia SB531 signed by Governor Spanberger (state-law)
Statewide ADU by-right mandate; effective July 1, 2027.
Effect: Henrico's pre-2026 ordinance qualifies for SB531 exemption; existing CUP regime preserved.
Known issues (3)
- policy-review — ROI scenarios limited to long-term rental, owner-use, or relative-support — no Airbnb upside.
- policy-review — Adds 90-150 days plus CUP application fee plus public-hearing exposure.
- policy-review — Owners with smaller primary dwellings have tighter ADU envelope.
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.