ADU Pass
Ivy
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Ivy, 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
Accessory apartments are permitted in Albemarle County Rural Areas by-right subject to size and owner-occupancy conditions; detached ADUs in RA typically require special use permit. Private well and septic capacity (Virginia Department of Health approval) is the controlling constraint for most Ivy parcels. Post-July 2027, SB531 will impose statewide by-right framework with the $500 fee cap unless Albemarle's pre-2026 accessory apartment ordinance is treated as grandfathering.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $850 | $88,000 | $88,850 |
| midpoint | 600 | $1,450 | $264,000 | $265,450 |
| 1000 | 1,000 | $3,200 | $440,000 | $443,200 |
| maximum | 1,200 | $4,800 | $528,000 | $532,800 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Accessory apartment long-term rental permitted under Section 5.1.34 with owner-occupancy condition in one of the two units.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Albemarle requires Transient Lodging zoning clearance for STRs. Ivy's proximity to UVA, Monticello, and Charlottesville wine country creates modest STR demand.
- Office rental: no Office rental to third parties is not a permitted accessory use in RA.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under Section 5.1.48 with limits on signage, employees, and customer traffic.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist studio is a normal accessory use in RA.
- Agriculture: yes Ivy's RA zoning broadly permits agricultural accessory structures; many Ivy parcels are working horse and small-scale agriculture properties.
- Relative support: yes Multigenerational accessory apartment is the canonical Section 5.1.34 use case; SB531 post-2027 will further remove any family-relation requirement.
Incentives
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (most Ivy parcels are outside Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority service area)
- Sewer: Private septic (Virginia Department of Health regulated; no public sewer in Ivy)
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia (most Ivy parcels); Central Virginia Electric Cooperative for some western parcels · 30d connect · $2,400
- Gas: Propane (no piped natural gas service to Ivy) · 14d connect · $2,200
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 9mo · typical 14mo · worst 22mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Ivy is served by US Route 250 (a state primary); modular delivery feasible. Some western Ivy parcels have narrow rural driveways constraining crane positioning.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Ivy is dominated by large rural estate parcels with no HOA; a few newer subdivisions (Bellair, Ednam) have HOAs.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- other
Ivy sits in Albemarle's Rural Areas (RA) designation outside the Charlottesville-Albemarle Development Areas; density-limiting policies and septic-driven lot sizes apply. - wetland-overlay
Portions of western Ivy drain to the Mechums River and Lickinghole Creek (Charlottesville/Albemarle water supply); some parcels subject to the Albemarle Water Supply Protection Overlay (Article 9.4) with limits on impervious surface and septic siting.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Albemarle County Code Chapter 18 (Zoning), Section 5.1.34 Accessory Apartments, adopted 2010-01-13, last amended 2024-03-20
- 2010-01-13 — Albemarle County Zoning Ordinance Section 5.1.34 Accessory Apartments adopted (local-ordinance)
County-wide standards for attached accessory apartments: 1,200 sqft cap or 35 percent of main dwelling (whichever is less); owner-occupancy required in one of the two units; one additional parking space.
Effect: Established Albemarle's framework for by-right attached ADUs in Rural Areas (RA), Village Residential (VR), and most residential districts. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 signed by Governor Spanberger (state-law)
Statewide ADU by-right mandate. Caps permit fees at $500; prohibits stricter setbacks than primary dwelling; eliminates family-relation requirements; effective July 1, 2027.
Effect: Albemarle's existing 2010 accessory apartment framework likely qualifies as a pre-2026 ordinance; detached ADUs still requiring special use permit may be most affected when SB531 takes effect.
Known issues (3)
- policy-review — Septic upgrade cost can range $8,000-$25,000 and add 6-12 weeks to project timeline.
- policy-review — Site planning constrained near drainage features; design review may add 4-6 weeks.
- policy-review — Owners considering detached ADUs may benefit from waiting until SB531 takes effect for clearer by-right permission.
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
- 22945
Post Office
- 4301 Ivy Rd, 22945