ADU Pass
Lynchburg
No County portion
Also in: Bedford County · Campbell County · Lynchburg city
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Lynchburg, 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
Lynchburg permits ADUs by right under Section 35.2-71.3 subject to owner-occupancy, the 900-sqft detached cap, and the one-bedroom detached cap. Lynchburg's existing ordinance pre-dates the January 1, 2026 grandfather date in SB531, so its current standards likely survive when SB531 takes effect July 1, 2027.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $1,200 | $56,000 | $57,200 |
| 600 | 600 | $1,500 | $180,000 | $181,500 |
| midpoint | 550 | $1,500 | $165,000 | $166,500 |
| maximum | 900 | $1,700 | $279,000 | $280,700 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term ADU rental permitted on owner-occupied lots. Liberty University (~15,000 residential undergrads) and Randolph College / University of Lynchburg drive sustained rental demand.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Lynchburg adopted STR regulations after Planning Commission review; permits required and operator-occupancy/limits apply. Liberty University events (Convocation, sports, graduation) drive seasonal STR demand.
- Office rental: no ADU must remain a dwelling unit under Section 35.2-71.3.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under Chapter 35.2 standards.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/studio is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Urban agriculture and limited livestock subject to district-specific standards.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is a canonical Lynchburg use case (in-law suite). Owner-occupancy of the principal dwelling is required.
Incentives
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: City of Lynchburg Department of Water Resources (Pedlar Reservoir / James River intake) · 21d connect · $3,800
- Sewer: City of Lynchburg Department of Water Resources (treated at the James River Water Reclamation Facility) · 21d connect · $4,800
- Electric: Appalachian Power (AEP) — most of Lynchburg · 28d connect · $1,700
- Gas: Columbia Gas of Virginia · 30d connect · $1,400
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 6mo · typical 9mo · worst 14mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
US-29, US-501, and US-460 corridors handle modular delivery; historic-district streets (Diamond Hill, Federal Hill) constrain module width.
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Older Lynchburg historic-district neighborhoods (Diamond Hill, Federal Hill, Garland Hill, Rivermont) typically have no HOA but do have CofA review. Newer subdivisions (Wyndhurst, Boonsboro Estates, parts of Cornerstone) are HOA-governed.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- historic-district
ADUs in any of Lynchburg's six designated historic districts trigger Lynchburg Historic Preservation Commission review (Certificate of Appropriateness) for exterior changes visible from public ways. - flood-zone
Parcels in low-lying riverfront areas along the James River and Blackwater Creek fall within FEMA AE flood zones; elevation certificates required for new dwelling units.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: City of Lynchburg Code of Ordinances, Chapter 35.2 — Zoning Ordinance (Section 35.2-71.3 governs ADUs)
- 2014-01-01 — Lynchburg Zoning Ordinance — Chapter 35.2 (current accessory-dwelling framework) (city-ordinance)
Section 35.2-71.3 establishes the current ADU framework: one unit per owner-occupied lot, 900 sqft detached cap, one-bedroom detached cap, internal-or-detached configuration.
Effect: Operating ADU rule for Lynchburg through the present day. - 2024-04-16 — Lynchburg Zoning Diagnostic — comprehensive review for zoning rewrite (city-ordinance)
City-commissioned diagnostic identifying constraints in the current code; Council has considered modernizing the ADU rules among other reforms.
Effect: Background for any future zoning rewrite; no ordinance adoption yet. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 — statewide ADU by-right framework signed into law (state-law)
Requires localities to allow ADUs by right in single-family residential zones, caps permit fees at $500, prohibits familial-relationship requirements, and limits setback rules. Effective July 1, 2027. Localities with ADU ordinances on the books as of January 1, 2026 are grandfathered.
Effect: Lynchburg's pre-January-2026 Section 35.2-71.3 ordinance qualifies for the grandfather clause; net immediate effect is preservation of the current rules.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — Lynchburg Zoning Diagnostic (2024) flagged ADU framework for potential liberalization; SB531 (2026) statewide framework takes effect 2027-07-01 with grandfathering for ordinances on books as of 2026-01-01. (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 Codes
- 24505
- 24506
Post Office
- 1100 Clay St, 24504
- 3300 Odd Fellows Rd, 24506
Locale Names
- Courthouse Lynchburg