ADU Pass
Martinsville
No County portion
Also in: Henry County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Martinsville, 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
Martinsville is one of the few Virginia independent cities with explicit accessory residential dwelling unit provisions in its zoning ordinance. The R-C City Residential district is the densest and most likely to host ADUs.
Cost scenarios
Fee breakdown (as of 2025-07)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of permitted ADU allowed; Martinsville has high rental demand due to low housing inventory.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Martinsville Speedway NASCAR weekends (spring March and fall October) drive significant STR demand. STR may be permitted under existing zoning subject to compliance with parking and occupancy rules; verify with Zoning Administrator.
- Office rental: no Office rental to third parties not permitted in residential zones.
- Home office: yes Home occupations permitted under Appendix B with restrictions on signage, traffic, and outside employees.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/workshop studio is a permitted accessory use in residential zones.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited urban agriculture permitted; Martinsville does not have dedicated agricultural zones, but accessory uses permit gardens, small chickens etc. subject to nuisance code.
- Relative support: yes Family-member occupancy of an ADU explicitly permitted.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: City of Martinsville Water & Wastewater Department (municipal) · 28d connect · $4,500
- Sewer: City of Martinsville Water & Wastewater Department (municipal) · 28d connect · $5,500
- Electric: City of Martinsville Electric Department (municipal electric utility — one of only a handful in Virginia) · 21d connect · $1,500
- Gas: Roanoke Gas Company or propane (no natural-gas distribution in some neighborhoods) · 45d connect · $2,800
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 8mo · typical 12mo · worst 18mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Martinsville's older neighborhoods have narrow streets and overhead wires that may constrain module delivery in established blocks.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Martinsville housing stock is predominantly older single-family detached homes built 1920-1970; HOA prevalence is very low. Virginia POAA does not preempt HOA ADU bans.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- historic-district
Martinsville Uptown Historic District and Fayette Street Historic District (both on the National Register) cover parts of the city; design review required for exterior changes including ADU additions visible from the street.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: City of Martinsville Code of Ordinances, Appendix B Zoning Ordinance, adopted 2010-01-01, last amended 2023-01-01
- 2016-04-01 — Martinsville Code of Ordinances abstracted including accessory dwelling provisions (city-ordinance)
Virginia Tech VTOD abstract of Martinsville Code documents accessory residential dwelling unit provisions in zoning ordinance Appendix B.
Effect: Confirms ADU permissibility was in code as of April 2016. - 2025-03-19 — Martinsville real estate reassessment 2025: 54.3 percent median value increase (city-policy)
Following 2025 reassessment, median property values rose 54.3 percent; city manager proposed a 21-cent property tax rate cut from $0.99 to $0.7792 per $100 of assessed value.
Effect: Significant property value increases shift ADU economics; lower effective tax rate partially offsets. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB 531 signed: statewide by-right ADUs effective July 1, 2027 (state-law)
Governor Spanberger signed SB 531 mandating localities permit ADUs in single-family zoning as a permitted accessory use, capping permit fees at $500.
Effect: Martinsville's existing ADU ordinance likely qualifies for grandfathering; SB 531 may still preempt any more-restrictive setback rules effective July 1, 2027.
Known issues (3)
- policy-review — ADU project economics affected by higher assessed values; effective tax rate after rate cut is materially lower than 2024.
- other — ADU electric service planning must use City of Martinsville Electric Department.
- other — STR-oriented ADU strategy in Martinsville can earn race-weekend premiums but inventory is thin year-round outside race weekends.
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
- 24114
- 24115
Post Office
- 1 W Church St, 24112
- 1123 Spruce St, 24112
Locale Names
- Central Martinsville