ADU Pass
Midland
No County portion
Also in: Fauquier County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Midland, 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
An ADU at a Midland parcel typically requires Fauquier County zoning permit, building permit, and (in RA) often a Special Exception. Private well/septic capacity verified through Virginia Department of Health is the gating constraint for most rural Midland parcels. SB531's July 2027 effective date will force a by-right framework unless Fauquier County's existing accessory-apartment provisions are deemed an exempting pre-2026 ordinance.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted subject to the county's accessory-apartment standards (subordination to principal dwelling, family-relation or owner-occupancy conditions historically applied in some districts; SB531 will preempt family-relation requirements after July 2027).
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Fauquier County regulates short-term rentals under a separate ordinance; an ADU used as STR requires the STR registration in addition to the underlying ADU permitting. Northern Virginia tourism (wine country, Civil War sites, equestrian) supports STR demand.
- Office rental: unclear Commercial office-rental use in an accessory residential structure typically requires rezoning or a use variance in the RA district.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupation by the owner is generally permitted with standard limits on traffic, signage, and outside employees.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio use by the owner is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: yes RA district is the canonical setting for farm-related accessory uses including farm-stay accommodations under Virginia's agritourism statute.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy accessory apartment is the canonical traditional use case; historically the easiest path through Fauquier review.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (Midland lies outside the Fauquier County Water and Sanitation Authority service area; no public water in the rural crescent)
- Sewer: Private septic (Virginia Department of Health regulated; soil-evaluation gating)
- Electric: Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) serves the southern Fauquier rural area including Midland
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Midland is accessible from US Route 29 via VA Route 28; standard modular delivery routing applies. No major bridge weight or low-clearance constraints on the approach.
Insurance impact
Rural setting raises wildfire and tree-fall claim severity relative to suburban norms; otherwise standard delta for rental-use ADU.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Rural Fauquier parcels generally have low HOA prevalence; most Midland-area lots are not under restrictive covenants. A handful of newer cluster subdivisions in southern Fauquier do have HOAs.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- other
Fauquier County Rural Crescent / Rural Land Use Plan - Midland is outside any designated Service District and is subject to the county's policy disfavoring increased residential density in the rural area. Affects Special Exception findings of compatibility with the Comprehensive Plan. - flood-zone
Portions of Midland-area parcels along Cedar Run and its tributaries fall within FEMA AE-zone special flood hazard areas. Verify the parcel's flood zone via the FEMA Map Service Center before designing.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Fauquier County Zoning Ordinance — Articles 5 and 6 (Accessory Uses)
- 2024-01-18 — Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) 2021 edition adopted (state-law)
Virginia DHCD adoption of the 2021 IRC/IBC base with Virginia amendments.
Effect: Sets the technical envelope (egress, R-values, ventilation) any Midland ADU must be built to. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 signed by Governor Spanberger — statewide ADU mandate (state-law)
Statewide by-right ADU framework with delayed effective date July 1, 2027. Caps permit fees at $500, prohibits setbacks stricter than the primary dwelling, and standardizes ADU definitions across all Virginia localities. Localities with ADU ordinances in effect as of January 1, 2026 are exempt from the standardizing provisions.
Effect: Will compel Fauquier County to allow Midland-area ADUs by-right in single-family zones after July 1, 2027 unless the county's existing accessory-apartment provisions qualify as a pre-2026 exempting ordinance.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — Virginia SB531 effective July 1, 2027 will impose a by-right ADU framework that may override Fauquier County's Special Exception requirement for rural-crescent ADUs. (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 Code
- 22739
Post Office
- 5473 Midland Rd, 22728