ADU Pass
Newport News
No County portion
Also in: Newport News city
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Newport News, 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
By-right ADU permitting in all single-family-permitting districts under the October 2024 ordinance, but STR is prohibited (no Airbnb / VRBO) and minimum lease is 30 days. CBPA, coastal flooding, and Fort Eustis aviation noise contours affect specific neighborhoods.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $2,400 | $60,000 | $62,400 |
| midpoint | 600 | $2,400 | $180,000 | $182,400 |
| 600 | 600 | $2,400 | $180,000 | $182,400 |
| 1000 | 1,000 | $2,400 | $300,000 | $302,400 |
| maximum | 1,000 | $2,400 | $300,000 | $302,400 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted with a 30-day minimum lease term; Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act governs.
- Short-term rental: no PROHIBITED. The 2024 Newport News ADU ordinance expressly bars short-term rental (Airbnb / VRBO) of ADUs and sets a 30-day minimum lease. This is the principal investor-economics constraint and is unusually restrictive among Virginia cities.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental requires home-occupation approval; the 2024 ADU ordinance is oriented toward residential occupancy.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted in residential districts subject to traffic and signage limits.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: no Newport News is fully urban; agricultural use is not a relevant pathway.
- Relative support: yes Family-member dwelling / in-law suite is a principal use case under the 2024 ordinance; intra-family occupancy avoids the 30-day-lease friction entirely.
Contacts
Staff: Newport News Zoning Division (Zoning Administrator), Newport News Codes Compliance (Building Official)
Utilities
- Water: Newport News Waterworks (regional water utility serving Newport News, Hampton, James City, York, and parts of Poquoson) · 30d connect · $4,500
- Sewer: Hampton Roads Sanitation District (treatment); Newport News Public Works (collection) · 45d connect · $7,000
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia · 30d connect · $2,300
- Gas: Virginia Natural Gas · 21d connect · $1,800
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 7mo · typical 11mo · worst 16mo
Modular pathway inspectors are experienced with modular
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
HOA prevalence is meaningful in newer Newport News subdivisions (Kiln Creek, Lee Hall) and absent in older historic neighborhoods (Hilton Village, East End, Hidenwood, Riverside). HOA covenants may prohibit ADUs even where city zoning permits them.
Regulatory overlays (4)
- wetland-overlay
Tidewater Virginia. RPA 100-ft buffers apply along the James River, Hampton Creek, Salters Creek, and Lake Maury / Mariner's Park tributaries. (map) - flood-zone
Substantial share of Newport News parcels - particularly south of I-64 - intersect mapped SFHA along the James River and tributary frontage. (map) - airport-noise-zone
Northern Newport News parcels can fall under PHF approach contours; Fort Eustis-vicinity parcels under Felker Army Airfield contours and AICUZ overlays. (map) - historic-district
Multiple NRHP-listed districts exist in Newport News; ADU additions to contributing properties may trigger DHR / federal review. (map)
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Newport News Zoning Ordinance (City Code Chapter 8) with 2024 ADU amendment, adopted 1958-07-01, last amended 2024-10-01
- 1958-07-01 — Consolidation of Newport News and the former City of Warwick (state-statute)
The independent City of Newport News merged with the City of Warwick (the re-chartered former Warwick County) on July 1, 1958, forming the modern City of Newport News with a 119-square-mile boundary stretching from downtown north through what had been suburban Warwick.
Effect: Modern Newport News ADU policy applies to the post-1958 city footprint; the historic pre-1958 downtown is only a small portion of the present city. - 1988-07-01 — Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act applies to Newport News (Tidewater) (state-statute)
CBPA Resource Protection Area 100-ft buffers attach along the James River shoreline plus Salters Creek, Hampton Creek, and Lake Maury / Mariner's Park tributaries.
Effect: RPA buffer constraints meaningfully affect ADU siting on James-side and tributary-adjacent parcels. - 2024-09-23 — Newport News City Council unanimously approves ADU ordinance (city-ordinance)
City Council voted unanimously to permit ADUs in all zoning districts where single-family dwellings are permitted, effective October 1, 2024. STR is prohibited; minimum lease is 30 consecutive days.
Effect: Made Newport News one of the more ADU-friendly Virginia jurisdictions on zoning permissibility - but the STR prohibition substantially compresses investor cash-flow returns versus jurisdictions that allow short-term rental.
Known issues (2)
- other — Substantially compresses payback economics versus jurisdictions that permit STR; aligns Newport News ADU investment with long-term-rental cash flow only.
- other — Adds approximately $5K-$15K to typical ADU project for design compliance.
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
- 23609
- 23612
Post Office
- 14104 Warwick Blvd, 23602
- 739 Thimble Shoals Blvd Ste 501, 23606