ADU Pass
Reston
No County portion
Also in: Fairfax County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Reston, 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
Fairfax allows ALUs administratively in single-family zones. The independent constraint at Reston is the Reston Association DRB process, which can require materials, massing, and visibility-from-pathway approval even after county zoning approval. SB531 will preempt Fairfax's owner-occupancy and lot-size triggers at 2027-07-01 but will not override the Reston Association private covenants (Virginia has no HOA-ADU preemption).
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted in single-family residential under the ALU administrative permit, subject to owner-occupancy. SB531 will lift owner-occupancy at 2027-07-01 for non-grandfathered scenarios.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Fairfax County regulates STRs separately via STR permit (with TOT registration). Reston Association may further restrict STRs by covenant on a cluster-by-cluster basis.
- Office rental: unclear Office use of an ALU requires special-use or rezoning consideration in residential districts; commercial-office demand near the Silver Line stations does not change residential-zoning constraints.
- Home office: with-restrictions Fairfax home occupations permitted with standard customer-traffic and signage limits.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio is a normal accessory use in single-family districts.
- Agriculture: unclear Reston's master-planned-community character and Reston Association covenants effectively preclude agricultural accessory uses regardless of base zoning.
- Relative support: yes ALU administrative permit directly supports housing relatives; family-occupancy ALUs are the canonical zMOD use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Fairfax Water (FCWA) - public water serves Reston
- Sewer: Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) - public sanitary sewer
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia
- Gas: Washington Gas (natural gas)
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Reston is accessed via Dulles Toll Road / VA-267, Reston Parkway, and Wiehle Avenue. Modular delivery to interior cluster streets requires route survey for low-clearance overhead utility lines on residential streets and pathway crossings.
Insurance impact
No specific flood or wildfire exposure; standard suburban premium plus landlord-rider for non-family-rental ALU.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Approximately 60% of Reston parcels are subject to Reston Association master-association covenants plus cluster-level sub-association rules in some neighborhoods. Virginia POAA / Condo Act defers to declarations; no ADU carve-out.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- other
Reston is built under Fairfax County's PRC zoning category, which superimposes master-plan, density, open-space, and design provisions on top of base residential zones. Modifications to existing lots in PRC clusters require RA DRB review and may trigger PRC-specific zoning provisions. - other
Approximately 60% of Reston parcels are bound by RA covenants and DRB review. Virginia has no HOA-ADU preemption statute; SB531 does not preempt the RA DRB.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance (zMOD-rewritten, 2021), adopted 2021-06-22
- 2021-06-22 — Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance Modernization (zMOD) adopted (county-ordinance)
Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance rewrite including modernized accessory-living-unit standards.
Effect: Broadened administrative pathway for interior ALUs and clarified detached-ALU criteria countywide. - 2026-01-01 — Virginia SB531 - grandfather date (state-law)
Localities with ADU ordinances adopted before January 1, 2026 are grandfathered.
Effect: Fairfax County's zMOD ALU provisions, adopted 2021, are grandfathered. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 enacted (state-law)
Statewide by-right ADU mandate, $500 permit-fee cap, effective July 1, 2027.
Effect: Will preempt restrictive Fairfax ALU triggers in non-grandfathered scenarios at 2027-07-01.
Known issues (2)
- policy-review — Virginia SB531 (effective 2027-07-01) will preempt Fairfax ALU owner-occupancy and lot-size triggers in non-grandfathered cases but will not override Reston Association covenants; legal carve-out for HOAs is the largest open issue. (source)
- other — Reston Association DRB is the binding constraint on ~60% of Reston parcels. Plans cleared through Fairfax can still be blocked by DRB findings on materials, visibility from pathways, or pattern-match to the Reston Design Guidelines. (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
- 20195
Post Office
- 11110 Sunset Hills Rd, 20190