ADU Pass
Central Richmond
Also known as The Fan, Museum District, Carytown, Monroe Ward, Jackson Ward, Mid-Richmond
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Central Richmond — a USPS locale inside Richmond, No County, Virginia — navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This locale covers 1 ZIP code.
Locale-specific ADU details
Site (parcel physics)
Slope:
Soil:
Lot profile:
Geo-hazards:
Recent ADU permit activity
Utility capacity (upgrade likelihood)
Housing stock age:
Electric service drop:
Sewer lateral:
Water pressure:
Gas availability: available — Richmond's city-owned gas utility serves the Fan / Museum District / Carytown corridor universally.
Locale property values
Central Richmond typical: 1890-1920 rowhouse on a 25-30 ft x 100-130 ft lot, 1,400-2,400 sqft over 2-3 stories. Active flip/restoration market. Detached ADU placement is challenging on narrow rowhouse lots; rear-carriage-house conversion (often called 'mews house' locally) is more common.
Locale market rent
| Sq ft | Rent |
|---|---|
| 400 | $1,525/mo |
| 600 | $1,875/mo |
| 1,000 | $2,425/mo |
Locale HOA prevalence
Among the lowest HOA-prevalence neighborhoods in the city. The CAR historic-district overlay provides exterior-design control functionally similar to an HOA architectural review, but city-administered rather than HOA-administered.
Locale overlays (2)
- historic-district — Multiple overlapping National Register and locally designated historic districts: Fan Area Historic District, Boulevard Historic District, West Franklin Street Historic District, Monroe Park Historic District, and parts of the Old & Historic Carytown and Hanover Avenue districts. CAR approval required for visible exterior changes. · +60d · +12% cost
Historic-district overlay is the defining procedural constraint for central Richmond ADU projects. ADU exterior must respect district design guidelines. Material costs run 10-20% above non-historic construction for compliant building envelopes. - wetland-overlay — CBPA RPA buffer along James River shoreline; central Richmond parcels are firmly in RMA only. · +14d · +3% cost
Inherited from the city
These sections come from the city page. Click through to the Richmond ADU research for details.
- ADU legality
- legal history
- size range
- permitting process & fees
- permit forms
- contacts
- utilities
- incentives
- resale value impact
- construction timeline
- pre-approved plans
- financing
- insurance impact
- service complexity
Richmond — city ADU rules and incentives
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Richmond opened a by-right ADU pathway in September 2023 in every residential zoning district. The principal frictions are CAR (Commission of Architectural Review) approval for the city's many local historic districts (Church Hill, Fan, Jackson Ward, Monument Avenue, Shockoe Bottom) and James River SFHA elevation requirements for waterfront and Shockoe Bottom / Manchester parcels.
City cost envelope
$184,200 all-in for a 600 sqft ADU (permit + build). Mid-size scenario.
Permit fee bundle: $3,600 (2026-05).
City viability (selected uses)
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
- 23241
Post Office
- 205 N 2nd St, 23241