ADU Pass
Round Hill
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Round Hill, 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
Inside the corporate limits, Town of Round Hill zoning controls; for parcels outside the town boundary in unincorporated Loudoun County, county zoning controls. SB531 will bind the town's zoning ordinance (not just the county's) at 2027-07-01. Pre-2026 town accessory-dwelling provisions are grandfathered.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted in town residential districts subject to accessory-dwelling owner-occupancy and parking standards; SB531 by-right relief at 2027-07-01 in non-grandfathered cases.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Loudoun County regulates STRs at the county level; the Town of Round Hill may layer additional restrictions inside town limits. STR demand exists for western Loudoun wine-country / Blue Ridge tourism.
- Office rental: unclear Office use of an accessory dwelling typically requires rezoning or conditional-use approval.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupations permitted under town accessory-use standards with limits on customer traffic and signage.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio is a normal accessory use in residential districts.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Inside town limits, agricultural accessory uses are tightly restricted; outside town in unincorporated Loudoun (AR-1, AR-2) they are routine.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy accessory dwelling is the canonical use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Town of Round Hill Public Works (public water inside corporate limits) or private well (parcels outside town)
- Sewer: Town of Round Hill Public Works (public sanitary sewer inside corporate limits) or private septic (parcels outside town)
- Electric: Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and Dominion Energy Virginia depending on circuit
- Gas: Limited piped natural gas in western Loudoun; propane is the typical fuel in the Round Hill / Bluemont corridor
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Round Hill is accessed via VA-7 / Charles Town Pike; modular delivery is feasible via main routes but final approach into the historic village core has narrow Main Street segments and tight intersections.
Insurance impact
Standard suburban / rural premium; no SFHA exposure inside town corporate limits.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Round Hill village core has no HOA. Newer subdivisions on the town's perimeter (Round Hill Meadows and similar) carry private HOA covenants with architectural review.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- historic-district
The Town of Round Hill comprehensive plan emphasizes preservation of the small-town historic character along Main Street (former W&OD railroad corridor). New accessory-dwelling construction visible from Main Street undergoes town design review. - other
Parcels west of Round Hill on the Blue Ridge undergo Mountainside Development District review for slope, viewshed, and tree-canopy retention under the Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Town of Round Hill Zoning Ordinance
- 2026-01-01 — Virginia SB531 - grandfather date (state-law)
Localities with ADU ordinances adopted before January 1, 2026 are grandfathered from SB531's by-right mandate.
Effect: Town of Round Hill's existing accessory-dwelling provisions, if predating this date, would be grandfathered. Loudoun County's separately-adopted county ADU provisions are independently grandfathered. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 enacted (state-law)
Statewide by-right ADU mandate, $500 permit-fee cap, effective July 1, 2027.
Effect: Binds both the Town of Round Hill ordinance and Loudoun County ordinance at the 2027-07-01 effective date for non-grandfathered cases.
Known issues (2)
- policy-review — Virginia SB531 (effective 2027-07-01) binds Round Hill town ordinance and Loudoun County ordinance separately; both jurisdictions must conform their pre-existing accessory-dwelling rules. (source)
- other — Permit applicants must navigate both town zoning (inside corporate limits) and Loudoun County building permits; coordination gaps can extend timelines. (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
- 20142
Post Office
- 2 Main St, 20141