ADU Pass
Sealston
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Sealston, 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
King George County allows accessory dwellings in A-1 / R-1 / R-2 with constraints; detached units in residential districts typically require SUP. CBPA RPA buffers apply along the Rappahannock and creek tributaries. SB531 by-right relief applies at 2027-07-01 outside the RPA. Restricted-airspace operations from Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren may affect height review for parcels in the Dahlgren approach corridor.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted in A-1 / R-1 / R-2 subject to county accessory-dwelling standards; non-family long-term rental of detached units typically routes through SUP today, SB531 by-right relief 2027-07-01.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions King George County regulates STRs separately; Dahlgren Naval Support Facility creates limited STR demand from Navy / contractor traffic but the county is not a major tourist destination.
- Office rental: unclear Office rental requires rezoning or SUP in residential / agricultural districts.
- Home office: with-restrictions Home occupations permitted under standard county conditions.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio use is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: yes A-1 Agricultural district routinely permits livestock and agricultural accessory structures.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy accessory dwelling is the canonical use case.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (Sealston is outside the King George County Service Authority public water service area)
- Sewer: Private septic (Virginia Department of Health regulated)
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia
- Gas: No piped natural gas in southern King George; propane only
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Sealston is accessed via US-301 / US-17 main routes through southern King George County; modular delivery is feasible from the Fredericksburg corridor.
Insurance impact
Standard rural premium; flood insurance required for SFHA parcels along the Rappahannock and tributary creeks.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Older Sealston-area rural parcels typically have no HOA; newer waterfront subdivisions along the Rappahannock have HOAs with architectural-review covenants.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- wetland-overlay
Southern King George shoreline-adjacent parcels lie inside the 100-ft RPA buffer along Rappahannock-tributary streams. Disturbance inside the buffer is tightly restricted under the county CBPA ordinance. - airport-noise-zone
Eastern King George parcels are within Navy Dahlgren noise contours and approach-zone overlays. Joint Land Use Study findings restrict residential intensification and may require Navy / NAVFAC consultation for height review.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: King George County Zoning Ordinance
- 1988-06-21 — Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act enacted (state-law)
Statewide tidewater shoreline-protection regime requiring 100-ft RPA buffers.
Effect: Limits accessory-dwelling siting along the Rappahannock-tributary streams in southern King George. - 2026-01-01 — Virginia SB531 - grandfather date (state-law)
Localities with ADU ordinances adopted before January 1, 2026 are grandfathered.
Effect: King George's pre-existing accessory-dwelling provisions 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 override King George's SUP requirement for detached accessory dwellings in residential zones at the effective date in non-grandfathered cases.
Known issues (2)
- policy-review — Virginia SB531 (effective 2027-07-01) will override King George's SUP requirement for detached accessory dwellings in residential districts in non-grandfathered cases; CBPA RPA and Dahlgren overlay constraints remain. (source)
- other — Dahlgren Joint Land Use Study findings constrain residential intensification in noise / accident-potential zones; verify parcel location relative to NAVFAC overlays before site planning. (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
- 22547
Post Office
- 1130 Kings Hwy, 22547