ADU Pass
Upperville
No County portion
Also in: Clarke County · Loudoun County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Upperville, 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
Upperville is a small historic Fauquier County CDP at the heart of Virginia hunt country. Parcels here are typically large rural-residential or working horse farms; many exceed 25 acres. The Fauquier County ADU framework is restrictive but accessible on the typical large-acreage Upperville parcel. SB531 (July 2027) will normalize by-right permitting.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 250 | $1,200 | $90,000 | $91,200 |
| 600 | 600 | $1,500 | $234,000 | $235,500 |
| midpoint | 625 | $1,500 | $243,750 | $245,250 |
| maximum | 1,000 | $1,800 | $400,000 | $401,800 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental permitted with owner-occupancy of the primary dwelling. Demand is moderate; many Upperville-area ADUs are used as farm-manager or staff housing rather than market rental.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Upperville sits at the center of a high-value STR market driven by Middleburg/Upperville hunt-country tourism, the annual Upperville Horse Show (June, the oldest continuous horse show in the US), Virginia Gold Cup events, and Civil War battlefield tourism. Fauquier requires STR registration and lodging-tax remittance.
- Office rental: no ADU must remain a dwelling unit.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under Fauquier standards.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal studio/workshop use is permitted; Upperville's large parcels easily accommodate detached studio buildings.
- Agriculture: yes Strongly permitted in RA; Upperville is one of Virginia's most important hunt-country and equestrian-agriculture districts. Working horse farms are common.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is a common Upperville use case; multi-generational estate-property patterns are typical.
Incentives
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (essentially universal in Upperville) · 60d connect · $9,500
- Sewer: Private septic (essentially universal in Upperville) · 60d connect · $14,500
- Electric: Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) · 35d connect · $2,400
- Gas: Propane (no natural gas service in this section of Fauquier) · 14d connect · $1,500
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 9mo · typical 13mo · worst 18mo
Modular pathway inspectors are novice with modular
US-50 access is adequate but historic-district streetscape in central Upperville constrains module placement; estate properties have generous frontage and access.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
HOAs are extremely rare in Upperville. Estate properties and rural-acreage parcels dominate the landscape. The Piedmont Environmental Council and Virginia Outdoors Foundation conservation easements function somewhat like deeply restrictive HOA covenants on many parcels.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- historic-district
Upperville Historic District (NRHP-listed) encompasses much of the US-50 village core including Trinity Episcopal Church (1955, Page Cross design) and adjacent 18th-19th century structures. ADUs in the historic district require local historic-review compatibility for visible exterior alterations. - other
Many Upperville-area parcels carry Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Land Trust of Virginia, or Piedmont Environmental Council conservation easements that may restrict or condition new construction (including ADUs). Easement terms must be reviewed parcel-by-parcel.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Fauquier County Zoning Ordinance, Article 5, adopted 2005-XX-XX, last amended 2024-XX-XX
- 1797-01-01 — Upperville settled (settlement)
Upperville settled in 1797 along the Ashby Gap Turnpike (now US-50); named for its position relative to Middleburg (Upperville being 'upper' on the historic road).
Effect: Established the historic village footprint along US-50; many parcels predate modern zoning. - 2005-01-01 — Fauquier County Zoning Ordinance comprehensive revision (county-ordinance)
Fauquier County undertook a comprehensive zoning revision in the mid-2000s reinforcing the county's rural-protection framework and refining accessory dwelling provisions.
Effect: Established the current rural-protective framework that governs Upperville-area parcels. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 signed - statewide by-right ADU mandate (state-law)
Effective July 1, 2027: by-right one ADU per single-family lot statewide, $500 permit-fee cap, January 1, 2026 grandfather.
Effect: Will preempt Fauquier's SUP and acreage-minimum requirements for one by-right ADU starting July 1, 2027.
Known issues (2)
- other — Conservation easement encumbrance: a substantial fraction of Upperville-area parcels carry recorded conservation easements that may prohibit or strictly condition ADU construction. Easement terms must be reviewed before any project.
- other — Well/septic dependence: Upperville parcels are universally on private well and septic. ADU construction requires Health Department review; karst-prone bedrock in this part of Fauquier can complicate septic-field siting.
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
- 20185
Post Office
- 9090 John S Mosby Hwy, 20184