ADU Pass
White Hall
ADU Pass helps homeowners in White Hall, 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
Attached accessory apartments are by-right in single-family dwellings under Section 5.1.34. Detached secondary dwellings on RA parcels are subject to development-right availability (each RA parcel has a fixed number of theoretical division rights). Owner occupancy is typically required in either unit. SB531 (effective 2027-07-01) will add a by-right statewide floor and a $500 permit-fee cap.
Cost scenarios
Permitting process
- Confirm parcel zoning and development rights (~5d)
Verify the parcel is in the RA Rural Areas district (White Hall is rural) and confirm theoretical development rights remain on the deed; without development rights, RA minimum lot size is 21 acres. - Pre-application consultation with Albemarle Community Development (~14d)
County encourages pre-application meetings with zoning staff for accessory apartments to confirm Section 5.1.34 compliance. - Submit building permit application (Civic Access portal) (~1d)
Albemarle uses the GovAccess Civic Access permit portal at the Community Development hub. - Virginia Department of Health septic / well capacity review (~30d)
White Hall parcels are on private well and septic; VDH must certify bedroom-load capacity before permit issuance. - Building plan review (~21d)
Plan review for compliance with the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) and Section 5.1.34 size / parking / setback standards. - Permit issuance and construction inspections (~90d)
Foundation, framing, MEP rough, insulation, and final inspections by Albemarle Building Inspections. - Certificate of Occupancy (~7d)
Final CO after VDH septic-approval-of-use sign-off.
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Permitted under Section 5.1.34 with owner-occupancy in the principal or accessory unit.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Albemarle County regulates short-term rentals through a separate transient-lodging permit; STR demand near Sugar Hollow / Shenandoah National Park entrance is non-trivial but RA-district STR permitting carries additional conditions.
- Office rental: no Rental of accessory dwelling to a non-residential commercial tenant is not contemplated under Section 5.1.34.
- Home office: yes Home occupations are permitted in RA district subject to Section 5.2 home occupation rules.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist or workshop accessory use is normal in RA district.
- Agriculture: yes Albemarle RA district is principally agricultural; livestock, crops, and farm structures are by-right uses.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU is the canonical case for accessory apartments under Section 5.1.34.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Private well (White Hall is outside the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority service area)
- Sewer: Private septic system (Virginia Department of Health regulated)
- Electric: Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) serves western Albemarle including White Hall
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Modular pathway Virginia Industrialized Building Safety Law (IBSL)
Garth Road (VA-614) and Browns Gap Turnpike (VA-810) access White Hall; narrow rural roads with tight curves through the foothills may constrain very large modules.
HOA prevalence & preemption
Rural White Hall has very low HOA density; most parcels are agricultural or large-lot residential with no covenants.
Regulatory overlays (2)
- other — Mountain Overlay District (MOD) - applies to parcels in western Albemarle including portions of the White Hall area on Blue Ridge slopes
Albemarle's Mountain Overlay District adds critical-slope and ridgeline visibility review for parcels above defined elevations. White Hall sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge; parcels closer to the mountain face may trigger MOD review. - wetland-overlay — Moormans River and tributaries draining Sugar Hollow
Moormans River corridor flows through the area; FEMA SFHA Zone A applies in the immediate floodplain. Stream-buffer setbacks under Albemarle's Water Protection Ordinance apply along the Moormans.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Albemarle County Code, Chapter 18 (Zoning), Section 5.1.34 - Accessory Apartments
- 1980-12-10 — Albemarle County Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 18 - adopted (county-ordinance)
Adoption of the current Chapter 18 Zoning Ordinance that governs White Hall as an unincorporated RA-district hamlet.
Effect: Established the RA Rural Areas district covering White Hall parcels and the framework for accessory apartments later codified in Section 5.1.34. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 (2026) - statewide ADU by-right framework signed (state-law)
Signed legislation establishing a statewide by-right ADU mandate with a $500 permit-fee cap, effective July 1, 2027. Local ordinances adopted before January 1, 2026 are grandfathered.
Effect: Albemarle's Section 5.1.34 framework predates the January 2026 cutoff and qualifies for grandfather treatment until the 2027-07-01 effective date; post-2027 alignment will depend on DHCD rulemaking and possible county amendment.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — Virginia SB531 (effective 2027-07-01) introduces statewide by-right ADU requirements and a $500 permit-fee cap; Albemarle's Section 5.1.34 framework predates the January 1, 2026 grandfather cutoff but the county will likely need to align fees and detached-unit treatment by the effective date. (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
- 22987
Post Office
- 2958 Browns Gap Tpke, 22987