Ararat

Patrick County permits an 'accessory dwelling' or 'accessory apartment' as a supplementary use to a single-family detached dwelling on parcels of sufficient size in the county's Agricultural / Rural Residential and primary residential districts. The Patrick framework follows the common Virginia rural-county pattern with a more permissive flavor than tightly-zoned suburban counties: one ADU per parcel is the standard floor; the ADU must be clearly accessory (subordinate in size and use) to a principal single-family dwelling; a base size cap in the 800-1,200 square-foot range with potentially larger caps available on qualifying agricultural parcels; configuration options including attached, interior-conversion, and detached on most rural parcels (Patrick's rural lot sizes typically allow detached configuration without setback hardship); the ADU must meet the principal-dwelling setbacks for the underlying district rather than reduced accessory-structure setbacks; and the ADU cannot be subdivided off or sold separately from the principal dwelling. Because Virginia has no statewide ADU preemption (see state file stateAduLaw, citing Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. as the local-zoning enabling statute and the absence of any enacted ADU floor), Patrick's ordinance is the authoritative regime on every parcel — there are no town-level alternatives because no incorporated towns exist. Patrick's ordinance text varies in terminology across amendment cycles; confirm the current text with the Patrick County Planning office before relying on a specific size threshold or configuration rule.

Patrick County administers an overlay portfolio shaped by its mountainous Blue Ridge geography, federal lands proximity, and rural land-use base: (1) the Floodplain Overlay District tied to FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Smith River (county's primary stream corridor, drains to Henry County and the Smith Mountain Lake reservoir downstream), the Mayo River North Fork and South Fork (drains south into North Carolina), the Dan River drainage in the far southern county (drains into North Carolina then back into Virginia at the Roanoke River), and Rock Castle Creek and other interior streams; (2) Blue Ridge Parkway corridor proximity — the parkway crosses Patrick's northern boundary and the National Park Service operates a scenic-corridor coordination posture for adjacent private development, with informal NPS consultation customary for ridgeline-visible construction; (3) historic-resource sensitivity at Reynolds Homestead (the National Register-listed birthplace of R.J. Reynolds, 19th-century plantation house in Critz operated as a Virginia Tech outreach center), Bob White Covered Bridge (a National Register-listed 19th-century covered bridge in Woolwine), Laurel Hill (the birthplace of Confederate cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart, a Virginia Civil War Trails site), and other scattered National Register properties. Patrick is NOT a Tidewater Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area locality — Patrick sits in the Blue Ridge mountains far west of Tidewater, in drainage basins flowing south to the Albemarle Sound (via the Roanoke / Dan systems) and the Cape Fear (via tributaries of the Yadkin), not the Chesapeake Bay. Patrick has no coastal-commission jurisdiction, no CalFire-equivalent WUI regime, and no seismic-retrofit overlay.

• Floodplain Overlay District
• Blue Ridge Parkway corridor proximity / scenic coordination
• Patrick County historic resources — Reynolds Homestead, Bob White Covered Bridge, Laurel Hill, Civil War heritage

The Patrick County Building Official issues residential building permits for every parcel in the county. An ADU permit bundle on a Patrick County parcel typically includes: (1) a Zoning Compliance verification / Zoning Permit from Planning and Zoning confirming the ADU meets the supplementary-regulation standards (size cap, one-per-parcel, principal-dwelling setbacks, district eligibility), (2) a Building Permit from the Building Official with stamped plans, (3) trade permits for Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical filed by licensed Virginia contractors, (4) a Virginia Department of Health construction permit for well and/or septic on the majority of parcels — Patrick County's public water/sewer footprint is limited to portions of the Stuart corridor and a few additional service areas, so most rural parcels require a VDH evaluation, (5) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel is within a FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Area per the county's Floodplain Ordinance (mapping along the Smith River, the Mayo River North Fork and South Fork, the Dan River drainage in the southern county, and Rock Castle Creek and other interior streams), (6) for parcels along or visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway, coordination with the National Park Service may apply for visual / scenic-corridor consultation under the parkway's adjacent-land coordination process, and (7) for parcels adjoining the North Carolina state line, additional coordination with North Carolina building / health authorities may apply for cross-jurisdictional well or septic siting.