ADU Pass
Grandin Road
Also known as Grandin Village, Raleigh Court, Wasena (adjacent), ZIP 24015
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Grandin Road — a USPS locale inside Roanoke, Roanoke city, Virginia — navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This locale covers 1 ZIP code.
Locale-specific ADU details
Site (parcel physics)
Slope:
Soil:
Lot profile:
Geo-hazards:
Recent ADU permit activity
Utility capacity (upgrade likelihood)
Housing stock age:
Electric service drop:
Sewer lateral:
Water pressure:
Gas availability: available — Full coverage from Roanoke Gas Company.
Locale property values
Grandin Road median home value runs ~31% above the Roanoke citywide $225k median. The neighborhood is Roanoke's premier walkable West End area, anchored by Grandin Village's pedestrian retail and the 1932 Grandin Theatre. Stable middle to upper-middle income demographic.
Locale overlays (2)
- historic-district
The eastern Grandin Road fringe abuts the Wasena H-2 historic neighborhood overlay under Roanoke Zoning Section 36.2-331. ARB review applies on H-2 parcels. - flood-zone
Parcels along the Roanoke River south of Grandin Road carry SFHA designation. The main residential body of the neighborhood sits on higher ground.
Inherited from the city
These sections come from the city page. Click through to the Roanoke ADU research for details.
- ADU legality
- legal history
- size range
- permitting process & fees
- permit forms
- contacts
- utilities
- incentives
- viability
- resale value impact
- construction timeline
- pre-approved plans
- financing
- service complexity
Roanoke — city ADU rules and incentives
ADU legality: allowed
Roanoke's 2023 zoning amendments already make accessory apartments by-right in the principal residential districts. SB531's 2027-07-01 effective date will further harmonize but Roanoke is already past the SB531 floor for most parameters. Specific size and parking caps in the City code may need conforming amendments to match SB531's caps; Roanoke's pre-existing ordinance is largely grandfathered.
City cost envelope
City viability (selected uses)
City of Roanoke — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Roanoke permits accessory dwelling units in residential districts under Chapter 36.2 of the City Code. The ordinance distinguishes attached vs detached ADUs and applies use-specific standards including maximum floor area (typically 750-900 sqft), height limits matched to the principal-district standards, setback requirements, and off-street parking. Owner-occupancy may be required by district. The Roanoke Valley sits in the Blue Ridge foothills; FEMA SFHA along the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek affects substantial portions of older neighborhoods (Norwich, Wasena, parts of Vinton-adjacent areas).
County regulatory overlays
Roanoke administers overlay regimes that bear on ADU projects: (1) Floodplain Management Overlay tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Roanoke River, Tinker Creek, Lick Run, and Peters Creek; (2) Historic Downtown / H-1 and H-2 historic district overlays (the Wasena, Old Southwest, and Downtown core districts); (3) Mountainside development overlay on steep-slope parcels in the southwest hills and the Mill Mountain vicinity; (4) Airport overlay near Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (FAR Part 77 surfaces). Roanoke is NOT subject to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (the city drains to the Roanoke River basin, not to the Chesapeake watershed).
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Because Roanoke is an independent city (county-equivalent), there is no separate county permitting authority. The city handles all matters that would in a typical state involve both city and county. A typical ADU permit bundle includes a Zoning Permit, a Building Permit with stamped residential plans, electrical/plumbing/mechanical trade permits, Western Virginia Water Authority connection review where applicable, and a Floodplain Development Permit on parcels in the Roanoke River or Tinker Creek SFHA. Roanoke is NOT in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act jurisdiction (the city drains to the New River basin / Roanoke River, not to the Chesapeake watershed).
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
- 24015
Post Office
- 1733 Grandin Rd SW, 24015