Gate City

Scott County does NOT have a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit (ADU) ordinance. The Scott County Zoning Ordinance regulates dwelling uses through per-district use tables and accompanying definitions; 'accessory dwelling unit' is not identified as a separate named use category in the county's publicly-listed ordinance resources, and county application materials do not publish an ADU-specific permit pathway. The operative framework is one principal dwelling per lot, with any second dwelling on an existing parcel routing through either (a) a Conditional Use Permit / Special Use Permit under the Zoning Ordinance — requires Planning Commission recommendation and Board of Supervisors approval after a Va. Code § 15.2-2204-compliant advertised public hearing, (b) subdivision of the parcel into two conforming lots under the Scott County Subdivision Ordinance followed by a standard zoning and building permit for a second principal dwelling on the new lot, or (c) a family-member / farm-labor path in agricultural contexts via the discretionary Special Use Permit route. Virginia has not enacted a statewide ADU preemption as of 2026-04-21 (per the adupass Virginia state-adu-research file: Virginia is a Dillon Rule state; the General Assembly has not passed an ADU bill through the 2026 regular session; Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. leaves ADU regulation to localities). Scott County's silence on ADUs is therefore the binding local rule. Additionally, very large portions of the county — particularly the northwestern Powell Valley sector, the Clinch River corridor, and the agricultural river-valley bottoms — carry A-1 Agricultural zoning in which a single farm-family / farm-employee accessory dwelling is frequently approvable by Special Use Permit with owner-occupancy or family-member conditions attached.

Scott County administers or is subject to four principal overlay regimes that bear on second-dwelling and accessory-structure projects: (1) Floodplain regulation within the Zoning Ordinance, tied to the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map for Scott County — the overlay reaches the Clinch River corridor (which bisects the county east-to-west and carries the largest mapped floodplain), the Powell River (southwestern portion), Copper Creek (central), Stony Creek (eastern), and numerous tributaries of these ridge-and-valley stream systems. Compliance with FEMA NFIP 44 CFR § 60.3, FIRM base-flood-elevation, and Virginia freeboard requirements is required for any new residential structure in the mapped floodplain. (2) The Virginia Land Use (use-value) assessment program administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue under Va. Code § 58.1-3230 et seq. — Land Use enrollment is substantial in Scott County given the heavily agricultural and forested land base, so a very large share of prospective ADU projects will be on Land Use-enrolled parcels, with rollback-tax exposure under § 58.1-3237 that can run up to six years of use-value-vs-fair-market-value assessment difference. (3) Natural Tunnel State Park adjacency — the 1,000-acre state park near Duffield protects the nationally significant limestone natural tunnel (850 feet long, 100+ feet tall) through Purchase Ridge; parcels in the immediate park vicinity have heightened scrutiny under Special Use Permit review but no county-specific design-review overlay. (4) Jefferson National Forest (Clinch Ranger District) adjacency — the southeastern and southern reaches of Scott County include and abut U.S. Forest Service lands, introducing federal-land interface considerations for parcels adjoining forest boundaries. Scott has NO coastal-commission jurisdiction (inland southwestern Virginia; no tidal waters; far outside the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Tidewater boundary), NO statewide WUI regulatory overlay (Virginia has none), NO seismic-retrofit overlay (well outside the Central Virginia Seismic Zone centered on Louisa County), and NO Part 150 airport-noise overlay (no commercial airport inside the county; the nearest general-aviation airport is Scott County / Virginia Highlands Airport / KVJI in Abingdon (Washington County) and Lonesome Pine Airport in Wise County). The county does not operate a county-administered local Architectural Review Board for historic districts.

• Floodplain regulation within the Scott County Zoning Ordinance (FEMA NFIP FIRM)
• Land Use (use-value) assessment program
• Natural Tunnel State Park adjacency
• Jefferson National Forest (Clinch Ranger District) adjacency

An accessory-dwelling or second-dwelling project on an unincorporated Scott County parcel routes through the Scott County Building & Zoning office at 190 Beech Street, Suite 102, Gate City. The same office handles the zoning-permit approval (required before any building permit can issue), any Special Use Permit (the likely path for a second dwelling given the absence of a by-right ADU category), Subdivision Plat Review (if the subdivision path is chosen), Board of Zoning Appeals variance review, building permit under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, and trade permits. Because nearly all rural Scott County parcels lack public water and sewer, the Lenowisco Health District (Virginia Department of Health local office covering Lee, Scott, and Wise counties, with a Scott County office in Gate City) issues the well-and-septic construction permit for such parcels; the VDH permit must be in hand before the county will issue the building permit. Zoning applications are submitted in person at the Building & Zoning office; the county does not operate an Accela-, Tyler-, or CivicGov-integrated online permit portal. Building-permit applications go to the same office. Payment by check, cash, or credit card at intake. Given the very small staff (typically one Building Official, one or two inspectors or combination code officials, and one Permit Technician / Zoning Administrator who may be the same person as the Building Official in smaller rural Virginia counties), direct phone consultation at (276) 386-6521 is the strongly-recommended first step.