ADU Pass
Chuckatuck
Also known as Chuckatuck Historic District, Chuckatuck Creek, Northern Suffolk, Crittenden / Eclipse / Hobson (adjacent communities)
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Chuckatuck — a USPS locale inside Suffolk, Suffolk 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: unavailable — Natural gas not available in rural Chuckatuck; propane is the rural-norm.
Locale property values
Chuckatuck median home value runs ~12% above the Suffolk citywide $255k median. The neighborhood is rural-residential character with larger lots; older Chuckatuck Historic District homes command premium pricing.
Locale overlays (3)
- historic-district
The historic core of Chuckatuck along Kings Highway and Godwin Boulevard carries the NRHP designation. Suffolk's Historic Preservation Commission has design-review jurisdiction. - wetland-overlay
Chuckatuck Creek and Nansemond River frontage parcels generate 100-ft RPA buffers under CBPA. - flood-zone
Chuckatuck Creek waterfront parcels carry SFHA designation; interior Chuckatuck parcels are typically Zone X.
Inherited from the city
These sections come from the city page. Click through to the Suffolk 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
Suffolk — city ADU rules and incentives
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Suffolk is Virginia's largest independent city by area (~430 sq mi, ~95,000 population) and the historic home of Planters Peanuts (Mr. Peanut character was created in Suffolk in 1916). The Unified Development Ordinance permits ADUs in residential districts with restrictions. ADU economics vary dramatically by submarket - North Suffolk near the Hampton Roads bridge-tunnel has strong rental demand, while rural Whaleyville has minimal demand. SB531 will normalize the by-right baseline statewide July 1, 2027.
City cost envelope
$217,425 all-in for a 625 sqft ADU (permit + build). Midpoint scenario.
Permit fee bundle: $1,500 (2026-05).
City viability (selected uses)
City incentives
City of Suffolk — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Suffolk's Unified Development Ordinance permits accessory dwelling units in residential districts with use-specific standards. Detached ADU size caps typically run 800-1000 sqft; the UDO distinguishes guest cottages (no kitchen) from independent ADUs. Owner-occupancy is required for certain configurations. Suffolk's geographic extent includes substantial rural / agricultural land — the rural A-1 district allows family-member dwellings on parcels meeting minimum-acreage thresholds. The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge covers portions of southern Suffolk; the Nansemond River and its tributaries generate extensive CBPA RPA buffers.
County regulatory overlays
Suffolk administers overlay regimes that bear materially on ADU projects given the city's extensive rural geography and Great Dismal Swamp adjacency: (1) Floodplain Management Overlay tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Nansemond River, its tributaries, and the Great Dismal Swamp drainage; (2) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area RPA/RMA coverage citywide (Suffolk is a designated Tidewater locality); (3) Section 404 jurisdictional wetlands across much of southern Suffolk adjacent to the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge; (4) Historic Downtown Suffolk overlay; (5) Driver Historic District overlay (a National Register district on the former Norfolk and Western rail line); (6) Virginia Marine Resources Commission tidal-wetlands jurisdiction on tidal Nansemond River frontage.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Because Suffolk is an independent city (county-equivalent created from the 1974 Nansemond County / Suffolk City consolidation), 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 Conditional Use Permit when required, a Building Permit, trade permits, an HRSD sewer-connection review in the HRSD service area, a Virginia Department of Health onsite-sewage permit on rural parcels not on public sewer (common in rural southern and western Suffolk), a Floodplain Development Permit on SFHA parcels, a CBPA review, and potentially ACOE Section 404 review on Great Dismal Swamp adjacent parcels.
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
- 23432
Post Office
- 109 Kings Hwy, 23432