Surry County

Surry County's Department of Planning and Community Development handles zoning permits, Special Use Permits, site plan review, subdivision review, and Chesapeake Bay Preservation District administration for every parcel in the county except those inside the Town of Surry or the Town of Claremont (which administer their own zoning and permitting) and state/federal land. Building Inspections issues building permits and trade permits for the same non-town territory. A typical ADU-like permit bundle (where a second dwelling is permitted) includes: (1) a Special Use Permit from the Board of Supervisors with Planning Commission recommendation, unless the parcel qualifies for an A-R family-member or farm-labor dwelling allowance, (2) a Zoning Permit confirming use compliance and district setback compliance, (3) a Building Permit with stamped residential plans, (4) Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical trade permits, (5) a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) - Western Tidewater Health District construction permit for well and/or septic on parcels not served by public water or sewer (which is the great majority of unincorporated parcels), (6) a Floodplain Development Permit if any portion of the parcel intersects the mapped 100-year SFHA along the James River, the Chickahominy / Diascund / Mill Pond drainages, or other mapped tributaries, (7) a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act review — Surry County IS a Tidewater locality subject to the CBPA, with Resource Protection Area (RPA) and Resource Management Area (RMA) rules applying countywide given the James River tidal frontage, (8) a Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) joint permit for any work below mean high water or encroaching on tidal wetlands of the James, (9) US Army Corps of Engineers permit where federal waters are involved, and (10) historic-resource review at Bacon's Castle, Smith's Fort, and other NRHP-listed parcels.

Surry County real estate is assessed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue working with the Real Estate Assessment Office. Surry County operates on a periodic general-reassessment cycle under Va. Code § 58.1-3252; the county historically uses a multi-year cycle with reassessments typically contracted to an outside assessment firm. A second-dwelling addition is captured through the supplemental real-estate-improvement process under Va. Code § 58.1-3292: the Commissioner of the Revenue receives the building-permit record and Certificate of Occupancy from Building Inspections, and the Real Estate Assessment Office adds the second dwelling's assessed value to the parcel's land and improvement base, prorated to the completion date. The primary dwelling is NOT re-valued off-cycle as a result of the second-dwelling addition. Note: the Surry Power Station nuclear-generating facility (Dominion Energy) is a major commercial / industrial assessment line in the county and significantly affects countywide tax-base composition.

Assessment policy: A second dwelling is captured as a real-estate improvement under Va. Code Title 58.1 Subtitle III Chapter 32. On receipt of the building permit and (later) the Certificate of Occupancy, the Real Estate Assessment Office prorates the supplemental assessment from the completion date through the end of the tax year under Va. Code § 58.1-3292. The second dwelling is added at its assessed fair-market value on top of the parcel's existing land and improvement value; the existing primary dwelling is NOT revalued off-cycle. There is no Surry-County-specific ADU assessment exemption. Standard Virginia real-estate tax relief programs (elderly and disabled relief under Va. Code § 58.1-3210 as adopted locally, disabled-veteran exemption under Va. Code § 58.1-3219.5) apply to the homeowner's principal residence. Land Use Assessment under Va. Code § 58.1-3229 et seq. is locally adopted and is consequential — Surry County is an agricultural / silvicultural county with substantial enrollment in use-value assessment.

Surry County administers several overlay regimes that bear materially on ADU projects, with coastal / tidal exposure being the dominant physical constraint along the James River frontage. The relevant overlays are: (1) a Floodplain Overlay District tied to FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas along the James River, the Chickahominy River drainage to the north (the James-Chickahominy confluence is at the county's northeast corner across from Charles City), and various tidal creek systems (Lawnes Creek, Hog Island Creek, Lower Chippokes Creek, Upper Chippokes Creek); (2) Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act jurisdiction across the entire county (Surry is a Tidewater locality designated under Va. Code § 62.1-44.15:67 et seq.), with Resource Protection Area (RPA) buffers of 100 feet from perennial water bodies and tidal wetlands and Resource Management Area (RMA) coverage on much of the remaining land; (3) Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) tidal-wetlands and subaqueous-bottom jurisdiction reaching any project touching tidal waters along the James and its tributaries; (4) NRHP-listed historic resources of exceptional national significance, including Bacon's Castle (a National Historic Landmark, oldest surviving brick dwelling in English North America, 1665), Smith's Fort plantation (associated with Pocahontas — the dwelling site John Rolfe owned and on which he lived briefly with Pocahontas after their 1614 marriage; the existing house is a 1763 brick structure on the site, NRHP-listed), Chippokes Plantation State Park (NRHP-listed plantation operated by Virginia State Parks, Mansion House and farm complex), Pleasant Point and Four Mile Tree plantations, and various NRHP-listed colonial-era resources; (5) the Surry Power Station Emergency Planning Zone (10-mile and 50-mile EPZs around the nuclear-generating facility, which constrain certain critical-facility siting decisions but do not directly restrict residential ADU construction); (6) state parkland at Chippokes Plantation State Park (one of the larger James River frontage state parks). Surry County has NO California-style coastal commission, NO CalFire-equivalent WUI overlay, NO seismic-retrofit overlay, and NO airport-noise overlay.

• Floodplain Overlay District along James River and tidal creeks
• Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) Resource Protection Area and Resource Management Area
• Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) tidal-wetlands and subaqueous-bottom jurisdiction
• Bacon's Castle, Smith's Fort, Chippokes Plantation, and other NRHP-listed colonial resources
• Surry Power Station Emergency Planning Zone