Coast Guard Finance Unit

York County, Virginia regulates accessory dwellings under its Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 24.1 of the York County Code). As of 2026-04-21, York County has NOT enacted a modern ADU-preemption-style ordinance permitting detached ADUs ministerially by right on all single-family-residential parcels. The ordinance permits 'accessory apartments' and 'family-member accessory dwellings' under narrow conditions in certain residential districts, typically subject to minimum lot area, owner-occupancy of the primary dwelling, size caps, familial-relationship requirements (for family-member units), and in many districts a special-use-permit or special-exception process administered by the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state with no statewide ADU preemption (see src/data/state-adu-research/virginia.json for the full state framework) — ADU preemption bills have been introduced in every General Assembly session from 2022 through 2025 without enactment. York County's ordinance therefore operates without any state floor that would mandate permissibility, ministerial review, fee caps, or removal of owner-occupancy restrictions. Applicants planning an accessory dwelling in York County should (a) confirm the parcel's zoning district on the York County GIS viewer, (b) consult the use table in the applicable zoning district chapter for accessory-apartment and family-member-dwelling eligibility, (c) check the supplementary-regulations chapter for lot-area and owner-occupancy conditions, (d) identify whether the parcel sits inside any of the county's overlay districts (Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Resource Protection Area, FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, Historic District overlay, Airport Safety Overlay for Felker Army Airfield / Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport approach surfaces, or a Naval Weapons Station Yorktown encroachment-sensitive area), and (e) engage Planning Division staff pre-application.

• York County Code, Chapter 24.1 (Zoning Ordinance) — use table, accessory-structure regulations, accessory-apartment and family-member-accessory-dwelling supplementary regulations; Chapter 23.3 (Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act local program); Chapter 24.1 overlay district provisions
• Virginia Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. (zoning enabling authority for Virginia counties); § 15.2-2286 (provisions that may be included in a zoning ordinance); § 15.2-2285 (procedure for adopting and amending a zoning ordinance); § 15.2-2310 (Board of Zoning Appeals); Dillon Rule doctrine
• Va. Code § 15.2-2283.1 and § 15.2-2308.1 (accessory-use regulation authority as applied by Virginia localities)
• York County Comprehensive Plan

State-floor overlay: Virginia has NOT enacted a statewide ADU preemption law. Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq. delegates zoning authority to counties, independent cities, and towns, subject to planning-commission procedure and advertised public hearing under § 15.2-2285. No state floor mandates ADU permissibility, ministerial review, minimum allowed size, parking-requirement ceilings, or removal of owner-occupancy requirements. Localities can and do heavily condition or prohibit ADUs under this framework. ADU preemption bills have been introduced in the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Virginia General Assembly sessions without enactment. York County's Zoning Ordinance therefore operates without a state ceiling on local restrictions — whatever Chapter 24.1 says controls. See src/data/state-adu-research/virginia.json for the full statutory framework.

• wetland-overlay — Applicants should always pull a parcel's RPA/RMA overlay on the county GIS viewer before siting any detached accessory dwelling; a structure inside the RPA buffer will trigger administrative-review requirements at minimum, and frequently leads to relocation of the proposed building envelope outside the buffer as the cheapest compliance path. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) provides statewide CBPA guidance at deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/water/chesapeake-bay, and VMRC handles tidal-wetland and subaqueous-bottom permitting at mrc.virginia.gov.
• flood-zone — FIRM maps published by FEMA are the authoritative flood-zone source; the county's GIS viewer overlays current effective FIRMs on the parcel layer. Finished-floor elevation requirements for residential construction in SFHAs typically require the lowest floor (including basement) to be at or above the base-flood elevation (BFE), with freeboard commonly imposed above BFE per local ordinance. Flood-zone status also affects flood-insurance cost under NFIP Risk Rating 2.0, which has significantly changed premium structure since its 2021-2023 rollout. Peninsula localities including York County are actively engaged in shoreline-resilience and sea-level-rise planning; applicants in coastal zones should factor long-term flood-risk trajectory into ADU siting decisions.
• historic-district — Register-listed (National or Virginia) status alone does NOT by itself create a local review requirement; only locally-designated historic-overlay district status does. However, federal preservation tax incentives and state rehabilitation tax credits (administered by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources at dhr.virginia.gov) do apply to register-listed properties and can materially improve the economics of an ADU-adjacent rehab if the property qualifies. Applicants building near the Yorktown Battlefield / Colonial Parkway should also check whether view-shed or adjacent-property considerations trigger consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 for any federally-assisted aspect of the project.
• airport-noise-zone — Applicants building an accessory dwelling in the relevant parts of the county should check parcel status against the Airport Safety Overlay on the county GIS viewer. Height restrictions are the most common constraint for parcels within transitional surfaces; residential-use compatibility and a real-estate disclosure obligation apply within designated noise contours. The county does not prohibit residential use within noise zones but does require acknowledgement.
• other — Military compatibility planning is a recurring topic in Peninsula planning generally; the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has published Joint Land Use Studies covering the region's installations. Applicants near NWS Yorktown should verify any Encroachment Partnership Agreement easements, ESQD exposure, or compatibility-use constraints on the county GIS viewer and with Planning Division staff before committing to a site plan for an accessory dwelling. The U.S. Navy has historically invested in encroachment-mitigation easements (Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration — REPI — program) around NWS Yorktown to reduce residential encroachment.

Because York County contains no incorporated cities or towns within its boundaries, every non-federal parcel in the county is 'unincorporated' and is permitted directly by the county. The York County Planning Division (zoning compliance, subdivision review, comprehensive-plan consistency) and the York County Department of Building Regulation and Environmental Services / Building Safety and Permits (building plan review, permits, inspections) jointly administer the two-track review that any accessory-dwelling application must complete: (a) a zoning-compliance determination under Chapter 24.1 of the York County Code confirming the proposed accessory dwelling fits a permitted or conditionally-permitted category in the parcel's zoning district; and (b) a building-code plan review and inspection cycle confirming compliance with the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC), which incorporates the Virginia Residential Code and associated state-adopted supplements. For parcels where Chapter 24.1 does not permit a second dwelling by right, the applicant must first obtain a special-use permit (SUP) or special-exception approval through the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, or in some cases a variance through the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) under Va. Code § 15.2-2309. York County uses an online permit portal for building-permit intake and offers pre-application conferences with Planning staff for zoning questions.