Buying Land in Charles City County, Virginia

A historic, rural county with no incorporated towns

Charles City County sits between Richmond and Williamsburg and is one of Virginia's older counties, historically associated with a concentration of James River plantation estates. This page deliberately focuses on the county's inland zoning and land-use mechanics rather than riverfront real estate framing -- that angle is better covered elsewhere, and buyers evaluating general rural or agricultural acreage in the county need the zoning and permitting picture more than a historical-estate narrative.

One structural fact worth knowing: Charles City County has no incorporated towns within its borders. That means there is no separate municipal zoning layer to navigate anywhere in the county -- the county government's own zoning ordinance and Planning department govern every parcel directly, which simplifies jurisdictional questions compared with counties that contain one or more incorporated towns with their own zoning authority.

A federally recognized tribe headquartered here

Charles City County is also headquarters to the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, which gained full federal recognition in January 2018. That recognition came with a specific, real legal mechanism worth knowing about even for a buyer with no direct interest in tribal affairs: the federal law that recognized the tribe authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to take the tribe's own fee land in Charles City County (among three other named counties) into federal trust, where it would sit outside the county's ordinary zoning and tax jurisdiction. The tribe has also been an active land buyer in the county in its own right, completing a large purchase along the Chickahominy River in December 2021. Our dedicated tribal-trust-land-status page for Charles City County covers what this means in practice, including how to confirm a specific parcel's fee-versus-trust status.

Zoning: a Limited Residential Agricultural (A-20) District

Charles City County adopted its current Zoning Ordinance on March 28, 2006, with amendments continuing through at least 2024, and it establishes a Limited Residential Agricultural (A-20) District covering a meaningful share of the county's rural land. The "20" designation strongly suggests a 20-acre minimum lot size, consistent with how many Virginia counties name their agricultural districts after the applicable acreage threshold -- but this page did not independently verify that number against the ordinance's actual text this session, so confirm the current A-20 minimum lot size, and any other district-specific requirements, directly with the county's Planning department before assuming it.

It's also worth knowing that zoning district boundaries in Charles City County have changed before: in a documented 2000 Virginia Supreme Court case (Riverview Farm Associates v. Board of Supervisors of Charles City County), the county rezoned a tract along the James River -- near the historic Shirley Plantation, with an existing barge-loading port -- from A-1 Agricultural to B-1-C Business Conditional to accommodate that commercial use. That's a reminder, not a red flag: zoning is a locally adopted and locally amendable framework everywhere in Virginia, and a district's current designation is what to verify, not what a parcel's history suggests it always was.

Septic, well, and general due diligence

Septic and private well permitting in Charles City County follows Virginia's statewide model, handled through VDH's Chickahominy Health District, which also covers Goochland, Hanover, and New Kent counties, with the Charles City Health Department operating as the local office. As with any rural Virginia county, confirm soil and site conditions for septic feasibility on a specific parcel directly rather than assuming it from a neighboring tract's history.

For a buyer evaluating inland agricultural or rural residential acreage in Charles City County, the two most useful early calls are the county's Planning department (to confirm current zoning district, the A-20 minimum lot size, and whether any rezoning history affects the specific parcel) and the Chickahominy Health District (to confirm septic and well feasibility) -- both well ahead of making an offer.