Buying Land in Henry County, Virginia

A rural Piedmont county wrapped around an independent city

Henry County sits in Virginia's southern Piedmont near the North Carolina border, surrounding but legally separate from the independent city of Martinsville, a historic furniture- and textile-manufacturing center. Because Martinsville is an independent city rather than the county seat sitting inside county lines, it operates its own government, zoning ordinance, and land records entirely apart from Henry County's -- a distinction worth keeping straight if you're comparing listings that reference "Martinsville" loosely, since a parcel with a Martinsville mailing address can still legally be in Henry County and subject to the county's ordinance rather than the city's.

Outside Martinsville, Henry County remains a genuinely rural and agricultural county, with working farms, forestland, and larger available tracts at prices well below what suburban Virginia commands -- a realistic market for a buyer looking for rural acreage rather than a resort or exurban commuter play.

A-1 Agriculture zoning: confirm the general minimum lot size directly

Henry County's zoning ordinance (Chapter 21 of the county code) includes an A-1 Agriculture district covering most of the county's rural land. One specific figure that is documented clearly: a Confined Feeding Operation (a large-scale livestock or poultry confinement facility) requires a 40-acre minimum lot size in the A-1 district -- a rule aimed at limiting the density and neighbor impact of intensive livestock operations. What was not confirmed in this research pass is the general minimum lot size that applies to an ordinary A-1 parcel not used as a Confined Feeding Operation; rather than guess, this page directs any buyer planning a standard rural home site, farm parcel, or subdivision to confirm that figure directly with the county's Planning Department before finalizing a lot layout.

Henry County also runs a land-use tax deferment program that taxes qualifying agricultural, horticultural, forest, and open-space land at its use value rather than market value. The program requires a minimum of 5 qualifying acres for agriculture, horticulture, or open space use, and 20 acres for forestry use, with 1 acre generally excluded from the qualifying acreage count if a dwelling sits on the property. As with any Virginia use-value program, converting enrolled land to a non-qualifying use after purchase can trigger rollback taxes, so confirm a specific parcel's enrollment status and its conditions with the Commissioner of the Revenue before closing.

Septic and well: the Henry/Martinsville Health Department

Septic and well permitting for both Henry County and the city of Martinsville runs through the combined Henry/Martinsville Health Department, which operates as part of the Virginia Department of Health's West Piedmont Health District and can be reached at 276-638-2311. As with the rest of Virginia, this is a state health agency function rather than a county department -- confirm soil and site conditions for your specific parcel directly with the health department before assuming a given rural Henry County lot can support a conventional septic system, since soil conditions vary across the county's Piedmont terrain.