Virginia
Buying Land in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
County seat Chatham. Virginia's largest county by land area, Pittsylvania is former tobacco country now built around diversified agriculture and forestry -- and home to Coles Hill, one of the largest known undeveloped uranium deposits in the country, sitting under a statewide mining ban the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2019.
Virginia's biggest county, built on tobacco and now diversifying
Pittsylvania County, seated in the town of Chatham, is Virginia's largest county by land area at roughly 979 square miles -- a scale that means the county genuinely spans very different land types and price points within its own borders, from land near the Danville metro edge to remote, heavily forested tracts well into the county's interior. Historically, Pittsylvania was one of Virginia's most productive tobacco-growing counties, and while that crop's dominance has faded with the broader decline of the tobacco economy, agriculture and forestry remain significant land uses across the county today, now more diversified across cattle, hay, and other row crops alongside working timberland.
The county surrounds, but does not include, the independent city of Danville, which sits on the county's southern border and functions as the area's main regional population and job center. As with any Virginia independent city, Danville is a legally separate jurisdiction with its own zoning and government -- Pittsylvania County's own zoning ordinance and rural land-use rules do not extend into Danville's city limits even along their shared boundary.
Coles Hill: a nationally significant uranium deposit under a state mining ban
The single most distinctive fact about Pittsylvania County, for a certain kind of land buyer, is Coles Hill -- a site in the county holding one of the largest known undeveloped uranium deposits in the United States. That deposit has been the subject of a decades-long push by its owner, Virginia Uranium, Inc., to develop a mining operation there, running directly up against a Virginia statute that has banned uranium mining statewide since 1982. Virginia Uranium sued the state, arguing federal nuclear-safety law preempted the state's mining ban; the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren (2019) that the state's ban was not preempted and could stand.
That Supreme Court decision resolved the specific legal preemption question, but it did not itself lift Virginia's mining ban -- the moratorium remains a matter of state statute that only the General Assembly can change, and it has stayed a live political fight: the deposit's owner changed hands again in a 2022 corporate acquisition, and organized opposition to a renewed push to lift the ban has been reported as recently as 2026. See this site's dedicated page on Coles Hill mineral rights and easements for the fuller history and what it means for a title search on land in the area -- in short, decades of mineral- and surface-rights consolidation around the deposit mean a nearby parcel's severed-mineral status is worth checking specifically, not assuming away.
Zoning, septic, and the practical due-diligence picture
Pittsylvania County, like most Virginia counties, has adopted a zoning ordinance covering agricultural and rural districts alongside residential and commercial ones. As everywhere in Virginia, production agriculture and silviculture are protected by-right in an agricultural district under the state Zoning Enabling Act, but confirm the specific district, its non-farm use list, and any minimum-lot or road-frontage requirements directly with the county's Planning Department given how much the county's land character varies from one end to the other.
Septic and private well permitting for a Pittsylvania County parcel is a state function, handled by a Virginia Department of Health local health district rather than a county department -- this page describes the county as likely served by the West Piedmont Health District, which groups several nearby Southside counties together, but that assignment was not independently confirmed this session and should be checked directly with VDH. Given the county's sheer size and rural character, a perc test and site evaluation early in your due-diligence process is especially worthwhile here, since soil and terrain conditions can vary widely across a county this large.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Pittsylvania County
Direct WebFetch to the county's own site returned a network-egress error this session; department details reflect general knowledge rather than a source confirmed this session. Confirm current department structure, hours, and contact details directly, and confirm the current status of Virginia's uranium mining moratorium and any Coles Hill-related land-use restrictions directly with the county before relying on this page's description.
Planning & Zoning
Pittsylvania County Planning Department
Zoning district lookups, by-right versus special-permit use determinations, and building/zoning permits.
Septic / Onsite Wastewater
Virginia Department of Health (local health district serving Pittsylvania County)
Septic and private well permitting -- confirm the current district assignment directly.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Pittsylvania County Circuit Court Clerk
Recorded deeds, easements, plats, and mineral-rights severance records for a specific parcel.
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Get local guidanceTopics Specific to Pittsylvania County
Sources
- Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren, 587 U.S. 761 (2019) — Supreme Court of the United States (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09