What is a flag lot, and when can one be created?
A flag lot is a parcel set back from the road and joined to it by a narrow strip, the pole. Creating one depends on the county: Carroll's posted ordinance caps the count, requires 1.5 acres and limits the pole's width and length; Pulaski requires at least 500 feet between flag lots; Floyd allows a lot unable to meet frontage requirements only in a Large Lot division.
One shape, three sets of limits
All three county ordinances read for this answer describe the same shape: a lot set back from the road and joined to it by a narrow strip. Carroll names that strip the flag pole, and Pulaski and Floyd place the lot's widest point back from the road. The flag lot entry in the glossary covers the other names for the shape. What differs from county to county is what a subdivider may do with it.
| Carroll County | Pulaski County | Floyd County | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the rule sits | Subdivision ordinance, county-hosted copy with amendments through April 14, 2014 | Unified Development Ordinance, amended July 27, 2025 | Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 |
| How the lot is defined | A tract connected to the state maintained road by a narrow strip known as the flag pole | Widest point set back from the road at the rear of another lot, with a thin strip to the road for legal access and frontage | Widest point set back from the road, with a thin strip to the road for access and frontage; panhandle and pipestem lots point back to it |
| How many, and how close | Three, or no more than 30 percent of the lots when a tract over ten acres is divided into ten or more | Permitted, with at least 500 feet between flag lots | Not stated in the sections cited here |
| Size, pole and frontage | 1.5 acres minimum; pole at least 20 feet wide and no more than 1,000 feet long; no more than two contiguous poles | No lot size or pole figure in the sections cited here | A lot unable to meet the frontage requirements is a Limited Access Lot, allowed only in a Large Lot division |
In Carroll County, the Land Use and Planning page says any division of a lot or parcel is a subdivision that must comply with the Subdivision of Land ordinance. A flag lot there is created under that ordinance like any other lot, and the steps are set out in how to subdivide land in Virginia.
Carroll counts the flags and measures the pole
The maximum number of flag lots shall be three (3) or for the division of tracts or parcels of greater than ten (10) acres being subdivided into ten (10) or more tracts or parcels, the maximum number of flag lots shall not exceed 30% of the total number of lots created. All Flag Lots shall be a minimum of 1.5 acres in size.
Carroll County Subdivision Ordinance (county-hosted copy, April 14, 2014 amendments)
Read the two limits together. Outside that larger case, a division can carry up to three flag lots. A tract of more than ten acres cut into ten or more lots is held to 30 percent of the lots it creates. Every flag lot, whatever the size of the division, needs 1.5 acres.
The pole has numbers of its own. Carroll's subdivision ordinance, in its posted copy, sets a minimum pole width of 20 feet and a maximum length of 1,000 feet, and allows no more than two contiguous poles. A pole longer than 1,000 feet or narrower than 20 feet falls outside those limits as that copy writes them.
Those limits are part of why a tract's paper count and its real count come apart. A cap on flag lots, a minimum size for each one and a pole that has to reach the road all reduce the count, which is worked through in what lot yield is.
Pulaski spaces them out; Floyd sorts lots by frontage
Pulaski County's Unified Development Ordinance, amended July 27, 2025, permits flag lots with one spacing rule: "the minimum distance between flag lots shall be 500 feet". Its definition places the flag at the rear of another lot, with the pole supplying that lot's road frontage and its legal access.
A spacing rule works differently from a count. Carroll's cap asks how many flag lots a division creates; Pulaski's rule asks where each one sits in relation to the next. The posted text quoted here does not say how the 500 feet is measured, so where a second flag lot could go on a given tract is a question for the Pulaski County UDO Administrator before the plat is drawn.
Floyd County's Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026, uses the same image: a lot with its widest point set back from the road and a thin strip connecting to the road for access and frontage, with its panhandle and pipestem entries pointing back to that definition. It then sets apart a different lot, the Limited Access Lot, which is unable to meet the ordinance's road frontage requirements and is allowed only as part of a Large Lot division.
Public road frontage is not required for a Large Lot Division, provided that all lots lacking road frontage shall be served by a right-of-way at least 50 feet in width to a public road.
Floyd County Land Division Ordinance (effective January 1, 2026)
A Large Lot division sets a 25-acre minimum lot size, excluding a Limited Access Lot, and requires no road construction for its rights-of-way, though platted vehicular access must be practicable. So Floyd's text separates two lots that can look alike on a tax map: a flag lot, whose strip provides access and frontage, and a Limited Access Lot, unable to meet the frontage requirements, which only a Large Lot division can create. How frontage works on its own terms is set out in road frontage, explained.
Four things to settle before a pole goes on paper
- Which ordinance, and which version. Carroll's posted copy runs through its April 14, 2014 amendments, Pulaski's was amended July 27, 2025 and Floyd's took effect January 1, 2026. Flag lot rules for Grayson, Wythe, Montgomery and the City of Galax were not read for this answer; each goes to that locality's subdivision agent.
- How many flag lots the division already holds. Carroll caps the count and Pulaski sets the spacing, so ask the county how an earlier division on the same tract is counted.
- Whether the pole fits the ground. A strip that meets a width figure on paper still has to carry a way in. Where its line runs is a surveyor's work, and where a driveway may meet a state road is VDOT's decision.
- Who else will use the strip. A pole can end up carrying a driveway that more than one house uses, and whether two parcels can share a driveway turns on the entrance class and the recorded easement.
A flag lot is a way of dividing land, not a use for it. On commercial ground the building footprint and how traffic reaches it are weighed differently, and that question belongs to what a pad site is.
Thinking about a flag lot split off the back of a tract?
Share the county, the acreage and where the back lot would sit, and Lowell will set the county's flag lot limits against that frontage. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions this raises
Can a flag pole in Carroll County be narrower than 20 feet?
Not under the county-hosted copy of Carroll's subdivision ordinance, which sets a minimum flag pole width of 20 feet, a maximum length of 1,000 feet and no more than two contiguous poles. That copy carries amendments through April 14, 2014, so whether the text in force today reads the same is a question for Carroll County Land Use and Planning before a plat is drawn.
Does a flag lot's pole give it road frontage?
In the Pulaski and Floyd definitions it does: Pulaski's says the thin strip connects to the road to provide legal access and frontage, and Floyd's says it provides access and frontage. Carroll's defines the lot by its connection to the state maintained road through the pole. Whether a particular strip satisfies a minimum frontage figure is a separate test, answered by that county's subdivision agent.
Can two flag lots sit next to each other?
In Pulaski County, not closely: its ordinance requires at least 500 feet between flag lots. In Carroll County, the posted ordinance allows no more than two contiguous flag poles, so two poles may run together but a third may not join them. Either way, whether a proposed layout works is a question for that county's subdivision agent before the plat is drawn.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Subdivision Ordinance, county-hosted copy with April 14, 2014 amendments (flag lots, frontage) Carroll County, Virginia
- Land Use and Planning: any division of a lot or parcel is a subdivision Carroll County, Virginia
- Unified Development Ordinance, amended July 27, 2025 (flag lots, frontage) Pulaski County, Virginia
- Land Division Ordinance, effective January 1, 2026 (flag lots, Limited Access Lots, Large Lot Divisions) Floyd County, Virginia