Counties Cities And Towns
Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Constitutional amendment; qualified immunity for government officials (first reference). [HJR-60]
Constitutional amendment (first reference); qualified immunity for government officials. Establishes the right of government officials to qualified immunity. The amendment provides that a government official may not be found liable for the deprivation of any person's rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution of Virginia and the laws of Virginia if such official establishes that (i) the right, privilege, or immunity alleged to be violated was not clearly established at the time of the person's deprivation by the official, or that
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Sponsored by: Rep. William Wampler
Left In Privileges And Elections on 02/15/2022
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Gettr Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Alarm systems; regulation, battery-charged fence security systems. [HB-907]
Regulation of alarm systems; battery-charged fence security systems. Allows a locality to require those persons providing or operating a battery-charged fence security system, defined in the bill, to obtain an alarm company permit and the corresponding fee and to require certain other requirements as defined in the bill. The bill provides that the locality can also require the installer of such security system to submit an affidavit disclosing information about the installation that includes an affirmation of compliance. The bill also provides that
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Sponsored by: Sen. Emily Brewer
Governor: Acts Of Assembly Chapter Text (chap0044) on 04/01/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Comprehensive plan; adoption of an environmental justice strategy. [HB-969]
Comprehensive plan; environmental justice strategy. Requires cities with populations greater than 20,000 and counties with populations greater than 100,000 to consider, at the next and all subsequent reviews of the comprehensive plan, adopting an environmental justice strategy. The bill provides that the locality's strategy shall be to identify environmental justice and fenceline communities within the jurisdiction of the local planning commission and identify objectives and policies to reduce health risks, to promote civic engagement, and to prioritize
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Sponsored by: Rep. Shelly Simonds
Stricken From Docket By Counties, Cities And Towns (22-y 0-n) on 02/04/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Building service employees; transition period. [HB-865]
Building service employees; transition period. Permits any county, city, or town in the Commonwealth to provide for certain requirements concerning incumbent and successor building service employers by local ordinance or resolution. For example, such local ordinance or resolution may require that successor building service employers retain incumbent employees during a transition period of 90 days. Under the bill, building service employees are those who perform work in connection with the care or maintenance of property. A building service employer
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Sponsored by: Rep. Alfonso Lopez
Left In Counties, Cities And Towns on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Unlawful hazing; amends definition, civil and criminal liability, penalties. [HB-993]
Unlawful hazing; penalty. Makes the crime of hazing a Class 5 felony if such hazing results in death or serious bodily injury to any person. The crime of hazing that does not result in death or serious bodily injury remains a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also provides an affirmative defense for hazing if a person in good faith seeks or obtains emergency medical attention for a person who has received a bodily injury by hazing or renders emergency care or assistance, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), to a person who has received a bodily
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Sponsored by: Rep. Kathleen Murphy
Continued To 2022 Sp. Sess. 1 Pursuant To Hjr455 on 03/12/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Energy efficiency standards; more stringent energy efficiency requirements. [HB-905]
Energy efficiency standards; more stringent energy efficiency requirements. Allows a locality by ordinance to create and require stretch codes, defined in the bill as energy efficiency standards that are in addition to or more stringent than those in the Uniform Statewide Building Code, and use them as an alternative means of compliance with a locality's building requirements. The bill requires periodic review of the codes and allows the locality to make amendments.
Sponsored by: Rep. Alfonso Lopez
Left In Counties, Cities And Towns on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Comprehensive plan approval; appeal shall be heard and determined within 100 days, etc. [HB-855]
Comprehensive plan approval. Allows a planning commission to extend the 60-day period during which it makes a recommendation to the governing body on a comprehensive plan amendment if an applicant agrees to such extension. The bill also extends from 60 days to 100 days, or such longer period as agreed to by an applicant, the period of time during which the governing body shall hear and determine an appeal from a planning commission decision.
Sponsored by: Sen. Suhas Subramanyam
Stricken From Docket By Counties, Cities And Towns (22-y 0-n) on 01/28/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Marijuana and certain traffic offenses; issuing citations. [HB-1030]
Issuing citations; marijuana and certain traffic offenses. Removes the provisions that provide that no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop a motor vehicle for operating (i) without a light illuminating a license plate, (ii) with defective and unsafe equipment, (iii) without brake lights or a high mount stop light, (iv) without an exhaust system that prevents excessive or unusual levels of noise, (v) with certain sun-shading materials and tinting films, and (vi) with certain objects suspended in the vehicle, and the accompanying exclusionary
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Sponsored by: Rep. Terry Austin
Incorporated By Courts Of Justice on 02/07/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Planning; definition of subdivision, boundary line agreement. [HB-1088]
Planning; subdivision of land and zoning. Changes the definition of "subdivision" to provide that it does not preclude different owners of adjacent parcels from entering into a valid and enforceable boundary line agreement with one another so long as such agreement is only used to resolve a bona fide property line dispute, the boundary adjustment does not move by more than 250 feet from the center of the current platted line or alter either parcel's resultant acreage by more than five percent of the smaller parcel size, and such agreement does not
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Sponsored by: Rep. James Leftwich
Governor: Acts Of Assembly Chapter Text (chap0271) on 04/08/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Broadband providers and public utilities; late payment fees restricted. [HB-1052]
Broadband providers and public utilities; late payment fees restricted. Prohibits a broadband provider or a public utility from charging (i) a residential customer a late payment fee or similar penalty that exceeds the lesser of 2.5 percent of the balance due or $5 or (ii) any interest on a residential customer's outstanding balance. The bill provides that "public utility" includes utilities that are not subject to the jurisdiction of the State Corporation Commission and that provide electric, gas, or water or wastewater service in the Commonwealth.
Sponsored by: Rep. Irene Shin
Stricken From Docket By Commerce And Energy (21-y 0-n) on 02/08/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Public defender; supplementing compensation. [HB-862]
Supplementing compensation of public defender. Requires the governing body of any county or city that elects to supplement the compensation of the attorney for the Commonwealth, or any of his deputies or employees, above the salary of any such attorney for the Commonwealth, deputy, or employee, to proportionally supplement the compensation of the public defender, or any of his deputies or employees, commensurate with the compensation of the attorney for the Commonwealth, or any of his deputies or employees.
Sponsored by: Rep. Alfonso Lopez
Left In Counties, Cities And Towns on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Firearms; control by localities of possession or carrying. [HB-1033]
Control of firearms by localities. Removes the authority for a locality by ordinance to prohibit the possession or carrying of firearms, ammunition, or components or any combination thereof in (i) any building, or part thereof, owned or used by such locality for governmental purposes; (ii) any public park owned or operated by the locality; (iii) any recreation or community center facility; or (iv) any public street, road, alley, or sidewalk or public right-of-way or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public and is being used
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Sponsored by: Rep. Glenn Davis
Left In Public Safety on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Public accommodations, employment, and housing; prohibited discrimination on the basis of religion. [HB-1063]
Public accommodations, employment, and housing; prohibited discrimination on the basis of religion; includes outward religious expression. Clarifies that "religion" as it relates to freedom of expression includes any outward expression of religious faith in contexts where discrimination on the basis of religion is prohibited.
Sponsored by: Rep. Kathleen Murphy
Governor: Acts Of Assembly Chapter Text (chap0799) on 05/27/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Hallucinogens or psychoactive substances; possession, civil penalty. [HB-898]
Possession of certain naturally occurring hallucinogens or psychoactive substances; civil penalty. Provides that any person 21 years of age or older who knowingly or intentionally possesses peyote, ibogaine, psilocybin, or psilocyn shall be punished by a civil penalty of no more than $100 and such civil penalties shall be deposited into the Drug Offender Assessment and Treatment Fund. Under current law, a person who knowingly or intentionally possesses such substances is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Possession of certain naturally occurring hallucinogens
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Sponsored by: Rep. Dawn Adams
Continued To 2023 In Courts Of Justice By Voice Vote on 01/28/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Fund to Assist Localities with Translation of Essential Information; established. [HB-1070]
Fund to Assist Localities with Translation of Essential Information; established. Establishes the Fund to Assist Localities with Translation of Essential Information to be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development for the purpose of making grants to local governments to address the lack of translated documents for those citizens and taxpayers of the Commonwealth and its localities for whom English is a second language. The bill provides that the Fund shall make grants to local governments for the purpose of translating
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Sponsored by: Rep. Aijalon Cordoza
Left In Appropriations on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Critically missing adult; expands definition, receipt of reports. [HB-1060]
Receipt of critically missing adult reports; Virginia Critically Missing Adult Alert Program; definition. Expands the definition of "critically missing adult" to include any missing adult, including an adult who has a developmental disability, intellectual disability, or mental illness, 18 years of age or older for the purpose of receipt of critically missing adult reports by a police or sheriff's department and the Virginia Critically Missing Adult Alert Program administered by the Department of State Police and removes from the Program the eligibility
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Sponsored by: Rep. Aijalon Cordoza
Governor: Acts Of Assembly Chapter Text (chap0394) on 04/11/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held through electronic communication means. [HB-722]
Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held through electronic communication means; local advisory boards and commissions. Allows a local public body that serves in an advisory capacity to gather through electronic communication means without a quorum of the public body physically assembled at one primary or central meeting location if certain conditions, outlined in the bill, are met.
Sponsored by: Rep. Gwendolyn Gooditis
Left In General Laws on 02/15/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Collective bargaining; law enforcement, transparency and accountability. [HB-790]
Collective bargaining; law enforcement; transparency and accountability. Prohibits a county, city, or town from entering into a collective bargaining contract with a labor union or other employee association representing law-enforcement officers or employees of a law-enforcement agency that (i) prevents the Attorney General from seeking equitable relief against a law-enforcement agency engaging in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional misconduct; (ii) includes any stipulation that delays officer interviews or interrogations after alleged wrongdoing
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Sponsored by: Rep. Dave LaRock
Passed By Indefinitely In Commerce And Labor (12-y 3-n) on 02/28/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Monument and memorials; relocation. [HB-778]
Relocation of monument and memorials. Requires a locality that votes to remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover certain war monuments or memorials to initiate a process to gift the monument or memorial to a nonprofit organization that is most related to the mission and spirit of the monument or memorial, at the locality's expense. The bill provides that the placement of the monument or memorial shall be decided by an independent committee and that a majority vote by the committee as to the relocation of the memorial is binding on the locality
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Sponsored by: Rep. Lee Ware
Continued To 2023 In Counties, Cities And Towns By Voice Vote on 02/11/2022
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Virginia 2022 Regular Session
Firearms; control by localities of possession or carrying. [HB-483]
Control of firearms by localities. Removes the authority for a locality by ordinance to prohibit the possession or carrying of firearms, ammunition, or components or any combination thereof in (i) any building, or part thereof, owned or used by such locality for governmental purposes; (ii) any public park owned or operated by the locality; (iii) any recreation or community center facility; or (iv) any public street, road, alley, or sidewalk or public right-of-way or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public and is being used
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Sponsored by: Rep. Lee Ware
Left In Public Safety on 02/15/2022