Virginia Code 15.2-1725: Extending police power of localities over lands lying beyond boundaries thereof; jurisdiction of courts.
Any locality owning and operating an airport, public hospital, sanitarium, nursing home, public water supply or watershed, public park, recreational area, sewage disposal plant or system, public landing, dock, wharf or canal, public school, public utility, public buildings and other public property located beyond the limits of the locality shall have and may exercise full police power over the property, and over persons using the property, and may, by ordinance, prescribe rules for the operation and use of the property and for the conduct of all persons using the property and may, further, provide penalties for the violation of such rules contained in an ordinance; such penalties, however, shall not exceed those provided by general law for misdemeanors. However, no ordinances in conflict with an ordinance of the jurisdiction wherein the property is located shall be enacted.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 15.2-1725
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
- County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
- Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
- Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
Any locality which maintains or operates in whole or in part any property enumerated in this section may lawfully send its law-enforcement officers to the property owned beyond the limits of the locality for the purpose of protecting the property, keeping order therein, or otherwise enforcing the laws of the Commonwealth and ordinances of the locality owning the property as such laws and ordinances may relate to the operation and use thereof. The law-enforcement officer shall have power to make an arrest for a violation of any law or ordinance relating to the operation and use of the property. The district court in the city or town where the offense occurs shall have jurisdiction of all cases arising therein, and the district court of the county where the offense occurs shall have jurisdiction of all cases arising therein.
It shall be the duty of the attorney for the Commonwealth for the locality wherein the offense occurs to prosecute all violators of the ordinances of the locality that pertain to the operation and use of the property enumerated in this section.
Code 1950, § 15-560.1; 1952, c. 382; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-142; 1979, c. 333; 1997, c. 587.