Virginia Code 15.2-4309: Hearing; creation of district; conditions; notice
A. The local governing body, after receiving the report of the local planning commission and the advisory committee, shall hold a public hearing as provided by law, and after such public hearing, may by ordinance create the district or add land to an existing district as applied for, or with any modifications it deems appropriate.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 15.2-4309
- Advisory committee: means the agricultural and forestal districts advisory committee. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
- Application: means the set of items a landowner or landowners must submit to the local governing body when applying for the creation of a district or an addition to an existing district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
- 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
- District: means an agricultural, forestal, or agricultural and forestal district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
- farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
- Forestal production: means the production for commercial purposes of forestal products and includes the processing or retail sales, by the producer, of forestal products which are produced on the parcel or in the district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
- Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
- Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- 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
B. The governing body may require, as a condition to creation of the district, that any parcel in the district shall not, without the prior approval of the governing body, be developed to any more intensive use or to certain more intensive uses, other than uses resulting in more intensive agricultural or forestal production, during the period which the parcel remains within the district. Local governing bodies shall not prohibit as a more intensive use, construction and placement of dwellings for persons who earn a substantial part of their livelihood from a farm or forestry operation on the same property, or for members of the immediate family of the owner, or divisions of parcels for such family members, unless the governing body finds that such use in the particular case would be incompatible with farming or forestry in the district. To further the purposes of this chapter and to promote agriculture and forestry and the creation of districts, the local governing body may adopt programs offering incentives to landowners to impose land use and conservation restrictions on their land within the district. Programs offering such incentives shall not be permitted unless authorized by law. Any conditions to creation of the district and the period before the review of the district shall be described, either in the application or in a notice sent by first-class mail to all landowners in the district and published in a newspaper having a general circulation within the district at least seven days prior to adoption of the ordinance creating the district. The ordinance shall state any conditions to creation of the district and shall prescribe the period before the first review of the district, which shall be no less than four years but not more than ten years from the date of its creation. In prescribing the period before the first review, the local governing body shall consider the period proposed in the application. The ordinance shall remain in effect at least until such time as the district is to be reviewed. In the event of annexation by a city or town of any land within a district, the district shall continue until the time prescribed for review.
C. The local governing body shall act to adopt or reject the application, or any modification of it, no later than 180 days from (i) November 1 or (ii) the other date selected by the locality as provided in § 15.2-4305. Upon the adoption of an ordinance creating a district or adding land to an existing district, the local governing body shall submit a copy of the ordinance with maps to the local commissioner of the revenue, and the State Forester, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services for information purposes. The commissioner of the revenue shall identify the parcels of land in the district in the land book and on the tax map, and the local governing body shall identify such parcels on the zoning map, where applicable and shall designate the districts on the official comprehensive plan map each time the comprehensive plan map is updated.
1977, c. 681, § 15.1-1511; 1979, c. 377; 1981, c. 546; 1984, c. 20; 1985, c. 13; 1987, c. 552; 1993, cc. 745, 761; 1997, c. 587; 1998, c. 833; 2011, cc. 344, 355; 2023, cc. 506, 507.