Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 15.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 24 > Article 3 - Tourism Improvement Districts.

• Activities: means any programs or services provided for the purpose of conferring specific benefits upon the businesses that are located in the tourism improvement district and to which a fee is charged. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Administering nonprofit: means a private nonprofit entity that is under contract with a locality to administer or implement activities specified in the tourism improvement district plan. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• armory: shall include training or logistical support facilities, such as, but not limited to, maintenance facilities, training areas, facilities at the State Military Reservation, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the Fort Pickett Maneuver Training Center. See Virginia Code 44-123.1
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Benefit zone: means an apportioned area designated within a tourism improvement district in which businesses pay a fee based upon the degree of benefit derived from activities to be provided. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Benefited business: includes one or more types of businesses, one or more segments of businesses, or businesses within one or more industries, as set forth in a tourism improvement district plan. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Business: means a business of any kind located in a tourism improvement district. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Business fee: means any fee charged to a benefited business pursuant to this article. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Business owner: means any person recognized by a locality as the owner of a business subject to a business fee. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• 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
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of the Department, his designee or authorized representative. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the State Department of Social Services. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee: means a fee charged by a locality in accordance with a tourism improvement district plan. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• 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
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• 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.
• Lead locality: means the locality in which the tourism improvement district plan is filed for the establishment of a tourism improvement district where such district includes more than one locality. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Local department: means the local department of social services of any county or city in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Locality: means any county, city, or town in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Majority share of benefited businesses: means one or more benefited businesses within a tourism improvement district or proposed tourism improvement district that cumulatively comprise a majority, based on the weighting methodology set forth in the tourism improvement district plan. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Public assistance: means Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); auxiliary grants to the aged, blind, and disabled; medical assistance; energy assistance; food stamps; employment services; child care; and general relief. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Social services: means foster care, adoption, adoption assistance, child-protective services, domestic violence services, or any other services program implemented in accordance with regulations adopted by the Board. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• 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
• TANF: means the program administered by the Department through which a relative can receive monthly cash assistance for the support of his eligible children. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• TANF-UP: means the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program for families in which both natural or adoptive parents of a child reside in the home and neither parent is exempt from Virginia Initiative for Education and Work (VIEW) participation under § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Tourism improvement district: means a district established by a locality under the provisions of this article. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• Tourism improvement district plan: means a proposal for a tourism improvement district under the provisions of this article. See Virginia Code 15.2-2413.1
• 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
• United States: includes 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 1-255