The state budget overview
By Neal Menkes (VML)
The state budget is the most important piece of legislation affecting local governments this year. The General Assembly’s task is to cobble two budgets, addressing the remainder of FY10 and authorizing spending for the 2010-2012 biennium. The General Assembly is not starting from scratch. It works from the budget proposals submitted in late December by former Gov. Tim Kaine.
Because of the weakened economy and slumping tax revenues, the budgets under consideration will force fundamental changes in the fiscal relationship between the Commonwealth and its local governments. Whether in the drastic funding reductions for constitutional officials, the dollar reductions and policy changes in public education, or a range of proposals in public safety and human services, the new state budgets will shift an unprecedented amount of costs to local governments. Indeed, local governments, the Virginia Retirement System and state employees will likely end up doing the heavy lifting to balance the state budget.
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The Virginia General Assembly first adopted statewide enabling legislation for local zoning ordinances permitting transfers of development rights (“TDRs”) in 2006. (Ch. 573, 2006 Va. Acts of Assembly). That legislation was amended in the 2007 legislative session to allow TDRs across county-city boundaries with the permission of the local governing bodies and circuit court approval. (Chs. 363 and 410, 2007 Va. Acts).
Although the original legislation resulted from a negotiated agreement between local government organizations and the development community, neither side moved forward quickly after adoption of the enabling legislation to implement TDR provisions in any Virginia locality. One identified obstacle was the requirement in the original legislation that the severance of development rights from one parcel and attachment of those rights to another parcel occur at the same time.
In an effort to remove that obstacle and make the TDR legislation more attractive to localities and developers, their representatives had intermittent discussions over the ensuing two years, eventually including representatives of realtors, environmental preservation groups and others.
Those talks led to the introduction and eventual adoption in the 2009 session of further amendments to the enabling Code sections. (Ch. 413, 2009 Va. Acts) In addition to allowing severance of development rights without their immediate reattachment to another property, the 2009 amendments provide for local taxation of the severed rights as a separate property interest during the time they are unattached to a specific land parcel, clarify the procedures for the TDR to occur, and generally attempt to make the enabling statutes easier to use.
In the course of negotiating the 2009 legislative changes, the negotiators recognized that development of a usable model ordinance might also help to spur localities’ adoption of TDR provisions. Accordingly, during the late summer and autumn of 2009, a group of representatives of the various stakeholders has held a series of meetings and produced the model ordinance provisions here being offered.
The work group that produced the model ordinance includes attorneys and lobbyists, planners, developers, appraisers and other real estate professionals. Collectively the work group has hundreds of years of experience dealing with land use and real property development issues. Special acknowledgement is due to our chairman and facilitator, John G. “Chip” Dicks, of FutureLaw, LLC, who participated as representative of the Virginia Association of Realtors, to Mr. Dicks’ partner Barrie Bowers, who served as our scrivener-in-chief, and to Ted McCormack of the Virginia Association of Counties, who coordinated the local government participation, handled scheduling and logistics, and served as host of our meetings. A full list of the participants and their organizations is included in the document.
Most members of the work group are generally comfortable with the model ordinance and hope others will find it useful. The work group encourages Virginia local governments to consider adoption of a TDR ordinance based on the model and the adjoining commentary, but local conditions and concerns obviously may require modifications before adoption.
The work group emphasizes, however, that the model ordinance is the product of a group effort, that it has not been officially reviewed or endorsed by any of the work group participants or their employers or clients, and that it does not represent the official position or policy of any organization. The work group has tried to make the model ordinance consistent with the enabling Virginia statutes (Va. Code §§ 15.2 2316.1 and 15.2-2316.2) as they became effective on July 1, 2009, but make no warranties of the model ordinance’s legality or enforceability, and disclaim liability for any deviations from the statutory authority, real or perceived.
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VACo releases 2010 Legislative Priorities
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VACo releases 2010 Legislative Program
2009 Legislative Program
Adopted by the VACo Membership – Nov. 10, 2009
Legislative Program Text
VACo's Preliminary 2010 Legislative Program and Schedule of Conference Committee Meetings Released
The Preliminary 2010 Legislative Program is now posted on VACo’s web site. The document includes a host of Important and timely proposed policy statements including new language regarding K-12 education funding, stormwater regulations, land use authorities, and state and local fiscal relations.
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