Virginia Municipal League

Building Better Communities Through Sound Government

BETTER COMMUNITIES THROUGH SOUND GOVERNMENT

eNews January 22, 2021

eNews: The newsletter of the Virginia Municipal League Friday, January 22, 2021 - 06:42pm

In this issue

Action Alerts

The Week in Legislation

Budget & Finance

Health & Human Services

Environment

Events & Opportunities

Action Alerts

Contact Senators to amend marijuana/cannabis legalization bill

SB1406 (Ebbin), the Senate’s proposal to legalize marijuana, provides localities with the option of opting out of the retail sale of recreational marijuana/cannabis by citizen-initiated referendum [italics added for emphasis].

SB1406 advanced out of subcommittee on a partisan vote of 4-3 and out of the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee on a partisan vote of 8-7. The companion bill in the House has not yet been considered by committee.

VML encourages our members to contact your senators and ask that they amend the language to empower localities with the option to opt in to retail sales of marijuana in their communities. The current mandatory opt out language creates a potentially time consuming, costly and cumbersome process if citizens do not want retail sales of marijuana in their community.

Today, the bill was rereferred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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State budget updates: Now is the time to make your voice heard!

The House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee have released the budget amendments to Gov. Ralph Northam’s budget package (HB1800 and SB1100) offered by delegates and senators.

The two money committees conducted hearings this week for members who do not serve on either committee to present their budget priorities. The committees will issue their respective budget amendments to Northam’s budget plan on Sunday, Feb. 7.

Review and reach out

With the Feb. 7 date a little over two weeks from now, it is vitally important for VML members to reach out to their delegations. Your delegates and senators need to hear what items you support or oppose in the proposed budget bills and in the amendments offered by General Assembly members.

To assist you, the tables available using the links below highlight the issues of most interest to local governments. Note – Each of the amendments is linked so you can review in detail the dollar amounts and policy language.

VML Contact: Neal Menkes, nmenkes@vml.org

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Contact Senators for amendments to bill to increase auxiliary grant payments

Reported out of committee this week

SB1185 (Dunnavant), which would increase the auxiliary grant rate for certain assisted living centers, flew out of the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee on a 15-0 vote and was referred to Senate Finance and Appropriations.

As amended, the bill would increase the auxiliary grant rate by 50 percent (as opposed to 200 percent in the original); the enhanced payment would go to facilities where 50 percent or more of their residents receive auxiliary grants (as opposed 30 percent in the original draft).

Concerns

VML opposed the bill because of the fiscal impact on local governments (local governments pay a 20 percent match on each grant); VML has long sought the state assumption of this program which goes back to the 1970s. It generally has a disproportionate impact on communities with higher fiscal stress.

VML spoke in opposition to the bill in committee and expressed support instead for SJR293 (Spruill) which requests a study of assisted living and auxiliary grants by the Joint Commission on Health Care.  The commission previously studied the issue in 2000.

Action requested

VML encourages communities with facilities that accept auxiliary grants to email members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee (particularly the HHR subcommittee) to encourage them to amend the bill to make any increase in the grant a state cost and to further encourage them to amend the Code to remove the 20 percent local match.

VML Contact: Janet Areson (jareson@vml.org)

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The Week in Legislation

Please comment on land use approval bill

SB1249 (Stuart) – Land use approvals. Adds rezoning or generalized development plans, special use permits, and special exception applications to various review deadlines and requirements for local planning commissions.

The bill was passed by for the week in Senate Local Government Committee. We welcome your comments on this legislation.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Referred to Senate and House finance committees

The following bills have been referred from other committees to the finance committee of their respective chambers.

SB1207 (Barker) Solar and Energy storage products. Expands existing provisions related to siting agreements for solar projects located in an opportunity zone to include energy storage projects and makes the provisions statewide.

SB1298 (Bell) Tourism Districts. Authorizes any locality to create a local tourism improvement district plan, consisting of fees charged to businesses and used to fund tourism promotion activities and capital improvements. Under the bill, the locality is authorized to contract with a nonprofit entity to administer the activities and improvements.

HB2001 (Helmer) Building standards for certain state and local buildings. Requires that any executive branch agency, or institution, or locality entering the design phase for the construction of a new building greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size or the renovation of a building where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building ensure that such building has sufficient electric vehicle charging infrastructure, defined in the bill, and has features that permit the agency or institution to track the building’s energy efficiency and carbon emissions.

The bill authorizes the Director of the Department of General Services to grant exemptions to such standards, in writing and with certain terms.

The bill requires:

  • Agencies to annually report to the Governor the energy efficiency and carbon emissions metrics for each such building built or renovated.
  • Localities to design such building projects according to the same standards.
  • Any exemption from the standards be granted by resolution of the governing body of a locality and be made in writing and explain the basis for granting the exemption taking into account 20 years of cost comparison.

Localities are authorized to enact an ordinance with more stringent standards.

VML opposes this bill in its current form.

HB1818 (Heretick) / HB2080 (Convirs-Fowler) Workers’ compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Adds salaried or volunteer emergency medical services personnel to the list of persons to whom, after five years of service, the occupational disease presumption for death caused by hypertension or heart disease applies. This bill only applies if the locality has adopted a resolution declaring that it will provide one or more presumptions.

HB2207 (Jones) Workers’ compensation; presumption of compensability for COVID-19. Establishes a presumption that COVID-19 causing the death or disability of firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, law-enforcement officers, and correctional officers is an occupational disease compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The bill provides that the COVID-19 virus is established by a positive diagnostic test for COVID-19, an incubation period consistent with COVID-19, and signs and symptoms of COVID-19 that require medical treatment. The bill provides that such presumption applies to any death or disability occurring on or after March 12, 2020, caused by infection from the COVID-19 virus, provided that for any such death or disability that occurred on or after March 12, 2020, and prior to December 31, 2021, the claimant received a diagnosis of COVID-19 from a licensed physician, after either a presumptive positive test or a laboratory confirmed test for COVID-19, and presented with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 that required medical treatment.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Sent to the Freedom of Information Advisory Council for study

HB1997 (Murphy) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; definition of “meeting.” Increases from three to four the number of members of a public body meeting as an informal assemblage that constitutes a “meeting” under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

A substitute to this bill was offered in the General Laws subcommittee which would have made this bill only apply to the meeting of school boards during a state of emergency. This bill was gently laid on the table.

HB2000 (Roem) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; charges for production of public records. Prohibits a public body from charging a requester for any costs incurred during the first two hours spent accessing or searching for requested records when such requester has made four or fewer individual records requests to such public body within 31 consecutive days. The bill provides that for any additional time spent accessing or searching for such records, or when such requester makes five or more individual records requests to such public body within any 31-consecutive-day period, the public body shall not charge an hourly rate for accessing or searching for the records exceeding the lesser of the hourly rate of pay of the lowest-paid individual capable of fulfilling the request or $33 per hour.

The bill also requires public bodies to post on their website or otherwise publish a written policy (a) explaining how the public body assesses charges for accessing or searching for requested records and (b) noting the current fee charged, if any, by the public body for accessing and searching for the requested records.

HB2196 (Mullin) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; required release of law-enforcement disciplinary records; exceptions. Requires the release of law-enforcement disciplinary records related to completed disciplinary investigations. The bill defines “law-enforcement disciplinary records” as any record created in furtherance of a law-enforcement disciplinary proceeding or any other administrative or judicial proceeding, whether such proceeding takes place in the Commonwealth or in another jurisdiction. The bill allows for the redaction of certain personal contact information of the law-enforcement officer, complainant, and witness or their families; social security numbers; and certain medical information of the law-enforcement officer and complainant.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Passed favorably out of the Senate Local Government Committee

SB1208 (Barker) Continuity of Government from 6 to 12 months. Extends from six to 12 months the period of time after an enemy attack or other disaster that a locality may, by ordinance, provide for a method to assure continuity in its government and requires the ordinance to provide a method for the locality to resume normal governmental authority by the end of that 12-month period.

Current law contemplated a short-term disaster and not a long-lasting pandemic.

SB1309 (Ebbin) Local stormwater assistance; flood mitigation and protection. Authorizes grants from a local Stormwater Management Fund to be used for measures that are part of a comprehensive flood mitigation and protection plan adopted by the locality to include nature-based practices.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Passed favorably out of the House General Laws Committee

HB1931 (Levine) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; electronic meetings. Authorizes a public body to conduct through electronic communication means a meeting for which, on or before the day of the meeting, a member of the public body holding the meeting notifies the chair that such member is unable to attend the meeting due to a family member’s medical condition that requires the member to provide care for such family member, thereby preventing the member’s physical attendance. The bill also clarifies that participation in an electronic meeting by a member of a public body due to the inability to attend because of a personal matter is limited each calendar year to two such meetings, which is current law, or 25 percent of the meetings held that calendar year rounded up to the next whole number, whichever is greater.

HB1996 (Murphy) Virginia Public Procurement Act; determination of responsibility; local option to include criteria in Invitation to Bid. Allows localities to include in the Invitation to Bid criteria that may be used in determining whether any bidder, not just any bidder who is not prequalified by the Virginia Department of Transportation as under current law, is a responsible bidder.

HB2004 (Hurst) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; law-enforcement criminal incident information; criminal investigative files. Adds criminal investigative files, defined in the bill, relating to a criminal investigation, or proceeding that is not ongoing, also defined in the bill, to the types of law-enforcement and criminal records required to be released in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Under current law, the release of criminal investigative files is discretionary.

The bill also provides that the mandatory release of criminal incident information relating to felony offenses and criminal investigative files shall be enjoined if a court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the release of such information would likely effect certain results, outlined in the bill.

HB1811 (Helmer) Virginia Public Procurement Act; preference for energy-efficient and water-efficient goods. Provides that in the course of procuring goods, if a public body receives two or more bids for products that are Energy Star certified, meet Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) designated efficiency requirements, appear on FEMP’s Low Standby Power Product List, or are WaterSense certified, such public body may only select among those bids.

HB2025 (Gooditis) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; record exclusion for personal contact information provided to a public body. Provides that personal contact information provided to a public body or any of its members for the purpose of receiving electronic communications from the public body or any of its members is excluded from the mandatory disclosure provisions of FOIA, unless the recipient of such electronic communications indicates his approval for the public body to disclose such information. Currently, the law provides protections for personal contact information provided to a public body, not to its members; only applies to electronic mail; and requires the electronic mail recipient to request the public body not to disclose his personal contact information in order for the information to be exempt from mandatory disclosure.

SB1271 (McPike) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held through electronic communication means during a state of emergency. Allows a public body, or a joint meeting thereof, to meet by electronic communication means without a quorum of the public body physically assembled at one location when a locality in which the public body is located has declared a local state of emergency, provided that (i) the catastrophic nature of the declared emergency makes it impracticable or unsafe to assemble a quorum in a single location and (ii) the purpose of the meeting is to provide for the continuity of operations of the public body or the discharge of its lawful purposes, duties, and responsibilities. Under current law, public bodies may only meet in such manner when the Governor has declared a state of emergency, and only for the purpose of addressing the emergency. Finally, the bill requires public bodies meeting through electronic communication means during a local or state declaration of a state of emergency to (a) make arrangements for public access to such meeting through electronic communication means, including videoconferencing if already used by the public body, and (b) provide the public with the opportunity to comment at such meetings when public comment is customarily received.

SB1305 (McPike) Virginia Public Procurement Act; public works contracts; subcontractor workforce requirements. Requires all public bodies and covered institutions, defined in the bill, to include in every public works contract of more than $250,000 certain provisions related to the outsourcing of subcontracted work, which a contractor shall agree to during the performance of such contract. Such provisions mandate that a contractor shall only utilize subcontractors that certify in writing to the contract that they will outsource no more than 10 percent of the cost of the work subcontracted for, excluding the provision of materials, with specified exceptions.

The bill provides that any contractor that violates the provisions of the bill may be debarred for up to one year or disqualified from the project and may be responsible for liquidated damages for any related delays in the project.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Passed favorably out of the House Labor and Commerce Committee

HB1754 (Carter) Employment; retaliatory discharge of employee; Workers’ Compensation. Prohibits an employer or other person from discharging or taking other retaliatory action against an employee if such action is motivated by the knowledge or belief that the employee has filed a claim or taken or intends to take certain actions under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act.

Currently, retaliatory discharges are prohibited only if the employer discharges an employee solely because the employee has taken or intends to take such an action.

HB1923 (Ayala) Electric utilities; broadband capacity pilot program. Expands an existing pilot program under which Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power are authorized to provide or make available broadband capacity to internet service providers in areas of the Commonwealth that are unserved by broadband to include municipal Internet service providers.

The current program is restricted to nongovernmental Internet service providers.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Passed out of the House Counties, Cities and Towns Committee

HB1898 (Roem) Board of zoning appeals; appointments. Provides an exception to the general rule that an elected official cannot be appointed to a board of zoning appeals by allowing an elected official from a town to serve on the board of zoning appeals of the county in which the member also resides.

HB2042 (Guy) Replacement and conservation of trees during development. Gives a locality the ability to exceed general requirements in its tree replacement and conservation ordinances in specific circumstances, including development that impacts stormwater permit requirements, recurrent flooding, formerly redlined areas, and comprehensive plan compliance. This bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022.

HB2054 (Samirah) Comprehensive plan; transit-oriented development. Adds reducing, modifying, or waiving local parking requirements or ratios to the strategies that may be included when certain larger localities consider incorporating strategies to promote transit-oriented development in reviews of their comprehensive plans. The bill removes from the existing strategy of increasing development density in certain areas to reduce density in others the phrase “to reduce density in others.”

HB2114 (Ransone) Hearing notice by localities. Expands from only localities in Planning District 23 to all localities a provision that provides that in any instance in which a locality has submitted a timely notice of public hearing to a newspaper published or having general circulation in the locality and the newspaper fails to publish the notice, such locality shall be deemed to have met certain notice requirements so long as the notice was published in the next available edition. Under current law, this provision that was created by the 2020 Regular Session and only applies to localities in Planning District 23 will expire on July 1, 2022. The provision in the bill as it applies to all localities will also expire on July 1, 2022.

HB2201 (Jones) Solar and energy storage projects; siting agreements throughout the Commonwealth. Expands existing provisions related to siting agreements for solar projects located in an opportunity zone to include energy storage projects and makes the provisions statewide. The bill provides that its provisions shall not apply to any energy storage project that has received zoning and site plan approval, preliminary or otherwise, from the host locality before January 1, 2021. The bill also provides that its provisions shall not become effective with respect to energy storage projects unless the General Assembly approves legislation that authorizes localities to adopt an ordinance for taxation of energy storage projects such as solar projects with a local option for machinery and tools tax or solar revenue share. The bill further provides that a locality may grant a special exception for an energy storage project.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Passed out of a House Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee, but not the full committee

HB1778 (Ward) Removal of clutter from property; civil penalty. Provides that a locality may by ordinance require the removal of clutter from property, or may, whenever the governing body deems it necessary, after reasonable notice, have such clutter removed by its own agents or employees, in which event the cost or expenses thereof shall be chargeable to and paid by the owners of such property and may be collected by the locality as taxes are collected. The bill defines “clutter” as including mechanical equipment, household furniture, containers, and similar items that may be detrimental to the well-being of a community when they are left in public view for an extended period or are allowed to accumulate. Violations of the bill are subject to the existing civil penalty applicable to violations of provisions relating to the removal of trash, garbage, refuse, litter, and similar substances from property.

HB2052 (Samirah) Land banks; right of first refusal for tax delinquent parcels. Requires localities that have established a land bank to establish a procedure whereby the land bank shall have a right of first refusal for tax delinquent parcels prior to such property being sold at auction. The price for any such purchase by the land bank shall be $1 and any court and transaction expenses. If a land bank exercises its right of first refusal to purchase a property from the locality and, in the judgment of the locality, fails to begin rehabilitation of the property or fails to take other action to cause reuse of the property within one year, such as transferring the property to a nonprofit entity, ownership of the property shall revert back to the locality. These provisions may be utilized for any parcel with a value that does not exceed 80 percent of the median value of parcels in the locality.

HB2053 (Samirah) Department of Housing and Community Development; stakeholder advisory group; accessory dwelling units. Directs the Department of Housing and Community Development (Department) to convene a stakeholder advisory group to evaluate the construction of internal, attached, and detached accessory dwelling units as a strategy to address the Commonwealth’s growing demand for affordable and market-rate housing. The bill requires the stakeholder advisory group to report its findings and recommendations, including any legislative recommendations, to the Director of the Department, the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, the commissioners of the Virginia Housing Development Authority, and the Virginia Housing Commission no later than November 1, 2021.

Bill stricken by the patron

HB1844 (Mullin) Zoning; special exceptions. Would have granted governing bodies the same authority as boards of zoning appeals with regard to imposition of certain conditions upon permits for special exceptions, including limiting the duration of a permit.

Laid on the table

HB2023 (Poindexter) Solar and wind farms; reporting of acreage by locality. Would have required each locality to provide to the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy information about the amount of land formerly in production agriculture or silviculture that has been approved for development into or has been developed into solar or wind farms. The bill also would have required the Division of Energy to establish a database to collect and maintain figures on the amount of land formerly in production agriculture or production silviculture that has been approved for development into or has been developed into solar or wind farms. Finally, the bill would also have required localities, in adopting ordinances for and approving the development of solar and wind farm projects, to consider certain effects of such projects.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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House panel tables bill to increase affordable housing

With looks of anguish etched on their faces, members of House Finance Subcommittee #3 voted 7 to 1 to approve laying on the table HB2050, a measure to establish a housing opportunity tax credit for certain low-income building projects. A companion measure in the Senate (SB1197) is awaiting action in the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Subcommittee members attributed as the rationale for tabling the proposal the sprawling financial impact noted in the Fiscal Impact Statement prepared by the Virginia Department of Taxation. The dollar value of the tax credits in any given year would have matched the amount of federal tax credits awarded to Virginia through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Annual estimated costs to the state general fund ranged from a “low” of $20 million to $30 million to a high of $200 million in later years, depending on how the tax credit is structured.

HB2050 and SB1197 are based on the findings of a report published in September 2020, the Report of the Virginia Housing Opportunity Tax Credit Task Force.

House Subcommittee members promised to try again in 2022 to craft a housing tax credit program.

VML Contact: Neal Menkes, nmenkes@vml.org

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Budget & Finance

Resolution for a property tax exemption for surviving military spouses introduced in the House

Here we go again!

Another property tax exemption resolution to exempt the surviving spouses of military servicemen and servicewomen who died while on active duty or who died from a service-connected injury or illness was introduced this week.

HJ614 would amend the Virginia Constitution to expand the real property tax exemption to include the survivors whose spouses died while serving in the armed forces or who died as veterans of the armed forces from a service-connected injury or illness.

Virginia’s voters in previous years have approved constitutional amendments to exempt from real estate taxes the surviving spouses of soldiers killed in action as well the real property of any veteran who has been determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to have a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability.

According to data collected by Virginia’s Commissioners of the Revenue, the statewide property tax exemptions for eligible surviving spouses and disabled veterans totaled $48.1 million in 2018.

HJ 614 was introduced as a recommendation of Virginia’s Joint Leadership Council of Veterans Service Organizations.

Property tax exemptions are also provided under the Virginia Constitution by local option to the surviving spouse of any law-enforcement officer, firefighter, search and rescue personnel, or emergency medical services personnel who was killed in the line of duty.

In order to take effect, the joint resolution must pass twice in two successive sessions of the General Assembly separated by a general election, meaning the property tax exemption would be implemented in calendar year 2023.

No Senate companion measure has yet been introduced.

VML Contact: Neal Menkes, nmenkes@vml.org

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Budget amendments propose pausing fees for canoes and kayaks

Sen. Edwards (382 #1s), Del. Austin (382 #2h) Del. Carr (382 #1h), Del. Hurst (382 #3h) and Del. Rasoul (382 #4h) introduced budget amendments that would pause the levying of a “boater access fee” for boaters using state owned or managed boat ramps. Del. Carr’s and Del. Rasoul’s proposals would require a stakeholder group to be convened to consider the impact any new fee would have prior to the levying of any fee.

The General Assembly passed legislation during the 2020 General Assembly session that would require any boater (including canoeists, kayakers, or rafters) using a Department of Wildlife Resources (formerly the Department of Conservation and Recreation) owned or operated boat ramp to pay a $4 fee if they do not have a valid fishing or hunting license. Paddling clubs and raft outfitters and localities that might be impacted by this new fee have opposed this change and argue that this new fee will increase the cost of getting outdoors and create new burdens for tourists.

It is important to note that this fee only applies to individuals accessing rivers using state owned or managed boat ramps and does not impact access to rivers from private or locality owned land unless those lands are also managed by DWR.

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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Health & Human Services

Crisis hotline and CSA bills reported and referred to Senate Finance & Appropriations

The Senate Education and Health Committee reported and referred the following bills to Senate Finance & Appropriations on Jan. 21.

SB1302 (McPike) would incorporate language regarding establishment of a suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline (9-8-8 system) on the federal level into the Code of Virginia.

This would be a major part of the implementation of the Marcus alert system legislation that was passed during the 2020 Special Session. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) would be responsible for the statewide crisis call center that would provide intervention and crisis care coordination to individuals accessing the 9-8-8 hotline from any place in the Commonwealth; those services would come through community teams and other local or regional services.

The bill would establish a fund for this crisis hotline and would increase the E-911 fee from $.75 to $.94 cents and the prepaid wireless card/service fee from $.50 to $.63 per transaction, with part of the funding going toward administration of the crisis hotline and part for the current grant program for PSAPs. It would amend Code language regarding grants to give highest priority to grants that support regional or multijurisdictional deployment/sustaining of NG 9-1-1 and second priority to grants that support deployment and sustaining of NG 9-1-1 in a single jurisdiction and in-building repeaters that improve public safety radio coverage within buildings with impaired radio coverage.

A substitute to the bill was reported and referred to Senate Finance & Appropriations on Jan. 21.

SB1313 (Mason) – a substitute to this bill would allow some use of Children Services Act (CSA) funds to help pay for services necessary to transition a child from a private special education placement to a public school setting. The CSA funds would be limited to 12 months (the services could continue after that but without use of CSA funds). A public school would be allowed to contract for these services in a school; it appears that CSA funds could only be used for the 12-month period – if a private provider is used after that time the same restriction would apply.

The bill incorporates components of SB1099 (Stuart) and SB1114 (Peake) that address the use of CSA funds in certain public school settings.

Another bill addressing the use of CSA funds, SB1133 (Sutterlein) was also approved and was referred to Senate Finance and Appropriations for further consideration. This bill also calls for creation of a workgroup to address the transition of private day special education responsibility from CSA to the Virginia Department of Education with a report and legislative proposals due by the end of 2021.

The bill goes to Senate Finance and Appropriations to consider the financial implications of the legislation.

VML supports components of the bill but remains concerned with language that would allow CSA funds to be used for staff training and professional development (which would increase costs for state and local governments) and with the exclusion of CSA coordinators and other stakeholders from the list of workgroup members.

VML Contact: Janet Areson (jareson@vml.org)

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Environment

Environmental permit fees bill referred to Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee

SB1210 (Petersen) Environmental permit fees; Va. Waste Management Bd. to adopt regulations to collect. Directs the Virginia Waste Management Board to adopt regulations to collect from any person operating certain facilities permitted for the disposal, storage, or treatment of nonhazardous solid waste such annual fees as are necessary to provide funding for the total direct costs of the nonhazardous solid waste management program when aggregated and combined with other existing fees.

The bill also directs the State Water Control Board to adopt regulations specifying permit maintenance fees that each permitted facility shall pay to the Board for certain water quality or withdrawal permits.

Additionally, the bill requires the fee amounts to be set at an amount that is necessary to collect no less than 40 percent and no greater than 50 percent of the direct costs required for the administration, compliance, and enforcement of such permits.

The bill contains enactment clauses that (i) direct the relevant Boards to adopt such regulations by January 1, 2022, and (ii) provide for the expiration of existing provisions for similar permit fees contingent upon the adoption of such regulations. Environmental Justice

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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House and Senate environmental justice bills propose interagency working group

HB2074 (Simonds) and SB1318 (Hashmi) each propose an interagency working group and task state agencies with identifying and working to address issues of environmental justice that have and will impact specific communities through the work of their agencies.

While each bill proposes standing up an interagency working group to identify agency actions that have contributed to impacts that have been impacted by the “cumulative impact” of state actions, HB2074 goes further than the Senate legislation by setting out standards for community involvement in the permitting process of various permitted projects including sewage treatment facilities with a capacity greater than 50 million gallons per day, recycling facilities serving multiple jurisdictions, sanitary landfills, major sources of air pollution, methane capture facilities.

These standards would be part of the new permit project for any covered activity. These new requirements include:

  • A 45-day notice period
  • A hearing
  • An analysis of the potential impact including the cumulative impact, on “environmental justice communities” as defined in the act.
  • A 45-day review period after the hearing and provide the public with the opportunity to review the impact statement and the agency may deny the permit if impacts are determined to be greater than those borne by other communities within the locality or community.

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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Events & Opportunities

Local Government Day is Jan. 28: Register soon!

The limitations of meeting virtually are not stopping the General Assembly and they won’t keep us from gathering to learn and advocate for local governments! Register now to ensure you receive your credentials (being distributed early next week) to log in to this important virtual event.

Join VML, VACo, VAPDC and the Virginia Rural Center remotely for the 2021 Local Government Day from 9:00-11:00 AM on Thursday, January 28.

Information and registration are available here >.

Registered attendees will receive the “2021 VML Local Government Day Bulletin” before the event.

What to expect

Governor Ralph Northam open the day with a discussion of how his legislative agenda will strengthen Virginia’s communities. Following the Governor, legislators have been confirmed to discuss important bills related to marijuana legalization, sovereign immunity, and more topics of interest to local governments. Finally, VML and VACo Staff also will provide legislative reports on the major issues facing local government in the 2021 General Assembly Session.

VML Contacts: Rob Bullington, rbullington@vml.org (for event registration questions); Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org (for legislative policy questions)

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VML accepting submissions from 7th graders for our 2021 “If I Were Mayor” Essay Contest

Every year, the Virginia Municipal League (VML) is pleased to award deserving 7th grade essayists across the Commonwealth with a cash prize, an official plaque, and recognition. If you know of a 7th grade class from a member locality that should participate, send this link to a teacher or principal:

2021 “If I Were Mayor” essay contest description and instructions here >

This year’s theme is “What I’ve Learned” and we are asking students to tell us what has worked for them, and what hasn’t, during a school year like no other.

Read the full description here >

Prizes and Recognition

Regional winners selected from around the state will each receive a $150 cash prize and plaque. One statewide winner chosen from the regional winners will receive a $250 cash prize and plaque. The runner-up from the region that receives the statewide award will become that region’s winner.

Winning essays will be featured in the May issue of VML’s magazine Virginia Town & City.

How to enter

All entries must be received by end of day on Monday, February 22nd. There are 2 ways to submit your entry:

Fill out and submit our online form available here >

You can do this yourself or you can have your teacher or someone else help you. Copy and paste your essay into the “Essay” box in the form. After VML receives your entry, your teacher will get a confirmation email.

OR

Mail your essay with a filled-out paper entry form (see back of this flyer) attached to:

VML, Attn: 7th Grade Essay Contest
P.O. Box 12164
Richmond, VA 23241

Who is eligible?

Any 7th grade student living and/or attending school in a VML member locality (Full list available here).

VML Contact: Rob Bullington, rbullington@vml.org

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Virginia Municipal League
P.O. Box 12164, Richmond, VA 23241
13 E. Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23219
804-649-8471

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