HB1757: Charter; City of Colonial Heights.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That 17.7, 17.29, and 17.30 of Chapter 213 of the Acts of Assembly of 1960 are amended and reenacted as follows:
17.7. Effect of Adoption of Master Plan.
(a) Whenever the commission shall have adopted a master plan for the city or one or more parts thereof, geographical, topographical or functional, and the master plan or such part or parts thereof shall have been approved by the council, and it has been certified and filed, as provided in the preceding section, then and thereafter no street, square, park or other public way, ground, open space, public building or structure, shall be constructed or authorized in the city or in the planned section or division thereof until and unless the general location, character and extent thereof has been submitted to and approved by the commission; and no public utility, whether publicly or privately owned, shall be constructed or authorized in the city or in the planned section or division thereof until and unless its general location, but not its character and extent, has been submitted to and approved by the commission, but such submission and approval shall not be necessary in the case of pipes or conduits in any existing street or proposed street, square, park or other public way, ground or open space, the location of which has been approved by the commission; and no ordinance giving effect to or amending the comprehensive zoning plan as provided in 17.10 shall be adopted until it has been submitted to and approved by the commission. In case of disapproval in any of the instances enumerated above, the commission shall communicate its reason to the council which shall have the power to overrule such action by a recorded vote of not less than two-thirds of its entire membership. The failure of the commission to act within sixty days from the date of the official submission to it shall be deemed approval.
(b) TheHowever,
the widening, extension, narrowing, enlargement, vacation or
change in the use of streets and other public ways, grounds and places within the
city, as well as the acquisition by the city of any improved or
unimproved land within or without the city for public purposes, or
the sale of any improved or unimproved land then held
by the city, shall be subject to similar approval, and in case the same
is disapproved, such disapproval may be similarly overrulednot
be referred to or considered by the commission unless the council specifically
makes such a referral to the commission and asks for its recommendation. If the council does make
such a referral to the commission, the council subsequently shall act on the
commission's recommendation by a majority
vote of its members, or
an affirmative vote of three-fourths
of all members if required by the Constitution of this
Commonwealth.
(c) The foregoing
provisions of this section shall not be deemed to apply to the The pavement,
repavement, reconstruction, improvement, drainage or other work in or upon any
existing street or other existing public way shall not be submitted
to the commission or otherwise considered by it.
17.29. Appeals of preliminary subdivision plat approvals.
The planning commission shall be the platting
commission of the city, and, as such, shall have control of the platting or
subdivision of land within the city. From and after the date on which such
regulations and restrictions become effective in the city, the owners of tracts
of land to which such regulations and restrictions are applicable, who
subdivide them into two or more lots, shall cause plats of such subdivision, in
the form prescribed by the applicable regulations and restrictions, to be made
and submitted to the city planning commission. It shall be the duty of such
commission to consider such plat in the light of the regulations and
restrictions applicable to the same and approve or disapprove the plat in
accordance therewith. Before taking any action thereon, the city planning
commission shall afford the owner and other interested parties an opportunity
to be heard after such reasonable notice as may be provided in such regulations
and restrictions. Failure to act on any plat for a period of forty-five days
shall be deemed to constitute approval unless a petition in a proper court has
been filed as hereinafter provided in this section. Approval shall be attested
on that plat by the signature of the chairman or vice-chairman of the city
planning commission.Consistent with
applicable regulations and restrictions, the planning commission shall approve
or disapprove all submitted preliminary subdivision plats. If a city council
member believes that the planning commission has approved a preliminary
subdivision plat in violation of a city ordinance, or arbitrarily or
capriciously, he may, within 20 days of the commission's approval, appeal the
commission's decision to the city council by filing a written appeal with the
city manager. The city manager or his designee shall give the subdivider notice
of the appeal. The council, within a reasonable period of time, shall hold a
hearing on the matter and affirm, modify or reverse the commission's decision.
If the subdivider is aggrieved by the council's decision on the preliminary
subdivision plat, he may appeal to the circuit court, subject
to the same state code provisions that would apply if he was appealing a
planning commission decision to the circuit court.
17.30. Approval of final plat prerequisite to recordation; recordation prerequisite to sale of lots.
From and after the date on which such regulations and
restrictions become effective in the city, no final plat
of any subdivision to which such regulations and restrictions are applicable
shall be received or recorded by the clerk of any court unless the plat has
been approved as provided in the
preceding section by
applicable law. No owner of land in the city in which such
regulations and restrictions are applicable, who has subdivided the same into
two or more lots, shall sell or offer for sale any such lot by reference to or
exhibition of or by the use of a plat of such subdivision or otherwise before
the final plat of such subdivision has
been approved as provided in the preceding section by
applicable law and has been recorded in the office of the clerk of
the court or courts in which a deed conveying such lot would be required to be
recorded.