There are now 82 days until the next session of the Virginia General Assembly begins and this is the season when localities across the Commonwealth put together their wish lists for new laws and enabling authority.
On Wednesday, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors finalized their list.
In all, Supervisors have agreed to pursue six legislative priorities and here are the first three according to interim county attorney Andy Herrick. (review their priorities)
“Expanding the photo speed device authority, the $0.01 sales tax option for schools capital,” Herrick said. “We’ve revised at the board’s direction expanding offenses subject to property forfeiture to include community threats.”
The first two are repeat requests.
Albemarle wants to be able to use cameras on stretches of rural roads where speeding is a known issue and where a lack of shoulders make enforcement by officers more difficult. Supervisors also want Albemarle to be on the list of localities allowed by the General Assembly to hold a referendum on a sales tax increase for school construction.
The forfeiture item is new and stems from a series of hoaxes against Planet Fitness in Albemarle County earlier this year. Herrick said the idea has evolved since staff were asked for ways to punish those who cause public safety forces to be mobilized.
“Instead of continuing to pursue cost recovery, that we approach this from a different angle and that is adding these offenses to the list of offenses that are subject to property forfeiture, that would allow for a greater recovery, perhaps be a greater deterrent,” Herrick said.
Supervisor Diantha McKeel said she was not convinced taking someone’s personal property away would have much of an effect.
“You’re going to have to give me some more examples because if we’re talking about talking a cell phone or a computer and selling it and trying to recoup, I mean, that’s just wackadoodle world to me,” McKeel said.
Herrick explained that this approach would be more likely to be accepted by government prosecutors.
“When cost recovery was before the Board, there were some pretty significant objections from the commonwealth’s attorney and that would not be present with this procedure,” Herrick said.
Albemarle is also asking for a budget request to help cover the costs of developing county-owned land around Rivanna Station as well as request for funding for a trail project at Biscuit Run.
“We’re going to be asking for $11.2 million for targeted phase one readiness funding for the Rivanna Futures project, as well as $1.37 million for a trail segment at the Biscuit Run Park,” Herrick said.
A sixth item came from the work session on September 18.
“A request that there be a legislative or agency study of tools to mitigate rent increase caused by multifamily residential development,” Herrick said.
Herrick said that could help Albemarle in situations where older apartment buildings are purchased and the new owners increase rent to fund renovations. The Free Enterprise Forum, a pro-business advocacy group, published an article on October 14 that claimed Albemarle County wanted to impose rent control.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway disputed that characterization.
“I would hopefully encourage folks to go back and relisten to the discussion that day and know that there it is,” Gallaway said. “Study tools to mitigate rent increases caused by multifamily residential redevelopment. If you want to call it rent control, that’s fine. But my guess would be that there would be other scenarios and things that a study could say are good ideas or bad ideas. And just like most decisions we make, we ask for that kind of information before we take action.”
Supervisor McKeel said she would support a study to be conducted by Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Herrick said he understood but it’s likely another agency such as the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development would conduct such a study.
In addition to the six legislative priorities, Albemarle is also taking several legislative positions. (draft list)
“I believe there are 40 positions that the county states in the position documents,” Herrick said. “Seven of them were new as of the last meeting and they’re listed here. All of two of these really deal with increased funding, so the county would be in support if the issue arose of increased funding for economic development and site readiness, increased funding for community services, boards, for mental health services, for housing albemarle and for public schools funding.”
The issue of rent came up again. Another new position is to allow for localities to advocate on behalf of tenants.
“Currently, the land violations of the Landlord Tenant act are only enforceable by the tenants themselves,” Herrick said. “There was a request made that we add this to the position statement that we would be in favor of allowing localities to enforce that as well.”
Another position request is that Albemarle would like the law to require public notice when multifamily apartment complexes are sold, similar to the requirement that allows affordable housing organizations to make a counter offer if a mobile home park goes up for sale. There’s another position request to allow localities to stabilize rents.
These requests were made by Supervisor Mike Pruitt.
“Rent stabilization is something that the majority of our peers, Democrats in the House and Senate, do support, and there’s been recurring submissions of rent stabilization legislation each year,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt said communities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads have been requesting the legislation as a tool to help keep units affordable.
In the 2024 General Assembly session, at least two bills related to the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act passed both legislative chambers only to end up being vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. (HB955) (HB1207)
“We know there’s probably not going to be anything that happens in the year after that,” Pruitt said. “But a helpful thing is to show that this is something that is on the radar and that is, frankly confronting people outside of NoVa.”
However, there were not four votes to support adding that position to the official list and instead the position states support for a study.
Supervisor Mallek supported power to allow localities to act on behalf of tenants.
“I’ve been contacted several times in the last several years by people desperate to get improvements to the place they have rented and they don’t have a lease,” Mallek said. “There are lots of people who live in places month to month and have no protection from a lease. And the landlord now knows that no one’s going to make him or her do anything. And all they have to do is threaten that the person can just go if they don’t like what’s going on.”
Before the General Assembly meets, there will be a work session with area legislators. That meeting has not been scheduled at the time of the Supervisors’ discussion.
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