Counties Cities and Towns

Friday, February 6, 2026·1h 8m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia House Counties, Cities and Towns Committee advanced multiple housing and land use bills — including solar parking canopy authority (HB1234, 19-0), small-lot zoning (HB1212, 16-3), and tree canopy standards (HB549, 15-3) — while setting aside a contested housing vested-rights bill (HB1122) for further work and striking a local land use control bill (HB985, 18-1) at the patron's own request.

Key Actions

·HB1234 – Solar Canopies in Non-Residential Parking AreasNo Vote

+ 9 more actions

Controversies

HB1122 readiness and unintended consequences

Alexander McCauley (Piedmont Environmental Council) argued 'I don't think we have any idea whether this bill solves the problem that Delegate Reid just identified' and called it 'not ready for prime time,' warning the new statutory language could implicate data center approvals. David A. Reid countered that the bill provides needed definitions for material and non-material changes and addresses a housing shortage getting '10,000 units worse each year.'

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“The number that we have heard repeatedly is that it's somewhere between 200 and 250,000 units shortage across the Commonwealth and the problem is getting 10,000 units worse each year. And as I mentioned in the subcommittee, we're not just going to be able to incentivize ourselves out of this problem.”
David A. Reid — Reid made this statement while presenting HB1122, a bill addressing vested rights and material changes in previously approved housing developments, to justify the urgency of the legislation.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

Report HB1234 with substitutePassed

Report HB549 as substitutedPassed

Report HB1212 with substitutePassed

Strike HB985 from the docketPassed

Report HB1463Passed

Report HB1477Passed

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TranscriptPreview

The committee will come to order. The committee of county, cities and towns is now in order. Welcome to the second to last episode of Dream It, Plan It, Build It. Our lovely committee on shires and spires. We have a lot of things before the a lot of bills before the committee today. So just some administrative notes. One, if the bill was previously before a subcommittee, unless there are substantial amendments or substitutes, we will not hear testimony. So if you are online and you can hear me and you are signed up for a bill that you do not believe this can be amended or substituted, we are going to be very exciting today. You're happy to watch us, but we will not be taking testimony. We will move through our blocks and again this is our second to last one. If there are still a handful of bills in full committee, if we have a subcommittee meeting next week, it will probably only be subcommittee three and that will take place on Thursday morning at 7:30. We don't have very many bills left so we may just go to full committee on Friday. That will be…

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