The proposed eminent domain constitutional amendment is pending at the 2012 Virginia General Assembly.  See 2012′s bills on the amendment, HJ 3 and SJ 3.  If these bills pass the proposed amendment in the same form as last year, the amendment will be on the ballot in Fall 2012 for voter approval.   This blog, which until now has been silent [...]

The Virginia Supreme Court’s opinion in Sinclair v. New Cingular Wireless PCS, Record No. 101831 (January 13, 2012) narrowly read the authority of planning commissions to make certain approvals delegated by zoning ordinance, spurred the dissent of two justices and surprised a lot of local government attorneys. The case arose out of development proposed on a [...]

In the trial court, Campbell County lost, and lost big.  The judgment appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court included $ 9 million in damages, plus another $600,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.  On appeal, the County won just as big.  Campbell County v. Royal, No. 101168 (January 13, 2012). On its face, the law applied by the trial [...]

Today, the Virginia Supreme Court issued a number of opinions affecting the practice of Virginia local government law.  These summaries are from the Virginia Supreme Court website.  Click on the case numbers beside the case names to read the opinions.    101168 Campbell County v. Royal 01/13/2012 In an action by landowners for damages resulting [...]

As promised (see VaLocalityLaw April 12, 2011 post, “University of Richmond Law Review, the Sequel”), Virginia local government law finally made it as a practice area into the University of Richmond Law Review Annual Survey of Virginia Law Edition, Vol. 46, No. 1 (November 2011).  Until the website changes, the “current issue” link shows a [...]

As an update to the December 13, 2011 blog post on VaLocalityLaw, “Devolution:  Will Virginia Pass its “Neglected,” “Crumbling” Highway System on to Local Governments?” Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has stated his position. In an article appearing on a Washington Post blog post, “McDonnell does not support shifting transportation costs to localities,” Governor McDonnell stated that devolution [...]

As discussed on this blog previously, there is a movement afoot in the Virginia General Assembly to transfer the responsibility and costs of the secondary road system in Virginia to your local county, city or town.  See our previous post — VDOT Study: Will State Roads Become Local Again?  (To be clear, secondary roads are more [...]

In December of 2009, Verizon Communication, Inc.’s two “baby bell” subsidiaries in Virginia (Verizon Virginia, Inc. and Verizon South, Inc. — collectively, “Verizon”) filed applications to correct erroneous assessments of almost all of its personal property in the Commonwealth for tax year 2009, and seeking significant refunds.  Verizon ultimately added a claim for tax year 2010 [...]

The Virginia Supreme Court issued new opinions today.  Two opinions relate to Virginia local government or laws applied by Virginia local governments.  One opinion involves a Virginia local government (Montgomery County) and an interpretation of the internal improvements clause and the credit clause of Article X, Section 10 of the Virginia Constitution: 100350 Montgomery County [...]

We are pleased that attorneys Bradford A. King and Nicole S. Cheuk recently joined the Sands Anderson Government Group.  Brad and Nikki represent local government clients all over Virginia, with an emphasis on local school boards and K-12 school districts.  We are pleased that Brad and Nikki have joined our Virginia local government team, and appreciate the strength [...]