Recently, I helped the CPEAV train members of Boards of Zoning Appeals for various localities. The group of appointed zoning officials was lively and interested in the law they were expected to apply. But through their questions and comments, I was reminded just how difficult it can be to apply the legal standard for a [...]

BIG BOX MUST COMPLY WITH HISTORIC OVERLAY IN ABINGDON The latest vested rights decision in the Commonwealth has been passed down from Judge C. Randall Lowe of the Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit, sitting in the Washington County Circuit Court. The case is Commonwealth-Abingdon Partners, L.P. v. Town of Abingdon, Case No. CL08-47. You can read the [...]

Beyond the direct impacts on local government noise regulation resulting from the Tanner v. City of Virginia Beach case, (see previous blog post below), there are some questions that arise. These questions arise from the Virginia Supreme Court’s reliance on the “Due Process Clause” – all caps, with no citation – to strike down the [...]

I have prosecuted noise ordinance violations, litigated the very issues decided by the Virginia Supreme Court in Tanner, and authored the LGA/VML amicus curiae brief filed in that case. Like many local government attorneys and their clients, I am struggling with the case’s impacts on local government noise ordinances. In its opinion, the Virginia Supreme [...]