CHAPTER 625

An Act to amend and reenact § 15.1-504, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to adoption of ordinances by counties.

it ns ems eee ee
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 15.1-504, as amended, of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 15.1-504. Adoption of ordinances.—Except as otherwise provided
by law, ordinances shall be adopted by the governing body of any county
only in the manner prescribed by this section.

The object of each such ordinance shall be expressed in its title.

Except as otherwise authorized by law, no such ordinance shall be
passed until after descriptive notice of an intention to propose the same
for passage shall have been published once a week for two successive weeks
prior to its passage in some newspaper published in the county, and if
there be none such, in some newspaper published in an adjoining county
or a nearby city and having a general circulation in the county. The
publication shall include a statement that a copy of the full text of the
ordinance is on file in the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the county.

Except that in any county having a population in excess of two hun-
dred forty thousand inhabitants an ordinance may be adopted by the
board of supervisors under this section after a descriptive notice of inten-
tion to propose the same for passage has been published once a week for
two successive weeks in some newspaper having a general circulation in
the county. After the enactment of such ordinance by the board of super-
visors under the authority hereof, no publication of the same shall be
required and such ordinance shall become effective upon adoption or upon
a date fixed by the board of supervisors.

Except as hereinafter provided, emergency ordinances under author-
ity of this section may be adopted without notice of intention, but no
emergency ordinance shall be enforced for more than sixty days unless re-
adopted in conformity with the provisions of this section.

No governing body shall adopt or amend any ordinance imposing a
county capitation tax, county motor vehicle license tax, county license tax
on professions or businesses, including wholesale merchants, or county tax
on amusements, except under the conditions hereinafter set forth, and any
such ordinances adopted without compliance with such conditions shall be
void and of no effect:

(a) Any such ordinance may only be introduced at a regular meet-
ing of the governing body and may not be adopted prior to the second
regular meeting following introduction and only then if not less than
sixty days have elapsed between introduction and adoption;

(b) The proposed ordinance shall be published once a week for four
successive weeks in a newspaper published in the county, or if there be
none such, in a newspaper having general circulation in the county; and

(c) The proposed ordinance shall be published at the front door of
the county courthouse and, except in the case of a county having a popula-
tion sch more than two hundred forty thousand, at each post office in the
county.

All laws or ordinances heretofore [prior to June twenty-seventh,
nineteen hundred sixty-*eight] enacted by a board of supervisors under
authority of this section shall be deemed to have been validly enacted,
unless some provisions of the Constitution of Virginia or the United States
has been violated in such enactment.