Chap. 420.--An ACT to create the northern Virginia park and planning district;
to provide for the creation and powers of the northern Virginia park and
planning commission, including the making of a plan for the development
of said district; the regulation of the sub-division of land within said dis-
trict; the regulation of buildings in planned streets within said district;
and other matters relating to the making, protecting and preserving the
integrity of and carrying out the said plan for the said district; and pro-
viding for the levying of a tax and the expenditure thereof for carrying
out the purposes of said commission. [IS B 310]

Approved March 25, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
northern Virginia park and planning district is hereby created and
established for planning purposes as hereinafter set forth, consisting
of the following territory, to-wit: all of the city of Alexandria, all
of the county of Arlington and the following portion of the county
of Fairfax, to-wit: all of the territory lying between the Potomac
river and a line beginning at a point on the south bank of said river
five hundred yards west of the northwest corner of the dancing pa-
vilion situated in Great Falls park and running thence due south to
the center line of the Georgetown pike; thence with the center line
of said pike in an easterly direction to a point five hundred yards west
of the intersection of the said Georgetown pike and the Fairfax and
Chain bridge road; thence parallel with and five hundred yards distant
westwardly from said Fairfax and Chain bridge road to a point where
the said line intersects a line drawn parallel to and five hundred yards
southwesterly from the Little river pike near Fairfax courthouse;
thence by a line parallel to and five hundred yards distant southwesterly
from the Little river pike to a point where the same intersects the
Telegraph road at Alexandria; thence with the center line of the Tele-
granh road in a southerly direction to its intersection with the Rich-
mond-Washington highway at Pohick church; thence with the Rich-
mond-Washington highway to its intersection with the Mount Vernon
highway to Gum Springs; thence with the center line of the Mount
Vernon highway to the northern entrance to the Mount Vernon estate:
thence in an easterly direction following the northern line of the Mount
Vernon estate to the Potomac river.

By and with the consent of the northern Virginia park and plan-
ning commission hereinafter created and of the board of supervisors
of Fairfax county the remaining portion of Fairfax county or any
part thereof may be added to and thereby embraced within said dis-
trict; and by and with the consent of said commission and of the
board of supervisors of any other county such county or any part
thereof may be added to and thereby embraced within said district.
The said northern Virginia park and planning district is in this act
for abbreviation called the district.

2. The northern Virginia park and planning commission is here-
by created and for abbreviation is hereinafter referred to in this act as
the commission. Subject to enlargement as hereinafter provided, the
commission shall consist of nine members, three ex-officio and six ap-
pointed members. The boards of supervisors of Fairfax and Arling-
ton counties and the city council of Alexandria shall each select one of
its own members as an ex-officio member of the commission, and the
remaining members shall be appointed by the governor of Virginia;
provided, that two of the members appointed by the governor shall
reside and be qualified voters and free holders in Alexandria, two in
Fairfax county and two in Arlington county. Appointed members
shall hold no other public office or position. The first appointments
shall be made within thirty days after this act takes effect, upon which
date the terms of office shall begin. The term of office of each ap-
pointed member shall be four years. The term of office of each ex-
officio member shall correspond to his official tenure as member of the
board of supervisors or council. Any vacancy shall be filled in the
same manner as the original appointment. The members of the com-
mission shall receive the sum of ten dollars per diem for attending
regular and special meetings of the commission, provided, that no mem-
ber shall receive more than one hundred dollars in any one year. In
event that in accordance with the provisions of section one of this act
any other county is added to the said district, then the membership
of the commission shall be increased by three, to be selected in the
same manner as the members from the other counties already embraced
therein.

3. The commission shall elect its chairman from among its ap-
pointed members and may create and fill such other of its offices as it
may determine. The term of the chairman shall be one year and he
shall be eligible for re-election. The commission shall hold at least
one regular meeting every two months and such special and adjourned
meetings as it shall determine. A special meeting can be called by the
chairman at any time on five days’ notice to all of the members, or may
be called by a like notice by any five members acting jointly. It shall
adopt rules for the transaction of business and shall keep a record of
its transactions, resolutions, findings and determinations, which record
shall be a public record. The location of its principal office shall be
determined by the commission, and it may fix and determine its regu-
lar meeting place or places, provided, however, that all meetings, both
regular and special, shall be held within the territorial limits of its
jurisdiction.

4. The commission shall appoint such employees as it may deem
necessary for its work. The commission may also contract with city
planners, engineers and other consultants for such services as it may
require. The expenditures of the commission, exclusive of gifts, shall
be within the amounts appropriated for the purpose by the council and
boards of supervisors of the city and counties or parts of counties in-
cluded in the district.

5. For the purpose of this act, certain terms are defined as pro-
vided in this section. Whenever appropriate the singular includes the
plural and the plural includes the singular. “Street” or “streets” in-
cludes streets, avenues, boulevards, roads, highways, lanes, alleys, via-
ducts and all other ways. “Subdivision” means the division of a lot,
tracts or parcel of land into two or more lots, plats, sites or other
divisions of land for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of
sale or building development. It includes re-subdivision and, when
appropriate to the context, relates to the process of subdividing or to
the land or territory subdivided.

6. It shall be the function and duty of the commission to make
and adopt a master plan for the physical development of the district,
which plan may include any area outside the boundaries of the district
which in the commission’s judgment bear relation to the district. Such
plan, with the accompanying maps, plats, charts and descriptive mat-
ter, shall show the commission’s recommendations for the development
of said territory, including, among other things, the general location,
character and extent of streets, viaducts, bridges, waterways, water-
fronts, parkways, plavgrounds, squares, parks, aviation fields and other
public ways, grounds and open spaces: the general location of public
buildings and other public property; the general location and extent
of public utilities for water, light, sanitation, transportation, communi-
cation, power and other purposes; and also the removal, relocation,
widening, narrowing, vacating, abandonment, change of use or exten-
sion of streets, grounds, open spaces, buildings, properties and utilities.
As the work of the making of the whole master plan progresses, the
commission may from time to time adopt and publish a part or parts
thereof, any such part to cover one or more major geographical, topo-
graphical or political sections or parts of the district or one or more
of the aforesaid or other functional matters to be included in the plan.
The commission may from time to time amend, extend or add to the
plan.

7. The commission may adopt the plan as a whole by a single
resolution, or may, by successive resolution, adopt successive parts of
the plan, said parts corresponding with major geographical, topograph-
ical or political sections or divisions of the district or with functional
subdivisions of the subject matter of the plan, and may adopt any
amendment or extension thereof or addition thereto. Before the
adoption of the plan or any such part, amendment, extension or addi-
tion, the commission shall hold at least one public hearing thereon,
notice of the time and place of which shall be given by one publication
in at least one newspaper published in each of the separate political
units included in the district.

The adoption of the plan or any such part, amendment, extension
or addition, shall be by resolution of the commission, carried by the
affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds of its entire membership,
which two-thirds shall include at least two members from each of the
city and counties or parts of counties embraced within the district.
The resolution of adoption shall refer expressly to the maps and de-
scriptive and other matter intended by the commission to form the
whole or part of the plan, and the action taken shall be recorded on
the map, plan and descriptive matter by the identifying signature of
the chairman or secretary of the commission. An attested copy of the
plan or part thereof as adopted shall be certified to the council of
Alexandria and the boards of supervisors of each county or part of
county embraced within the district; to the clerks of court of the re-
spective city and counties; and to the national capital park and plan-
ning commission. The plan or parts thereof so certified shall be pub-
lic records and open to inspection at the respective offices in which
they are filed, but shall not become effective in either of the separate
political subdivisions of the district until the city council or board of
supervisors, as the case may be, of the same shall have approved it
by resolution legally adopted and spread upon its minute book.

8. From and after the selection, appointment and organization
of the commission, no street, square, park or other public way, ground
or open space, no public building or structure or no public utility shall
be constructed or authorized within the district until the proposed
location, character and extent thereof shall have been submitted to the
commission by the board of supervisors, municipal council or other
state, county, municipal or town board, body or official intending or
proposing such construction or authorization and until the commission
shall have opportunity for not exceeding sixty days to report upon the
matter submitted. Failure of the commission to act within sixty days
from and after the official date of the submission to the commission
shall be deemed approval. The removal, relocation, widening, narrow-
ing, vacating, abandonment, change of use or extension of any of said
ways, grounds, open spaces, buildings, properties and utilities shall be
subject to the same requirements for submission to and opportunity
for report upon by the commission.

9. The commission may, from time to time, recommend to the
appropriate public bodies and officials programs for public structures
and improvements for carrying out the plan. It shall be part of its
duties to consult and advise with public officials and agencies, public
utility companies, civic, educational, professional and other organiza-
tions and with citizens with relation to protecting or carrying out the
plan. The commission shall have the right to accept and use gifts
for the exercise of its functions. All public bodies and officials shall,
upon request, furnish the commission, within a reasonable time, such
available information as it may require for its work. The commis-
sion, its members, officers and employees, in the performance of their
functions, may enter upon any land and make all necessary surveys
and place and maintain necessary monuments and markers thereon.
In general, the commission shall have such powers as may be necessary
to enable it to fulfil its functions, promote the planning of the district
and carry out the purposes of this act.

10. In the preparation, making and execution of the plan, the
commission may act in conjunction and co-operation with the national
capital park and planning commission, created by act of congress, ap-
proved April thirteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, and acts
amendatory thereof, and the commission is hereby designated by the
State of Virginia as the representative of the State of Virginia for
this purpose and as the successor of the governor for said purposes,
and all acts or parts of acts of the general assembly in conflict here-
with are hereby repealed. The commission is further empowered to
act in conjunction and co-operation with other boards and officials of
the United States or of the District of Columbia or of the States of
Maryland or Virginia. All plans for parking or for other public
works to be financed jointly by the State of Virginia and the United
States or any bureau or department thereof shall be first submitted
to the commission and its report received and filed with the proper
authorities before any work thereon is permitted.

11. Whenever the commission shall have adopted a major street
or highway plan of the district and the same has been approved by the
local governing bodies as hereinbefore provided and shall have filed
a certified copy of such plan in the office of the clerk of the circuit
court of each county wholly or partly embraced within said district
and in the office of the clerk of the corporation court of the city of
Alexandria, then no plat of a subdivision of land within the said dis-
trict shall be recorded or accepted for filing or recording until it shall
have been approved by the commission and such approval entered in
writing on the plat by the chairman or secretary of the commission.

The commission shall adopt regulations governing the subdivision
of lands within the district. Such regulations may provide for the
proper arrangement of streets in relation to other existing or planned
streets and to the district plan, for adequate and convenient spaces for
traffic, utilities, access of fire fighting apparatus, recreation, light and
air and the avoidance of congestion of population, including minimum
width and area of lots. Such regulations may include provisions as to
the extent to which streets and other ways shall be graded and im-
proved and to which water, sewer and other utility mains, piping or
other facilities shall be installed as a condition precedent to the approval
of the plat. Before the adoption of such regulations a public hearing
shall be held thereon. A copy of such regulations shall be certified by
the commission to the clerks of the courts aforesaid. No regulation
concerning the extent to which proposed streets are to be graded or
improved shall become effective in either of the respective political
units until the same shall have been approved by the board of super-
visors or city council, as the case may be.

12. The commission shall approve or disapprove a plat within
thirty days after the submission thereof to it; otherwise such plat shall
be deemed to be approved and a certificate to that effect shall be issued
by the commission on demand; provided, however, that the applicant
for the commission’s approval may waive this requirement and consent
to an extension of this period. The ground of disapproval of any
plat shall be entered upon the minutes of the commission. Any plat
submitted to the commission shall contain the name and address of the
person to whom notice of the hearing shall be sent and no plat shall
be acted upon by the commission without affording a hearing thereon
to the party owning the said land shown on the plat; said notice to be
sent to the party or parties interested not less than seven days prior
to the date fixed therefor, unless such notice be waived in wring | by the
parties interested.

13. Whoever, being the owner or agent of the owner of any y land
located within a subdivision made after taking effect of this act, trans-
fers or sells or agrees to sell any land by reference to or exhibition of
or by other use of a plat of a subdivision before such plat is approved
by the commission and recorded or filed in the office of the appropriate
clerk as herein provided shall forfeit and pay a civil penalty of one
hundred dollars for each lot or parcel so transferred or sold or agreed
to be sold and the description of such lot or parcel by metes and
bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the
process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from
the penalties or remedies herein provided. The commission or the
board of supervisors of any county or the executive officers of any city
within whose borders said land is situated may enjoin such transfer
or sale or agreement by action for injunction brought in any court of
appropriate jurisdiction or may recover the said penalty by civil action.

14. The board of supervisors of any county or council of any city
lying wholly or partly within said district is hereby authorized to re-
fuse the acceptance, laying out or opening of any street or the laying
or authorizing of water mains or sewers or connections in any street
within the district unless such street (a) shall have been accepted or
opened prior to the taking effect of this act, or unless such street (b)
corresponds to a street shown on the official plan of the commission
or with a street shown on a subdivision plat approved by the commis-
sion or with a street whose location and extent shall be approved by
the commission. Any such board of supervisors or city council may
submit to the commission the question of the location or extent of any
street and the commission shall file its report and recommendation
thereon.

15. The commission is empowered, after it shall have adopted a
major street or highway plan of the district, to make or cause to be
made from time to time surveys for the exact location of streets in
any portion of the district and to make a plat of the area thus sur-
veyed showing the land which it recommends for the location of future
streets. Before adopting any such plat the commission shall hold a
public hearing thereon, notice of the time and place of which, with a
general description of the area covered by the plat, shall be given not
less than ten days prior to the time fixed therefor by one publication
in a newspaper of general circulation in the county or city in which
the area or any part thereof is located. After such hearing the com-
mission may transmit the plat to the council of the city or the board
of supervisors of the county or counties in which the area is located.
The council or board of supervisors to which such plat shall have been
submitted may by resolution approve or reject the same or may amend
the same after submitting the proposed amendment to the commission
and receiving its report. In its resolution of approval the council or
board of supervisors shall specify its estimate of the period of time
within which the land shown thereon for street location shall be needed
for street purposes, which period shall not exceed fifteen years. Upon
approval a certified copy of the plat shall be filed for record with the
clerks of the respective courts within the district having jurisdiction
over the recording of deeds. From time to time the commission and/or
the city council and/or the board of supervisors, as the case may be,
by similar procedure, may amend, repeal or renew such plat.

16. For the purpose of preserving the integrity of the district
plan and thereby promoting the public health, convenience, safety,
order and welfare, from and after the filing for record of any ap-
proved plat by the city council or county board of supervisors as here-
inbefore provided, and throughout the period specified in the resolu-
tion of approval as the estimate of the time within which the land
shown on the plat as street locations will be needed for street pur-
poses, no building or other structure, or part thereof, shall be erected
and no permit shall be issued for the erection of any building, struc-
ture or part thereof on any part of the land between the planned lines
of a street as thus platted; provided, that the commission shall have the
power, by a vote of the majority of its membership, to grant a permit
for any building, structure or part thereof in such platted street loca-
tion in any case in which the said commission shall find from evidence
and argument produced before it: (a) that the entire property of the
petitioner of which such reserved street location forms a part, cannot
yield a reasonable return to the owner unless such permit be granted,
and (b) that, balancing the public welfare and interests in preserving
the integrity of the district plan and the interest of the owner of the
property as to the use of his property and the benefits of the owner-
ship thereof, the grant of such permit is required by considerations
of reasonable justice and equity. Before taking any such action the
said commission shall hold a public hearing, in which the parties in
interest shall have an opportunity to be heard, and at least fifteen
days’ notice of the time and place of which shall be given to the pe-
titioner by mail at the address of the petitioner given in his said pe-
tition and shall be once in a newspaper of general circulation in the
county or city in which the said land is located. No compensation or
damages shall be awarded or found against or be ordered paid by or
recovered from any county, city or town or against any officer thereof,
for the taking of or injury to any building or structure or part thereof
built or erected upon any such mapped street location, except a build-
ing, structure or part thereof erected under a permit granted as pro-
vided in this section or except a building or structure or part thereof
erected after the termination of the time estimated by the city council
or county board of supervisors in the resolution approving the plat.
Administrative officers of the respective city and counties shall enforce
the provisions of this act within their respective jurisdictions.

17. The costs and expenses of the commission, including costs
and expenses incurred in and for the making, amending and adminis-
tration of the district plan and al! other costs and expenses incurred
for and in the course of the exercise of its powers and functions as
described in this act, shall be borne by the city of Alexandria and the
counties of Arlington and Fairfax and any other county which may
come to be included within the district in the proportion which the
assessed tax value of the taxable real estate located within them, re-
spectively, and within the district bears to the assessed tax value of
all taxable real estate within the district. Annually the commission
shall certify to the city council of Alexandria and the board of super-
visors of Arlington and Fairfax counties and any other county lying
wholly or partly within the district, its budget for the next succeed-
ing fiscal year, which budget shall not exceed in the aggregate four
cents on each one hundred dollars of the assessed valuation of all real
and personal property within the district subject to local taxation.
The council of Alexandria and boards of supervisors of Arlington and
Fairfax and said other counties are hereby authorized and directed to
levy a tax corresponding in aggregate amount to such budget and not
to exceed said four cents on each one hundred dollars of the assessed
valuation of all property, real and personal, subject to local taxes with-
in said respective city and counties or part or parts thereof included
within said district, which levy shall be included in the annual tax
levy and which levy may be in addition to the maximum tax levy
otherwise authorized by law for other purposes. The proceeds of such
levy shall be paid to the respective treasurers of said city and counties
and forthwith deposited in the same manner as other local funds and
shall be expended and disbursed by the commission by warrants upon
said treasurers respectively authorized by the commission, signed by
its chairman and countersigned by its secretary when said money shall
have been duly appropriated to the use of said commission by resolu-
tions or ordinances respectively of the council and boards of super-
visors of the said counties.

18. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this
act is for any reason held to be invalid, such decision shall not affect
the validity of the remaining portions of this act.

19. This act shall not take effect until ratified and approved by
the city council of Alexandria and the boards of supervisors of Ar-
lington and Fairfax counties by resolutions legally adopted and spread
upon their respective minute books.