CHAPTER 423

An Act to amend and reenact § 57-12, as amended, of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to the quantity of real and personal estate trustees for
religious purposes may hold. (H 456]

Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1, That § 57-12, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 57-12. Such trustees shall not take or hold at any one time more
than four acres of land in a city or town, nor more than seventy-five acres
outside of a city or town; provided that the city council of any city may by
ordinance authorize such trustees to take and hold in such city not exceed-
ing ten acres of land at any one time if such acreage is to be devoted
exclusively, and is subsequently so devoted, to a church building, chapel,
offices exclusively used for administrative purposes of the church, a
Sunday-school building and playgrounds therefor, and parking lots for
the convenience of those attending any of the foregoing, and a church
manse, parsonage or rectory; and they shall not take * nor hold at any one
time, money, securities or other personal estate exceeding in the aggregate,
exclusive of the books and furniture aforesaid, the sum of two million
dollars; provided, that where two or more religious congregations, churches
or religious societies shall merge or consolidate, such religious congrega-
tion, church or religious society so merged or consolidated, shall have three
years’ time within which to dispose of its land in excess of that which it
is permitted to hold under this section. .

_Nothing herein contained shall affect the validity of any land within
a city or town legally acquired by a church to be exclusively used for a
church manse, parsonage or rectory between the effective date of § 57-12
of the Code of Virginia as amended in Chapter 309 of the 1954 Acts of
Assembly and the effective date of this section, provided the total amount
of land owned by a church within a city or town does not exceed ten acres.

This section, as amended, shall not be construed as applying to any
property which is the subject of litigation at the time of or prior to the
effective date hereof; and shall not, in any such litigation, be construed
as evidencing any change in any legislative policy respecting any matter
or matters covered by this article.