CHAPTER 518

An Act to amend and reenact § 86-27 of the Code of Virginia, relating to
the exercise of the power of eminent domain by housing authorities.

(H 668]
Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
tii That § 36-27 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as

ollows:

§ 86-27. An authority shall have the right to acquire by the exercise
of the power of eminent domain any real property which may be necessary
for the purposes of such authority under this chapter after the adoption by
it of a resolution declaring that the acquisition of the real property de-
scribed therein is necessary for such purposes. An authority may exercise
the power of eminent domain in the manner provided in §§ 25-1 to 25-55
and 25-232. The court in which condemnation proceedings are pending may
hear evidence and determine whether there has been unreasonable delay
in the institution of the proceedings after public announcement by the
condemnor of a project which necessitates acquisition by the condemnor of
a designated land area consisting of or including the land sought to be
condemned. If the court determines that such unreasonable delay has
occurred, it shall instruct the commissioners in such proceedings to allow
any damages proved to their satisfaction by the landowner or landowners
to have been sustained to his or their land during and because of such
delay, in addition to and separately from the fair market value thereof,
but such damages shall not exceed the actual diminution if any in fair
market value of the land in substantially the same physical condition over
the period of the delay. This provision shall not apply to any such public
announcement made prior to July one, nineteen hundred sixty.
In all such cases the proceedings shall be according to the provisions
of such sections so far as they can be applied to the same, the term “‘com-
pany” as used in such sections, and any officers of a “company” referred
to therein, to be construed as meaning the authority and the commissioners
thereof, respectively. Also, an authority may exercise the power of eminent
domain in the manner provided by any other applicable statutory provi-
sions for the exercise of the power of eminent domain. No real property
belonging to the city, the county, the Commonwealth or any other political
subdivision thereof may be acquired without its consent.