Chap. 235.—An ACT authorizing inspectors of oysters to assign to the owners,
managers, or lessees of hotels ground under the water for bathing ground.

Approved February 5, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it shall
be lawful for and shall be the duty of the inspectors of oysters of
the several counties, cities and districts in this state, upon the
terms and conditions hereinafter set out, to designate, survey, and
assign to any owner, manager, or lessee of any hotel, adjacent or
near to any water front, on any bay, river, creek, or sea of this state,
within their respective jurisdiction, any location under the water,
on said water front, or on the beds of said bays, rivers, creeks, or
seas, for the purpose of bathing grounds, which under the laws of
this state, may be assigned to any person, for the purpose of the
planting and the propagation of oysters.

2. That it shall be the duty of any such person, firm, or corpora-
tion desiring to obtain a location for the purpose aforesaid, to apply
to the inspector of oysters of the county, city, or district in which
the location lies, to have his location ascertained and designated and
surveyed, and the same shall be marked with suitable stakes,
smooth and free from snags, or by other metes and bounds, courses
and distances, having their places of beginning and ending desig-
nated by permanent objects on the shore, agreed upon between the
applicant and inspector, and the said applicant shall pay the in-
spector for his services a fee of two dollars, and he shall also pay to
the inspector rent for the use of the said location assigned him, at
the rate of two dollars per acre for each and every year of his rental.
The said applicant, so long as he continues to pay such rent, shall
have the exclusive right to occupy said location for the purpose
aforesaid, subject, however, to the right of revocation, at any time,
by the general assembly of Virginia.

3. That if any such location be occupied by such applicant as
bathing grounds, or held by such applicant under proper assignment,
evidenced by the receipt or certificate of the inspector at the time a
location is made under this act or other laws of the state, the said
occupant shall have the prior right against all others to have the lo-
cation so occupied by him assigned to him by the inspector; provi-
ded the said occupant shall have the location so occupied by him
ascertained and designated within thirty days from the time the in-
spector is called on by any person to locate the same.

4. That the application for the assignment of such location shall
be made to the oyster inspector of the city, county or district in
which said grounds are located, stating, as near as may be, the num-
ber of acres applied for (which in no case shall exceed thirty acres),
the name of the waters in which located, the purpose for which the
said grounds are to be used, and the name of one or more promi-
nent points or places convenient to said grounds; thereupon the said
inspector shall cause notice of said application to be posted for at
least thirty days at the court-house door of said county, and at two
or more places in the vicinity of said grounds. The said notices shall
contain the name or names of the applicants, the number of acres
applied for, the name of the waters where located, the purpose for
which the grounds are to be used, and the name of one or more
prominent points or places in the vicinity of said grounds. After
the expiration of the thirty days’ notice aforesaid the inspector
shal] cause the said grounds so applied for to be surveyed at the
cost of the applicant, and thereupon the inspector shall assign the
same to said applicant: provided that the said grounds be not a
natural bed, rock or shoal within the meaning of the laws of this
state.

5. That the inspector shall pay over the rental received by him
under this act in the same manner as is now provided by law in the
case of rentals received for oyster-planting grounds, stating specifi-
cally in his report the object for which said grounds are assigned :
provided that nothing in this act shall be construed to interfere or
impair any vested right acquired under the oyster laws of this state
prior to the passage of this act: provided, further, that this act shall
not be construed to interfere with or impede the progress of naviga-
tion in any way

6. This act shall be in force from its passage.