Chap. 393.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3223 of the Code of is san
S B 335}
Approved March 20, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-two hundred and twenty-three, of the Code of Virginia, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 3223. Any owner of land having a water front thereon
suitable for planting oysters, who has not had as much as one-half acre
of ground already assigned him on said front, or whose lease has ter-
minated and is nat to be renewed, may make application for planting
ground to the inspector for the district in which the land lies, who shall
assign to him such ground, wherever such owner may designate in front
of his land, not exceeding in area one-half acre, and in measurement
to be not less than one-fourth of an acre at its narrowest width, the
same to be surveyed, platted, marked, assigned and recorded, in all
respects, as provided for assignments to persons In the next succeeding
section. For assigning to riparian owners, the surveyor shall receive a
fee of one dollar, and the inspector a fee of fifty cents. Such owner
shall have the exclusive nght to the use thereof for the purpose afore-
said, such assignment to pass with the land to any subsequent owner.
If any portion of said water front be assigned to a riparian claimant,
which at the time is occupied by others w.th oysters actually planted
thereon, the person occupying the same shall have twelve months in
which to remove such oysters; provided, this section, so far as the quan-
tity of Jand to be assigned to and held by mparian owners is concerned,
shall not apply to the counties of Richmond, Northampton, North-
umberland and Westmoreland, but section six of chapter two hundred
and fifty-four, acts eighteen hundred and eighty-three and eighteen
hundred and eighty-four, shall continue in force as to the said counties,
but nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing a rental
of less than one dollar per acre for riparian owners in the above-named
counties of the land assigned to them as such riparian owners; provided,
that nothing in the said section which restores to riparian owners in
said counties one-fourth of their respective water fronts, suitable for
planting oysters, shall be so construed as to permit the owners of water
fronts to compel occupants of said fronts to remove their oysters from
any fourth of said shores, if the residue of said shore be already in his,
the landowner’s possession, or be unoccupied; and provided further,
that this section shall not apply to riparian lands located in the city of
Norfolk, Virginia, or to any owner of land located in said city, and hav-
ing a water front.
2. An emergency existing, un act shall be enforced from its pas-
sage.