Chap. 427.—An ACT authorizing the appointment by the board of supervisors of
any county, county planning commission for said county, defining the duties
of said planning commission and authorizing the appropriation of county
funds for the purpose of carrying on the work of said commission.

[H B 385]
Approved March 30, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. County planning commission—creation anad appoint-
ment.—The board of supervisors of any county may create and ap-
point a county planning commission for said county. Said commission
shall consist of five persons, one of whom shall be the county manager,
county executive, county engineer or the county director of public
works, where such officers are provided for as parts of the county
administration. All members of the county planning commission other
than as provided above shall be appointed by the county board of
supervisors for terms of four years, in cases where there is a county
manager, county executive, county engineer, or a county director of
public works, or for terms of five years where no such office exists,
provided further that the county board of supervisors may prescribe
for the original appointees terms of office of various lengths, so that
not more than one-fourth of the subsequent appointments, other than
to fill vacancies, may be made during any calendar year.

Said appointive members shall not be elective public officers nor
assistants to said elective public officers, provided, however, that any
of them may be a member of another planning commission. All
members of the county planning commission shall serve as such with-
out compensation. The county board of supervisors may remove an
appointive member for cause stated in writing and after public hear-
ing. Any vacancy in an appointive membership shall be filled by the
county board of supervisors for the unexpired term.

Section 2. County planning commission—organization, rules, staff
and finances.—The county planning commission shall elect from
amongst the appointive members a chairman, whose term shall be
for one year with eligibility for reelection, and the commission may
create and fill such other offices as it may determine. It shall have
the power and authority to appoint such employees and staff as it
mav deem necessary for its work, and may contract with planners
and other consultants for such services as it may require. The ex-
penditures of the commission, exclusive of gifts, shall be within the
amounts appropriated for the purpose by the county board of super-
visors.

The commission shall adopt rules for transaction of business and
shall keep a record of its resolutions, transactions, findings, and
determinations, which record shall be a public record. Upon request of
the commission, the county board of supervisors, or other county
officials or the chief executive officer of any municipality may, from
time to time, for the purpose of special surveys under the direction of
the planning commission, assign or detail to the commission any mem-
bers of staffs of county or municipal administrative departments, or
may direct any such department to make for the commission special
surveys, or studies requested by the commission.

Section 3. County master plan.—lIt shall be the function and duty
of a county planning commission to make and adopt a master plan
for the physical development of the unincorporated territory of the
county. Any such plan may include the planning of incorporated towns
to the extent to which, in the commission’s judgment, they are related
to the planning of the unincorporated territory or of the county as a
whole, provided, however, the plan shall not be considered as a master
plan for any incorporated towns without the consent of the planning
commission and council of said incorporated town, and provided fur-
ther that the county plan shall be coordinated with the plans of the
State Department of Highways, insofar as it relates to highways or
thoroughfares under the jurisdiction of that department.

The master plan of a county, with the accompanying maps, plats,
charts, and descriptive and explanatory matter, shall show the county
planning commission’s recommendations for the development of the
territory covered by the plan, and may include, among other things, the
general location, character, and extent of streets or roads, viaducts,
bridges, waterways, and water-front developments, parkways, play-
grounds, forests, reservations, parks, airports, and other public ways,
grounds, places and spaces; the general location and extent of publicly
owned utilities and terminals, and other purposes; the acceptance,
widening, removal, extension, relocation, narrowing, vacation, abandon-
ment, or change of use of any of the foregoing public ways, grounds,
places, spaces, buildings, properties, utilities, or terminals; the general
character, location and extent of community centers, town sites, or
housing developments; the general location and extent of forests,
agricultural areas, and open-development areas for purposes of con-
servation, food and water supply, sanitary and drainage facilities, or the
protection of urban development; a land-classification and utilization
program ; the distribution of population, and the uses of land for trade,
industry, habitation, recreation, agriculture, forestry, soil and water
conservation, and other purposes.

Section 4. General purposes of the plan——In the preparation of a
county master plan, a county planning commission shall make careful
and comprehensive surveys and studies of the existing conditions and
probable future changes of said conditions within the territory under
its jurisdiction. The county master plan shall be made with the general
purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and
harmonious development of the county which will, in accordance with
present and future needs and resources, best promote the health, safety,
morals, order, convenience, prosperity, or the general welfare of the
inhabitants, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of de-
velopment, including, amongst other things, such distribution of popula-
tion and of the uses of land for urbanization, trade, industry, habita-
tion, recreation, agriculture, forestry and other purposes, as will tend
to create conditions favorable to health, safety, transportation, pros-
perity, civic activities, and recreational, educational, and cultural op-
portunities; will tend to reduce the wastes of physical, financial, or
human resources which result from either excessive congestion or
excessive scattering of population; and will tend toward an efficient
and economic utilization, conservation, and production of the supply
of food and water, and of drainage, sanitary, and other facilities and
resources.

Section 5. Adoption of master plan—A county planning commis-
sion may adopt the county master plan as a whole by a single resolu-
tion, or, as the work of making the whole master plan progresses,
may from time to time adopt a part or parts thereof, any such part to
correspond generally with one or more of the functional subdivisions
of the subject matter which may be included in the plan. The com-
mission may from time to time amend, extend, or add to the plan, or
carry any part of it into greater detail. The adoption of the plan or any
part, amendment, extension, or addition shall be by resolution carried
by the affirmative votes of not less than a majority of the entire
membership of the commission. The resolution shall refer expressly
to the maps and descriptive matter intended by the commission to form
the whole or part of the plan, and the action taken shall be recorded
on the map or maps and descriptive matter by the identifying signature
of the secretary of the commission.

Section 6. Certification of plan to counties and municipalities and
subsequent adoption by municipalities——The county planning commis-
sion shall certify a copy of its master plan or an adopted part or
amendment thereof or addition thereto to the board of supervisors of
the county. The county planning commission shall certify such copies
to the planning commissions of all incorporated towns within the
county. Any planning commission of an incorporated town which
receives any such certification may adopt so much of the plan, part,
amendment, or addition as falls within the territory of the town as a
part or amendment of or addition to the master plan of said town, and
when so adopted, it shall have the same force and effect as though
made and prepared, as well as adopted, by a planning commission of
such town.

Section 7. Miscellaneous powers of the commission.—lIt shall be
the further duty of a county planning commission to promote the co-
operation of the planning commissions of any incorporated towns
within the county and the coordination of the plans of such towns and
the coordination of such plans with the county plan, and generally to
confer with and advise town and county executive and legislative
officials for the purpose of promoting a coordinated and adjusted
development of the county. Any such commission may also advise
county commissioners with respect to the formulation of public im-
provement programs and the financing thereof.

All public officials shall, upon request, furnish to the commission,
within a reasonable time, such available information as it may require
for its work. The members and employees of the commission, in the
performance of its functions, may enter upon any land and make
examinations and surveys and place and maintain necessary monu-
ments and marks thereon. In general, the commission shall have
such powers as may be necessary for it to perform its functions and
to promote county or regional planning.

Section 8. Legal status of plan——Whenever any county planning
commission shall have adopted a master plan of the county or any
part thereof, and said master plan or part thereof shall have been
approved by the board of supervisors of such county, then and thence-
forth no road, park, or other public way, public ground, or public
space, no public building or structure, or no public utility, whether
publicly or privately owned, shall be constructed or authorized in the
unincorporated territory of the county or region until and unless the
proposed location and extent thereof shall have been submitted to and
approved by such county planning commission; provided, however,
that in case of disapproval, the commission shall communicate its
reasons for disapproval to the board of supervisors of the county in
which the public way, public ground, public space, public building,
public structure, or public utility is proposed to be located; and such
board shall have the power to overrule such disapproval, and upon
such overruling said board or other official in charge of the proposed
construction or authorization may proceed therewith. The failure of
the commission to act within thirty days from and after the date of
official submission to it shall be deemed approval, unless a longer
period be granted by the submitting board, body, or official.

Section 9. Cooperation with the state planning board.—It shall be
the duty of the county planning commission to cooperate with the State
planning board in the preparation of so much of State-wide plans as
may affect the county under the jurisdiction of said county planning
commission. It shall also be the duty of the county planning com-
mission to file with the State planning board copies of all surveys,
reports and master maps conducted or prepared by said commission.

Section 10. Not to conflict—No provision of this act shall be
construed as repealing any section or part of any municipal charter.

Section 11. Definitions—For the purpose of this act, “unincor-
porated” means situated outside of cities, and incorporated towns.
“Incorporated,” consequently, means situated within cities and incor-
porated towns. The term “municipality,” ‘‘municipalities,” or “muni-
cipal” includes or relates to cities and incorporated towns.