Chap. 67.—An ACT to provide for fixing, determining and regulating the mini-
mum size of certain lots or parcels of land upon which buildings designed o1
used for human habitation may be constructed or placed in counties adjoining
cities having a population of 180,000 or more according to the last pre-
ceding United States census. [S B 120]

Approved March 4, 1938

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

Section 1. For the purpose of promoting the health, safety and
general welfare of the County, the board of supervisors, or other gov-
erning body in any county in this Commonwealth adjoining a city
within this State having a population of one hundred and eighty
thousand, or more, as shown by the last preceding United States cen-
sus, 1s hereby authorized and empowered, by ordinance, to regulate,
fix and determine the minimum size, frontage, depth and area of a
lot, piece or parcel of land upon which a building designed, planned
and intended for human habitation and use, may be constructed or
placed, and such regulating, fixing and determining may be varied,
based upon whether or not a public or community water supply is
available and used.

Section 2. The power and authority vested in any such board of
supervisors by this act shall not be exercised, in any incorporated
town in any such county, nor in any community, section, subdivision,
lot, piece or parcel of land to which a public sewer is available and
used in connection with any such lot, piece or parcel of land, lot in
any community, section and subdivision, nor as to any lot, piece or
parcel of land where any such building, as is mentioned in section one
hereof, has been constructed or placed prior to the taking effect of
the ordinance authorized by this act.

Section 3. For carrying into effect the power vested in it by this
act, the board of supervisors may in its ordinance authorized by this
act prescribe fines and other punishment for violation thereof, which
shall be enforced by proceedings before the Trial Justice of the county,
in like manner and with like right of appeal as if such violations were
misdemeanors. Such fines, however, shall in no case exceed fifty
dollars, and if the board so ordains, each day’s continuance to violate
the ordinance or regulations authorized by this act shall constitute a
separate offense and shall be punishable as such.

No ordinance or regulation authorized by this act shall be passed
until after notice of intention to propose the same for passage shall
have been published once a week for two successive weeks prior to
its passage in some newspaper published in the county or in a news-
paper published in an adjoining county or city and having a general
circulation in the county of such board, and no such ordinance or
regulation shall become effective until after it shall have been published
in full once a week for two successive weeks in a like newspaper.
The notice above required to be published shall state in general terms
the purposes of the ordinance or regulations to be considered for
passage.
Section 4. After any such board of supervisors has adopted the
ordinance provided for in this act, if the erection, construction, recon-
struction, alteration, repair, conversion or use of any building as. is
defined in this act is begun upon any lot, piece or parcel of land the
size, frontage, depth, or area of which is less than the minimums
provided in said ordinance, or if the removal to any such lot, piece
or parcel of land of any such building is begun, the board of super-
visors, in addition to other remedies, may institute any appropriate
action or proceedings to prevent such unlawful erection, construction,
reconstruction, alteration, repair, conversion or use, to restrain, cor-
rect, or abate such violation, to prevent the occupancy of any such
building or land, or to prevent any illegal act in violation of said
ordinance. ,

Section 5. If any provision of this act or of the ordinance or reg-
ulations authorized by this act, or the application of any provision
of this act or of the ordinance or regulations authorized by this act
as to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of
the act or of the ordinance or regulations, and the application of such
provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected
thereby.

Section 6. All acts and parts of acts, whether general, special
or local, inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed to the extent
of such inconsistency.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
pasrage.