Chap. 434.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled ‘‘An act providing how
a subdivision of land into villa sites, blocks, lots, streets and alleys, in Fairfax
county, shall be made; certificates of source of title, boundary markets, recorda-
tion, power of board of supervisors to regulate and effect of copies of plats or
extracts therefrom attested by the clerk in whose office recorded.”, approved
March 14, 1928; so as, among other purposes, to prescribe certain exceptions,
to validate certain plats heretofore made under the provisions of said act, and
to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act, to the extent of

such inconsistency. [H B 499]
Approved April 2, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an
act entitled ‘‘An act providing how a subdivision of land into villa
sites, blocks, lots, streets and alleys, in Fairfax county, shall be made;
certificates of source of title, boundary, markers, recordation, power
of board of supervisors to regulate and effect of copies of plats or
extracts therefrom attested by the clerk in whose office recorded.”,
approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. Any owner or proprietor of a tract or tracts of land,
situated in Fairfax County, desiring to subdivide such tract or tracts
of land, or a part or parts thereof, into villa sites, blocks, lots, streets
and alleys, or in any manner whatever, for the purpose of description
or identification, shall cause a plat of such subdivision with reference
to known or permanent monuments to be made, which shall accurately
describe all the subdivisions of such tract or tracts of land, giving the
dimensions and courses and distances thereof, in such manner as will
enable each villa site, lot, block, street or alley to be accurately de-
scribed by metes and bounds, courses and distances to be calculated
to the true meridian, the true meridian to be accurately shown upon
such plat. Such plat shall be prepared by a surveyor or civil engineer
duly licensed as such by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and there
shall be endorsed upon each plat a certificate signed by the surveyor
or civil engineer making the same setting forth the source of title of the
owner of the tract or tracts, giving specifically the date and place of
record if by deed or will, and the place of record of the last instrument
in the chain of title if by descent. When the said plat shall be of land
acquired from more than one source of title the outlines of the several
tracts shall be indicated by red ink lines drawn upon said plat, or by
easily distinguishable dashed lines drawn thereon, and the respective
tracts properly identified either upon said plat or in the said certificate.
A monument of stone, concrete, galvanized iron pipe or some other
like durable substance shall be placed at least two feet in the ground
at each corner of the outer lines of the said subdivision, and the said
surveyor or civil engineer shall so certify upon the said plat and
accurately indicate the location of said monument thereon and shall
further certify that all of the land included in the said subdivision is
within the boundaries of the original tract or tracts of the said owner.
The clerk of the Circuit court of Fairfax County shall not admit to
record any such plat unless the same shall comply fully with all the
requirements of this act.

Section 2. The board of supervisors of Fairfax County shall have
the power to pass reasonable rules and regulations to promote uni-
formity in the layout of streets and alleyways, including the right to
fix the minimum width thereof, except in the incorporated towns of
said County, and to prevent the recording of any plat that does not
comply fully with such rules and regulations.

Section 3. Descriptions of lots or parcels of land in such sub-
division, according to the number and designation thereof on said
plat, contained in conveyances, mortgages, or other instruments, or
for the purpose of taxation, and copies of said plats or extracts there-
from properly attested by the clerk in whose office the same are re-
corded, shall have the same force and effect as copies of deeds so at-
tested now have, and shall be deemed proper descriptions and good
and valid for all intents and purposes.

Section 4. The requirements and provisions of this act shall not
apply to a plat showing the partition of real estate in said county
made by order or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, nor
shall the provision hereinabove requiring metes and bounds, courses
and distances to be calculated to the true meridian, and the true
meridian to be shown on the plat, apply to a plat showing a voluntary
partition of real estate in said county among the several owners of
undivided interests therein, or to a plat showing the subdivision of a
tract or tracts of land into not more than five villa sites, lots or blocks
where no streets or alleys are laid out or provided for in such sub-
division, but such metes and bounds, courses and distances shall be
shown according to the magnetic meridian at the time such plat is
made, and all such plats shall be subject to all the other provisions
hereinabove set forth as to subdivision plats.

Section 5. All plats heretofore made and recorded in accordance
with the provisions of section one as it was prior to its amendment by
this act, which did not comply fully with all the provisions thereof,
are hereby validated and all such plats shall for all purposes be deemed
to be legally recorded in all respects as if they had fully complied
with all the terms and provisions of said section.

2. All statutes and acts, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the
provisions of this act, in so far as they relate to Fairfax County, are
hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

3. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.