CHAPTER 586

An Act to amend and reenact § 28-128, as amended, of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to assignment of certain oyster planting grounds to
certain owners.

; [H 807]

Approved March 31, 1956

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 28-123, as amended, of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 28-123. Any owner of land having a waterfront thereon suitable
for planting oysters, whose shore front measures at least one hundred
five feet at the low water mark, who has not had as much as one-half acre
of ground already assigned him on such front, or whose lease has termi-
nated and is not 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, * to be not less than * one hun-
dred and five feet wide 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. * The one-half acre
hereinabove mentioned shall begin at low water mark. For assigning to
riparian owners, the surveyor shall receive * fees as provided in § 28-124
(7) of the Code of Virginia. Such owner shall have the exclusive right
to the use thereof for the purpose aforesaid, such assignment to pass with
the land to any subsequent owner. If any portion of such water front be
assigned to a riparian claimant, which at the time is occupied by others
with oysters actually planted thereon, the person occupying the same shall
have * eighteen months in which to remove such oysters, and such riparian
claimant shall pay all survey and assignment and recording charges, in-
erred in connection with the transfer of said riparian oyster planting
ground.

This section, so far as the quantity of land to be assigned to and held
by riparian owners is concerned, shall not apply to the counties of *
Northampton, Northumberland 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
such counties, but nothing herein contained shall be construed as author-
izing a rental of less than one dollar per acre for riparian owners in the
above-named counties of the land assigned them as such riparian owners;
provided, that nothing in such section which restores to riparian owners
in such counties one-fourth of their respective waterfronts, suitable for
planting oysters, shall be so construed as to permit the owners of water
fronts to compel occupants of such fronts to remove their oysters from
any fourth of such shores, if the residue of the 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, pr to any owner of land located in said city, and having a
waterfront.

2: An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.