CHAPTER 612

An Act to amend and reenact § 15.1-504 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to the adoption of ordinances by counties.

[H 646]
Approved April 5, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. ' ee § 15.1-504 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted
as follows:

§ 15.1-504. Except as otherwise provided by law, ordinances shall be
adopted by the governing body of any county only in the manner pre-
scribed by this section.

The object of each such ordinance shall be expressed in its title.

Except as otherwise authorized by law, no such ordinance shall be
passed until after descriptive notice of an 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, and
if there be none such, in some newspaper published in an adjoining county
or a nearby city and having a general circulation in the county. * The
publication shall include a statement that a copy of the full text of the
ordinance is on file in the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the county.

Except as hereinafter provided, emergency ordinances under author-
ity of this section may be adopted without notice of intention, but no
emergency ordinance shall be enforced for more than sixty days unless
readopted in conformity with the provisions of this section.

No governing body shall adopt or amend any ordinance imposing a
county capitation tax, county motor vehicle license tax, county license tax
on professions or businesses, including wholesale merchants, or county tax
on amusements, except under the conditions hereinafter set forth, and any
such ordinance adopted without compliance with such conditions shall be
void and of no effect. .

(a) Any such ordinance may only be introduced at a regular meeting
of the governing body and may not be adopted prior to the second regular
meeting following introduction and only then if not less than sixty days
have elapsed between introduction and adoption ;

(b) The proposed ordinance shall be published once a week for four
successive weeks in a newspaper published in the county, or if there be none
such, in a newspaper having general circulation in the county; and

(c) The proposed ordinance shall be published at the front door of the
county courthouse and at each post office in the county.