Bill Text: VA HB2755 | 2019 | Regular Session | Engrossed
Bill Title: Conservation easements; comprehensive plan.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2019-02-24 - Failed to pass in House [HB2755 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2019-HB2755-Engrossed.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §10.1-1010 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§10.1-1010. Creation, acceptance and duration.
A. A holder may acquire a conservation easement by gift, purchase, devise or bequest.
B. No right or duty in favor of or against a holder and no right in favor of a person having a third-party right of enforcement arises under a conservation easement before its acceptance by the holder and a recordation of the acceptance.
C. A conservation easement shall be perpetual in duration unless the instrument creating it otherwise provides a specific time. For all easements, the holder shall (i) meet the criteria in §10.1-1009 and (ii) either have had a principal office in the Commonwealth for at least five years, or be a national organization in existence for at least five years which has an office in the Commonwealth and has registered and is in good standing with the State Corporation Commission. Until a holder has met these requirements, the holder may co-hold a conservation easement with another holder that meets the requirements.
D. An interest in real property in existence at the time a conservation easement is created is not impaired by it unless the owner of the interest is a party to the conservation easement or consents to it in writing.
E. No conservation easement shall be valid and enforceable
unless the limitations or obligations created thereby conform in all respects
to the comprehensive plan at the time the easement is granted for the area in
which the real property is located. [ The use of the real property for
open-space land shall conform to the official comprehensive plan for the area
in which the property is located. ]
[ F. ] This chapter does not affect the power of the court to modify or terminate a conservation easement in accordance with the principles of law and equity, or in any way limit the power of eminent domain as possessed by any public body. In any such proceeding the holder of the conservation easement shall be compensated for the value of the easement.
