SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2000 SESSION

005656444
SENATE BILL NO. 458
Senate Amendments in [ ] -- February 14, 2000
A BILL to amend and reenact § 33.1-18 of the Code of Virginia, relating to location of routes by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
----------

Patrons-- Houck, Bolling, Colgan, Couric, Edwards, Hanger, Hawkins, Lambert, Marsh, Puckett and Ticer
----------
Referred to Committee on Transportation
----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 33.1-18 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 33.1-18. Location of routes.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board shall not locate and establish any route under subdivision (1) of § 33.1-12 until: the Department of Transportation has (i) published in a newspaper published or having a general circulation in the county, city, or town in which the route is to be located and established a notice of its willingness to hold a public hearing on the matter, (ii) notified the governing body of the county, city, or town in which the route is to be located of its willingness to hold a public hearing on the matter, and (iii) held a public hearing, if one has been requested.

If a public hearing is requested, written notice of the time and place of the hearing shall be given, not less than thirty days prior to the hearing, to the governing body of the county, city, or town in which the route is to be located and established. Not less than thirty days prior to the hearing, a notice of the time and place of the hearing shall also be published by the Department of Transportation at least once in a newspaper published or having a general circulation in the county, city, or town in which the route is to be located and established.

[ All public hearings on the location or possible location of a route shall afford citizens an opportunity to present their comments to representatives of the Department directly, one speaker at a time, in a public forum following a traditional hearing format. As supplements to these hearings, the Department may hold less structured open forums to afford citizens additional opportunities to obtain route location information and present their views. These open forums, however, shall be held only in addition to hearings conducted according to a traditional format, and shall not be substituted for such hearings. All public hearings on the location or possible location of a route shall be open forums that afford citizens opportunities to obtain route location information and other pertinent information on a proposed project, and to submit their hearing comments in writing or to present them directly to a verbatim recorder. In addition, upon the written request of a member of the governing body of the county, city or town in which the route is proposed to be located, or upon the written request of 25 citizens, these public hearings shall afford citizens an opportunity to present their comments to representatives of the Department of Transportation directly, one speaker at a time, in a public forum following a traditional hearing format. A written request for a traditional hearing must be received within 14 days following the first published notice of the hearing or willingness to hold a hearing. ]

Following the public hearing, if one is held as provided in this section, the Department of Transportation shall notify the local governing body of the affected county, city, or town of the Commonwealth Transportation Board's decision regarding the location and establishment of the route.