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1999 SESSION

996919758
SENATE BILL NO. 361
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE
(Proposed by the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
on December 7, 1998)
(Patron Prior to Substitute--Senator Whipple)
A BILL to amend and reenact § 15.2-908 of the Code of Virginia, relating to removal of graffiti.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 15.2-908 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 15.2-908. Authority of localities to remove or repair graffiti from buildings, walls, fences and other structures.

A. As used in this section, "graffiti" means any unauthorized inscription, word, figure, painting or other defacement that is written, marked, etched, scratched, sprayed, drawn, painted or engraved on or otherwise affixed to any surface of public or private property.

B. Any locality may by ordinance undertake or contract for the removal or repair of the defacement of graffiti from any public building, wall, fence or other structure or any private building, wall, fence or other structure where such defacement graffiti is visible from any public right-of-way. The ordinance may provide that whenever the property owner, after reasonable notice as the locality shall prescribe, fails to remove or repair the defacement graffiti, the locality may have such defacement graffiti removed or repaired by its agents or employees.

C. Any locality in the Northern Virginia Planning District may by ordinance require that the owner of any private building, wall, fence or other structure, remove or repair any graffiti that is visible from any public right-of-way and that if the property owner, after reasonable notice as provided in subsection E, fails to remove or repair the graffiti, the locality may have such graffiti removed or repaired by its agents or employees, and the cost and expenses thereof, not to exceed $350 per incident, shall be chargeable to and paid by the owner of such property and may be collected by the locality as taxes are collected. No such local ordinance shall apply to graffiti on public utility facilities.

D. Any ordinance adopted in accordance with subsection C shall provide that prior to providing reasonable notice as provided in subsection E, the locality shall (i) initiate a police investigation of the source of graffiti and, after a determination that such graffiti constitutes a threat to public safety, attempt to prevent repeat graffiti violations on such property and (ii) subsequent to the police investigation, give the property owner at least seven days’ written notice by certified mail or hand-delivery to the last known address of such owner as shown on the current real estate tax assessment books or current real estate tax assessment records to remove or repair graffiti or to submit a clean-up plan acceptable to the locality.

E. Any ordinance adopted in accordance with subsection C shall provide that the locality shall give at least five days’ written notice by certified mail or hand-delivery to the last known address of such owner as shown on the current real estate tax assessment books or current real estate tax assessment records that it is proceeding under subsection C. The notice shall provide that if the owner fails to remove or repair the graffiti by the end of the period prescribed by the locality, the locality shall remove or repair the graffiti, and the cost and expense thereof shall be collected by the locality as taxes are collected.

F. Any ordinance adopted in accordance with subsection C shall not be used against a particular property owner more than three times in a twelve-month period.

G. If a locality collects the cost of graffiti removal or repair from a property owner in accordance with subsection E, any subsequent restitution recovered by the locality for that specific incident of graffiti shall be reimbursed to such property owner.