By Janeal Downs

Capital News Service

The Virginia Association of Counties received its wish when a bill to change local governments’ rezoning process was killed in a House subcommittee this past week.

House Bill 2262, proposed by Delegate Rick L. Morris, R-Carrollton, would have required the staff of the local planning commission to advise rezoning applicants about the feasibility of their requests and possibly grant preliminary approval.

On Wednesday, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns voted to table the bill for this legislative session.

That was a relief to the Virginia Association of Counties, which the day before asked its members to call legislators and urge them to vote against the bill. Gage Harter, the association’s director of communications, wrote on the group’s website that the association objected to the bill for two reasons.

First, Harter said, it would put the staff of the local planning commission “in the inappropriate position of having to provide the preliminary approvals of rezoning requests.” Moreover, “the bill circumvents the local land use process that all concerned citizens have a chance to comment on rezoning requests in a public hearing before planning commissions and local governing bodies grant or deny rezoning requests,” Harter wrote.

VACo officials were pleased that the subcommittee agreed to put off the bill until legislators can study it after their regular session.

“We really appreciated the delegates, the patrons agreeing to consider that bill in the housing commission during the off season and take a look at the issue in a broader sense,” said Erik Johnston, the association’s director of government affairs.