---
type: "Bill"
title: "Conservation easements; construction."
description: "Conservation easements; construction. Providesthat an easement held pursuant to the Virginia Conservation EasementAct or the Open-Space Land Act be liberally construed in favor ofachieving the conservation purposes for which it was created."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1199"
citation: "Virginia SB 1199 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["J. Chapman Petersen"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 32
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-03-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/88398fba-1c8a-4330-8423-55be93cc94da"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1199"
source_hash: "d639b98d0aa6d0787755ff2ba742d4f5846fb00486020cebd76de92a3a44fa97"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1199 (2021) — Conservation easements; construction.

Conservation easements; construction. Providesthat an easement held pursuant to the Virginia Conservation EasementAct or the Open-Space Land Act be liberally construed in favor ofachieving the conservation purposes for which it was created.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0274** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0274)
2. **Floor substitute printed 21103368D-S1 (Stuart)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1199S1)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100906D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1199)
4. **Printed as engrossed 21100906D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1199E)
5. **SB1199ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1199ER)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed Senate (25-Y 14-N) — **25–14** (pass) · upper
- Committee amendments agreed to (23-Y 16-N) — **23–16** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Continued to Special Session 1 in Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources with amendment (10-Y 5-N) — **10–5** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- J. Chapman Petersen — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100906D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-19** Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources with amendment (10-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-20** Impact statement from DPB (SB1199)
- **2021-01-21** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-22** Floor substitute printed 21103368D-S1 (Stuart)
- **2021-01-22** Passed by for the day
- **2021-01-25** Impact statement from DPB (SB1199S1)
- **2021-01-25** Passed by for the day
- **2021-01-26** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-26** Reading of amendments waived
- **2021-01-26** Committee amendments agreed to (23-Y 16-N)
- **2021-01-26** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1199E
- **2021-01-26** Printed as engrossed 21100906D-E
- **2021-01-27** Read third time and passed Senate (25-Y 14-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-29** Impact statement from DPB (SB1199E)
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources
- **2021-02-10** Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-12** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-15** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-15** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-17** Enrolled
- **2021-02-17** Signed by President
- **2021-02-18** Impact statement from DPB (SB1199ER)
- **2021-02-18** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-22** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 22, 2021
- **2021-02-22** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-18** Approved by Governor-Chapter 274 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/88398fba-1c8a-4330-8423-55be93cc94da`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).