---
type: "Bill"
title: "Oyster planting grounds; municipal dredging projects."
description: "Extends the duration of an exception, for municipal dredging, to the right of a person to lease oyster-planting grounds, and establishes a procedure for determining compensation to such a leaseholder when his grounds are disturbed by such a dredging project."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2047"
citation: "Virginia HB 2047 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Fisheries and Habitat of the Tidal Waters"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher P. Stolle"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 18
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-07"
last_action: "2019-03-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7a02934f-d48a-4083-b5c6-1b754b2243f4"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2047"
source_hash: "aeb65f32ca55db1b289215f661afb90d0564b2db0d025a804e7852961ab006cc"
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 HB 2047 (2019) — Oyster planting grounds; municipal dredging projects.

Extends the duration of an exception, for municipal dredging, to the right of a person to lease oyster-planting grounds, and establishes a procedure for determining compensation to such a leaseholder when his grounds are disturbed by such a dredging project.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0735)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0735)
2. **House amendments adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+amd+HB2047AH)
3. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2047)
4. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2047ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2047ER)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103694D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2047)
6. **House: Printed as engrossed 19103694D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2047E)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources with amendments — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Christopher P. Stolle — primary (person)
- Alfonso H. Lopez — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-07** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103694D `introduction`
- **2019-01-07** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-16** Assigned ACNR sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-25** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-28** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-01-28** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2019-01-28** Engrossed by House as amended HB2047E
- **2019-01-28** Printed as engrossed 19103694D-E
- **2019-01-29** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-30** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-30** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-22** Enrolled
- **2019-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-22** Signed by President
- **2019-03-04** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 4, 2019
- **2019-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-21** Approved by Governor-Chapter 735 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7a02934f-d48a-4083-b5c6-1b754b2243f4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).