---
type: "Bill"
title: "Boundary agreement, local; locality allowed to attach to their petitions to circuit court a GIS map."
description: "Allows all localities, in adopting a voluntary boundary agreement, to attach to their petitions to the circuit court a Geographic Information System (GIS) map depicting the boundary change. Under current law, such use of a GIS map is permitted only regarding the boundaries of certain named localities. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1649"
citation: "Virginia HB 1649 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Counties", "Cities and Towns", "Courts of Record"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hyland F. \"Buddy\" Fowler, Jr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 17
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2018-11-27"
last_action: "2019-03-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7786e4d0-6838-4ded-8e50-d96005802835"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1649"
source_hash: "8026c734898e06f92470c7e1a63da26f970bf7af8b188ddb3bf14b2b9cdf4f1e"
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 1649 (2019) — Boundary agreement, local; locality allowed to attach to their petitions to circuit court a GIS map.

Allows all localities, in adopting a voluntary boundary agreement, to attach to their petitions to the circuit court a Geographic Information System (GIS) map depicting the boundary change. Under current law, such use of a GIS map is permitted only regarding the boundaries of certain named localities. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0385)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0385)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1649ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1649ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101386D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1649)

## Votes

- Reported from Local Government — **12–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **96–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns — **20–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Hyland F. "Buddy" Fowler, Jr. — primary (person)
- Alfonso H. Lopez — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-11-27** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101386D `introduction`
- **2018-11-27** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-14** Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-22** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-23** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-01-24** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (96-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-24** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2019-01-24** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2019-01-25** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-25** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-20** Enrolled
- **2019-02-20** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-20** Signed by President
- **2019-02-27** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 27, 2019
- **2019-02-27** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-14** Approved by Governor-Chapter 385 (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/7786e4d0-6838-4ded-8e50-d96005802835`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).