republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-1774.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Stormwater management; work group to examine ways to improve."
description: "Directs the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency (the Center) to convene a work group to consider alternative methods of stormwater management in rural Tidewater localities. The bill provides that the group is to be facilitated by the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William and Mary Law School and is to include representatives of institutions of higher education, state agencies, local governments, private industry, and other groups. The bill provides that the work group is to review and consider the creation of rural development growth areas, the development of a volume credit program, the payment of fees to support regional best management practices, and the allowance of the use of stormwater in highway ditches to generate volume credits. The bill requires the Center to report the results of the work group's examination to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources by January 1, 2018, which is the date the work group provisions of the bill are set to expire. The bill also delays from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018, the effective date of new stormwater laws enacted during the 2016 Session of the General Assembly."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1774"
citation: "Virginia HB 1774 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Conservation", "Study Commissions", "Committees and Reports", "Tidewater Virginia", "Waters of the State", "Ports and Harbors"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["M. Keith Hodges"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-01-09"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e40863a2-5e84-48a3-a6b1-7fd6a169f5ee"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1774"
source_hash: "358d9ba495593e4ddab42f17f77fc8b46e46efdb9957407decab75ada56ee88b"
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 1774 (2017) — Stormwater management; work group to examine ways to improve.

Directs the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency (the Center) to convene a work group to consider alternative methods of stormwater management in rural Tidewater localities. The bill provides that the group is to be facilitated by the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William and Mary Law School and is to include representatives of institutions of higher education, state agencies, local governments, private industry, and other groups. The bill provides that the work group is to review and consider the creation of rural development growth areas, the development of a volume credit program, the payment of fees to support regional best management practices, and the allowance of the use of stormwater in highway ditches to generate volume credits. The bill requires the Center to report the results of the work group's examination to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources by January 1, 2018, which is the date the work group provisions of the bill are set to expire. The bill also delays from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018, the effective date of new stormwater laws enacted during the 2016 Session of the General Assembly.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0345)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0345)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1774ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1774ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17104811D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1774H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103565D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1774)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources — **12–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources with substitute — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **7–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- M. Keith Hodges — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103565D `introduction`
- **2017-01-09** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-12** Assigned ACNR sub: Chesapeake `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-26** Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations
- **2017-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-03** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-03** Committee substitute agreed to 17104811D-H1
- **2017-02-03** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1774H1
- **2017-02-06** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-07** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-24** Enrolled
- **2017-02-24** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-24** Signed by President
- **2017-02-28** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/28/17
- **2017-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 345 (effective - see bill) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e40863a2-5e84-48a3-a6b1-7fd6a169f5ee`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).