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type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags
type title description jurisdiction legislature session identifier citation classification subjects status primary_sponsors version_count action_count vote_count first_action last_action source source_identifier source_url source_hash vintage source_snapshot retrieved_at confidence tags
Bill Land development; definitions, solar canopies in surface parking areas, delayed effective date. Land development; solar canopies in parking areas. Provides that any locality may include in its land development ordinances a provision that requires that an applicant must install a solar canopy over designated surface parking areas. Such provisions shall apply only to nonresidential parking areas with 100 or more new off-street contiguous parking spaces and may require coverage of up to 50 percent of the surface parking area. The bill provides that an ordinance adopted pursuant to this bill shall be subject to various additional requirements and shall allow for deviations, in whole or in part, from the requirements of the ordinance when its strict application would prevent the development of uses and densities otherwise allowed by the locality's zoning or development ordinance or when a property owner shows that the solar canopy, if installed as otherwise required under the ordinance, will generate less than 75 percent of the electricity that would be expected, given the nameplate capacity of the solar modules installed on such canopy, if the canopy were to be installed at another location in the locality without surrounding impediments to insolation such as buildings or shading vegetation. Finally, the bill provides that the applicant or owner may use the electric energy generated from such solar canopy to offset the consumption of the parking lot or adjoining building served under the same account. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027. This bill incorporates HB 457 and is identical to SB 26. us/states/va Virginia General Assembly 2026 HB 1234 Virginia HB 1234 (2026)
bill
enacted
Briana D. Sewell
4 31 6 2026-01-14 2026-04-13 openstates ocd-bill/49c506d7-486f-4552-8892-39aa7f6944a0 https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1234 4a36a266ccc636c9919f50decf49a4f54ae5fdcdef404a58d0f19486ab43363e 2026-07-01 https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump 2026-07-06 reported
legislation
bill
us-va

Virginia HB 1234 (2026) — Land development; definitions, solar canopies in surface parking areas, delayed effective date.

Land development; solar canopies in parking areas. Provides that any locality may include in its land development ordinances a provision that requires that an applicant must install a solar canopy over designated surface parking areas. Such provisions shall apply only to nonresidential parking areas with 100 or more new off-street contiguous parking spaces and may require coverage of up to 50 percent of the surface parking area. The bill provides that an ordinance adopted pursuant to this bill shall be subject to various additional requirements and shall allow for deviations, in whole or in part, from the requirements of the ordinance when its strict application would prevent the development of uses and densities otherwise allowed by the locality's zoning or development ordinance or when a property owner shows that the solar canopy, if installed as otherwise required under the ordinance, will generate less than 75 percent of the electricity that would be expected, given the nameplate capacity of the solar modules installed on such canopy, if the canopy were to be installed at another location in the locality without surrounding impediments to insolation such as buildings or shading vegetation. Finally, the bill provides that the applicant or owner may use the electric energy generated from such solar canopy to offset the consumption of the parking lot or adjoining building served under the same account. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027. This bill incorporates HB 457 and is identical to SB 26.

Version chain

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

  1. Introduced (filed) — source
  2. Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute (committee substitute) — source
  3. Local Government Substitute (committee substitute) — source
  4. Enrolled (enrolled) — source

Votes

  • Passage R — 2118 (pass) · upper
  • Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitute — 201 (pass) · lower
  • H VOTE: — 7622 (pass) · lower
  • H VOTE: — 6730 (pass) · lower
  • Reported from Local Government with substitute — 87 (pass) · upper
  • Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — 400 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

  • Briana D. Sewell — primary (person)
  • Adele Y. McClure — cosponsor (person)
  • Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
  • Dan I. Helmer — cosponsor (person)
  • Destiny LeVere Bolling — cosponsor (person)
  • John Chilton McAuliff — cosponsor (person)
  • Karen Keys-Gamarra — cosponsor (person)
  • Kathy K.L. Tran — cosponsor (person)
  • Nadarius E. Clark — cosponsor (person)
  • Nicole Cole — cosponsor (person)
  • Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
  • Phil M. Hernandez — cosponsor (person)
  • Rae Cousins — cosponsor (person)
  • Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

  • 2026-01-14 Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26102478D filing, introduction
  • 2026-01-14 Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns referral-committee
  • 2026-01-28 Assigned HCCT sub: Subcommittee #2 referral-committee
  • 2026-02-06 Incorporates HB457 (Krizek)
  • 2026-02-06 House committee offered
  • 2026-02-06 Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitute (20-Y 1-N) committee-passage
  • 2026-02-06 Committee substitute printed 26107392D-H1 substitution
  • 2026-02-10 Read first time reading-1
  • 2026-02-11 Read second time reading-2
  • 2026-02-11 committee substitute agreed to substitution
  • 2026-02-11 Engrossed by House - committee substitute substitution
  • 2026-02-12 Read third time and passed House (76-Y 22-N 0-A) passage, reading-3
  • 2026-02-13 Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
  • 2026-02-13 Referred to Committee on Local Government referral-committee
  • 2026-03-02 Reported from Local Government with substitute (8-Y 7-N) committee-passage
  • 2026-03-03 Committee substitute printed 26109040D-S1 substitution
  • 2026-03-03 Rules suspended
  • 2026-03-03 Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
  • 2026-03-03 Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
  • 2026-03-04 Read third time reading-3
  • 2026-03-04 Local Government Substitute agreed to
  • 2026-03-04 Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute substitution
  • 2026-03-04 Passed Senate with substitute (21-Y 18-N 0-A) passage
  • 2026-03-06 Senate substitute agreed to by House (67-Y 30-N 0-A) substitution
  • 2026-03-13 Enrolled enrolled
  • 2026-03-13 Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1234ER) passage
  • 2026-03-13 Signed by Speaker passage
  • 2026-03-13 Signed by President passage
  • 2026-03-14 Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 14, 2026 enrolled, executive-receipt
  • 2026-03-14 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 executive-receipt
  • 2026-04-13 Approved by Governor-Chapter 757 (effective 7/1/2026) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/49c506d7-486f-4552-8892-39aa7f6944a0. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).