HB 1234 VA

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Became Law

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.

• Briana D. Sewell Democratic · primary

1. Jan 14, 2026 Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26102478D · lower
2. Jan 14, 2026 Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns · lower
3. Jan 28, 2026 Assigned HCCT sub: Subcommittee #2 · lower
4. Feb 6, 2026 Incorporates HB457 (Krizek) · lower
5. Feb 6, 2026 House committee offered · lower
6. Feb 6, 2026 Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitute (20-Y 1-N) · lower
7. Feb 6, 2026 Committee substitute printed 26107392D-H1 · lower
8. Feb 10, 2026 Read first time · lower
9. Feb 11, 2026 Read second time · lower
10. Feb 11, 2026 committee substitute agreed to · lower
11. Feb 11, 2026 Engrossed by House - committee substitute · lower
12. Feb 12, 2026 Read third time and passed House (76-Y 22-N 0-A) · lower
13. Feb 13, 2026 Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading) · upper
14. Feb 13, 2026 Referred to Committee on Local Government · upper
15. Mar 2, 2026 Reported from Local Government with substitute (8-Y 7-N) · upper
16. Mar 3, 2026 Committee substitute printed 26109040D-S1 · upper
17. Mar 3, 2026 Rules suspended · upper
18. Mar 3, 2026 Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A) · upper
19. Mar 3, 2026 Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote) · upper
20. Mar 4, 2026 Read third time · upper
21. Mar 4, 2026 Local Government Substitute agreed to · upper
22. Mar 4, 2026 Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute · upper
23. Mar 4, 2026 Passed Senate with substitute (21-Y 18-N 0-A) · upper
24. Mar 6, 2026 Senate substitute agreed to by House (67-Y 30-N 0-A) · lower
25. Mar 13, 2026 Enrolled · lower
26. Mar 13, 2026 Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1234ER) · lower
27. Mar 13, 2026 Signed by Speaker · lower
28. Mar 13, 2026 Signed by President · upper
29. Mar 14, 2026 Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 14, 2026 · lower
30. Mar 14, 2026 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 · executive
31. Apr 13, 2026 Approved by Governor-Chapter 757 (effective 7/1/2026) · executive

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

• Enrolled · PDF
• Enrolled · HTML
• Local Government Substitute · PDF
• Local Government Substitute · HTML
• Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute · PDF
• Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute · HTML
• Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute · PDF
• Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute · HTML
• Introduced · PDF
• Introduced · HTML