SB 26 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 is identical to HB 1234.

• Jennifer D. Carroll Foy Democratic · primary

1. Nov 17, 2025 Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26100558D · upper
2. Nov 17, 2025 Referred to Committee on Local Government · upper
3. Feb 9, 2026 Senate committee offered · upper
4. Feb 9, 2026 Reported from Local Government with substitute (8-Y 7-N) · upper
5. Feb 9, 2026 Committee substitute printed 26107468D-S1 · upper
6. Feb 10, 2026 Rules suspended · upper
7. Feb 10, 2026 Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 1st reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A) · upper
8. Feb 10, 2026 Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote) · upper
9. Feb 11, 2026 Read second time · upper
10. Feb 11, 2026 Committee substitute agreed to · upper
11. Feb 11, 2026 Floor offered Senator Carroll Foy Amendment · upper
12. Feb 11, 2026 Reading of amendment waived (Voice Vote) · upper
13. Feb 11, 2026 Senator Carroll Foy Amendment agreed to · upper
14. Feb 11, 2026 Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute as amended (Voice Vote) · upper
15. Feb 12, 2026 Read third time and passed Senate (21-Y 19-N 0-A) · upper
16. Feb 17, 2026 Placed on Calendar · lower
17. Feb 17, 2026 Read first time · lower
18. Feb 17, 2026 Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns · lower
19. Feb 20, 2026 Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (18-Y 3-N) · lower
20. Feb 24, 2026 Read second time · lower
21. Feb 25, 2026 Floor offered Delegate Sewell Amendments · lower
22. Feb 25, 2026 Read third time · lower
23. Feb 25, 2026 Delegate Sewell Floor amendments agreed to · lower
24. Feb 25, 2026 Engrossed by House as amended · lower
25. Feb 25, 2026 Passed House with amendments (75-Y 21-N 0-A) · lower
26. Feb 27, 2026 House amendments agreed to by Senate (20-Y 19-N 0-A) · upper
27. Mar 4, 2026 Enrolled · upper
28. Mar 4, 2026 Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB26ER) · upper
29. Mar 4, 2026 Signed by Speaker · lower
30. Mar 4, 2026 Signed by President · upper
31. Mar 10, 2026 Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026 · upper
32. Mar 10, 2026 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 · executive
33. Apr 13, 2026 Approved by Governor-Chapter 758 (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
• House Amendments · HTML
• Delegate Sewell Amendments · HTML
• Engrossed · PDF
• Engrossed · HTML
• Senator Carroll Foy Amendment · HTML
• Local Government Substitute · PDF
• Local Government Substitute · HTML
• Local Government Substitute · PDF
• Local Government Substitute · HTML
• Introduced · PDF
• Introduced · HTML