HB 708 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Timely local decision on certain land use permits; incentives and penalties.

Summary
Timely local decision on certain land use permits; incentives and penalties. Requires that the average time period required for a locality to take final action to approve, approve with conditions, or deny all by-right permit applications from the date of submission of such applications to the locality shall not exceed 12 months. The bill requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to conduct semiannual compliance reviews of each locality and to publish and transmit to the Governor and the General Assembly a report identifying each locality as compliant or noncompliant for the applicable review period. The bill provides that any locality determined by the Department to be compliant for the preceding 12-month period shall be eligible to receive a state grant sufficient to fund one full-time equivalent position within the locality's planning department. The bill further provides that if the Department determines that a locality is noncompliant during a review period, the Commonwealth Transportation Board shall reduce program fund allocations from the Commonwealth Transportation Fund to any project within the boundaries of such noncompliant locality by two percent for the following fiscal year.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Feb 18, 2026
Floor votes

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
6
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Feb 18, 2026
Lower · Passed
Left in Committee Counties, Cities and Towns
lower
Jan 23, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends striking from the docket (5-Y 0-N)
lower
Jan 22, 2026
Committee
Assigned HCCT sub: Subcommittee #3
lower
Jan 13, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Josh Thomas
Josh Thomas
DDemocratic
VA
21