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By JEFF NELSON
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RICHMOND—The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow landowners to veto at least two existing historic districts and vote to halt the creation of any new historic districts affecting their land.
The measure succeeded easily, 32-8. A Senate committee had passed the bill Monday. * »
Debate on the issue has been heated as property owners in historic districts claim their rights are abused when the Btate creates the districts. The historic designation, proponents say, frightens away developers because of the threat of new regulation.
Opponents of the bill say the districts carry no regulatory burden; only the federal and local governments can restrict development in existing or potential historic districts.
Virginia’s historic districts, according to preservation attorney George Freeman Jr., are merely recommendations by the state that an area has historic value. That recommendation, Freeman said, can be accepted or rejected by the federal andlocal governments, ,
The bill was originated fly Sen. Charles Colgan, DPrince William, who sponsored the legislation on behalf of landowners in the Bristow Station historic district in Prince William.
Del. Jerry Wood, D-Rappahannock, co-sponsored a similar measure on the House side on behalf of landowners in the Brandy Station district. Only landowners in those two existing districts would be eligible to vote to abolish the districts under an amendment passed by the Senate committee Feb. 10.
Any new historic districts in the state would have to have the approval of a majority of affected landowners under the bill, however.
Most of the Brandy Station district is in Culpeper County across the Rappahannock River from Fauquier County. A small portion is in Del. Wood's district in Fauquier. Del. Wood couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
“This is a property rights bill,” said Sen. Frank Nolen, D-New Hope, the Senate committee chairman who pushed the Senate bill through. “We’re sending a message that they [the Virginia Board of Historic Resources] need to be more careful [when they designate historic districts] and they need not take such a broad swipe when they do it.”
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