2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25101831D

HOUSE BILL NO. 1966

Offered January 13, 2025

Prefiled January 6, 2025

A BILL to amend and reenact § 15.2-2107 of the Code of Virginia, relating to commercial use of public places; civil penalty.

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Patron—Tata

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Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 15.2-2107 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 15.2-2107. Persons occupying or using streets, etc., contrary to law; penalties.

A. Any person occupying or using any of the streets, avenues, parks, bridges or any other public places or public property or any public easement of any description of a city or town, in a manner not permitted to the general public, without having first legally obtained the consent of the city or town shall be is guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor. Each day's continuance thereof shall be a separate offense. Such occupancy or use shall be deemed a nuisance. The court trying the case may cause the nuisance to be abated and commit the offenders and all their agents and employees engaged in such offenses to jail until the order of the court is obeyed.

B. Notwithstanding subsection A, a city or town may adopt an ordinance that establishes a uniform schedule of civil penalties for commercial use of a street, avenue, park, bridge, or any other public place or public property or any public easement of any description of a city or town, in a manner not permitted to the general public, without having first legally obtained the consent of the city or town. This schedule of civil penalties shall be uniform for each type of specified violation, and the penalty for any one violation, unless elsewhere authorized, shall not exceed (i) $500 for the initial violation, (ii) $1,000 for a second violation, or (iii) $1,500 for a third or subsequent violation. Each day during which the violation is found to have existed shall constitute a separate offense. Any civil penalties collected by a city or town under this subsection shall be paid into the treasury of the city or town. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a city or town that has charged an individual under subsection A from subsequently issuing summonses under this subsection for continued or additional violations of an ordinance.