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Virginia bills · 2026 Regular Session

Virginia HB 1234

Land development; definitions, solar canopies in surface parking areas, delayed effective date.

  1. Introduced
  2. In committee
  3. Passed House
  4. Passed Senate
  5. To Governor
  6. Became law

Sponsors

Cosponsors (13)

Summary

Official abstract published by the Virginia legislature· SUMMARY AS PASSED

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.

Text versions

Roll-call votes

State vote data last updated Oct 15, 2026, 8:06 AM.

DateVoteResultYour legislators
Mar 6, 2026
House		H VOTE:passSet your home in Virginia to see
Mar 4, 2026
Senate		Passage RpassSet your home in Virginia to see
Mar 3, 2026
Senate		Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading)passSet your home in Virginia to see
Mar 2, 2026
Senate		Reported from Local Government with substitutepassSet your home in Virginia to see
Feb 12, 2026
House		H VOTE:passSet your home in Virginia to see
Feb 6, 2026
House		Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitutepassSet your home in Virginia to see

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