Of the 147 bills that Virginia Conservation Network took a position on in Virginia’s 2025 General Assembly session, 19 bills addressed land use & transportation policy for the Commonwealth. Our Network’s advocacy this year focused on: 

• Increasing electric vehicle accessibility
• Making streets safer for people walking and biking
• Supporting healthy community development and sustainable housing

See the wins for land use & transportation policy below. You can see the outcomes of all of VCN’s bill and budget positions from Virginia’s 2025 General Assembly session on our Bill Tracker.

The Rural Charging Infrastructure Program will incentivize electric vehicle charging infrastructure in rural Virginia and near state parks. Photo by Patti Black. 

The adoption of electric vehicles will reduce Virginia’s leading source of carbon pollution– transportation, other tailpipe pollutants that dirty our breathing air, and fuel and maintenance costs for those switching from a gas-powered car. Public electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which has grown dramatically in the past few years, still has gaps in rural areas. 

Legislators approved a bill and budget item that will:

• Establish the Rural Charging Infrastructure Program and Fund that will provide grants to developers to cover up to 70% of the costs to install electric vehicle charging stations in rural and low-income localities, near state parks, and near federal lands (HB1791).
• Fund the Rural Charging Infrastructure Program with $1.5 million for Fiscal Year 2025 (Budget Item 109 #1c).

A compact community includes a dense population with safe walking or biking access to work, retail, and the outdoors. Photo by Angela Hollowell.

Three bills passed this session that encourage “smart growth” in communities to reduce suburban sprawl that contributes to the dependence on cars; more carbon pollution from longer commutes; and the loss of valuable farmland, forests, and wetlands to new development. 

To facilitate compact, walkable, transit-oriented, and desirable communities, these bills will:

• Allow localities to adopt healthy community strategies in their comprehensive plans by identifying the siting of air, water, and other pollution sources within their jurisdiction (HB1827 / SB1254).
• Allow localities to include affordable dwelling units in new development to boost housing supply (SB1313).
• Expand commuter bus service between high employment centers in Greater Washington and the communities of Front Royal and Warrenton with large commuter populations (SB1317).

Getting people out of their cars and walking or biking is a key strategy to reduce climate change in addition to electrifying vehicles and designing compact communities. However, most Virginians don’t walk or bike nearly as much as they would like because our infrastructure does not allow them to do so safely and conveniently. 

To reduce vehicle speed to protect vulnerable people from cars, these bills will:

• Establish the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program that provides drivers with certain speeding violations real-time reminders or limitations on speed, potentially preventing dangerous driving behavior and saving lives (HB2096).
• Allow voluntary contributions to the Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program during DMV transactions (SB1024).
• Strengthen the penalty when a driver seriously injures or kills someone legally using a crosswalk by filling the penalty gap between the existing failure to yield charge (only a $250 fine) and reckless driving penalty, which is a more serious felony when a person is killed but hard to prove (SB1416).

Bills that passed the General Assembly now head to the Governor’s desk for him to sign, amend, or veto bills by March 24th. Legislators will make a final vote on amended bills during Veto Session on April 2nd to determine which bills will officially become law starting on July 1st, 2025. 

Be the first to know about new environmental legislation: register for our virtual General Assembly Recap on Thursday, April 3rd, from 12-1:30 PM. You’ll hear the inside scoop from environmental policy experts about the conservation community’s biggest victories, the missed opportunities, and any surprise outcomes from the 2025 General Assembly session.

See the outcomes of other environmental policies from the 2025 General Assembly session below: