Of the 182 bills that Virginia Conservation Network took a position on in Virginia’s 2024 General Assembly session, 49 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
• Mitigating the impacts of data center development
• Protecting dedicated funding for public transportation
• Supporting healthy community development and sustainable housing

See the wins and missed opportunities for land use & transportation policy below. You can see the outcomes of all of VCN’s policy positions from Virginia’s 2024 General Assembly session on our Bill Tracker.

Photo by Dan Motta

The transportation sector is the leading source of carbon pollution in the Commonwealth, and it also produces a number of other pollutants like particulate matter that harm our health and environment. The Commonwealth is on track to cut transportation sector pollutants with several new bills that increase access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure by:

• Preventing utilities from taking excessive amounts of land from home construction when building new electric vehicle-ready subdivisions. [HB405]
• Simplifying signage that reserves parking spaces for EVs at charging sites. [HB645]

The defeat of all 6 bills attempting to repeal Virginia’s Clean Car Standards was another big win for EV accessibility. By defending the Clean Car Standards, consumers will have more choice at car dealerships as manufacturers prioritize sending electric vehicles to states with these standards over the next ten years. Clean Car Standards are among the best tools available to reduce toxic air pollutants, expand consumer choice, and boost EV sales at Virginia’s dealerships.

EV accessibility almost had one more win through the creation of the Rural Charging Infrastructure Program and Fund, which would have covered 70% of the costs of installing EV charging facilities in rural, low-income areas. This bill originally passed the General Assembly, but the Fund was left unfunded in the Conference Budget Report. Without any funding, legislators decided to pull the bill.

High-quality, reliable public transit service is essential for Virginians to access jobs, schools, and essential services. The Better Bus Stop Bill [HB285] passed this session, removing unnecessary and duplicative state permitting in order to streamline and speed up the addition of benches, shelters, and sidewalks at bus stops across the Commonwealth.

In addition, legislators included funding in the budget to address the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) $750 million funding gap for fiscal year 2025. This fiscal cliff would have led to a drastic 67% reduction in service on the state’s most used transit system as soon as this July. Legislators allocated $65M in Fiscal Year 2025 and $84.5M in Fiscal Year 2026 to close Virginia’s share of the funding gap. 

Our Partners also defeated several bills and budget amendments that sought to skim money off the top of SMART SCALE for legislators’ pet projects. These defeats protected nearly $1.85 billion of funding intended for roadway maintenance, public transit, passenger rail, and ports from being rerouted to pet projects that already have dedicated funding.

Where we live and how we get around drives a significant share of carbon emissions and impacts land and water quality. Often referred to as “smart growth,” density, affordable housing, and mixed-use in planned developed areas can lower transportation and building emissions and decrease sprawling development on forests and farmland. Our Partners advocated and passed legislation this session that will:

• Allow localities to adopt “healthy community strategies” in their comprehensive plans [HB208/SB595]
• Allow for single staircase building construction to enable easier infill construction on small urban lots that might otherwise be left as parking lots [SB195/HB368]

Amazon data center, Loudoun County. Photo by Hugh Kenny

Data centers are massive industrial complexes that create a gigantic environmental footprint by storing, processing, and distributing large amounts of digital information. Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, and even more data center complexes are being proposed in our state. One of the biggest losses for Virginia’s environment this session was the failed attempts to mitigate the data center industry’s massive environmental footprint. All bills supported by the conservation community addressing data center’s energy usage, land consumption, and water pollution were defeated. 

The good news is that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) will study the impact of data centers over the next year. We are hopeful that this unbiased study can help guide future action.

See our Bill of the Day to learn more about the data center industry’s impact on our environment and potential policy to regulate their explosive growth.

Getting people out of their cars and walking, biking, and taking public transit is a key strategy to end our contributions to worsening climate change. 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. Studies find reduced road speed and enforcement through speed cameras can significantly reduce deaths and serious injuries. A few bills passed this session that reduce vehicle speed to protect vulnerable people on streets by:

• Expanding the authority of any locality to reduce speed limits to less than 25 MPH, but not less than 15 MPH, on roadways within the state highway system, and with the appropriate signage. [HB1071]
• Expanding the placement of speed cameras to include intersections around schools with a history of traffic fatalities to expand efforts to reduce traffic injuries and deaths. [SB336]
• Allowing school systems to expand walking and biking buses for students with appropriate supervision. [HB937]

However, passing these bills cannot be considered a win when a dozen other bills that could have further increased safety were defeated. Virginians are dying – across the US, pedestrian fatalities are up 77% over the last decade – and fatalities of people walking and bicycling continue to climb every year. Virginians deserve additional protections. See the policies we will continue fighting for in future years on our Bill of the Day post.

Passed policy now heads to the Governor’s desk for him to sign, amend, or veto bills by April 8th. Legislators will make a final vote on amended bills during Veto Session on April 17th to determine which bills will officially become law starting on July 1st, 2024. 

Be the first to know about new environmental legislation: register for our virtual General Assembly Recap on Tuesday, April 23rd, 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 2024 General Assembly session.

See the outcomes of other environmental policies from the 2024 General Assembly session below: