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costs, caused by growth. Until a comprehensive impact fee system is authorized, the <br />state code should extend to all localities full authority for conditional zoning to meet <br />the needs to new citizens for public infrastructure. <br />Removing Barriers to Distributed Solar <br />The Grid Transformation and Security Act approved by the 2018 General Assem- <br />bly authorizes and encourages many clean power production activities, but Virginia <br />law still restricts the ability of local governments, businesses, and others from installing <br />solar facilities for their own use. VML supports legislation to remove barriers and allow <br />for creation of stronger markets for distributed solar goals, to include the following <br />components: <br />• Lifting the one percent cap on the total amount of solar that can be net <br />metered in a utility territory to five percent; and <br />• Allowing local government entities to install solar facilities of up to 5 MW <br />on government -owned property and use the electricity for schools or other <br />government -owned buildings located nearby, even if not contiguous. <br />Sidewalks <br />VML supports the General Assembly granting local governments the authority to <br />enter into agreements with developers to have a payment in- lieu -of option for sidewalk <br />installation. These agreements would include language allowing the locality to install a <br />sidewalk somewhere else that is beneficial to the community. <br />State and Local Government Fiscal Relationship <br />Governance at the local level becomes ever more challenging as the Common- <br />wealth and the Federal government add new programs, or modify existing program <br />guidelines, and promulgate complex regulations and higher standards for local <br />governments to implement. It is not uncommon for the state and federal governments <br />to either underfund their share of the costs or to ignore them altogether. <br />To that end, the Vagina Municipal League holds as essential these principles on <br />local taxing and budget authority. <br />• Specific local revenue authority and sources cannot be further restricted without <br />first granting and providing alternative revenue authority with reliable, sustain- <br />able revenue sources. This includes, without limitation, the BPOL and M &T <br />taxes. <br />• Local governments should be involved in any discussions relating to local taxing <br />authority including legislation that exempts specific industries from local taxes <br />and fees. <br />• Local general fund revenue and special funds cannot be confiscated or re- <br />directed to the state treasury. <br />• Placing additional administrative burdens on local governments without suf- <br />ficient resources or administrative flexibility jeopardizes the quality of services <br />2019 VMl legislative Program <br />