                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

VIRGINIA LAND CONSERVATION FUND; PURPOSES OF FOUNDATION (§ 10.1-1020)

A. The Foundation shall establish, administer, manage, including the creation of
reserves, and make expenditures and allocations from a special, nonreverting
fund in the state treasury to be known as the Virginia Land Conservation Fund,
hereinafter referred to as the Fund. The Foundation shall establish and
administer the Fund solely for the purposes of:

   1. Acquiring fee simple title or other rights, including the purchase of
   development rights, to interests or privileges in property for the protection
   or preservation of ecological, cultural or historical resources, lands for
   recreational purposes, state forest lands, and lands for threatened or
   endangered species, fish and wildlife habitat, natural areas, agricultural and
   forestal lands and open space, and for conservation and restoration of
   homelands for state-recognized and federally recognized Virginia Indian
   Tribes; and

   2. Providing grants to state agencies, including the Virginia Outdoors
   Foundation and state-recognized and federally recognized Virginia Indian
   Tribes, and matching grants to other public bodies and holders for acquiring
   fee simple title or other rights, including the purchase of development
   rights, to interests or privileges in real property for the protection or
   preservation of ecological, cultural or historical resources, lands for
   recreational purposes, and lands for threatened or endangered species, fish
   and wildlife habitat, natural areas, agricultural and forestal lands and open
   space. The Board shall establish criteria for making grants from the Fund,
   including procedures for determining the amount of each grant and the required
   match. The criteria shall include provisions for grants to localities for
   purchase of development rights programs.
   				Interests in land acquired as provided in subdivision 1 may be held by the
   Foundation, state agencies, state-recognized or federally recognized Virginia
   Indian Tribes, other public bodies, and appropriate holders. Whenever a holder
   acquires any interest in land other than a fee simple interest as a result of
   a grant or transfer from the Foundation, such interest shall be held jointly
   by the holder and a public body. Whenever a holder acquires a fee simple
   interest in land as a result of a grant or transfer from the Foundation, a
   public body shall hold an open space easement in such land.

B. The Fund shall consist of general fund moneys and gifts, endowments or grants
from the United States government, its agencies and instrumentalities, and funds
from any other available sources, public or private. Such moneys, gifts,
endowments, grants or funds from other sources may be either restricted or
unrestricted. For the purposes of this chapter, &#8220;restricted funds&#8221;
shall mean those funds received by the Board to which specific conditions apply;
&#8220;restricted funds&#8221; shall include, but not be limited to, general
obligation bond moneys and conditional gifts. &#8220;Unrestricted funds&#8221;
shall mean those received by the Foundation to which no specific conditions
apply; &#8220;unrestricted funds&#8221; shall include, but not be limited to,
moneys appropriated to the Fund by the General Assembly to which no specific
conditions are attached and unconditional gifts.

C. In any fiscal year for which the Fund is appropriated less than $10 million,
and after an allocation for administrative expenses has been made as provided in
subsection G, the remaining unrestricted funds in the Fund shall be allocated as
follows:

   1. Twenty-five percent shall be transferred to the Virginia Outdoors
   Foundation&#8217;s Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund to be used as
   provided in &#xA7; 10.1-1801.1; and

   2. Seventy-five percent shall be divided equally among the following four
   grant uses: (i) natural area protection; (ii) open spaces and parks, including
   but not limited to, land for public hunting, fishing or wildlife watching;
   (iii) farmlands and forest preservation; and (iv) historic area preservation.
   Of the amount allocated as provided in this subdivision, at least one third
   shall be used to secure easements to be held or co-held by a public body.

D. In any fiscal year for which the Fund is appropriated $10 million or more,
and after an allocation for administrative expenses has been made as provided in
subsection G, the remaining unrestricted funds in the Fund shall be allocated as
follows:

   1. Twenty-five percent shall be transferred to the Virginia Outdoors
   Foundation&#8217;s Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund to be used as
   provided in &#xA7; 10.1-1801.1; and

   2. The remaining funds shall be divided equally among the following five grant
   uses: (i) natural area protection; (ii) open spaces and parks, including but
   not limited to, land for public hunting, fishing, or wildlife watching; (iii)
   farmland preservation; (iv) forestland conservation; and (v) historic area
   preservation.

E. Any moneys remaining in the Fund at the end of a biennium shall remain in the
Fund, and shall not revert to the general fund. Interest earned on moneys
received by the Fund other than bond proceeds shall remain in the Fund and be
credited to it. Any funds transferred to the Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust
Fund pursuant to this section and not disbursed or committed to a project by the
end of the fiscal year in which the funds were transferred shall be returned to
the Virginia Land Conservation Fund and shall be redistributed among the
authorized grant uses during the next grant cycle.

F. A portion of the Fund, not to exceed 20 percent of the annual balance of
unrestricted funds, may be used to develop properties purchased in fee simple,
or through the purchase of development rights, with the assets of the Fund for
public use including, but not limited to, development of trails, parking areas,
infrastructure, and interpretive projects or to conduct environmental
assessments or other preliminary evaluations of properties prior to the
acquisition of any property interest.

G. Up to $250,000 per year of the interest generated by the Fund may be used for
the Foundation&#8217;s administrative expenses, including, but not limited to,
the expenses of the Board and its members, development of the Foundation&#8217;s
strategic plan, development and maintenance of an inventory of properties as
provided in subdivision 1 b of &#xA7; 10.1-1021, development of a needs
assessment for future expenditures as provided in subdivision 1 c of &#xA7;
10.1-1021, and fulfillment of reporting requirements. All such expenditures
shall be subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.

H. The Comptroller shall maintain the restricted funds and the unrestricted
funds in separate accounts.

I. For the purposes of this section, &#8220;public body&#8221; shall have the
meaning ascribed to it in &#xA7; 10.1-1700, and &#8220;holder&#8221; shall have
the meaning ascribed to it in &#xA7; 10.1-1009.

HISTORY: 1992, c. 426; 1999, cc. 900, 906; 2000, cc. 494, 1053; 2006, c. 227;
2007, cc. 77, 673; 2019, c. 539; 2022, c. 705.