                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF LIVING HISTORICAL FARM MUSEUMS (§ 15.2-943)

A. The General Assembly finds that there is a public interest in encouraging the
development of living historical farm museums to preserve for posterity living
examples of earlier farm operation and farm life in Virginia. Such living
historical farm museums lead to respect for the past, the education of the young
and also serve as tourist attractions in the Commonwealth.

B. A &#8220;living historical farm museum,&#8221; for the purposes of this
section, shall be a nonprofit corporation or association dedicating no less than
five acres for the sole purpose of portraying by restoration, preservation or
reconstruction of farm operation and farm life, including milling, of a selected
period in the agricultural history of Virginia. The requirement that the museum
shall be nonprofit shall not prevent the museum from charging admittance fees
adequate to cover costs of operation and maintenance.

C. Any locality may provide, by appropriate ordinance, that whenever a person
dedicates five or more acres to a nonprofit corporation or association dedicated
solely for the purpose of organizing, operating, and maintaining a living
historical farm museum, such person may be authorized to build and maintain such
structures for the living historical farm museum as will be used in the
operation, maintenance and support of such museum, subject, however, to any
provisions of any zoning or planning ordinance of such locality.

HISTORY: 1973, c. 332, § 15.1-18.1:1; 1997, c. 587.