                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

APPLICABILITY OF LOCAL ORDINANCES, REGULATIONS, AND BUILDING CODES; LOCAL
AUTHORITY (§ 55.1-2104)

A. No zoning or other land use ordinance shall prohibit cooperatives as such by
reason of their form of ownership. No cooperative shall be treated differently
by any zoning or other land use ordinance that would permit a physically
identical project or development under a different form of ownership.

B. Subdivision and site plan ordinances in any locality shall apply to any
cooperative in the same manner as such ordinances would apply to a physically
identical project or development under a different form of ownership.
Nevertheless, the declarant need not apply for or obtain subdivision approval to
record cooperative instruments against a portion of the land that may be
submitted to the cooperative if the site plan approval for the land being
submitted to the cooperative has first been obtained.

C. During development of a cooperative containing additional land or
withdrawable land, phase lines created by the cooperative instruments shall not
be considered property lines for purposes of subdivision. If the cooperative may
no longer be expanded by the addition of additional land, the owner of the land
not part of the cooperative shall subdivide such land prior to its conveyance,
unless such land is subject to an approved site plan as provided in subsection
B, or prior to modification of such approved site plan. In the event of any
conveyance of land within phase lines of the cooperative, the cooperative and
any lot created by such conveyance shall be deemed to comply with the local
subdivision ordinance, provided that such land is subject to an approved site
plan.

D. Localities may provide by ordinance that proposed cooperatives comprising
conversion buildings and the use of such conversion buildings that do not
conform to the zoning, land use, and site plan regulations of the respective
county or city in which the property is located shall secure a special use
permit, a special exception, or variance, as applicable, prior to such
property&#8217;s becoming a cooperative. The local authority shall grant a
request for such a special use permit, special exception, or variance filed on
or after July 1, 1982, if the applicant can demonstrate to the reasonable
satisfaction of the local authority that the nonconformities are not likely to
be adversely affected by the proposed conversion. The local authority shall not
unreasonably delay action on any such request. In the event of an approved
conversion, a locality, sanitary district, or other political subdivision may
impose such charges and fees as are lawfully imposed by such locality, sanitary
district, or other political subdivision as a result of construction of new
structures to the extent that such charges and fees, or portions of such charges
and fees, imposed upon property subject to such conversions may be reasonably
related to greater or additional services provided by the locality, sanitary
district, or political subdivision as a result of the conversion.

E. Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit application of any
provision of the Uniform Statewide Building Code (&#xA7; 36-97 et seq.), or any
local ordinances regulating the design and construction of roads, sewer and
water lines, stormwater management facilities, or other public infrastructure,
that is not expressly applicable to cooperatives by reason of their form of
ownership to a cooperative in a manner different from the manner in which such
provision is applied to other buildings of similar physical form and nature of
occupancy.

HISTORY: 1982, c. 277, § 55-429; 2004, c. 242; 2019, c. 712.