Despite opposition from Alexandria and other Northern Virginia localities, bills permitting by-right multifamily development in commercial zones are advancing in the Virginia General Assembly.
HB 816 by Del. Dan Helmer (D-10) and SB 454 by state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-16) would require local zoning ordinances to permit by-right multifamily and mixed-use residential development on a portion of commercial or business zoning district land. The amended bills calls for localities to allow by-right development on at least 50% of commercially zoned land, which is less than the 75% originally proposed.
According to the bills, eligible by-right developments would go through localities’ administrative approval processes and not require a special exception, special use or conditional use permit — processes that typically require public hearings and board approvals.
The by-right requirement in local zoning ordinances would apply to cities or towns with 20,000 or more populations and population centers like Northern Virginia. The provisions wouldn’t apply in underdeveloped areas with at least 60% tree canopy coverage, areas without water and sewer installations, locations near military installations, in heavy industrial or manufacturing zoning areas, and voter-approved casino locations. Projects in historic districts would still go to review boards.
Both bills have passed their respective chambers and advanced to the full opposite chambers, but several notable amendments have been made since they were introduced.
“The intent is to open up commercial areas to mix-use development, to increase the stock of housing, to increase affordability,” Helmer told the Senate Local Government Committee yesterday (Monday). “This bill has generated a lot of discussion by people of good faith who are trying to solve this problem in lots of different ways, and I’m just deeply appreciative of all the stakeholder engagement.”
Populous localities that the bills would impact have testified against the legislation in Senate and House committee hearings, including the City of Alexandria, represented by Legislative Director Wendy Ginsberg.
The city declined to comment to ALXnow on Ginsberg’s opposition to the pending legislation.
Previously, HB 816 and SB 454 were each listed as legislation to “watch” on a list of the city’s recommended positions for bills in the 2026 session. The document included hundreds of bills to “support,” “watch” or “oppose.”
Other locality representatives that have testified against the bills came from the Virginia Association of Counties, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, Prince George County and the First Cities coalition of 17 historic cities.
Opposition centered around by-right development taking away local authority on development planning.
“What you’re doing here is doing an upzoning, where you’re taking out the conditional zoning and proffers that a locality would negotiate to address those impacts,” Joe Lerch, director of local government policy at the Virginia Association of Counties, said.
Helmer addressed the concern that by-right development would remove proffers typically negotiated through localities’ development review process. A 2016 Virginia law put restrictions on when localities can accept proffers for core services from developers.
“This bill does not address the fact that we do need significant proffer reform,” Helmer said. “The way we designed the bill is to take account of the infrastructure requirements that you need in those commercial zones anyway. And so I think you’re going to increase your tax base, you’re going to increase affordability, you’re going to keep more people there.”
Other organizations have testified in support, such as the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Housing Alliance, Pew Charitable Trust, Home Builders Association of Virginia, Virginia Poverty Law Center and Southern Environmental Law Center.
“By-right does not mean a free pass, and I think that’s really important that these developments in targeted areas will still have to comply with [the] historic district, environmental regulations, all those really granular details that come with site planning and subdivision plans,” said Andrew Clark, whose organization Home Builders Association of Virginia helped work on the bill.
Alex Horowitz, housing policy project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said states like Texas and North Carolina that have added housing around commercial corridors have seen rents drop.
“Virginia’s rents are 30% higher than the national average,” Horowitz said. “Virginia has an unusually low amount of land zoned for apartments. Only 5% of residential land in Virginia allows apartments.”
Both bills propose an effective date of July 1, 2027, one year after most bills from the 2026 Virginia General Assembly session will take effect. In the Senate Local Government Committee yesterday (Monday), HB 816 was amended to propose a sunset date of July 1, 2031.
With a focus on advancing HB 816 and SB 454, Helmer and VanValkenburg opted to withdraw their other companion bills that would set targets for increasing the housing stock.
Another key housing bill advancing in the General Assembly involves removing the rezoning step for affordable housing developments on church-owned properties.
SB 388 has been passed by both chambers but is going to a conference to work out a disagreement over amendments. The House version (HB 1279) seeks reenactment by the General Assembly in 2027 before the bill can take effect.
