A bill allowing church-based by-right housing development and several other laws passed during the 2026 Virginia General Assembly will require or allow local action, according to a presentation to Alexandria City Council last week (May 12).
Wendy Ginsberg, the city’s legislative director, provided an update on key bills the city has been tracking or will be impacted by during City Council’s May 12 meeting. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, which means localities can only use authority granted through state law.
Of the 2,448 bills introduced this session, 1,208 passed and 716 failed or were carried over to the next year. Most bills will take effect July 1 unless otherwise specified. Ginsberg said 303 of the 607 tracked bills that align with city priorities or could affect its policies or constituents were passed.
One mandatory action involves the Faith in Housing bill, which will eliminate the rezoning step for affordable housing developments on faith-based and other tax-exempt organizations’ property as of Jan. 1, 2027. Qualifying tax-exempt organizations must have owned the property for at least five years and make at least 60% of units affordable to households making 80% of the area median income. Housing developments would be subject to property taxes under the state law.
By-right developments must also follow other standards, including maximum and minimum heights, density and dimensions, as well as historic district requirements.
“It would supersede our zoning ordinance,” Deputy City Attorney Bonnie Brown said. “To the extent our zoning ordinance is more restrictive than the bill, we would have to allow the minimums in the bill.”
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley asked for more details on which zones the legislation would supersede the city’s zoning ordinance.
“When a potential adoption of the ordinance comes forward, I think that would be a useful slide certainly, to spell out exactly where the language in the bill aligns with our various zones, and because in some zones it’s probably more permissive, and in other zones it’s probably less and thus irrelevant,” Bagley said.
Council Member Sandy Marks asked about opportunities to lower the area median income threshold.
“We can’t require it be lower, that we would have to allow 80%, but actually one of the things that we worked on was allowing lower than 80%,” Brown said. “The original language said at [80%], and we wanted to be able to accept projects that were lower, but we cannot mandate lower.”
More Bills to Take Effect
A bill from Alexandria’s state Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-39) gives localities the right of first refusal to preserve affordable housing when affordability restrictions are expiring.
Other bills involve tenant protections — HB 14 to allow localities to enforce tenant protections in certain cases and HB 15 to increase the waiting period to remove a tenant from housing from five to 14 days.
Another Bennett-Parker bill (HB 95) will allow a payment plan for eligible tenants who owe one month or less of rent.
“This is a permissive authority,” Ginsberg said. “It requires the adoption of an ordinance, and staff are already working on a way to get that before council.”
HB 770 from House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, who represents part of Alexandria (D-4), allows income-based rates for households making 80% of the area median income or 200% of the federal poverty level. Another Herring bill (HB 884) will expand eligibility for lower-income households that qualify for energy assistance programs. No city action is required for those bills.
On gun safety — a city legislative priority — Bennett-Parker’s HB 93 tightens restrictions on people who already cannot own guns due to domestic assault and battery convictions and protective orders, ensuring they transfer their firearms to someone who does not live with them and is at least 21 years old. Another bill (SB 323) from former state Sen. Adam Ebbin bans untraceable “ghost guns.”
Since City Council’s May 12 meeting, Gov. Abigail Spanberger has also signed an assault weapon ban, which the NRA and other gun rights organizations are challenging.
Other bills concern immigration enforcement. Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-3), who represents part of Alexandria, introduced a bill that will restrict state and local law enforcement agreements with federal immigration enforcement, expanding on Spanberger’s executive order. Alexandria does not currently have a 287g agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement, although the sheriff’s office’s transfers to ICE have been a source of public scrutiny.
Lopez also introduced a bill banning immigration enforcement at polling places, which was incorporated into broader legislation that restricts enforcement in certain locations.
Another Lopez bill will allow personal property tax deadline extensions for federal employees during a shutdown, codifying an existing city practice.
On mental health, two permissive bills allow employment of retired law enforcement officers for emergency custody in temporary detention orders and expands use of alternative transportation providers for those experiencing a mental health crisis under a temporary detention order.
“I think this is one that we heard over and over from APD that would be a huge help to our staffing levels,” Mayor Alyia Gaskins said on the bills. “I know this one probably is not just an ordinance change, but does have a budget implication. So the sooner we can get that for council, I’d support that.”
Ginsberg said traffic-related bills passed during the General Assembly session include expanding when speed enforcement cameras can be used — expanding it from active school zones and work zones to safety red zones. The city’s Transportation and Environmental Services is evaluating where they could legally be located.
One bill that did not succeed would have authorized skill games, a matter that the city formally opposed. The legislation, which would have allowed localities to hold an opt-out referendum to prevent skilled game machines from becoming legal, was vetoed by Spanberger.
Legislation to establish a recreational marijuana market remains pending after the General Assembly rejected amendments from Spanberger, which included delaying the start from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2027. The General Assembly-passed version awaits action by Spanberger.
The deadline for the governor to act on final bills is May 23.
The General Assembly session ended with a continuing impasse on the state budget over whether to keep or eliminate a sales and use tax break for data center equipment. Items of interest in the state budget include potential funds for Freedom House Museum’s preservation and accessibility improvements, Metro funding, funding to replace revoked federal funds for the region’s Urban Area Security Initiative, school funding, and pass-through funds for local SNAP administration.
A special session will be scheduled to resolve the state budget and would need to occur before July 1 to affect the new fiscal year.
Of the 607 bills the city was tracking:
- 236 city-supported bills were passed
- Eight city-opposed bills were passed
- 59 bills the city was monitoring were passed
According to Ginsberg, city staff will return to City Council with recommendations after reviewing legislation across city departments and agencies.
