A bill that would allow localities to sell derelict properties — requested by Bristol officials searching for a solution to the blighted, burned-out former campus of Virginia Intermont College — has been given final approval by the House and Senate.
The bill will now go to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who can sign it into law, amend, or veto it and return it to the General Assembly, or not sign it, which would mean it would become law without his signature.
SB 1476, introduced by Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, was approved 96-0 in the House on Wednesday with an amendment that would require a property to also be delinquent on taxes before it could be sold. On Friday, it went back to the Senate, which voted to concur with the amendment.
Approval of the Senate bill wasn’t assured. The House version of the bill, HB 2745, was killed Jan. 31 in the House Cities, Counties and Towns Committee, the same committee that then approved the Senate version of the bill following crossover.
Del. Israel O’Quinn, R-Washington County, who introduced the House bill, said there was some consternation because the original bill would have applied only to properties owned or controlled by non-U.S. entities or people who aren’t U.S. citizens. But that requirement was earlier stripped out of both bills.
The bill would allow a locality to sell vacant and blighted or derelict property by petitioning the circuit court. The court would then appoint a special commissioner to execute the deeds needed to convey the real estate to the locality, its land bank entity or an existing nonprofit.
Bristol City Manager Randy Eads, who traveled to Richmond several times to speak in favor of the proposed legislation, said approval of the bill is a “strong indication that communities across Virginia need the ability to take control of blighted and vacant property that has just been neglected. … I think it’s a clear sign that legislators have listened to their communities and are giving us another tool to help fight the blight that a lot of communities are facing nowadays.”
For years, Bristol officials have wrestled with what to do with the former VI site. It is owned by a company in China that bought the property at auction and then failed to follow through with plans to establish a business school there.
It has been vacant since 2014, when the 130-year-old college closed due to financial struggles, dropping enrollment and a loss of accreditation.
In recent years, the buildings have fallen into disrepair, have been repeatedly broken into and vandalized, and have become a draw for homeless people. Four of the college’s oldest buildings were destroyed in a huge fire on Dec. 21. It was the third fire at the site in recent months and is believed to have been started by someone seeking shelter.
City officials have been unsuccessful in their repeated attempts to get the owner of the property to improve and secure the buildings.
The bill would give the city more control over who buys it. Without it, the city would likely have to sell the property at auction again to the highest bidder, which could mean that it would wind up back in the same situation, according to Eads.
The legislation would allow the sale of property through a request for proposals that could include conditions the buyer would have to meet.
“If we had to go through a tax sale, the highest bidder could purchase the property and they may or may not do what they need to do to bring it up to code,” Eads said. “VI is the perfect example. The highest bidder got the property, and it sat there basically vacant for 10 years.”
If it were auctioned in a tax sale, there’s no guarantee that someone wouldn’t buy it for $1 million and not realize that it might take $100 million to fix all the buildings so they could be used again, the city manager added.
The bill would require a buyer to begin repairing the property within six months of the purchase and to bring the property into compliance with local building codes within two years.
The bill would require that the property be vacant for at least five years before it could be sold.
It would also apply to the city’s other blighted properties and to some blighted properties across the state.
The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn Feb. 22. It will reconvene April 2 to consider the governor’s amendments and vetoes to bills. The House and Senate may override a veto by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
If approved, the legislation would take effect July 1.
