SIGNED – HB 1760 / SB 1199 – Conservation Easements
Conservation easements; certain easements be liberally construed in favor of purpose which created.
‘Liberally construed’ is a term that means a judge, when faced with any ambiguous terms in an agreement, is allowed to first consider the intent of the agreement before deciding what the agreement actually means. This bill applies to easements created under the Virginia Conservation Easement Act, the Open-Space Land Act and the Virginia Land Conservation Fund. In practice, this bill would mean that challenges to the interpretation of easement criteria would be decided in favor of the intent of the original easement donor. Essentially, this legislation supports the essence of a conservation easement.
HB 1760 Introduced by: Delegate Michael Webert (District 18)
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SB 1199 Introduced by: Senator Chap Petersen (District 34)