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Planning staff to pursue subdivision ordinance changes after 2025 state law amendments; commission initiates ordinance revision
Summary
Following changes in the 2025 Virginia General Assembly, Portsmouth planning staff outlined required local subdivision ordinance amendments — including shortened review timeframes and assignment of approval authority to a designated agent — and the Planning Commission authorized staff to prepare and advertise the code amendment.
Portsmouth planning staff told the Planning Commission on Aug. 5 that multiple changes enacted by the 2025 Virginia General Assembly will require local amendments to the city’s subdivision ordinance and presented a timeline to draft and adopt revisions.
Planner Patrice Branch reviewed the state actions she said would drive revisions: the 2025 amendments identified in the presentation included HB 2660 (shortening timeframes for plan and plat approvals), SB 974 (removing planning commission and governing-body approval authorization from administrative review and assigning responsibility to a designated agent), and provisions cited as Virginia Code 15.2-2245 and 15.2-24113 (as read in the staff presentation) addressing the release of performance guarantees and deficiency review requirements for resubmittals.
Branch said staff will propose ordinance language to update review time frames to 40 days for initial review and 30 days for resubmittals, assign approval authority to the director of planning or a designated agent, add requirements for the release of performance guarantees, and formalize resubmission protocols for plats. Staff expects to present draft code amendment language to the Planning Commission in September and to send the ordinance to City Council for final action in October.
Planning Director and staff explained that the designated agent will be a city staff person (for example, the planning director’s designee or planning engineering staff) who can sign plats when the director is unavailable; the administrator noted the signature to record a plat conveys property lines and ownership, so the signatory must be authorized staff.
Commissioners voted to authorize staff to prepare the ordinance amendments and advertise a public hearing; the motion to initiate the amendment passed by electronic vote and was recorded by the commission secretary. The item will proceed through the city’s public-notice and hearing process.
