A BILL to authorize the State Board for Community Colleges to acquire certain property located adjacent to the campus of Laurel Ridge Community College.
HB1378 authorizes the State Board for Community Colleges to acquire approximately 4.8 acres of property adjacent to Laurel Ridge Community College from the Laurel Ridge Community College Educational Foundation. The purchase is structured as a partial gift to the Commonwealth, with the price set below fair market value, and the bill specifies that the acquisition must be funded entirely from nongeneral fund sources available to the college, such as auxiliary enterprise reserves and revenues from noncredit workforce programs. No general fund or capital outlay appropriations would be required.
After acquisition, the land and existing facility would become state-owned and controlled by the State Board for Community Colleges. The property would be eligible for inclusion in the Virginia Community College System capital outlay program and for state maintenance reserve support under applicable law. The existing building would continue to support student services in the short term and, as funding becomes available, be renovated for instruction and workforce training in career and technical education fields, including health care, information technology, and skilled trades.
The bill would expand state ownership and control over property adjacent to Laurel Ridge Community College and would allow the acquired facility to be treated as a state community college asset for capital outlay and maintenance purposes. It does not create a new program or mandate statewide policy changes, but it does authorize a specific real estate transaction and sets conditions for how the property may be funded, held, and used. The affected parties are the State Board for Community Colleges, Laurel Ridge Community College, and the Laurel Ridge Community College Educational Foundation.
The available legislative history suggests generally favorable sentiment toward the bill. It was continued to the next session in the Finance and Appropriations Committee by a unanimous 14-0 vote, indicating no recorded opposition at that stage. There are no committee transcript excerpts provided, so the record reflects support through the vote outcome rather than detailed debate.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. The bill’s main practical issues are the use of nongeneral fund sources instead of state appropriations, the below-market purchase structure as a partial gift, and the future conversion of the facility from its current use to workforce and career-technical training space. Any concern would likely center on financing, valuation, and the long-term commitment to renovate and repurpose the property, but no member objections or disputed arguments are included in the record.