Virginia’s General Assembly got off to a rocky start last week due to an early-week snowstorm. The storm knocked out Richmond’s fresh water supply across the city for several days, delaying the start of General Assembly work. Legislators started in earnest on Monday, January 13.
While we don’t have specific bills we’re following just yet, we have a sense of where we’ll be focused. Below is our preview to an upcoming blog post in which we’ll highlight specific bills and actions for you to take.
Last year’s HB528: HOA Conservation Landscaping

Last year we pushed hard for progress on HB528, a bill seeking to ensure that residents living in community associations would not hit unnecessary roadblocks when installing conservation landscaping on their private property. In January 2024, Melinda Soltys and I testified in Richmond in support of this bill. Unfortunately, at the last moment, the bill was pulled from the committee docket due to last minute changes to the bill language.
The measure was referred to the Virginia Housing Commission, with the goal of finding common ground with the community association industry to move the bill forward. While Melinda and I presented to a subcommittee of the Housing Commission in June 2024 (slides & video here), we ultimately were not able to find the common ground needed to move the bill out of committee.
Unfortunately, this means that HB528 will not reappear in the 2025 General Assembly. However, we will continue to look for paths forward in coming years.
Data Centers in the 2025 General Assembly

In last year’s General Assembly, no data center bills were passed into law. Legislators instead opted for a data center study. The much-anticipated JLARC data center report was released in mid-December 2024. It highlighted risks, including enormous energy demands that might be impossible to satisfy. The report also examined impacts to residents’ electrical bills, unknown impacts to water supplies, and concerns about citing of data centers, especially near residential communities.
A significant number of data center bills have been introduced this year and Nature Forward, along with many of our partners, strongly support the call for the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Four Pillars of Data Center reform: (1) Enhanced transparency, (2) state oversight, (3) protections for families and businesses, and (4) incentives for efficiency.
Other topics we’ll follow in the 2025 General Assembly
- Renewable energy bills
With all the talk of data centers and their massive usage, energy is a big topic this General Assembly as well. There are significant pushes to dismantle parts of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, efforts that Nature Forward is likely to oppose. Thankfully, there are also some positive bills encouraging additional investments in clean energy that we will support. - Ecologically-focused bills
We’ll be following several bills including measures dealing with invasive plants, wildlife corridors, and expanding our tree canopy.
- Water bills
A slew of bills related to protecting our water will be on our docket this year, including supporting living shorelines, fighting microplastics, and flood preparedness.
Join us for Lobby Days: January 20 & 22, 2025
I’ll be down in Richmond on January 20, 2025 for Data Center Lobby Day, along with our partners with the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, the Piedmont Environmental Council, and many others. Nature Forward’s Director of Conservation, Lydia Lawrence, will attend the Virginia Conservation Network’s Lobby Day in Richmond just two days later on January 22, 2025.
- Monday, January 20th, 2025 – 8am-2pm
JOIN PEC, Nature Forward and many others IN RICHMOND FOR DATA CENTER LOBBY DAY!
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-center-lobby-day-tickets-1115791936719
- Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 – 7:45am-2pm
JOIN VCN, Nature Forward and many others IN RICHMOND FOR CONSERVATION LOBBY DAY!
RSVP: https://app.glueup.com/event/conservation-lobby-day-127170/
What can you do?
Right now, bills are being considered by a myriad of committees and sub-committees of the General Assembly. We at Nature Forward are pulling together our final list of the top 10 to 15 bills we’ll be highlighting to our subscribers. We’ll post them on our blog in the coming week or so, along with a form where you can email your elected official with comments about key bills.
In the meantime, we encourage you to check out the Virginia Conservation Network’s bill tracker (https://vcnva.org/bill-tracker/) to start looking over the growing number of bills that need your support or opposition.
Don’t forget, you can always find information on your legislator online here: https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/ so that you can email them or call their office with feedback about which bills you support or oppose.
Stay tuned!