Any county may adopt such measures as it deems expedient to secure and promote the health, safety and general welfare of its inhabitants which are not inconsistent with the general laws of the Commonwealth. Such power shall include, but shall not be limited to, the adoption of quarantine regulations affecting both persons and animals, the adoption of necessary regulations to prevent the spread of contagious diseases among persons or animals and the adoption of regulations for the prevention of the pollution of water which is dangerous to the health or lives of persons residing in the county.
Va. Code Ann. § 15.2-1200
General powers of counties
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 42 Va. App. 495 - Boyd v. County of Henrico (2004)
Most recently applied in Board of Supervisors v. Royal (In Re Royal) (May 2005)
Code 1950, § 15-8; 1954, c. 529; 1956, cc. 218, 664; 1956, Ex
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.