28.2-602 - Riparian assignments; special terms and conditions.
§ 28.2-602. Riparian assignments; special terms and conditions.
The provisions of this article apply to all Virginia counties and citiesbordering on bodies of water in oyster-growing areas, except they shall notapply to riparian lands located above the James River bridge in the JamesRiver or its tributaries. In any Virginia county or city where more thanone-half acre of ground per waterfront tract has been assigned to a riparianowner, the ground in excess of one-half acre shall be ground held under aregular lease and assignment, and not a riparian assignment.
For Northampton County, however, § 6 of Chapter 254 of the 1883-1884 Acts ofAssembly, not this article, shall govern the quantity of land to be assignedto and held by riparian owners. Nothing in this article authorizes a rentalof a lesser amount per acre than that provided by law for riparian owners inNorthampton County of the land assigned them as such riparian owners.Nothing in the section which restores to riparian owners in NorthamptonCounty one-fourth of their waterfronts suitable for planting oysters, permitsthe owners of waterfronts to compel occupants of the fronts to remove theiroysters from any fourth of the shores, if the residue of the shore is alreadyin the landowner's possession or is unoccupied.
Riparian landowners may erect wharves, landings, or other structures asotherwise permitted by law.
(Code 1950, § 28-123; 1950, p. 987; 1956, c. 586; 1958, c. 184; 1960, c. 517;1962, c. 406, § 28.1-108; 1964, c. 393; 1968, c. 747; 1972, c. 644; 1976, c.256; 1978, c. 548; 1984, cc. 100, 244, 259; 1986, c. 168; 1992, c. 836.)