This week in county government; Supes defer public hearing on Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance; Real estate assessments up 7.83 percent countywide; PC to consider solar facility off Peach Grove Road
Engage Louisa is a nonpartisan newsletter that keeps folks informed about Louisa County government. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
This week in county government: public meetings, March 11 through March 16
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here. (Note: Louisa County occasionally schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Wednesday, March 13
James River Water Authority, Fluvanna County Administration Building, 132 Main Street, Palmyra, 9 am. (agenda packet)
Neighborhood Meeting, hosted by the Louisa County Community Development Department and Lake Anna Storage, LLC, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 4 pm.
Community Development Department staff and Lake Anna Storage, LLC will hold a neighborhood meeting, providing the applicant an opportunity to discuss its request to rezone, from Agricultural (A-2 GAOD) to General Commercial ( C-2 GAOD), 7.7 acres on Chopping Road (tmp 28-106) for multiple uses including, but not limited to, mini warehouse (storage), equipment sales and rental, and automotive repair service. The property is located just southwest of Wares Crossroads in the Lake Anna Growth Area Overlay District. (land use application)
Louisa County Water Authority, 23 Loudin Lane, Louisa, 6 pm. At publication time, an agenda wasn’t publicly available.
Thursday, March 14
Louisa County Planning Commission, long-range planning work session, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 5 pm. At publication time, an agenda wasn’t publicly available. When it’s published, it will be available here.
Louisa County Planning Commission, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 7 pm. At publication time, an agenda packet wasn’t publicly available. When it’s published, it will be available here.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
Supes defer public hearing on Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance, agree to borrow more than $20 million for utility infrastructure, turf fields
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors last Monday night gathered for its first March meeting, wrapping up public business in less than an hour and a half. (meeting materials, video)
The board deferred one of two planned public hearings, opting to delay consideration of a recommendation from county staff to repeal part of the Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance.
In the other public hearing, a representative from Dominion Energy delivered the annual State of the Station address, updating the board on the performance and operations of the North Anna Nuclear Power Station.
In other business, supervisors okayed the issuance of more than $20 million in debt to pay for wet utility infrastructure for the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park and to build two turf fields adjacent to Louisa County Middle School.
They also heard from a representative of the Sierra Club who expressed concerns about data center development in the county. And the executive director of the Louisa County Historical Society discussed her group’s work and asked the board to reconsider the organization’s funding request for the coming fiscal year.
Board delays public hearing on Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance
Supervisors delayed a public hearing to consider a partial repeal of the Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance, a section of county code that lays out development and design standards for overwater structures like docks, boathouses and boardwalks.
The ordinance overlaps with Dominion Energy’s development guidelines. Dominion owns the lake and its shoreline but allows adjoining property owners to construct overwater structures via individual use agreements. The 13,000-acre waterway serves as a cooling reservoir for the North Anna Power Station.
Louisa County’s professional planning staff has recommended that supervisors repeal two components of the ordinance, which address “Safe navigation” and “Neighbor policies,” arguing that they mostly duplicate Dominion’s regulations.
Both sets of rules lay out standards for the orientation of overwater structures including how far they can extend onto the lake and how large and tall they can be, among other regulations. Of the three localities home to Lake Anna shoreline—Louisa, Spotsylvania and Orange—only Louisa has a shoreline ordinance regulating overwater structures.
Staff’s recommendation would leave intact a third section of the ordinance related to erosion and sediment control, which isn’t covered in Dominion’s guidelines. A fourth section addressing dredging, which refers to Dominion’s rules, would also remain.
A provision that mandates the use of dark-sky compliant lighting on overwater structures would be moved to another code section.
Staff has said that Dominion and the county’s overlapping rules cause confusion and eat up staff time even though the company, not the county, ultimately controls what’s built on the lake.
Even if the county repeals its rules, staff has made clear it would retain some say in overwater structures via the building permit process. Property owners and developers would still have to secure a building permit from the county, but staff wouldn’t apply a duplicative review after Dominion signs off on a project.
Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter, who represents most of the lake below the Route 208 bridge, requested that the board remove the public hearing from Monday night’s agenda. Though he didn’t discuss his request during the meeting, in a follow-up interview, McCotter told Engage Louisa that he wanted more time to carefully study how the repeal would impact the lake.
“I personally didn’t fully understand the implications of what was being proposed, so I went on a mission to collect information to help me better understand, considering that my district has a lot of shoreline in it. Whatever we do would affect my constituents, both residents and businesses, profoundly,” he said.
McCotter said that while there are similarities between Dominion’s rules and the county standards, the documents aren’t identical, and it may be worth keeping some of the provisions in the two sections proposed for repeal. While he didn’t offer specifics, he expressed concern about axing regulations for overwater structures built in commercial areas and subdivisions’ common areas.
“In my mind, there are certain elements that Louisa County still needs to be involved in, that being commercial structures…as well as common area structures,” McCotter said. “Whether or not we will retain those in Louisa’s [ordinance], we’ll see.”
While McCotter has expressed some concerns about the repeal, Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents the upper end of the lake, has signaled that he’s in favor of staff’s proposal.
When supervisors initially discussed the issue in December, prior to McCotter joining the board, Adams said that the shoreline ordinance might’ve been a good idea in 2005 when it was adopted, but it’s turned into a burden for staff, particularly as the lake’s shoreline gets more crowded. He said that staff is taking on an increasingly complicated task, even though Dominion has the final say on structures built over the water and their orientation.
McCotter said that “a compromise” might be considered that could address a range of concerns. He said the board could hold a public hearing on the ordinance as soon as its April 8 meeting.
Mineral District resident John Wayne, the chair of the Lake Anna Civic Association’s land use committee, was the only community member to weigh in on the proposed changes when the Planning Commission held its public hearing in February. Wayne said that his organization is mostly concerned about “ceding a governmental responsibility to a company.”
He said that Dominion’s rules essentially amount to a business agreement with individual property owners, which can be changed at any time and for any reason. He argued that county involvement provides a safeguard to ensure that residents aren’t “waking up to find that the guy who started the boathouse yesterday [is building] to 40 feet and counting.”
“It is not clear to me how the county will be in a position to manage issues that arise, particularly in the area of boathouse size and height, even though the county will still issue a building permit for the structure,” Wayne said in an email to LACA members that he shared with Engage Louisa.
After discussing the item at two work sessions, the Planning Commission voted 5-2 to recommend that supervisors approve the partial repeal. Louisa District Commissioner Matt Kersey and Green Springs District Commissioner Jim Dickerson cast the no votes.
Board votes to borrow more than $20 million for utility infrastructure, turf fields
Supervisors voted 6-1 to issue more than $20 million in debt to deliver wet utility infrastructure to the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park and build two turf fields adjacent to Louisa County Middle School. Both projects were included in the FY24 Capital Improvement Plan.
To pay for the projects, the board agreed to enter a Local Lease Acquisition Agreement and Financing Lease with the Virginia Resources Authority (VRA). Under the agreement, VRA will issue bonds to finance the utility infrastructure and fields with the county repaying the money, no later than December 31, 2054, at a maximum 5.5 percent annual interest rate.
The county initially entered a lease agreement with VRA in 2016 to fund construction of a water treatment plant at Ferncliff, water lines, and related infrastructure, conveying to VRA a leasehold interest in county-owned real estate to secure the financing. The board agreed to amend the original agreement to add the new projects.
The bulk of the new debt issuance—about $17 million—will pay for delivery of water and sewer infrastructure to the Shannon Hill Business Park and the Shannon Hill Growth Area along Interstate 64 including a waterline and force main, elevated water storage tank, water booster station and two wastewater pump stations.
The county began developing the 700-acre industrial park in 2019 with hopes of attracting distribution centers, advanced manufacturing or other large-scale economic development projects that bulk up the tax base and create jobs.
County officials have insisted that investing millions of dollars in infrastructure for the park—including putting utilities in place and building roads—will make it more attractive to companies looking to locate in Central Virginia. The utility project alone is expected to top $28 million with about 40 percent of that covered by a state economic development grant.
The multi-purpose turf fields are projected to cost more than $3.5 million. The board agreed to build the fields last spring at the request of Parks and Recreation Director James Smith and Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes. Smith told supervisors that many of the community’s youth sports teams lack adequate outdoor practice space. The fields will serve both the Parks and Rec Department and Louisa County Public Schools.
Paying off the debt will cost the county $1.2 million a year over the next 30 years, according to Finance Director Wanda Colvin, but she noted the board’s finance committee hopes to call the bonds much earlier.
At a budget work session last month, Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams said the committee, which includes him and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, envisions saving some of the tax revenue the county is expected to receive from Amazon Web Services’ development of a pair of data center campuses to pay off the debt in 10 years.
Though AWS intends to build the campuses over the next 15 years, Economic Development Director Andy Wade has said that the company could have a data center on-line by 2025 with the county projected to derive, on average, just over $2 million in tax revenue annually from each facility. It’s unclear how many data centers AWS plans to build. Based on public comments from county and AWS officials, the company could erect more than two dozen.
But not every board member was comfortable issuing debt and banking on paying it off with revenue the county hasn’t received.
Louisa District Supervisor Manning Woodard, the only board member to vote against the debt issuance, said that he’s wary of the amount of debt the county plans to take on in the coming fiscal year, referencing two major school construction projects that it intends to borrow money for this fall. Woodward said the turf fields could possibly be paid for with money the county has in reserves and suggested that the board wait on the Shannon Hill infrastructure.
“We’ve got two school buildings that I think it’s critical that we get built that are going to be in the neighborhood of $60 million of debt. I just think we maybe need to take a little break on some of these projects,” Woodward said. “I want industry in here as much as anybody else. But hopefully, we are going to have quite a bit of money coming into the county in the next three to five years, but it’s not here yet.”
But Colvin, Adams and Barnes pointed out that the Shannon Hill project is already underway. The board approved the project as part of the FY24 capital budget, won an $11.59 million state grant to pay for part of it and awarded a construction contract last year, all before Woodward joined the board. Colvin suggested that Monday’s vote wasn’t about whether supervisors would fund the utility infrastructure, but how: from cash or via bonds.
Barnes and Adams said that while they didn’t support the Shannon Hill project when the board green lit it in 2019, the county is, as Barnes put it, “in it” now. He said that it makes sense to use bonds to pay for large-scale economic development projects.
Adams agreed.
“I didn’t vote for the Shannon Hill project either. But we are here. We are in it to the tune of millions of dollars,” Adams said, noting that the water tower is already half built. “A project of this magnitude, of this much money, I would be leery of using our cash reserves.”
According to a preliminary budget presentation in January, the county has about $16.5 million in long-term capital reserves with more than $5.8 million of that earmarked for Louisa County Public Schools.
Historical Society asks county to reconsider its funding
During a presentation highlighting the Louisa County Historical Society’s contributions to the community, Executive Director Katelyn Coughlan said that she hoped the board would reconsider the society’s funding request for the coming fiscal year.
At its February 5 budget work session, supervisors tentatively voted to slash the society’s funding by nearly 90 percent. The non-profit organization received $42,500 from the county this fiscal year and asked for the same amount for FY25, but supervisors opted to give the group just $5,000.
The board’s vote came after its finance committee, including Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, recommended defunding the group, cutting county support entirely.
Adams told Engage Louisa that he made that recommendation because “it’s a tight budget year” and the county has higher funding priorities.
“Our focus right now is economic development, public education and public safety. As you know, that eats up about 76 percent of the budget,” he said. “Everybody that comes to the table has great programs. It’s never a question of that. It’s what can we afford to do and where can we afford to do it. My recommendation is to take this money and focus it elsewhere.”
Of the 32 outside groups that received county support last year and applied again this year, the society was the only group that the finance committee recommended defunding. Most of the groups are on track to either receive the same amount as FY24 or a small increase.
Coughlan told the board that a cut in funding “would compromise [the society’s] ability to continue to bring quality educational programs, living history interpretation, historic research requests and genealogical services to the county.”
While the board has tentatively voted to reduce county support, the decision isn’t final until supervisors adopt the FY25 budget in late April. And, even then, the board is free to amend the spending plan post-adoption by approving supplemental appropriations.
One potential way the Historical Society could garner additional support is through proceeds the county is expected to receive from a hike in the transient occupancy tax (TOT). Supervisors agreed last fall to increase the tax from two percent to seven percent, contending that it’s a good way to raise revenue without burdening local residents. The TOT is tacked on to customers’ bills when they stay the night at a hotel, bed and breakfast or short-term rental.
Per state code, about 60 percent of the revenue that the county derives from its seven percent TOT comes with no strings attached. Supervisors are free to spend it how ever they want. But the other roughly 40 percent must be spent “solely for tourism and travel, marketing of tourism or initiatives that, as determined after consultation with the local tourism industry organizations, including representatives of lodging properties located in the county, attract travelers to the locality, increase occupancy at lodging properties, and generate tourism revenues in the locality.”
According to figures from Finance Director Wanda Colvin, the county is expected to pull in nearly $1.6 million from the TOT in the FY25 budget cycle. More than $600,000 of that would be earmarked for tourism-related spending.
Because the society offers events and programming aimed at drawing visitors to the community and operates the Sargeant Museum of Louisa County History, which serves as the county’s welcome center, it could potentially benefit from the increased TOT.
In December, supervisors agreed to establish a tourism advisory panel that would serve as the county’s official tourism industry organization and advise the board on how to spend revenue earmarked for tourism.
But supervisors haven’t publicly discussed the panel since adopting its initial framework nor have they discussed ways they might spend tourism-specific money.
Read more about the board’s decision to cut the Historical Society’s funding in the February 25 edition of Engage Louisa.
Sierra Club expresses concerns about data center development in Louisa County
A representative from the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club-Piedmont Group raised concerns about a pair of data center campuses that Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to develop in the county’s Technology Overlay District.
One of the campuses, dubbed the Lake Anna Technology Campus (LATC), is slated for 150 acres at the corner of Kentucky Springs Road and Haley Drive adjacent to the North Anna Power Station. The other—the North Creek Technology Campus (NCTC)—is planned for about 830 acres of a 1,444-acre tract south of Route 33 and east of Mt. Airy Road near the Northeast Creek Reservoir.
Kirk Bowers, the Piedmont Group’s Conservation Chair, told the board during the meeting’s public comment period that his group has a range of concerns about AWS’s plans, mostly centered on the campuses’ demand for large quantities of water and power and who’ll foot the bill for the infrastructure required to support them.
While Bowers acknowledged that data centers are a critical piece of 21st century infrastructure, enabling cloud computing and other internet-based services, he encouraged the board to center the interests of Louisa County residents and to push AWS to build environmentally conscious facilities.
With respect to the centers’ intense demand for power, Bowers said that AWS should follow the example of other large tech companies like Google and purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) to offset the facilities’ greenhouse gas emissions. A chief concern about data center development in Virginia is that it will derail the state from achieving its clean energy goals, namely decarbonizing the power grid by midcentury.
“Amazon has the resources to (buy RECs), and Google and others are already doing this,” he said.
While it’s unclear exactly how much power the campuses will use, a representative from Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) told the Planning Commission last fall that the 10 substations planned for the North Creek Campus would be capable of providing 3 GW of power. For perspective, the twin reactors at Dominion’s North Anna Power Station produce about 1.8 GW at full capacity.
The campuses will also house backup diesel generators in case they lose power, which require monthly testing.
Regarding the centers’ water use, Bowers noted that the campuses are expected to use, on average, 620,000 gallons of raw water per day to cool the racks of servers inside. That water will be drawn from the publicly owned Northeast Creek Reservoir. Bowers said supervisors should pay careful attention to how AWS’s water use could impact the reservoir in the long-term, encouraging them to conduct a water study that evaluates supply through 2050.
“Make sure you guys have water before you share it with Amazon,” he said.
Last year, the county conducted a capacity study on the reservoir, which, according to Economic Development Director Andy Wade, determined that the facility had a safe yield capacity of 3.2 million gallons per day. Wade has said that customers who currently rely on the reservoir use about 300,000 gallons daily and the Northeast Creek Water Treatment Plant has the capacity to treat a million gallons a day. If the demand for treated water ever meets that threshold, Wade said, the reservoir would still have a 1.57 million gpd safe yield buffer based on AWS’s projected average daily use.
“We have a ton of capacity left in the reservoir,” Wade told supervisors in December.
Bowers also pushed the board to ensure that AWS pays for all the infrastructure needed to support its campuses.
“An analysis of the expected costs of infrastructure expansion necessary to serve data centers’ demand for energy, water, transmission lines, sewer, new roads and energy substations should all be conducted,” he said.
Based on a performance agreement with Louisa County, AWS has agreed to pay for all offsite infrastructure to support the campuses including construction of a 10-mile raw water line from the reservoir to the LATC, water and sewer infrastructure for the NCTC and several public roads. The county has agreed to offset those costs with grants that it says will be drawn from net new tax revenue derived from the campuses. AWS will also benefit from state grants and a package of state and local tax breaks.
Paying for the extensive electrical infrastructure needed for the campuses, including new substations and extended transmission lines, hasn’t been publicly discussed at county meetings.
Dominion delivers State of the Station address
Lisa Hilbert, the site vice president of the North Anna Power Station, delivered the annual State of the Station address on behalf of the 1.8 GW nuclear generation facility.
The yearly update and an accompanying public hearing are required under a 1984 settlement agreement between Louisa County and Virginia Electric and Power Company, the predecessor of the plant’s current owner, Dominion Energy.
Hilbert’s remarks were mostly drawn from North Anna’s 2023 annual report, which details the facility’s performance and operations over the last year, Dominion’s ongoing efforts to relicense its twin Westinghouse reactors thru 2058 and 2060, the company’s potential plans for the facility, and the plant’s economic impact on Louisa County, among other NAPS-related matters.
Check out last week's edition of Engage Louisa for a closer look at the annual report.
FY25 Budget: Real estate assessments up 7.83 percent countywide
Louisa County’s real estate assessments climbed again this year.
According to a public notice released by the county last Monday, assessments on homes and land, excluding new construction and improvements, rose 7.83 percent countywide in 2024. That increase follows a nearly 14 percent jump in 2023 and a 12 percent increase in 2022.
The rise in assessments could mean a hike in real estate taxes. A property owner’s real estate tax bill is determined by multiplying the assessed value of their property by the local real estate tax rate.
If the Board of Supervisors adopts a level tax rate of 72 cents per $100 of assessed value for the coming fiscal year—the same rate the county’s had since 2015—property owners whose assessment rose would see a jump in their tax bill. A homeowner with a property valued at $400,000 would see their bill rise about $230 based on an eight percent increase. The board would have to lower the tax rate to 66.8 cents to offset the rise in assessments.
Residents will have an opportunity to weigh in on the potential tax increase when the board holds the first public hearing of the FY25 budget process at its March 18 meeting. The hearing is statutorily required because assessments rose one percent or more and the county hasn’t proposed lowering the tax rate to offset the increase.
Last year, 18 property owners spoke during the public hearing after assessments jumped 13.9 percent, urging the board to lower the tax rate and rein in spending. Supervisors opted to retain a level rate, but agreed to give taxpayers a one-time five percent rebate, which effectively decreased the rate by three cents.
While supervisors are still in the process of crafting next year’s budget and haven’t publicly discussed the tax rate, Finance Director Wanda Colvin and the board’s finance committee—Board Chair and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams—have based their budget projections and recommendations on a level rate.
Based on preliminary figures, next year’s budget could exceed $238 million, a 27 percent increase over this year, with about $156 million paying for daily operations and $82 million covering capital costs, the bulk of the spending increase.
Of the $82 million in capital spending, about $62 million would pay for two school construction projects: a 500-seat addition to Louisa County Middle School and a 54,000-square foot career and technical education center adjacent to Louisa County High School. Another $7.5 million would pay for revamping the Lake Anna Wastewater Treatment Plant just west of the Route 208 bridge. The county purchased the plant last year with plans to upgrade and expand it to support future economic development in the Lake Anna Growth Area.
The operating budget is expected to come in about six percent higher than last year driven, in part, by pay raises for employees and new staffers for the Fire and EMS Department.
In an interview with Engage Louisa in late February, Adams described FY25 as a “tight budget year,” particularly considering the county’s rising capital costs, and said the board is keenly focused on three areas: economic development, public education and public safety. He noted that those three priorities typically comprise about 75 percent of county spending.
Supervisors held their third budget work session of the FY25 cycle Monday afternoon, but didn’t explicitly mention the increase in assessments. The board did agree to invite County Assessor Rich Gasper to the March 18 meeting to explain how his office determines annual assessments. On Friday, the county released a Property Assessment FAQ, which details the assessment process. Read the FAQ here.
The county mailed real estate assessments to property owners in late February.
How are real estate assessments determined?
Real estate assessments are determined on an annual basis by the county assessor’s office, which is a function of the commissioner of the revenue’s office and separate from and independent of the Board of Supervisors. While the board sets the real estate tax rate as part of the annual budget process and appropriates revenue derived from local taxes to fund county services, it plays no role in the assessment process.
As required by state code, the assessor bases its assessment on a property’s market value, drawing on sales data from surrounding and similar properties. The assessor accounts for a range of property characteristics, including a home’s sales price, square footage, age, condition and location.
In determining an annual assessment for existing homes, the assessor doesn’t factor in the first-year value of newly constructed homes. A representative of the assessor’s office typically visits each property in the county at least once every five years to evaluate its characteristics.
The Virginia Department of Taxation checks the assessor’s work via its sales ratio validation process. The ratio compares the sales prices of property to assessed values. In 2022, Louisa County’s assessments were 3.9 percent lower than actual sales based on a review of 363 transactions, according to the county’s FAQ. In 2023, assessments were 5.9 percent below sales prices based on a review of 265 transactions.
The FAQ also points to anecdotal evidence to illustrate that county assessments often fall below market values, highlighting sales data for three recent transactions. A home assessed at $323,800 in the Mineral District traded for $360,000 in March, per the explainer, while the sales price of a property in the Patrick Henry District matched its $213,500 assessed value. Another property in the Patrick Henry District, assessed at $68,500, sold in February for $140,000. The FAQ notes that “sales information is available to interested parties through popular real estate [web]sites.”
The county provides a process by which property owners can appeal their assessment. To learn more about how to appeal your assessment and the appeals process, click here. The deadline to file an appeal is March 29.
The county also offers a real estate tax relief program for income-eligible elderly and disabled residents. To learn more about the program, click here.
Board agrees to $20k funding hike for Fluvanna-Louisa Housing Foundation
In other budget-related news, the board agreed to increase funding for the Fluvanna-Louisa Housing Foundation (FLHF) to $65,000 for the coming fiscal year, a $20,000 increase over last year but far short of what the nonprofit organization had requested.
FLHF Executive Director Kim Hyland had asked the board for $155,000, $110,000 more than it received in FY24. During a budget work session last month, Hyland said the organization needs the money to keep pace with the burgeoning demand for housing-related services.
For about three decades, the foundation has provided critical home repairs to income-eligible residents, rehabbed dilapidated homes, offered affordable rental units, installed accessibility ramps and conducted a first-time homebuyer education program.
Hyland said the group would primarily use the funding to hire two new staffers: one to oversee construction projects—including a 25-unit rental complex slated for construction off Chalk Level Road—and another to handle administrative tasks including working with the growing number of community members who reach out to the organization for help.
But the board’s finance committee, which includes Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams, recommended increasing support by just $10,000. Williams reiterated that recommendation during Monday’s work session, but met resistance from several board members, who argued the group deserved more money.
Green Springs District Supervisor Rachel Jones, a member of the foundation’s board of directors, said the organization provides critical services to the community and the board should provide at least $75,000. She echoed Hyland, saying the group direly needs additional staff to help the many community members who reach out for services.
“Right now, they are at a stagnant point. They cannot take in any more [clients] than what they are taking in,” Jones said. “The call volume and the resources people need in our community are not stagnant.”
Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes mostly agreed, noting that the organization is currently the county’s “only avenue for affordable housing.”
But Williams and Adams pushed back, citing concerns about allotting an outside agency more money to hire staff.
Williams said that Hyland should handle one of her staffing requests by hiring a temporary construction manager to oversee the Chalk Level Road project with the cost included in the project’s overall budget. He also noted that the county increased support for the organization by about $20,000 last year.
“There’s no doubt that they are doing good in the neighborhood but, just because they are doing good, do you just keep giving them money?” Williams said.
Adams said that adding staff doesn’t provide “direct services to our citizens,” it just “increase[s] bureaucracy.”
“One of these positions is $75,000 and it doesn’t put one air conditioner in. It doesn’t build one set of steps. It doesn’t put any ramps in. It doesn’t fix any leaky roofs,” he said.
After some debate, the board voted unanimously to hike support for the group to $65,000. Though several board members acknowledged they couldn’t set conditions on the funding, they made clear they want it used for services to county residents, not administrative costs.
PC to consider up to 5 MW solar facility off Peach Grove Road
A controversial proposal to build a utility-scale solar array off Peach Grove Road near the upper end of Lake Anna will head to the Louisa County Planning Commission on Thursday night.
Commissioners will hold a public hearing and consider whether to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve BW Solar’s (BWS) request for a Conditional Use Permit to construct an up to 5 MW solar array on 60 acres of a 132-acre agriculturally zoned parcel between Peach Grove and Goldmine Roads in the Mineral Voting District (tmp 14 71). The parcel is owned by local farmer Dustin Madison and his wife, Megan, who live on the property.
At a neighborhood meeting in late October, representatives from BW Solar said that the solar array would be “a great neighbor,” causing no disruption in the neighborhood post-construction while generating clean energy for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s local distribution system over its 35-year lifespan. They emphasized that solar panels would cover less than 20 acres of the 60-acre project site and would be blocked from view by generous buffers, mostly comprised of existing vegetation. After a four-to-six-month construction period, the developers said, the project would generate almost no traffic and noise.
“It’s a quiet, peaceful little neighbor that won’t bother anybody,” Greg Kelly, a solar consultant, said. “(It’s) better than having 20, 30 or 40 homes built in there and having all that traffic and all that construction for a longtime.”
BWS representatives emphasized that the facility, dubbed the Green Boot project, would meet all the requirements in Louisa County’s revised solar ordinance, which the board adopted in 2022 amid concerns about stormwater runoff from Dominion’s sprawling 88 MW Belcher Solar Facility off Waldrop Church Road and growing resistance to utility-scale solar development among some community members. They said Green Boot would include a 300-foot setback, inclusive of an opaque vegetative buffer to screen it from view and implement stringent erosion and sediment control measures to protect Lake Anna and surrounding property.
“Our project footprint is significantly smaller [than Belcher] and land will be disturbed as little as possible,” BWS Senior Developer Bridgette Kelly said.
But the proposal has sparked staunch opposition from many neighbors, who packed a pair of community meetings last fall to express concerns about the project. At the October meeting, neighbors complained that the facility would detract from their neighborhood’s rural character, bring truck traffic during construction that Peach Grove Road can’t handle, impact their property values and cause runoff that could harm Lake Anna’s water quality.
One neighbor made clear that, no matter what BWS’s representatives said, she didn’t want a solar array in her neighborhood.
“We don’t want it. We’re happy. We’re country folks and we’re happy being country,” she said to applause from several others in the crowd.
At publication time, Louisa County’s Community Development Department hadn’t made publicly available a staff report providing its perspective on the project. BWS submitted a revised land use application on February 21 that provides additional details about its proposal. Check it out here.
Planning Commission to consider rezoning, CUP for storage facility
Commissioners will hold a public hearing and consider whether to recommend to the Board of Supervisors approval of Louisa Heights, LLC’s request to rezone, from General Industrial (I-2) to Industrial Limited (I-1), 3.14 acres on Duke Street in the Louisa District for a mini-warehouse facility (storage) with outdoor parking (part of tmp 41-187). The applicant is also requesting a Conditional Use Permit, which is required for the use in I-1 zoning.
The property is located off Davis Highway (Route 22) just east of the Town of Louisa in the Louisa Growth Area and designated for industrial use on the Future Land Use Map in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
In its land use application, Louisa Heights argues that the use fits with the character of the neighborhood, noting that the surrounding properties are all zoned industrial and another storage business adjoins the subject parcel. The applicant says that its roughly 31,850-square foot storage facility would generate “a peak hourly volume of 46 vehicle trips per day.”
In an addendum to its application, Louisa Heights notes that the rezoning will include attached proffers that exclude a range of future uses for the property that are permitted in I-1 zoning.
At publication time, the Community Development Department hadn’t released a staff report detailing its perspective on the requests.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.
Find agendas and minutes from previous Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meetings as well as archived recordings here.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County School Board.
Click here for minutes and agendas for School Board meetings. Click here for archived video.
Click here to access past editions of Engage Louisa.