Adams, Williams downplay proposed changes to FY26 budget; PC oks proposal requiring CUP for retail sales of controlled substances; Homeless Coalition pushes for church-based winter shelter program
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, April 14 through April 19
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).
Thursday, April 17
Louisa County Industrial Development Authority, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 8:30 am.
Other meetings
Monday, April 14
Mineral Town Council, Mineral Town Hall, 312 Mineral Ave., Mineral, 6:30 pm. (agenda packet)
Quote of the week
“In my opinion, it’s an essential historic practice of the church to provide shelter and, therefore, shouldn’t be subject to community or government approval. But, in our current zoning laws, it requires two public hearings plus two government boards to vote on whether or not a church can do or not do a ministry of the church. And it just makes me wonder if we have so blatantly abandoned the separation of church and state.”
-Pastor David McWilliams of Zion United Methodist Church urging county officials to permit churches to provide temporary shelter to the homeless in winter without going through a lengthy public approval process.
Read more about McWilliams and other advocates’ request in the article below.
Adams, Williams downplay proposed changes to FY26 budget
Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams on Monday night sought to downplay more than $2.2 million in cuts they proposed to the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which would delay an expansion at the Louisa County Animal Shelter and remove three new Fire and EMS positions requested by FEMS Chief Kristin Hawk. (meeting materials, video)
Adams and Williams, a pair of Republicans who make up the board’s finance committee, proposed the changes to free up money for a 3.3 percent real estate tax rebate—equal to a 2.4 percent cut in the tax rate—after homeowners blasted the board during a March public hearing, insisting that their rising tax bills are unsustainable.
The board had advertised a $190.5 million budget for the coming fiscal year ahead of a public hearing on the spending plan Monday night, and a slate of level tax rates to help fund it including a 72-cent per $100 of assessed value rate for real estate and a $2.43 rate for cars and trucks.
But the Finance Committee recommended shrinking the budget to $188.4 million with $174.9 million allotted for daily operations, including everything from employees’ salaries to fuel for fire trucks, and $13.5 million for capital projects, covering big-ticket items like new emergency service equipment and infrastructure upgrades.
The committee also recommended maintaining the 72-cent rate for real estate but, with the one-time rebate, property owners would pay taxes based on a 69.6-cent levy. Supervisors haven’t raised or lowered the real estate tax rate since 2015, and it ranks among the lowest in the region.
Though a homeowner whose house is assessed at $400,000 would pay almost $100 less when accounting for the rebate, many property owners would still see their tax bills jump over FY25 as the assessed value of real estate in the county increased an average of 8.12 percent. Supervisors would have to slash the rate to 66.6 cents or extend a 5.4-cent rebate to offset that increase.
The 2.4-cent rebate differs slightly from a proposal included in the draft budget shared on the county’s website, which proposes a 2-cent rebate. Finance Director Wanda Colvin said property owners would see slightly more relief because the rebate won’t extend to public service corporations including utilities like Dominion Energy, the county’s largest taxpayer.
While the committee presented the rebate as a way to ease the pain on homeowners in the face of rising assessments, they tried to minimize the impact of the corresponding budget cuts, which include pushing back to FY27 an expansion that would double the size of the animal shelter and axing three proposed Fire/EMS positions. Delaying the animal shelter trims $1.95 million from the budget while removing the FEMS positions cuts about $250,000.
The animal shelter has twice reached what staffers termed “critically full” in the last three months and was viewed as a high priority for some in county government based on comments at public meetings and on social media.
In a presentation to the planning commission in January, General Services Manager Anderson Woolfolk said the current shelter takes in about 1,500 animals a year, double what it dealt with when it was repurposed from an old slaughterhouse more than 30 years ago.
Woolfolk said the expansion is needed to help ensure the shelter can remain no-kill, meaning it euthanizes less than 10 percent of the animals it takes in, and to ensure animals are properly quarantined to stave off the spread of disease. It would also provide more office space for staff.
Williams said the current budget includes some money for design work, and the committee could recommend funding the project before FY27, depending on what the county’s finances look like at the end of this fiscal year.
Adams downplayed the recommendation to remove three new positions in the Fire and EMS Department, which Hawk had requested. As the county experiences significant residential growth and the department relies more heavily on career personnel, as opposed to volunteers, bulking up its staff has been a top priority.
But Adams said there are vacancies in the department now and, until those are filled, there’s no need to fund the new positions. He also noted that the proposed budget includes money for training and retaining FEMS personnel.
“There are a number of current vacancies in Fire and EMS, and I know they are recruiting. I think they have a good number of people coming on the staff here very shortly. Those positions, even though they are vacant, are fully funded in this proposed budget…Once we fill those positions, if the fire chief feels we have a need for any additional positions, the board can always revisit that and add those positions mid-year,” Adams said.
Beyond the rebate, Adams and Williams said the proposed budget accounts for a plan to expand a real estate tax relief program for income-eligible elderly and disabled residents. The change, which will be the subject of a public hearing at an upcoming board meeting, would raise from $2,000 to $3,000 the maximum amount of tax relief available to participants.
Adams added that he thinks residents will enjoy far more tax relief soon as Amazon Web Services (AWS) develops a pair of data campuses in the county’s Technology Overlay District and revenue pours into county coffers as a result.
In budget projections for FY27, staff estimates that the county will see a $13 million jump in revenue from general property taxes, discounting the lost revenue from next year’s rebate. Much of that increase is expected to come from AWS’s real estate taxes.
Revenue from general property taxes is expected to rise by more than $45 million by FY30 as the tech giant brings data centers online, and the county pulls in both real estate taxes from its buildings and personal property taxes from the pricey computer equipment inside.
County officials have said AWS could build as many as 36 data centers across the two campuses with each generating more than $2 million in local tax revenue annually.
“Next year, as we start to see the revenue that comes in from these economic development investments in the county, I think that’s an opportunity for the next board to look at widespread tax relief whether that’s broad-based real estate tax relief or, in my opinion, slashing the personal property tax rate,” Adams said.
While the budget proposal presented on Monday represents the Finance Committee’s final recommendation, Colvin said the spending plan could still see some tweaks ahead of adoption later this month.
She noted that the county’s still waiting on the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin to agree on amendments to the biennial state budget, which could impact local revenues.
Community members criticize proposed budget; Most board members say little
The Finance Committee’s tax relief package and the possibility of tax cuts in the future did little to allay the concerns of the four community members who weighed in during the public hearing.
Each speaker expressed frustration with their rising real estate tax bills with a couple contending that the county’s spending is out of control.
Cuckoo District resident Rosane Olyha said she’s unhappy with how the board has handled local finances over the last few years, insisting that the county’s raking in more and more revenue but refuses to extend tax relief to residents. She called the rebate “an appeasing move.”
“The county’s spending is out of control. In this county, we have been blessed with some significant increases in revenue over time and over the last few years. This increase is really based on the increased taxes that are being levied on the county residents. That is why we have all this budget to spend. You have the power to plan better…You have the power to lower the tax [rate],” Olyha said.
Cuckoo District resident Bruce Tenney agreed, calling on the board to vote against the budget and rethink how it builds its spending plans.
Tenney said the board should cap each department’s spending, which would help determine what services are essential and, in turn, enable supervisors to extend substantial tax relief to residents.
“We’ve got to curb the growth of the budget at some point. That’s the only way you are going to [be able] to look for ways to reduce the tax rate for us,” Tenney said, adding, “We talk about tax relief. I’m going to pay more taxes this year than I did last year based on this budget. That’s not tax relief to me.”
Most board members had little to say about the budget or the Finance Committee’s proposed relief package and cuts.
Green Springs District Supervisor Rachel Jones, who had emphasized the urgency of the animal shelter expansion in a Facebook post in mid-March, said that she’d received some calls from constituents about the project’s delay. She insisted that the expansion is “still moving forward,” an apparent reference to the money available for design work.
Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow endorsed the plan to hike the exemption available to low-income elderly and disabled residents, saying he’s especially proud of the tax relief program
“With my time on the board, this is something I feel better about than anything else I have been associated with,” he said.
All seven supervisors will have another chance to weigh in on the budget when they vote on its adoption at their April 28 meeting. Fiscal Year 2026 starts July 1.
Check out the proposed budget for FY26.
Read more about the proposed budget in last week’s edition of Engage Louisa.
Other business
Board oks relocation of Green Springs 2, Louisa 3 polling places: Supervisors held a public hearing and voted unanimously to move the polling places for the Green Springs 2 and Louisa 3 precincts to Trevilians Elementary School, 2035 S. Spotswood Trail. Both polling places are currently located at Living Grace Church on James Madison Highway (Route 15) near Gordonsville.
General Registrar Cris Watkins said the move is necessary because the church doesn’t have adequate space to accommodate two polling places. She also cited traffic safety concerns along Route 15.
Voters will cast their ballots at the school for the first time in the November 4 General Election. They’ll vote at the church for the June 17 primary.
Supervisors approve budget supplement for LCWA: Supervisors voted 7-0 to approve a $110,000 budget supplement for the Louisa County Water Authority (LCWA) to cover its share of an upgrade at the Louisa Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. The money will help pay for replacing the plant’s headworks screen. The project is expected to cost $220,000 with the Town of Louisa on the hook for half the money.
Supervisors move multiple LCPS capital projects from FY26 to FY25: Supervisors moved a handful of capital projects proposed by Louisa County Public Schools from next year’s capital budget to this year’s. The shift allows the school division to start the projects before July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. School officials hope to finish them before the start of the next academic year.
The projects total $788,000, including $570,000 for paving and parking lot repairs; $100,000 for cafeteria equipment; $75,000 for classroom furniture; $25,000 for carpet and flooring; and $18,000 for an atrium at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.
In other school-related actions, supervisors authorized the Virginia Public Schools Authority to refund school bonds issued more than 15 years ago. The refund could potentially save the county $97,600. They also authorized the division to move forward with employment contracts for the 2025-26 academic year.
Board okays start of park maintenance project at Betty Queen Center: Supervisors voted unanimously to greenlight the start of a roughly $33,000 capital project to repair recreational facilities adjacent to the Betty Queen Center. The project will improve the center’s playground and walking track.
PC oks proposal requiring CUP for retail sales of controlled substances
The Louisa County Planning Commission on Thursday night recommended to the board of supervisors approval of a proposed ordinance restricting where businesses selling recreational cannabis can set up shop in the county should state lawmakers green-light a retail market for the substance. (meeting materials, video)
Under the proposal, establishments selling cannabis and other controlled substances would be required to obtain a conditional use permit (CUP) from Louisa County. Acquiring a CUP requires a lengthy public approval process including public hearings in front of the planning commission and the board of supervisors and an affirmative vote by the latter body.
With the permit, retail sales of controlled substances would be permitted in General Commercial and Light Commercial zoning inside and outside of Growth Area Overlay Districts (C-1, C-2, C-1 GAOD, C-2 GAOD), Planned Unit Developments (PUD) and Resort Developments (RD). The use would be prohibited in all other zoning districts.
The proposed ordinance would apply to any establishment engaged in “the sale or transaction of legally authorized controlled substances directly to consumers, including but not limited to prescription medications, hemp products intended for consumption, a substance containing any percentage of controlled substances, and other regulated substances,” according to a proposed definition of the use. The category includes pharmacies, dispensaries, and other authorized retail establishments, but excludes alcohol and tobacco sales, and passive agricultural activity.
Existing businesses that sell controlled substances would be grandfathered in and not subject to the new rules.
Controlled substances are defined and regulated by the federal government based on their medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability.
The commission amended how the ordinance defines the retail sale of controlled substances at Thursday’s meeting, expanding it to include selling and “transaction.” Deputy County Administrator Chris Coon suggested the tweak is aimed at establishments that gift cannabis when customers purchase other items.
Coon referenced a recent article in Cardinal News, which highlights stores in southwest Virginia that use gifting as a way to exploit a grey area in state code. Under existing law, adults are permitted to possess and share a small amount of cannabis and grow up to four plants for personal use. But retail sales aren’t permitted outside of licensed medical dispensaries nor is giving away cannabis with the purchase of another item.
Still, some shops offer customers a sample of cannabis when they buy a sticker, decal or other product. According to Cardinal News, law enforcement has struggled to rein in the practice, in part, because it can be difficult to determine if what’s being gifted is marijuana or hemp. That’s determined by the product’s tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, the compound that gets users high.
Members of the board of supervisors asked staff to come up with rules for where businesses selling controlled substances can set up shop amid concern that lawmakers in Richmond will establish a retail market for recreational cannabis. Coon told the commission during a work session in February that county officials want to have an ordinance in place before that happens.
The Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed bills during the last two legislative sessions to permit retail sales. But Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed the legislation.
The proposed ordinance also grew out of concerns about shops that have cropped up in the county selling cannabis-related and adjacent products. One high-profile example is Higher Education at Zion Crossroads, which brands itself a “smoke shop” and sells vapes, pipes, grinders and rolling papers, among other items.
In December, Dawn Morris, one of the shop’s owners, was convicted of selling cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms at what the Louisa County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office described as a weekly “pop up farmers style market for smoking and vaping products.” Morris was sentenced to 22 years in prison with all but 15 months suspended.
In a memo to the commission, Coon said the proposed ordinance would provide for both transparency and community involvement in regulating the retail sales of controlled substances and offer “flexibility to respond to evolving community standards while providing a consistent regulatory pathway.”
Coon noted that the CUP process would allow the county to impose conditions on businesses selling controlled substances to mitigate their impact, including regulating their hours of operations, signage, security measures and proximity to sensitive uses like schools and childcare centers.
Only one community member weighed in during Thursday night’s public hearing, urging county officials to keep an open mind about cannabis and emphasizing its medical benefits. But others have raised red flags about the proposal outside of county meetings.
In a Facebook post last week, Melanie Lucero, a realtor who’s hoping to bring an urgent care center to a commercial property near Lake Anna, expressed concern that the proposal could derail those efforts. She argued that the ordinance is too vague and should explicitly state that it doesn’t apply to urgent care centers and other licensed medical facilities.
“They say this is to regulate future retail cannabis—but the way it’s written, it sweeps in legitimate medical providers too. The county claims this was triggered by one ‘bad’ incident with a single business—and now the entire community is being blanketed with red tape because of it,” Lucero wrote, adding, “This ordinance could have long-term consequences. The language used, as it sits, is too broad and too gray and casts a wide net. It risks making Louisa look unwelcoming to healthcare providers and could drive away the very services we’ve fought to bring here.”
Neither commissioners nor members of the public raised those concerns on Thursday. After working on the proposal during two work sessions, the commission recommended approval in a unanimous vote with no discussion.
The proposal next heads to the board of supervisors for an as-yet-unscheduled public hearing and a final vote. The board has the power to pass the ordinance as presented, make changes or reject the proposal.
As Homeless Coalition pushes for church-based winter shelter program, planning commission ponders definitions
Volunteers with the Louisa Homeless Coalition (LHC) have asked county officials to allow churches to provide overnight shelter to unhoused community members in winter without going through a lengthy public approval process. (video)
The coalition had hoped to launch a sheltering program last winter, modeled after People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM) in Charlottesville, where a rotating group of churches temporarily house homeless people during the coldest months of the year.
But those plans were largely derailed after county officials told volunteers that moving forward with the program required “land use action(s)”—essentially obtaining a conditional use permit (CUP) for each church wishing to participate that’s zoned General Agricultural (A-2), the county’s dominant zoning designation, and a rezoning and CUP for churches in Residential zoning (R-1, R-2). Only churches located in some commercial and industrial zoning districts are permitted to operate a shelter program by-right, per county code.
Two volunteers from the coalition spoke at the planning commission’s meeting Thursday night, urging local government to get out of the way and allow churches to open their doors to the homeless when they would otherwise face freezing temperatures.
“In my opinion, it’s an essential historic practice of the church to provide shelter and, therefore, shouldn’t be subject to community or government approval. But, in our current zoning laws, it requires two public hearings plus two government boards to vote on whether or not a church can do or not do a ministry of the church. And it just makes me wonder if we have so blatantly abandoned the separation of church and state,” said David McWilliams, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church and a Green Springs District resident.
Mineral District resident Duane Sergent agreed, noting that homelessness is a persistent, though not highly visible problem, in the county.
“As you know, it’s mighty cold out there in the winter, and it’s hard to sleep in your car or in a tent. It’s more of a problem than many people realize here in Louisa. I hope that you will take good note of that and think about those people who are less fortunate than all of us…who deserve to be cared for in these dire circumstances,” Sergent said.
The coalition’s pleas come as the planning commission is considering a set of amendments to the county’s Land Development Regulations, covering everything from rules for electronic signs to setback requirements.
The proposal includes changes to the definition of both emergency shelter, the county’s name for facilities that provide temporary shelter to the homeless, and religious assembly, the county’s name for churches and other houses of worship. The tweaks are apparently meant to crack the door open for churches to provide shelter under limited circumstances, sans a CUP, but they don’t go as far as advocates want.
Under current county code, an emergency shelter is defined as “a facility providing temporary housing for one or more individuals who are temporarily or permanently homeless.” A religious assembly is defined, in part, as “a use located in a permanent building and providing regular organized religious worship and related incidental activities.”
Louisa County staff proposes broadening the definition of emergency shelter to include any facility “providing temporary housing and supportive services to individuals or families who are temporarily or permanently homeless” and adding a sentence to both definitions that permits a religious assembly to operate an emergency shelter “for the duration of a State or Locally declared State of Emergency, without benefit of a conditional use permit.” Emergency shelters would be required to comply with applicable state and federal regulations.
In emails to the commission, McWilliams and other advocates ask county officials to go further. They propose additional language, which would allow religious assemblies to operate as an emergency shelter, without a CUP, “when the National Weather [Service] indicates that overnight forecasted temperatures will be below 40 degrees Fahrenheit” or, as an alternative, “from November to March.”
“At this point, we are seeking to offer an overnight, hypothermia shelter during the winter months. This is something that we have been working to provide through a collection of churches, however the current zoning codes create an overwhelming obstacle to offering this ministry to our unhoused neighbors. Not only has our team identified several Louisa County families sleeping in their cars but we have personally spent funds to temporarily house people at the Loyalty Inn. Additionally, Charlottesville is currently turning away people from their shelter collaboration (PACEM) due to the overwhelming demand, some of which is caused by Louisa residents seeking shelter in Charlottesville during the winter,” McWilliams wrote in a March 7 email to Green Springs District Commissioner Jim Dickerson.
During a work session on Thursday, commissioners discussed how the county defines the uses, opting to hold another work session next month after Cuckoo District Commissioner George Goodwin contended that the county’s current and proposed definition of emergency shelter doesn’t align with state code and is being confused with a homeless shelter.
“I believe that between the current ordinance, the proposed ordinance, the community interest, we have confused issues. In the state code, there is an emergency shelter, and they also refer to a homeless shelter. In the language here and, in some correspondence I have received, I think it crosses the line into homeless shelter…According to the Code of Virginia, only the governor in a statewide event or local government in a local event can declare a state of emergency and activate an emergency shelter,” Goodwin said, adding that any facility designated as an emergency shelter must be part of a locality’s official emergency response plan.
Goodwin and Mineral District Commissioner John Disosway both suggested that the county likely needs to amend its definition of emergency shelter to align with state law and potentially create a separate definition for homeless shelter. They also said the proposed definition of religious assembly needs to be revisited given the language allowing the facilities to serve as shelters during a state of emergency.
“It’s going to take some research from staff…to make sure we properly define what we have with regard to state [code] for an emergency shelter and also whether or not a homeless shelter needs to be added to correct our local code so we have something we can work with and that all wraps up into the religious assembly,” Disosway said.
The commission only minimally delved into the coalition’s request to allow churches to provide temporary shelter to homeless individuals in winter—an ask that still stands regardless of how the county defines the use.
With housing costs on the rise across the state and affordable housing options scarce, homelessness is a growing problem in many rural areas, including Louisa.
Over the last few years, community members have repeatedly spoke at board of supervisors’ meetings, urging county officials to establish a shelter program and address housing insecurity more broadly. Like McWilliams, most speakers told county officials that they’ve personally paid for families to stay at the Loyalty Inn, a motel in the Town of Louisa, because they had nowhere else to turn.
LHC, initially called the Louisa Housing and Homeless Coalition, formed in 2023 to fill the gaps in services available to unhoused community members. It includes representatives from churches, nonprofits and other agencies.
One of the group’s first moves was to collect local data on homelessness. LHC partnered with the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless to conduct a point-in-time survey on January 24 of last year. The initiative, which is administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), aimed to get “a count of sheltered and unsheltered people who are experiencing homeless on a single night,” Lin Kogle, a volunteer with the group, told the board of supervisors last year.
Kogle said the group worked with volunteers, churches and the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office to conduct the survey, determining that there were 30 homeless individuals, including children, in the community at the time.
“Do we have an exact number? No. But we have a baseline to work from,” she said.
Kogle noted that the coalition defines homelessness as “an individual or family who lacks a regular and adequate nighttime residence such as those living in emergency shelters, transitional housing or places not meant for habitation.”
With that information in hand, advocates decided to follow PACEM’s model and partner with churches to provide overnight shelter from November through March.
According to volunteers, the coalition had recruited four churches who were interested in participating in a pilot program last winter, but two backed away amid concerns about violating the county’s zoning rules. The other two churches provided overnight shelter for three weeks in December and January.
The group has been working with county officials in hopes of forging a path forward for the program.
In his comments to the commission, McWilliams emphasized that the Bible calls on churches to open their doors to the most vulnerable in their communities and questioned whether they should be subject to an onerous public approval process for following the teachings of their faith.
“It makes me wonder if churches should really need the approval of their communities before they do something as simple as loving their neighbors because in scripture when Jesus talks about loving neighbor both in the parable of the Good Samaritan and in his conversation with the rich young ruler, on both occasions, it becomes abundantly clear that caring for the physical needs of the poor and the marginalized is essential to what Jesus means when he calls his community, his disciples, to love their neighbor,” he said.
The commission will hold a work session to discuss the definitions on May 8. Any changes to the county’s Land Development Regulations, including amending definitions, requires a public hearing in front of the planning commission and the board of supervisors and an affirmative vote by the latter body.
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.
I emailed my opinions of the budget to both my rep and the Chair; I received nothing back from my BOS, but got the same reasoning from the Chair. I disagree with them. It gets old hearing "when we get"....even data center companies change their minds ;-)