Residents ramp up opposition to proposed AWS data center campus; Supes ok more condos at Lake Anna; PC pushes public hearing on humanitarian shelters to August meeting
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, July 14 through July 19
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here.
Wednesday, July 16
Community Policy Management Team, Executive Board Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 1 pm.
Thursday, July 17
Industrial Development Authority, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 8:30 am.
Other meetings/events
Monday, July 14
Mineral Town Council, Mineral Town Hall, 312 Mineral Ave., Mineral, 6:30 pm. (agenda packet)
Tuesday, July 15
Louisa Town Council, Louisa Town Hall, 212 Fredericksburg Ave., Louisa, 6 pm. (agenda)
Quote of the week
“Please don’t Loudoun Louisa. Please don’t Prince William Louisa. Please don’t ruin Louisa. Please say no to this additional data center.”
-Louisa County resident Nora Wynkoop to the board of supervisors last Monday night. Wynkoop was one of a dozen community members who spoke in opposition to Amazon Web Services’ proposal to build its third data center campus in the county. She warned supervisors not to replicate the data center sprawl prevalent in two Northern Virginia localities.
Read more about opposition to another AWS data center campus in the article below.
Residents ramp up opposition to proposed AWS data center campus
Opponents of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) plan to build another sprawling data center campus in central Louisa County are ramping up their efforts to stop the project, from speaking out at county meetings and circulating an online petition to distributing signs and designing bumper stickers.
If approved by the board of supervisors, the campus would be the tech giant’s third in the county’s Technology Overlay District, a special zoning designation approved by supervisors two years ago with an eye toward attracting lucrative tech sector development. EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure also plans to build a data center campus in Louisa, acquiring the 697-acre Shannon Hill Regional Business Park last month.
AWS’s latest project would cover some 1,370 acres around the Northeast Creek Reservoir—land that’s historically been used for timber production. The campus would include up to 7.2 million square feet of the warehouse-like facilities, critical pieces of 21st century infrastructure that house the servers and networking equipment necessary to power cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other web-based services.
Dozens of community members attended last Monday’s board of supervisors meeting—though the project wasn’t on the agenda—urging board members to reject the proposal. Some said during the meeting’s public comment period that the county needs to pump the breaks on data center development, expressing fear that the industry—known for its insatiable demand for water and power—would overwhelm local infrastructure and spoil the community’s rural character.
One speaker warned supervisors not to replicate the data center sprawl of Northern Virginia, where local governments, especially in Loudoun and Prince William counties, have embraced data centers for the tax revenue they generate, but now face pushback from residents, who complain the facilities are marring their view shed, creating noise pollution and otherwise degrading their quality of life.
“Please don’t Loudoun Louisa. Please don’t Prince William Louisa. Please don’t ruin Louisa. Please say no to this additional data center,” Patrick Henry District resident Nora Wynkoop said.
Other speakers made more site-specific arguments.
Kennon Road resident Howard Loudin, whose home adjoins the proposed site, said the property isn’t appropriate for large-scale industrial development because of its steep slopes and proximity to the reservoir.
Loudin drew on his 50 years in construction to argue that the lengthy buildout process could cause runoff and other issues for the reservoir, which supplies drinking water to residents in central Louisa. He noted that a half dozen streams meander through the property and flow into the 187-acre impoundment.
“There could be fuel spills when they are moving all this dirt around our reservoir. Again, this is just a terrible place [for this project],” Loudin said.
Mineral District resident John Hazelwood also voiced concern about the proposed site, zeroing in on potential traffic issues.
“I don’t think this is anywhere to put a data center. I think [they] need to be in some designated areas like on the [Interstate] 64 corridor where the traffic is not diverted through town and through everybody’s communities. You’ve got established communities. You’re near the schools. You’re near the water supply,” Hazelwood said.
Beyond the walls of the County Office Building, community members are finding other ways to rally against the project.
In late June, Savannah Walker, a Louisa County native who works in the data center industry, launched the “Louisa County Technology Discussions” Facebook group, which she describes as “a place to have discussions about the incoming Data Centers and Technological Advancements” in the county. With nearly 500 members and counting, the group has quickly emerged as a forum for critics of data center development and those concerned about AWS’s latest proposal.
Members regularly ask questions about the project, raise concerns about the impact of data centers on the community and share articles highlighting the perils of data centers in other areas, including their intense water and power use and the noise they generate.
Last week, Walker started a petition in opposition to ongoing data center development, which has been shared widely on Facebook. In a brief narrative, she said that data centers aren’t a good fit for Louisa, threatening its agricultural roots and rural charm.
“Our children deserve a future where they can enjoy the lush landscapes and roots of their predecessors, not be burdened by soaring energy and water bills or stark alterations to our natural beauty,” Walker wrote.
At publication time, the petition had more than 660 signatures.
Other opponents are getting their message out via bumper stickers and yard signs.
Brittany Carroll has embraced a slogan that could emerge as a rallying cry for opponents: “Don’t Loudoun my Louisa,” a reference to widespread data center development in the Northern Virginia locality where the facilities abut subdivisions and have spawned a vast network of transmission lines that cut through farmland and historic sites.
Carroll designed bumper stickers featuring the slogan in a retro font paired with the image of a not-so-friendly-looking dog. In a message to Engage Louisa last week, she said she was inspired to create the stickers a few months ago as she watched a subdivision sprout up in what was once a cow pasture in her neighborhood. She said AWS’s plan to build a data center campus by the reservoir, where she remembers fishing as a child, was “the final straw.”
“I think the BOS made a deal with the devil by letting the first data center developer get their foot in the door. These developers are trying to prey on what they think are a bunch of rural, uneducated and unmotivated ‘bumpkins,’ and it’s important they know that’s not who they’re dealing with,” she said.
Since posting a mockup of her sticker on Facebook a week ago, Carroll said she’d received “a ton” of requests, adding she’s now planning to make yard signs.
“This was just a small passion project, so I was not expecting a whole lot of interest. But I’ve already had to place a second order of stickers,” she said.
In hopes of drawing more community members into the fight, longtime Louisa resident Laura Lee Harkrader has ordered dozens of yard signs designed by her daughter. The signs implore community members to “Tell the board of supervisors: no more data centers.” At the bottom, they include an image of a cow and the tagline, “Save our farms.”
Harkrader, who’s spent 36 years in the real estate industry specializing in farms, said in an email last week that she got involved in the effort to stop AWS’s third campus, in part, because of her “lifelong desire to keep our county as rural as possible.” She also said that she has concerns about the location of the project.
“The location [is] just so bad for so many reasons that I wanted to help in any way I could,” she said.
Harkrader said the response to the signs has been “wildly positive,” adding that many community members are finding ways to speak out against the project.
“So many [people] really want to help out and placing a sign on their property makes them feel like they are doing their part,” Harkrader said. “There are others that are having signs ordered, making stickers, circulating petitions, talking to their friends and neighbors, just anything they think they can do to help and to be a part of this very important movement for Louisa County.”
The three data center campuses already slated for construction are permitted by-right, meaning they didn’t require a public approval process. But AWS must get a conditional use permit (CUP) for its latest proposal.
Obtaining the permit requires public hearings in front of the planning commission and the board of supervisors and an affirmative vote by the latter body. It’s unclear when either panel will consider the application.
Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents the area, is the only board member to publicly take a stand on the project. At a town hall in late June, Adams said he plans to vote against the campus. He said that while he’s been supportive of data center development in the past, mostly because of the significant tax revenue it generates, he believes it’s time to press pause.
“Within the next 16-18 months, we will see two data centers come online, moving all of the economic projections and infrastructure estimates from the abstract to hard data. I believe it’s prudent to slow down, take a breath and continue to evaluate as we move forward,” Adams said in an email to Engage Louisa.
BOS roundup: Supervisors ok more condos at Lake Anna
With little fanfare, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Monday night cleared the way for more condos on Lake Anna. (meeting materials, video)
The board voted 5-2 to approve LA Resort, LLC’s request to add 18 condos to the 96 already approved in a 276,000-square foot, six-story building slated for 15.2 acres fronting Mitchell Creek, just west of the Route 208 bridge.
Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents the area, and Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams voted against the proposal.
The board agreed to rezone the property from commercial (C-2) to planned unit development (PUD) two and a half years ago despite staunch opposition from neighbors who argued the project would bring high-density “Northern Virginia-style” development to their neighborhood, spoiling its rural charm.
The rezoning cleared the way for Prince William County developers Mike Grossman and Mike Garcia to develop a mixed-use complex, pairing the residential condo building with a 130-key hotel, a 150-seat restaurant/bar, a marina and other amenities at the county’s primary gateway from Northern Virginia.
Grossman and Garcia came back to the board in January with plans to add 28 units, trading 12 five-bedroom condos for 40 one-bedrooms dwellings. They made that move after market research determined the larger dwellings could prove difficult to sell. The developers packaged the proposal with $56,000 in cash proffers, aimed at offsetting potential impacts on fire and emergency services and supporting affordable housing.
But board members balked at that request. Williams scoffed at the idea of increasing the project’s density by nearly 30 percent and called the proffers “paltry.”
The applicant returned on Monday night with a revamped proposal that slimmed down the number of additional units by 10, swapping 12 five-bedroom dwellings for 30 smaller units, and upping the cash proffers to $129,080.
Of that, $100,080 will go to the Fluvanna-Louisa Housing Foundation for affordable housing programs; $20,000 is slated for Louisa County’s Fire and EMS Department to buy defibrillators for sheriff deputies’ vehicles; and $9,000 is earmarked for the Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services, a nonprofit that supports the New Bridge Fire and Rescue Station.
The developers will pay another $9,000 to the FEMS Department’s general fund, part of a $500 per unit proffer agreed to when the property was rezoned. They’ll also chip in $1 million for the expansion of a county-owned wastewater treatment plant, which was also part of the initial rezoning deal. The plant will provide public sewer service to the complex.
Attorney Torrey Williams, who represented the applicant, told the board that his client had listened to feedback from the January meeting.
“It was because of the comments, it was because of the concerns, it was because of the issues that we’ve come back with what I believe would be some of the most robust proffers for a project of this size, specifically for what is being requested with the extra 18 units,” Williams said.
The scaled-down ask combined with the beefed-up proffers didn’t spark the fireworks of the previous proposal but still met pushback from some board members. Williams, the Jackson District supervisor, said his position hadn’t changed.
“I still feel like this is nothing more than you’re buying your way to more units,” he said.
A couple board members who supported the request didn’t seem thrilled by the idea.
Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter, who represents most of Lake Anna below the Route 208 bridge, said the changes were minimal and wouldn’t significantly increase traffic on 208—a key concern when the project was initially approved—so he’d support it. But he said, going forward, he wouldn’t vote for “similar development of this section of Route 208” until VDOT and the county have a plan to upgrade the road.
“Louisa is open for business, but we have our limits,” McCotter said.
Despite vocal criticism on social media, no one spoke for or against the change during the meeting’s public comment period.
Supervisors approve CUP for contractor’s office, equipment rental biz near Trevilians
Supervisors held a public hearing and voted unanimously to approve James Weber’s request for a conditional use permit (CUP) to operate an equipment sales and rental business and contractor’s office and shop on about four acres at 17935 Louisa Road (Route 22) in the Louisa Election District (tax map parcels 24-45, 24-46). Weber owns the property via Louisa Properties LR2.5, LLC and Louisa Properties LR1.5, LLC.
The commercially zoned parcels (C-2) are located on the north side of Louisa Road just west of its intersection with Oakland Road (Route 613) and adjacent to the Trevilian Station Battlefield. A portion of the property was formerly used for storage and resale of second-hand items and antiques.
Kelsey Schlein, a planner with Shimp Engineering and the applicant’s representative, told the board that Weber’s contracting business mostly builds retaining walls and installs hardscaping. Schlein said he’d couple that use with equipment sales and rental, leasing space to a company that specializes in the use.
Weber plans to build a 4,000 square foot building at the far western edge of the property to support the equipment sales and rental component. He plans to repurpose an existing structure for the contractor’s office and shop.
The long and narrow site, which sits just south of railroad tracks, will be served by both an existing access point and a new commercial entrance, both off Louisa Road. Senior Planner Tom Egeland said the dual entrances would “help with site circulation for customers and deliveries.” He also noted the property would include on-site parking and outdoor storage yards.
Supervisors responded favorably to Weber’s request.
Green Springs District Supervisor Rachel Jones said she drives by the property frequently, and she’s pleased to see the new owner’s cleanup effort.
“That property has been run down and a blight for a longtime, so it is so nice to see it being cleaned up and taken care of,” Jones said.
Louisa District Supervisor Manning Woodward, who represents the area, applauded Schlein for her efforts to address community concerns as she shepherded the application through the public approval process.
“To say it is a difficult piece of property, I think, is really an understatement with the right of ways for the road, the right of ways for the railroad. So, I commend you for coming up with the plan that you did,” Woodward said.
No one spoke for or against the proposal during the public hearing.
Board oks CUP for cabinet business
In the second public hearing of the night, supervisors voted 7-0 to approve Builders Cabinet Company and its owner, Joey Bryant’s, request for a conditional use permit (CUP) to operate a cabinet and carpentry manufacturing shop and contractor’s office and shop on about six acres on the east side of Belle Meade Road (Route 701) near Beagle Run subdivision in the Jackson Election District (tax map parcel 85-14-9).
Bryant and his wife, Pam, own the agriculturally zoned (A-2) property and reside on an adjoining parcel.
According to his land use application, Bryant plans to construct a 4,800-square foot enclosed garage to manufacture custom-made cabinets and other carpentry products. He says the use won’t negatively impact neighbors, noting that few clients will visit the facility.
Before moving to approve the request, Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams said he operates a contractor’s yard, and the use has minimal impact on neighbors.
No one spoke for or against the request during the public hearing.
Other business
Board green-lights public hearing on tweaks to Dogs Running at Large ordinance: The board agreed to hold a public hearing to consider proposed tweaks to the county’s “Dog Running at Large” ordinance.
The ordinance prohibits dogs from running at large any time of year and institutes an escalating penalty structure for people who repeatedly allow their dogs to roam, beginning with a Class 4 misdemeanor on the first offense.
A dog is considered running at large when it’s “roaming or running off the property of its owner or custodian and not under its owner's or custodian's immediate control,” according to state and county code.
The board will consider making minor modifications to the ordinance to ensure residents can take a complaint to a local magistrate on their own without the involvement of an animal control officer.
“[The proposed language] would allow a private citizen to go in and apply to the magistrate for the issuance of subpoena or warrant, if necessary. That way, animal control does not have to go out and chase down every animal that’s running wild in the neighborhood. A citizen can go in with their evidence and, as long as they show up, they can enforce that through the magistrate,” County Attorney Patricia Smith said.
Board establishes airport advisory committee: Supervisors formally established the Louisa County Airport Advisory Committee. The five-member committee will be appointed by the board of supervisors.
Per its bylaws, the committee is tasked with generating ideas to support the growth of the airport; assisting in planning aviation-related events that draw public interest; helping to align airport initiatives with the county’s broader economic development goals; and encouraging partnerships with community stakeholders. It doesn’t have any formal authority over airport operations, budgeting or decision-making.
The committee also got its first member. At the recommendation of Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter, supervisors appointed Lake Anna resident and pilot Bill Fosdick to the panel.
Board places nearly $42 million in long-term capital reserves: Supervisors placed nearly $42 million in the county’s long-term capital reserves, a fund that holds unassigned money to pay for capital projects like new buildings and infrastructure upgrades.
The revenue comes from the sale of the 697-acre Shannon Hill Regional Business Park, which the county, via the Louisa County Industrial Development Authority, sold to EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure last month. The Colorado-based firm plans to develop 3.9 million square feet of data center buildings at the site, which sits just north of the Shannon Hill exit off Interstate 64.
County officials purchased the property in 2019 for $2.6 million with plans to develop a large-scale industrial park to bulk up the tax base and create jobs. They’ve since invested more than $30 million in readying the site for large scale industrial development with nearly $14 million coming from state economic development grants.
Finance Director Wanda Colvin said the county netted $18 million in profit from the sale. It plans to use that money primarily to pay off debt early.
Board oks supplemental appropriation to LCWA for dam repair: Supervisors authorized a $78,043 supplemental appropriation to the Louisa County Water Authority (LCWA) to replace a faulty valve stem at the Bowlers Mill Dam. The appropriation, drawn from the county’s general fund, will also cover the cost of a trash rack to keep debris away from the valve and the dam intake.
Board approves pass-through appropriation for brush truck purchase: Supervisors approved a $90,000 pass-through appropriation to the Louisa County Fire and EMS Department for the purchase of a brush truck for the New Bridge Fire and EMS Station. The Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services donated the money.
Since its inception in 2018, the foundation has chipped in more than $700,000 to support the New Bridge station, the county’s newest FEMS facility.
Supes ok pass-through appropriation for airport upgrades: Supervisors authorized a $42,465 pass-through appropriation for lighting upgrades at the Louisa County Airport. Of that, $38,218, or 90 percent, will come from the Virginia Department of Aviation while $4,246, or 10 percent, will come from a county contingency fund.
Board oks repairs to Walton Park stage: The board agreed to allocate $18,375 to the Mineral Volunteer Fire Department for repairs to the stage at Walton Park. The money will be drawn from tourism funding generated by the transient occupancy tax, a seven percent levy that’s tacked on to visitors’ bills when they stay the night at a local hotel, bed and breakfast or short-term rental.
PC roundup: Commission pushes public hearing on humanitarian shelters to August meeting, recommends denial of RNG unloading facility
The Louisa County Planning Commission on Thursday night tackled a busy agenda but pushed the marquee item—a proposal to add a definition of “humanitarian shelter” to county code and strictly regulate the use—to its August meeting. (meeting materials, video)
Commission delays public hearing on humanitarian shelters
The commission delayed until its August meeting a public hearing on a controversial proposal to add a definition of “humanitarian shelter” to county code and to impose restrictions on the use.
The decision to remove the public hearing from the agenda came near the end of the meeting after the commission convened in closed session for about 30 minutes to discuss legal matters.
When commissioners emerged from behind closed doors, they voted 5-0-1 to delay the public hearing. Chair John Disosway said the commission decided not to take up the item because the language in the proposed code amendments didn’t match what the commission had recommended for consideration at its June meeting. Mountain Road District Commissioner Gordon Brooks abstained because he missed the June meeting. Jackson District Commissioner Troy Painting was absent.
The planning commission often crafts recommendations for proposed changes to the county’s zoning code, which are then used by staff to formulate the legalese that would appear in code should the changes be approved. It's unclear why there were discrepancies between the commission’s recommendation and the language included in the meeting materials.
The commission, for months, has grappled with how to define “homeless shelter” in county code and what restrictions to place on the use. After a work session last month, the panel decided to consider adding a definition of “humanitarian shelter”—defined as “a facility that provides temporary shelter and basic services to individuals or families without requiring leases or occupancy agreements”—and to require a conditional use permit (CUP) for the use anywhere in the 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.
To obtain and retain the permit, per the recommendation proposed in June, entities seeking to shelter unhoused community members or others temporarily in need of a place to stay would be required to have a staffer or authorized representative on site whenever the shelter is operating; establish a structured intake process; partner with at least one qualified provider of supportive services; provide a narrative explaining how they’d avoid “adverse impacts on surrounding properties and uses;” and provide a point of contact to respond to community concerns, among other requirements.
County code currently calls a homeless shelter an “emergency shelter” and requires a CUP for the use in most zoning designations. The draft would remove “emergency shelter” from code.
The proposal upset members of the Louisa Homeless Coalition (LHC), who’ve pushed county officials to allow churches to provide temporary shelter to homeless people during the coldest months of the year sans a CUP.
Volunteers with the coalition have pressed for the change in hopes of launching a program modeled after People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM) in Charlottesville, where a rotating group of churches offer overnight shelter to unhoused community members March through November.
LHC launched a pilot program at two churches last winter, but members say their efforts to expand the program have been stymied by the county’s CUP requirement.
A group of coalition supporters attended Thursday’s meeting, poised to speak against the proposal. Some volunteers spoke at previous meetings, contending the CUP requirement infringes on churches’ ability to carry out their faith and arguing that county officials aren’t being responsive to their ask, which is simply to allow churches to shelter homeless people on freezing nights without fear of fines or other penalties.
Because the item was removed from the agenda after public comment, a period at the beginning of each meeting where community members are free to speak about whatever they want as long as the item’s not on the agenda, coalition supporters didn’t get an opportunity to weigh in.
Just after Disosway adjourned the meeting, David McWilliams, pastor at Zion United Methodist Church at Zion Crossroads, challenged him.
“Mr. Chairman, I was denied the right to speak during public comment. You insisted that it had to be on something that wasn’t on the agenda…You then removed my item from the agenda,” McWilliams said.
Disosway responded that removing the public hearing was intended to preserve community members’ ability to speak at the next meeting and make informed arguments to the commission.
“The commission decided to hold this whole thing over until next month, so you could see the actual language ahead of time before the meeting, so that you would understand what we were going to take up, and you would have the opportunity to properly collect your thoughts and make a presentation on the correct language,” Disosway said, adding he’d be happy to talk with McWilliams outside the meeting.
Disosway told Engage Louisa after the meeting that there were “a number of differences” between the commission’s recommendation and the proposed language in the meeting materials though he didn’t offer specifics.
In an email on Friday, Disosway said he and at least one other commissioner noticed the discrepancies as they reviewed the meeting materials earlier in the week. He said that, just prior to the meeting, he’d been “trying to get clarification on whether the change was a result of legal review.”
Disosway said he didn’t get an answer before the meeting nor was the recommended language produced as the public hearing approached, prompting the mid-meeting closed session and the decision to delay the hearing.
“Without the original language available to the PC or the public, I made the decision to postpone the entire hearing so that both the public and the commissioners could have a reasonable opportunity to read the proposed amendment and formulate good comments. The closed session could have been held earlier in the meeting but, as I said, I was allowing time for the original language to be produced for the meeting,” Disosway said.
One notable difference between the commission’s recommendation and the proposed language in the meeting materials involves shelters as an ancillary use. Based on discussions in June, the commission proposed a prohibition on standalone shelters, meaning the use would only be permitted at establishments used for other purposes. The draft language, however, doesn’t explicitly bar standalone shelters.
“Stand-alone shelters may raise additional considerations and should be discussed with staff during the application process,” it says.
The board of supervisors has the final say on whether a definition of “humanitarian shelter” is added to code and what restrictions are placed on the use.
Commission recommends denial of RNG injection facility in western Louisa
Amid concerns about large trucks traveling to and from the site, the commission voted 6-0 to recommend that the board of supervisors deny Columbia Gas Transmission and Vanguard Renewables SVP, LLC’s request for a conditional use permit (CUP) to operate a renewable natural gas (RNG) unloading station on a 5.6-acre agriculturally zoned (A-2) parcel at the corner of Brickhouse Road (Route 637) and Poindexter Road (Route 613) in the Patrick Henry Election District (tax map parcel 37-44).
If approved by supervisors, the CUP would clear the way for the expansion of a compressor station situated on an adjoining parcel, enabling the injection of RNG into the Columbia gas pipeline. The gas would be transported throughout the region, including to facilities in Louisa.
RNG refers to biogas that’s used as a replacement for fossil fuels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It comes from a variety of sources, including livestock farms, landfills and wastewater treatment facilities.
The biogas injected in Louisa would originate at a dairy farm in Amelia County with tractor trailers transporting gas to the site a few times a day, six days a week. The vehicles would enter the site off Poindexter Road, a Vanguard representative said, a change from a previous plan to access the site off Brickhouse Road.
The commission held a public hearing on the request at its June meeting, but tabled action, in part, due to concerns about tractor trailers regularly visiting the site. At Thursday night’s meeting, commissioners made clear that their worries about traffic safety couldn’t be addressed.
“Getting to the site, in my opinion, there’s no safe way to do it…[Poindexter Road] is not a daily drive for a tractor trailer. The shoulders are low. If, at some point, there are two such vehicles traveling and [they] meet each other, somebody takes the shoulder, somebody possibly flips over. I don’t think we want a gas truck flipping over,” Patrick Henry District Commissioner Ellis Quarles said before motioning to recommend denial.
The application next goes to the board of supervisors for a final up-or-down vote.
PC recommends approval of CUPs for Verizon cell towers
The commission recommended that the board of supervisors approve a pair of conditional use permits (CUP) that would clear the way for two Verizon cell towers—one near Wares Crossroads and the other adjacent to Jouett Elementary School (JES).
In the first of two public hearings involving the towers, the commission voted 4-2 to green-light a CUP for construction of a 195-foot tower with a four-foot lightening rod on 64.8 acres off Jouett School Road in the Jackson Election District (tax map parcel 83-68).
The property is home to JES and currently includes a county-owned tower that was built as part of the Louisa County Broadband Authority’s effort to bring wireless high-speed internet to the area.
With that project dead and the county partnering with Firefly Fiber Broadand to meet the community’s high speed internet needs, the existing tower is slated for removal to be replaced by the new Verizon tower.
Lori Schweller, an attorney representing Verizon, said that Vertical Bridge would own the tower with Verizon leasing the infrastructure. The tower would also have space for other telecommunication companies to mount their equipment.
At the commission’s request, Schweller agreed to provide Louisa County space on the tower, free of charge, for its existing broadband infrastructure until Firefly completes its county-wide fiber project. The equipment is currently serving some government agencies, according to county staff.
In the second public hearing, the commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval of a CUP to build a 195-foot cell tower with a four-foot lightening rod on a 772-acre agriculturally zoned parcel (A-2) on the west side of Zachary Taylor Highway (Route 522) near Wares Crossroads in the Mineral Election District (tmp 28-97F).
In its land use applications, Verizon says both towers aim to expand the company’s network of service in the county while also meeting the need for increased network capacity.
Commission oks tweak to code related to right-of-way dedication
The commission held a public hearing and recommended to the board of supervisors approval of a tweak to county code aimed at clarifying that “right-of-way dedication shown on a subdivision plat may be to the County of Louisa for public use; or the Commonwealth of Virginia, as may be required by the Virginia Department of Transportation.”
In a memo to the commission, staff says the clarification was initiated by the board of supervisors during a discussion of a package of minor revisions to code approved at the board’s June 16 meeting.
No one spoke for or against the amendment during the public hearing.
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.