Supervisors name Buckler as community development director; Board approves rezoning for boat storage facility, oks funding to address FEMS staffing issues
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.
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BOS roundup: Board names Buckler as head of community development; Supes ok rezoning for boat storage facility
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Monday night convened for its second May meeting, considering a wide range of public business. (meeting materials, video)
Perhaps the biggest news of the night was tucked into the meeting’s “board appointments” section and not explicitly listed on the agenda beforehand: the board’s decision to name Linda Buckler, a longtime county employee, as head of the Community Development Department.
In other business, supervisors okayed a commercial rezoning that clears the way for a boat storage facility at Wares Crossroads, appropriated $830,000 to overcome a budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2024 mostly related to staffing issues in the Fire and EMS Department and accepted a $108,000 donation from the Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services.
Board names Buckler as head of Community Development Department
A familiar face is taking the reins of Louisa County’s Community Development Department.
The board of supervisors on Monday voted unanimously to appoint Linda Buckler as the county’s new community development director and zoning administrator.
Buckler, a 34-year veteran of the department, brings a wealth of experience to the job. She was first hired in 1990 as an administrative assistant and worked her way up the ranks to most recently serve as the department’s deputy director.
In her new role, Buckler will oversee an 18-member department, which includes the county’s planning and zoning staff as well as its building inspection and code enforcement division. She will lead the department’s preparation of long-range planning studies involving county infrastructure, affordable housing, land use and related policies including an upcoming review of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. In addition, she’ll oversee the department’s day-to-day activities related to land use permits, inspections and code enforcement.
“Ms. Buckler has served as a tremendous county resource for three and a half decades. Her advancement to this position is well-deserved, and we look forward to hearing her analyses and recommendations in this new capacity,” Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chair Duane Adams said in a statement.
Buckler is the third person to helm the Community Development Department in the last five years. She replaces former director Josh Gillespie, who served in the post for two years. Gillespie left in late April to take a job as deputy county administrator in Goochland.
The board also named Senior Planner Tom Egeland as deputy zoning administrator and Associate Planner Renee Mawyer as deputy subdivision agent.
Egeland joined the Community Development Department in 2017 and has served as the county’s senior planner for the past three years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and commerce from Hampden-Sydney College and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
Mawyer joined the department as an associate planner in March after a nearly three-year stint as a zoning plan reviewer in Spotsylvania County. From 2017 to 2021, she worked in Louisa’s Community Development Department as an administrative assistant, per her profile on LinkedIn.
Supes green-light rezoning for boat storage facility at Wares Crossroads
A storage facility designed to accommodate lake goers is coming to Wares Crossroads.
Supervisors voted unanimously on Monday night to approve Lake Anna Storage, LLC’s request to rezone, from Agricultural (A-2 GAOD) to General Commercial (C-2 GAOD), 7.714 acres (tmp 28-106) just southwest of the intersection of Chopping Road (Route 623) and Zachary Taylor Highway (Route 522) in the Lake Anna Growth Area Overlay District.
The rezoning clears the way for Doug and Kristin Barmoy to open a storage facility on the property, which will provide space for lake users to store boats, other watercraft and recreational vehicles. The Barmoys also plan to offer detailing and, potentially, add other services like minor maintenance and repairs for boats and RVs.
Throughout the public approval process, the Barmoys have said their propoal would meet a need in the community, pointing to the long waitlists at other storage facilities in the area. They’ve also emphasized that the rezoning fits with the character of the neighborhood, noting the parcel, which is currently home to a single-family residence, is surrounded by properties zoned for commercial use.
Those points were highlighted again on Monday night by the applicant and a community member who spoke during the public hearing in support of the request.
“The boat storage facility [the Barmoys] are looking to provide is a needed service in the Lake Anna area. If you talk with anyone that is currently storing a boat, looking for a boat slip, they are all full. There is no place to store your boat around Lake Anna,” Mineral District resident Phil Winston told the board, adding, “[It’s all] C-2 property around it and the area is growing right there. It’s just another piece of property that’s being put to use as opposed to sitting there with a pile of woods that you’re not collecting much money from.”
While the board voted unanimously to approve the rezoning, a proposed proffer attached to the request caused some concern and was ultimately removed.
As part of their proffers, the Barmoys agreed to exclude all but 21 uses permitted in C-2 zoning from being developed on the property in the future. But, at the urging of the planning commission, they also agreed to present to the commission for review and comment any plans to utilize the property for a permitted use other than what they currently propose.
That meant if the Barmoys secured a rezoning and opted to develop the property for something other than a boat storage facility or the related proposed uses, they’d have to submit a site plan to the planning commission for feedback even though the use is allowed under their proffers.
Under current county code, rezonings and the proffers attached to them are voted on by the planning commission and the board of supervisors with the former body making a recommendation and the latter casting the deciding vote. Both minor and major site plans are reviewed and approved administratively by county staff.
The proffer requiring additional review sparked the ire of Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents Wares Crossroads and the upper end of Lake Anna. Adams argued it amounted to unnecessary government regulation, noting that permitted uses of concern to county officials can be excluded via proffers as the Barmoys had done with a number of uses.
“This is an additional layer of government control over property rights. The whole purpose of the planning commission process is [that] if you want something proffered out, you proffer it out. You don’t come begging back to the government years later and ask for permission to submit a project,” Adams said.
But other board members contended that the Barmoys were seeking a rezoning specifically for a boat storage business and related uses, and the planning commission was concerned that radically changing the use in the future could have unforeseen ramifications for the neighborhood.
Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams recalled that, several years ago, the board rezoned a nearby parcel for use as a boat storage facility and the business never materialized. The parcel is now for sale with a full range of commercial uses available to its owner.
“What I don’t want to do is see people buying up stuff, getting it rezoned in the Growth Area Overlay District with the promise of doing something, and then ‘oh-by-the-way, it just didn’t work out, let me stick a for sale sign on it,’” Williams said.
Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter sounded a similar note. He said that he’d talked with his commissioner about the proffer and didn’t see it as undue regulation but wise planning.
“The way it was explained to me, [the planning commission] approved it with these bullet points because there was a trend to bring something [in with] a site plan and then afterward it tended to be something different. They did not want to cede control of that process,” McCotter said.
For their part, the Barmoys reminded the board that the surrounding properties are zoned general commercial and have access to the full range of uses permitted in the zoning code. As part of their proffer statement, many potential uses are excluded and those that remain, as Kristin Barmoy put it, “make sense.”
As an example, she said that she and her husband had excluded a shooting range as a future use, but want to retain the option of putting a medical office on the property because that’s something desired by lake residents.
“We are planning on putting a boat storage facility there. But…if somebody approaches us and says ‘we want to build an urgent care on this [site]’ before we have the boat storage constructed, we want to have options,” Kristin Barmoy said. “Every other property surrounding us has those options plus some that we eliminated.”
Interim County Attorney Dale Mullen said that while he understood the planning commission’s intent, the proffer requiring additional review presents an inconsistency. He noted that if the board approves the rezoning with 21 commercial uses allowed, the decision as to whether a particular project can be developed on the site has already been made.
“The board of supervisors has already granted the right for the property to be used for those purposes. You would be going back to the planning commission to review a site plan for uses that have already been permitted by the governing body,” Mullen said. “It’s, at best, a confusing way to go about it and, at worst, perhaps simply redundant. I think the motives were pure, it may just be the wrong vehicle for that attempt to control.”
After hearing from Mullen, the board agreed to approve the rezoning without the proffer at the Barmoys’ request.
But McCotter said that, in the future, the board should be careful about altering proffers at the last minute especially when they come before the board with the planning commission’s endorsement.
The concept plan the Barmoys submitted as part of their rezoning request also sparked conversation and a tweak to the proffers.
According to the plan, the Barmoys intend to construct four covered storage structures, outdoor parking spaces and a 2,000-square foot workshop for detailing, and they plan to use an existing home on the property as an office. The business would be mostly surrounded by a 10 to 40-foot tree-lined buffer and accessed by a shared commercial entrance off Chopping Road.
Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes said that he wanted to ensure the facility is properly buffered, noting lessons the county learned from developing Zion Crossroads.
“There is a reason that the north side of Zion Crossroads looks better than the south side. The south side got planned before we started looking to the future…now you see the setbacks, the shrubbery. It’s day and night,” Barnes said.
Doug Barmoy said that, per the concept plan, Lake Anna Storage will maintain a roughly 40-foot vegetative buffer along Chopping Road to help screen the property and include a 10-foot buffer along other parts of the site. At the request of the planning commission, the Barmoys also agreed to provide Louisa County a 10-foot right-of-way along Chopping Road for future road improvements.
Louisa District resident Vicky Harte, the only other community member to weigh in during the public hearing, said she noticed cemetery markings on the concept plan. Harte said she wanted more information about the cemetery and asked how it would be preserved.
Doug Barmoy said that there are about a dozen dilapidated gravesites on the property, but he doesn’t know who’s buried there. He added that, in developing the site, Lake Anna Storage plans to build a fence around the cemetery and “keep it nice.”
At Adams’ request, the Barmoys agreed to a proffer requiring a 10-foot buffer around the cemetery.
Supes ok $830k supplemental appropriation to support FEMS Department
Supervisors approved a $830,000 budget supplement for Fiscal Year 2024 to support the Fire and EMS Department. Of that, $680,000 will cover salary adjustments and overtime for fire and EMS (FEMS) personnel while $150,000 will pay for increased repair and fuel costs for fire and rescue apparatuses.
Finance Director Wanda Colvin said that the FEMS Department has experienced high turnover and increased call volume over the last year, requiring it to pay more overtime and implement an incentive program to ensure the county’s eight fire and EMS stations are adequately staffed. The staffing issues have also led the county to adjust salaries in an effort to retain current employees and attract new ones.
While the additional expenses weren’t anticipated for FY24, Colvin said that the FY25 budget includes funding for six additional firefighter/medic positions plus several part-time positions as well as pay increases—measures aimed at alleviating the staffing crunch.
“We have addressed a lot of this in the ’25 budget. We’ve added additional people. We’ve implemented salary increases to, hopefully, bring more people in and get those positions [filled],” Colvin said.
County Administrator Christian Goodwin added that the additional funding for salaries is aimed at reducing the need for overtime by addressing high staff turnover head-on.
“I think the biggest problem…is all the localities in the state and, specifically, the localities around us are all struggling to attract the same people. So, as compensation levels go up in surrounding localities, that’s what’s driving some of that turnover,” Goodwin said. “I would love to say there’s a golden arrow to mitigate that situation, but this will hopefully bring those costs down by retaining more of our people, putting us in a better position with regard to those around us.”
While the board approved the appropriation 7-0, Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow, perhaps the board’s most fiscally conservative member, called the additional funding “a tremendous amount of money.”
Over the last several years, Barlow has voiced concern about the county’s increased spending on fire and EMS, bemoaning its growing reliance on paid staff as opposed to volunteers. That move has been necessitated by the difficulty in attracting volunteers, a problem plaguing fire and rescue departments across the state.
Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams said that he still sees volunteerism as a way to decrease staffing costs, noting the board established a volunteer incentive program and, in recent months, several stations have seen an uptick in volunteer hours.
But Adams added that he’s a “realist” and recognizes that the county can’t rely on volunteers like it once did.
“Unfortunately—and it is not just limited to Louisa County, it’s across the nation and across the commonwealth—volunteerism is not what it used to be. Two-parent families working, people working outside the county. I wish our entire department was volunteer but that’s not reality,” Adams said, adding, “I don’t think anyone should sit here and think that the Fire and EMS Department is not going to continue to be…an expensive part of the budget.”
During the FY25 budget process, supervisors appropriated more than $24 million for public safety, which includes funding for the Fire and EMS Department and Sheriff’s Office. That allotment is roughly 16 percent of the county’s operating budget and a 14 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
To meet the FY24 shortfall, Colvin said the county will draw $730,000 from interest on bank deposits and $100,000 from the Office of FEMS Compensation.
BOS accepts $108k donation from Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services
Louisa County got one step closer to replacing an aging and ill-equipped fire and rescue boat on Monday night.
Representatives from the Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services (FLAES) presented supervisors with a $108,000 donation with $82,000 slated to go toward the purchase of a new boat and $26,000 earmarked for a fire module for the vessel.
The county’s Fire and EMS Department currently has only one boat—a 2008 Kenner fishing boat that was purchased used and lacks adequate fire and rescue equipment. Supervisors included $175,000 in the FY25 Capital Improvement Plan for a new boat with plans to use community donations to offset some of its cost. The department intends to purchase the boat in July and station it at the Lake Anna Yacht Club.
According to the foundation’s website, the new vessel will feature locking compartments for EMS and other equipment, a landing craft bow, dive door and Davit lifting arm.
FLAES was founded by a group of Lake Anna residents in 2019 with the initial goal of raising $100,000 in seed money for construction of the New Bridge Fire and EMS Station on Route 208 near the lake. After meeting that goal and successfully advocating that the county invest taxpayer money in the facility—New Bridge is the first fire and rescue station to be built in the county with public funds—FLAES has continued to raise money to equip the facility with life-saving gear.
In total, the foundation has raised $456,577 in support of the station, according to FLAES board member Pat Gallagher. Aside from the construction and boat donations, the group chipped in $150,000 for a new ambulance, $76,235 for a Physio Control LifePack and extrication equipment and $17,642 for a Lucas Compression Device, per its website.
Gallagher said the foundation has been able be raise that money through the generosity of community members and local businesses. Over the last five years, the nonprofit organization has hosted periodic fundraisers and organized several long-term fundraising campaigns including a buy-a-brick program, which allows people to purchase a brick for the station’s patio inscribed with the name of a loved one or local business.
Several supervisors thanked Gallagher and other foundation members for their ongoing support.
“I remember when you first showed up and you talked about wanting a fire house and rescue station at the lake. We talked about how the community has supported all the rest of [the stations]. While I don’t think y’all have run any calls, y’all have far exceeded my expectations with what you’ve done,” Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams said.
Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow echoed Williams and told the foundation that he looks forward to its continued support.
“Y’all have done a fantastic job of supporting your community and the fire and EMS station. But it doesn’t end. It’s a continual thing. So, keep up the good work,” he said.
FLAES plans to do just that. On June 18, the organization will host its second annual golf tournament at Cutalong at Lake Anna with proceeds going toward the purchase of additional equipment. The foundation next plans to help the station acquire an air cascade system and tanker. Click here to learn more about the tournament.
Staff to work with Dominion on explainer detailing permitted structures and uses on Lake Anna and other regulations
Amid concerns from at least one board member that recent revisions to the Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance could open the door to unwanted residential and commercial development over the lake’s waters, County Administrator Christian Goodwin told the board that staff plans to work with Dominion Energy to prepare a brief document explaining what uses and structures are permitted on the lake and outlining other regulations.
The board at its May 6 meeting opted to remove several provisions from the ordinance that laid out development and design standards for residential boathouses and docks because they overlapped with Dominion’s rules. Dominion owns the 13,000-acre waterway and its shoreline but allows adjoining property owners to build overwater structures via individual use agreements.
Though the revised ordinance passed unanimously, it sparked some concern from Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow who said the ordinance was initially implemented to prevent residential and commercial development over the water without county approval. He specifically referenced a floating townhome community proposed by developers about 15 years ago.
Barlow said he wanted assurances that county code retains the tools necessary to regulate or reject similar proposals, claiming that Dominion officials didn’t seem too concerned about the floating townhome proposal when it was introduced and the company’s standards for overwater development could shift over time.
Goodwin said that staff recently met with representatives from Dominion about Barlow’s concerns, and they decided that the best path forward would be to craft an explainer detailing lake-specific regulations and the county and Dominion’s role in enforcing them.
Goodwin said the document could cover everything from whether residential and commercial structures can be built over the water to whether the county needs to develop a specific zoning designation for the lake. The document could then be shared with the board and the public.
“We thought the best way forward was maybe to start developing a list of—let’s just call it FAQs for lack of a better term—that either the board or the public might be interested to know about what they could do outside of traditional uses on the lake. We could address some of Mr. Barlow’s questions and some of the other ones that came up,” Goodwin said, adding that Dominion officials also agreed to appear at an upcoming board meeting.
Several board members responded favorably to the idea including Barlow. But he made clear that he wants to review Dominion’s answers to determine if changes need to be made to county code to guard against problematic overwater structures.
Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter, who represents most of the lake below the Route 208 bridge, agreed.
“We will find out answers not only to Supervisor Barlow’s questions, but we’ll find out answers to whether the action we took with the shoreline amendment will be lasting. I think maybe Dominion will learn some things too as they answer some questions that have not been answered that need to be answered as we move forward with today’s lake development,” McCotter said.
Coon briefs board on status of proposed amendments to solar, TOD ordinances
While the meeting agenda suggested that supervisors would discuss proposed amendments to the county’s solar and Technology Overlay District (TOD) ordinances, the board didn’t discuss either item and instead got a brief update from county staff on where they stand in the public approval process.
Deputy County Administrator Chris Coon told the board that the planning commission held a public hearing at its May meeting on the proposed change to the solar ordinance, which would lower, from three percent to two percent, the amount of land in the county that can be used for utility-scale solar generation.
The amendment was recommended by the board’s solar committee, which includes Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes, amid concern from some county residents that the proliferation of solar panels is a threat to the county’s rural character.
The three percent cap currently in place limits large-scale solar development to 9,800 acres. The proposed cap would lower that threshold to 6,343 acres, which represents slightly less than two percent of the county’s total acreage because it excludes Lake Anna.
Supervisors have already green-lighted seven utility-scale solar facilities covering 5,211 acres. If the cap is lowered, it would mean only a few more solar facilities could be approved in the county.
Amid pushback from some residents who said further restricting solar development infringes on property rights and strips the county of a source of tax revenue, commissioners deadlocked 3-3 on whether to recommend that the board approve or reject the change.
Coon said the proposal would head to the board of supervisors for a public hearing at its June 3 meeting without a recommendation from the commission.
A proposal to slash the size of the county’s Technology Overlay District from about 6,400 acres to less than 2,900 is taking a bit longer to move through the public approval process, Coon said, because the county is required to send notices to adjoining property owners. The planning commission is expected to hold a public hearing on the item at its June meeting with supervisors considering the change as soon as July.
The board adopted the TOD barely a year ago with an eye toward attracting lucrative tech sector development. The district, which currently covers more than 100 parcels in six assemblages in eastern and central Louisa County, allows data centers and other high-tech uses by-right, which means they don’t require a public approval process.
Just a few months after establishing the district, the county inked a deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build data center campuses on two of the TOD’s assemblages—150 acres adjacent to the North Anna Nuclear Power Station and 1,444 acres just south of the Northeast Creek Reservoir. Now, a board of supervisors’ committee tasked with making recommendations about the TOD’s future says it’s time to roll back the district.
Under the committee’s proposal, three of the six assemblages in the TOD would be removed. Those include more than 1,300 acres just north of interstate 64 near Gum Spring, nearly 1,400 acres between Routes 33 and 22 north of the Northeast Creek Reservoir and the 700-acre Shannon Hill Regional Business Park.
The park is already zoned for industrial use while the assemblage north of the reservoir is slated for a 150 MW utility-scale solar facility under a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) green-lighted by the board in 2020.
The AWS campuses would remain in the TOD as would the Cooke Rail Park, a 1234-acre parcel group north of Route 22 and west of Chopping Road. In 2022, the board approved a CUP for an up to 118 MW solar facility and 50 MW battery storage bank on the site.
While the rail park would stay in the district, any uses allowed in the TOD but not permitted in the park’s underlying agricultural or industrial zoning would require a CUP.
Read more about the proposed change to the solar ordinance here. Read more about the proposed change to the TOD here.
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.
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"It’s just another piece of property that’s being put to use as opposed to sitting there with a pile of woods that you’re not collecting much money from.”
Can't let that happen