Supes to discuss restoring funding to PVCC; Board adopts FY25 budget; PC to consider tightening limit on utility-scale solar, other zoning code amendments; Shoreline ordinance up for public hearing
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, May 6 through May 11
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).
Monday, May 6
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 6 pm. (agenda packet, livestream) The board will convene in closed session at 5 pm.
Tuesday, May 7
Board of Equalization, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 6 pm.
Louisa County School Board, Central Office Administration Building, 953 Davis Highway, Mineral, 7 pm. (agenda, livestream)
Wednesday, May 8
James River Water Authority, Fluvanna County Administration Building, 132 Main Street, Palmyra, 9 am. (agenda)
Louisa County Water Authority, 23 Loudin Lane, Louisa, 6 pm.
Thursday, May 9
Louisa County Planning Commission, long-range planning work session, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 5 pm. (agenda packet, livestream)
Louisa County Planning Commission, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 7 pm. (agenda packet, livestream)
Board of Equalization, Betty Queen Center, 522 Industrial Drive, Louisa, 6 pm.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
After suspending funding for PVCC last week, supes to consider restoring it Monday night
Just a week after voting to suspend funding for Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) over concerns that it allowed Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to show a film on campus, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors will revisit the decision.
An amended agenda for the board’s Monday, May 6 meeting, released by the county late Friday afternoon, includes the discussion item: “to consider the restoration of funding for Piedmont Virginia Community College in the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget.”
The board voted unanimously and with no discussion at its April 29 meeting to remove the $5,859 allotted for the school in its FY25 budget, passing a resolution stating that it had “come to the board’s attention that PVCC recently hosted a film” presented by the school’s SJP chapter.
According to a post on Instagram, SJP-PVCC, one of more than 350 local affiliates of the national pro-Palestinian student group, hosted the film Israelism on April 19. Directed by two Jewish filmmakers, the movie chronicles the experiences of two young American Jews “raised to love Israel” who “witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians,” according to its website. The film reveals “a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity,” the website says.
The board’s resolution said it’s suspending PVCC’s funding “pending an in-person explanation” from the college regarding “its stance on discrimination and antisemitism,” that “public funds should not support platforms for antisemitism or discrimination” and that the board “condemns any discrimination in the strongest terms.”
The resolution doesn’t explain why the board has concerns that SJP-PVCC is an antisemitic or discriminatory organization.
While a representative of PVCC isn’t expected to appear at Monday night’s meeting, Louisa County Board of Supervisor Chair Duane Adams told Engage Louisa Friday evening that the board and the college have been in communication and a PVCC official is providing the county with the school’s anti-discrimination policy and other documents to address the board’s concerns.
“I feel very comfortable that there is progress being made in discussions with the board of supervisors and PVCC to bring this to a positive resolution and reaffirm our commitment to the service that PVCC provides to the citizens of Louisa County,” Adams said.
In a statement released last Wednesday, PVCC said that it regrets the move by Louisa’s board to withhold funding and asked that it reconsider the decision. The statement emphasizes the school’s commitment “to fostering a safe environment for freedom of expression” and said that “like the board, the College condemns any discrimination in the strongest terms.”
Initial concerns
Adams initially raised concerns about PVCC allowing SJP to show a film on campus in an April 18 Facebook post. He said that he was disappointed that the college was allowing “this movie to be shown on campus” and that he’d “reached [out] to the school administration to discuss.” He added that “their timeline to discuss this issue is well past [the] April 19 showing.”
“As an outside entity that receives funding from Louisa County, Virginia, I can not in good conscience support funding for an organization that allows a blatantly antisemitic organization use of their facilities,” Adams said in the post.
Adams reiterated those comments after Monday’s meeting but sought to clarify that his concern wasn’t about the film, but the student group hosting it.
“My concern is not particularly about a movie that was shown. But the group that has shown the movie has a history on a national level—this is a local chapter of a national group—of very antisemitic behavior and rhetoric and is behind some of these protests [on college campuses],” Adams said, referencing pro-Palestinian protests at colleges across the country where students are calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and pressing schools to divest their endowments from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the conflict.
Adams added that he wanted to hear directly from PVCC regarding its policy on antisemitism and discrimination before he could support funding for the school. “If the only way to get somebody’s attention is through the power of the purse, I guess that’s how you get their attention,” he said.
There haven’t been any significant protests at PVCC and Adams didn’t provide any specific examples of the student group’s involvement in antisemitic activity on the campus.
SJP-PVCC didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
On its Instagram account, the group shared information about events it hosted at PVCC including the film screening and a teach-in about the history of Palestine. It also shared details about its involvement in a successful effort to convince the Charlottesville City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire and its support for a campus protest at the University of Virginia.
The board’s vote
Last Monday’s vote took place just prior to the board’s adoption of a $156.2 million operating budget for FY25. PVCC is one of 34 outside groups that was set to receive support from the county as institutions that aren’t formally part of county government but provide services to residents.
In motioning to remove PVCC’s allocation, Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams said, “In light of some things that are going on at PVCC, [he’d] like to have that item removed from the budget for now.” No other board member commented on Williams’ motion.
Deputy County Administrator Chris Coon then read the resolution, which wasn’t included on the board’s advertised agenda. The board subsequently voted 7-0 to approve it.
Adams said that the resolution wasn’t advertised before the meeting because he hadn’t received a full response from PVCC on when a representative could meet with the county.
While Louisa residents didn’t get a chance to weigh in prior to the board’s vote, some community members took to social media to share their thoughts afterwards.
Robin Horne, former chair of the Louisa County Republican Committee, said in a comment on Facebook that she appreciates the board “taking a step to have PVCC come and explain what they were allowing the organization to do and find out how far they will allow them to go.”
“Free speech is good except when it becomes hate speech and this organization doesn’t have a strong record to control themselves,” Horne said, sharing a link to a Wikipedia entry about SJP.
The board’s vote prompted a very different reaction from longtime Louisa resident Mary Kranz, who started a GoFundMe page to raise money for PVCC. On the page, Kranz criticized the board’s decision, noting that supervisors had “chosen to conflate support for the Palestinians with antisemitism.”
She said her fundraiser was aimed at supporting “education and free speech.” At publication time, Kranz had raised $700 toward her $6,000 goal.
While Louisa’s roughly $6,000 contribution to PVCC is only a small slice of the college’s annual budget, it funds activities and services that benefit Louisa students. According to a funding request submitted to the county earlier this year, PVCC received about $58,400 from the seven localities in its service region in FY24. Louisa’s contribution is proportional to its 10 percent share of enrollment across the region.
The request says the school relies on local contributions to support program expenses that aren’t paid for by state funds including “site work expenses (when new construction or renovation of existing buildings is needed), student support activities, operations (parking & safety), and learning opportunities designed to improve access to citizens in our service delivery area (i.e., dual enrollment).”
Other efforts to pull funding from outside groups
Adams’ initial push to suspend the college’s funding isn’t the first time he’s advocated for defunding institutions supported by the county.
In 2022, amid his failed bid for the Republican nomination in the 10th state Senate District, Adams suggested in a Facebook post that the county potentially defund the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library after descendants of enslaved laborers asked the library to drop the surnames of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both of whom were slaveholders.
“The woke liberal crowd is at it again! They are now attempting to remove Thomas Jefferson and James Madison from the name of the regional library system that in part covers Louisa County. I plan to put in a resolution to defund this regional library system if they decide to move forward with changing the name,” Adams said in the post.
The library’s board of trustees ultimately determined it didn’t have the power to change the name without the consent of its five member jurisdictions. Louisa supervisors had already unanimously passed a resolution opposing a name change.
During this year’s budget process, Adams and Williams, who make up the board’s finance committee, recommended defunding the Louisa County Historical Society. Adams said the committee made the recommendation because, as he put it, “it’s a tight budget year” and the county had higher funding priorities.
But the recommendation came after the society publicly expressed concerns about Amazon Web Services’ plan to build seven data centers on historically significant land adjacent to the North Anna Nuclear Power Station, sparking speculation that was the reason behind it.
The board ended up giving the society $5,000, about 90 percent less than it received in the current fiscal year. The organization was the only outside agency that the finance committee recommended defunding.
When asked after Monday’s meeting if he’s concerned that threats to pull county funding from community institutions could be seen as punitive, chilling free speech and limiting organizations’ ability to carry out their work, Adams said he didn’t see it that way.
“I think [this vote] sends a message that this board and Chairman Adams will not tolerate discrimination and antisemitism,” he said.
BOS adopts FY25 budget, talks parks and rec survey, oks storage facility and more
After a three-week hiatus, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors wrapped up public business in less than 45 minutes last Monday night. The board adopted the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, okayed a rezoning and conditional use permit for a storage facility just east of the Town of Louisa, agreed to circulate a survey to gather citizen input on potential parks and recreation facilities and more. (meeting materials, video)
Board adopts $237.3 million budget for FY25 as Barlow sounds alarm about the county’s debt
Wrapping up a months-long process, supervisors unanimously approved a $237.3 million budget for Fiscal Year 2025 including $156.2 million for operations and maintenance and $81.1 million for capital projects.
The budget came with one significant shift. The board moved $29.4 million, earmarked for construction of a 500-seat addition to Louisa County Middle School and an accompanying alternative education center, to FY24, allowing work to begin on the project as soon as the end of May.
That change technically lowers the capital budget to $51.6 million and the overall budget to just under $208 million. But all the funding was approved in a series of resolutions on Monday night. The new fiscal year starts July 1.
To help fund its spending, the board approved a slate of level tax rates including a 72-cent per $100 of assessed value rate for real estate and a $2.43 rate for cars and trucks. The board hasn’t changed either rate since 2016. Both rank among the lowest in the region.
The budget is about 26 percent larger than the spending plan for the current fiscal year, an increase driven mostly by capital projects. Of the $81.1 million in capital spending, some $63 million is earmarked for Louisa County Public Schools. That includes the $29.4 million for the middle school addition and $31.6 million for a 54,400-square foot career and technical education center adjacent to Louisa County High School. The capital budget is nearly double what the county allotted for big-ticket items a year ago.
Like the capital budget, the county’s operating budget is slated to exceed spending in FY24, albeit by a more modest 6.2 percent. Driving some of that increase is a two percent pay hike for staff and a roughly 14 percent jump in spending on public safety including six new full-time positions for the Fire and EMS Department and compression adjustments to salaries.
The county is expected to bring in $234 million in revenue from local, state and federal sources, including debt issuance, and tap $3.1 million from the school division’s long-term capital reserves to cover the rest of its costs. The board will issue $62 million worth of bonds this fall to foot the bill for school construction, paying them off over the next 30 years.
Though the board didn’t hike the tax rate for real estate or personal property, proceeds from general property taxes, which comprise more than 50 percent of the county’s operating revenue, are expected to jump 11.84 percent in FY25. That increase is, in part, a result of a 7.83 percent rise in the assessed value of real estate. Real estate tax bills are calculated by multiplying a property’s assessed value by the tax rate.
The significant jump in spending coupled with the board’s decision to maintain a level real estate tax rate in the face of rising assessments sparked the ire of some residents. Though no one weighed in during Monday’s meeting, a handful of community members spoke up earlier in the budget process, urging board members to lower the rate and slash spending.
A couple of speakers specifically called out the hefty spending on Louisa County Public Schools (LCPS), questioning the prudence of funding both the middle school addition and the CTE center in the same year.
“All of [these projects] are good ideas. But just because the schools bring it, that doesn’t mean you have to do it this year. You can balance these things out and not hit us all at one time,” Mineral District resident Chris Liles said in March, referencing school construction and a $3.4 million allocation for two turf fields to serve the Parks and Rec Department and the schools. The board green-lighted that expenditure in FY24, borrowing money this spring to pay for it.
While all seven board members voted for the budget, Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow, perhaps the board’s most fiscally conservative member, raised concerns about the county’s growing debt.
Barlow, who voted against the budget the last two years, said the county currently owes just under $71 million, but that number will soon balloon to some $142 million after it borrows for school construction and other projects. He suggested it's time for the board to find ways to cut the budget.
“We’ve got to get serious about where the devil we are going to start cutting things. I didn’t vote for the budget the last couple times. I want to vote for it this time, but we’ve got to start cutting this debt. Capital improvements is what we are going to have to look at because they are the big-ticket items,” Barlow said.
In other budget-related actions, the board voted unanimously to authorize LCPS to begin work on the middle school addition in FY24 and to issue employment contracts for the coming academic year.
Since the county doesn’t plan to borrow money for the addition and CTE center until the Virginia Public School Authority issues bonds this fall, supervisors will consider a resolution at their May 6 meeting allowing the county to reimburse itself for any costs incurred before proceeds from the bond sales arrive. Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams said the county could tap between $10 and $12 million of its cash reserves while it awaits the funding.
Beyond the FY25 budget, supervisors approved a pair of supplemental appropriations for FY24: $3,251 for the Louisa County Reentry Council and $200,000 for the county attorney’s office.
The reentry council, which works with formerly incarcerated individuals and their families to reduce recidivism, initially received $42,000 in county support for the current fiscal year. It said it needed the additional funding to train a staffer.
The county attorney’s office exceeded its $411,000 budget for FY24, necessitating the supplemental appropriation. The office is staffed on an interim basis by Richmond attorney Dale Mullen and his firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP. Former county attorney Helen Phillips departed her post last October and, based on an employment listing on the county’s website, the board continues to search for a permanent replacement.
County plans survey to gather feedback on potential parks and rec facilities
At the request of Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes, county staff will prepare a survey to gather feedback on what sorts of parks and recreation facilities residents would like to see developed in the county.
Barnes said that, during the Fiscal Year 2025 budget process, community members urged the board to invest in a range of recreational amenities and he’d like to get some more precise data on what citizens want.
“During our budget process, citizens have come to us about pickleball courts and walking trails and skate parks and things of that nature. We are all over the place with some of those requests,” Barnes said.
Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter agreed that formally asking residents for feedback is a good idea.
“I’d be very supportive of that. That would give the county an idea of what taxpayers want, and our job is to listen,” McCotter said.
Staff agreed to prepare a survey for the board’s consideration within 45 days.
The decision to survey residents comes after Parks and Recreation Director James Smith requested $6.6 million over the next two fiscal years for a multi-purpose recreational center—$600,000 in the coming fiscal year to design the facility and $6 million in FY26 to build it. He also asked for $375,000 for a skateboard park and $400,000 to save toward an indoor aquatic center.
Residents repeatedly spoke at county meetings in support of the rec center. Most told the board that they want more space to play pickleball indoors. Some community members also advocated for a skate park to replace a facility that the county dismantled more than a decade ago. About five years ago, a citizens’ group pushed for an indoor pool, and former Cuckoo District Supervisor Willie Gentry convinced the board to place the item in the long-range Capital Improvement Plan and save for it over multiple years.
The board earmarked $1 million for Parks and Rec’s long-term capital reserves in the FY25 capital budget but didn’t specify how that money should be spent. Over the last three years, they’ve socked away $1.2 million, tentatively slated for the indoor pool.
Board formally establishes Tourism Advisory Committee
As part of its consent agenda, a group of resolutions typically passed as a block with no discussion, supervisors voted to formally establish a Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC) and adopt its bylaws. Later in the meeting, the board appointed 13 community members—all stakeholders in the local tourism industry—to serve on the panel.
According to its bylaws, the purpose of the TAC is “to serve in an advisory capacity” to the Board of Supervisors and county staff; make recommendations related to tourism marketing initiatives, tourism projects, and long-range plans for the tourism industry; and investigate, research and report on ways to promote tourism and increase tourism-related tax revenues.
The county will have a significantly larger budget for tourism initiatives in the coming fiscal year thanks to the board’s decision last October to hike the transient occupancy tax. Supervisors raised the tax from two percent to seven percent, noting it’s a good way to raise revenue without burdening local residents. The levy is tacked on to customers’ bills when they stay the night at a local hotel, bed and breakfast or short-term rental.
Under state law, about 40 percent of the proceeds from the tax must be used to promote tourism or on tourism-related initiatives. That amounts to about $675,000 for FY25.
The board appointed 13 community members to the committee: Tracy Clark; Sheridan Grimes; Mike Kavros; Joe Walsh; Judy Winslow; Liz Nelson; Melanie Baker; Breese Glennon; Ed Jarvis; Melissa Young; Cass Lloyd; Robin Wheeler; and Bernice Kube.
Board green-lights rezoning, CUP for Duke Street storage facility
Another storage facility is coming to the Route 22 corridor between the Towns of Louisa and Mineral.
Following a public hearing in which no community members weighed in, supervisors voted unanimously to green-light Louisa Heights, LLC’s request to rezone, from General Industrial (I-2) to Industrial Limited (I-1), 3.14 acres on Duke Street in the Louisa District for a mini-warehouse facility (storage) with outdoor parking (part of tmp 41-187). The board also approved the applicant’s request for a conditional use permit (CUP), which is required for the use in I-1 zoning.
The property is located off Davis Highway (Route 22) just east of the Town of Louisa in the Louisa Growth Area and designated for industrial use on the Future Land Use Map in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. It adjoins an existing storage facility and is part of a 60-acre assemblage that Louisa Heights purchased from the Louisa County Industrial Development Authority for development as an industrial park.
According to its land use application, Louisa Heights plans to build a 31,850-square foot storage facility on the parcel, which will be fenced and gated and use dark-sky compliant lighting.
In proffers attached to the rezoning, the applicant agrees to limit future uses on the property to a contractor’s office and shop, financial institution, funeral home, general office, guidance service, medical office and veterinary clinic. Additionally, with a CUP, the property would be limited in future use to a storage and parking facility—the proposed use—trade school, clinic, communication services, equipment sales and rental, and custom manufacturing, among several other uses.
Louisa Heights also agrees to proffer a 10-foot-wide walking trail across the southeastern portion of the site, which would connect Duke Street to fitness trails adjacent to the Betty Queen Center.
PC to consider tightening limit on utility-scale solar development, other zoning code amendments
The Louisa County Planning Commission will convene for a pair of meetings on Thursday: its regular monthly meeting and a two-hour pre-meeting work session. Check out a preview below.
Commission to hold public hearing on tightening solar cap
Amid growing resistance to large-scale solar development in Louisa County and across rural Virginia, the Planning Commission will consider tightening the screws on the use.
Specifically, the panel will hold a public hearing and vote on whether to recommend that the board of supervisors decrease the amount of land in the county that can be used for utility-scale solar development from three percent, or 9,800 acres, to two percent, or 6,534 acres.
The board has already approved seven utility-scale solar projects covering more than 5,000 acres. Only two of those projects—Dominion’s 20-megawatt (MW) Whitehouse facility off Davis Highway and 88.2 MW Belcher project off Waldrop Church Road—are fully constructed and providing power to the grid.
The county put the three percent cap in place two years ago as part of a larger rewrite of its solar ordinance. The revamped ordinance beefs up development standards to address concerns about runoff and erosion and sediment control, mandates a 300-foot buffer around utility-scale solar facilities to screen them from view, and requires that the facilities locate no more than a mile from high-transmission power lines, among other provisions.
The revised ordinance was prompted, in part, by fallout from Dominion’s Belcher site where stormwater runoff from the sprawling 1300-acre facility has caused flooding and severe erosion on neighboring farms. It also came as a growing contingent of county residents spoke out against large-scale solar development, arguing that the use threatens the county’s rural character by turning farms and forests into vast industrial landscapes covered in glass and steel.
Since adopting the ordinance, the board hasn’t approved any large-scale solar sites, most recently rejecting a 5 MW shared solar array just outside the Town of Gordonsville. Several supervisors pointed to the applicant’s request for a special exception to the 300-foot buffer requirement as their chief reason for rejecting the request.
Three other applications are working their way through the public approval process but have not yet been considered by the board of supervisors: the 5 MW Green Boot project proposed for a 60-acre site off Peach Grove Road; the 15.6 MW Turkey Solar project off Route 15 in western Louisa and the 20 MW Horsepen facility near Buckner. The Planning Commission voted unanimously in April to recommend that supervisors deny Green Boot’s request. They rejected both the Turkey Solar and Horsepen applications in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The board’s solar committee, which includes Board Chair and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes, recommended at supervisors’ April 8 meeting lowering the development cap from three percent to two percent and, without discussion, the board agreed to send the proposed amendment to the planning commission for consideration.
Any changes to the solar ordinance requires a public hearing in front of the planning commission and the board of supervisors and an affirmative vote by the latter body.
Louisa is among a handful of localities statewide that limits how much of its land can be used for utility-scale solar generation. Most of the restrictions have been put in place over the last two years as residents in rural communities become increasingly frustrated with solar projects coming to their neighborhood.
Solar development in Virginia was turbocharged in 2020 when the Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), landmark legislation aimed at combatting climate change. The legislation mandates that the state’s two largest electric providers—Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power—pull all their energy from carbon-free sources by midcentury.
As demand for power in Virginia balloons—driven, in part, by the state’s booming data center industry—and resistance to solar development intensifies in rural areas, Democratic lawmakers in Richmond have raised concerns that local restrictions could hamper the state’s ability to meet its clean energy goals. Some have introduced bills aimed at compelling localities to clear the way for more solar generation.
During the 2024 legislative session, Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Richmond) patroned legislation that would bar localities from placing a cap on solar development until more than four percent of its land mass is under solar panels. While the bill didn’t clear the legislature, lawmakers plan to reconsider it next year.
The board of supervisors passed a resolution during the session opposing the bill, but supervisors haven’t publicly discussed its ramifications for the county’s existing or proposed solar cap should it become law.
Commission to consider zoning code amendments
The commission will hold a public hearing and consider whether to recommend that the board of supervisors approve amendments to the zoning code that add 13 defined uses to the county’s matrix table. The matrix table identifies which uses are permitted by-right, by-right with restrictions, with a conditional use permit or disallowed in the county’s 19 zoning designations.
The proposed amendments could add the following uses to the table, which are defined in code but not explicitly permitted in any zoning designation: automobile graveyard; call center; data center; greenhouse, commercial; impound lot; junkyard; laundry facility; motion picture theater, adult; recreation facility, private; recreation facility, public; tiny houses; truck stop; and video-viewing booth or arcade booth, adult. (Data centers are separately permitted in the county’s Technology Overlay District).
Assuming the planning commission recommends adding the uses to the table, exactly which uses would be permitted and where is unclear. The commission will discuss the amendments in a work session prior to its regular meeting.
One of the uses proposed for inclusion in the matrix table is a truck stop, defined in code as a “facility especially designed for truckers that usually includes large areas to park semi-trucks or tractors hauling trailers, one or more places to eat, fuel islands, and may include but not limited to a service garage, weigh station, truck wash and showers.”
Love’s Travel Stop, a national chain that operates more than 600 truck stops in 42 states, has applied to rezone parts of three parcels on the southeast side of the Gum Spring interchange off Interstate 64 in the Gum Spring Growth Area Overlay District (GAOD) for a truck stop with a gas station, fast food restaurant, truck scale and other amenities.
The parcels are split zoned General Agricultural (A-2 GAOD) and General Commercial (C-2 GAOD) and Love’s applied to rezone the agricultural portion, based on a determination that its proposed uses were permitted by-right in the commercial section, according to former Community Development Director Josh Gillespie.
In an email to Engage Louisa in March, Gillespie, who left his post in late April for a job with Goochland County, said that that determination came prior to a rewrite of the zoning code in 2021.
He said that, under current code, a truck stop is defined in code but isn’t included in the matrix table and the typical path for permitting a use in that situation is for the applicant to seek a special exception from the board of supervisors. But Gillespie added that staff “expect[s] the matter of the ‘truck stop’ as a defined term not in the use matrix will be deliberated for clarification as part of a broader code amendment.”
If county officials add “truck stop” to the matrix table, Love’s apparently wouldn’t need a special exception for the use, based on Gillespie’s email. But the applicant would still be required to move through a public approval process assuming the use wasn’t permitted by-right in A-2 zoning in Growth Area Overlay Districts. The company could potentially be required to seek a rezoning and conditional use permit depending on what stipulations are placed on the use in the table.
Any amendments to the zoning code require a public hearing in front of the planning commission and the board of supervisors and an affirmative vote by the latter body.
Board to hold public hearing on Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance
Because of a change to their April meeting schedule, supervisors will return to action again Monday night, just a week after their last meeting. They’ll consider a relatively light agenda including two public hearings.
Board to hold public hearing on Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance
Supervisors will hold a public hearing and consider revisions to the Lake Anna Shoreline Ordinance, a section of county code that lays out development and design standards for shoreline and overwater structures like docks, boathouses and boardwalks.
The ordinance overlaps with Dominion Energy’s guidelines. Dominion owns the lake and its shoreline but allows adjoining property owners to build overwater and shoreline structures via individual use agreements.
The proposed revisions to the ordinance aim to streamline the construction of residential boathouses and similar structures by removing Louisa County planning staff’s duplicative review following Dominion’s approval process.
The proposal axes some provisions already governed by Dominion’s regulations related to the size and orientation of residential boathouses. But the county still retains some involvement in the process.
Most significantly, according to a presentation by Deputy County Administrator Chris Coon at the board’s April 29 meeting, the ordinance would require homeowners to submit “as-built drawings to verify the location” of newly constructed overwater and shoreline structures.
“If there is a discrepancy between [Dominion] approval and that as-built, we would send it back to Dominion to verify the location,” Coon said.
The ordinance would also retain height limits for overwater structures and structures built on Dominion’s property along the shore, capping structures with flat roofs at 20 feet and structures with pitched roofs at 28 feet.
The county would continue to carry out its obligations under the Uniform Statewide Building Code, including issuing building permits and inspecting structures.
Beyond residential boathouses, the ordinance would retain the county’s rules for commercial areas and subdivision common areas. It also leaves intact sections of the ordinance relating to erosion and sediment control and dredging.
The current ordinance recommends that boathouses and other overwater structures use dark-sky compliant lighting while the proposed version requires it.
A previous draft ordinance developed by the county’s planning staff had sought to repeal large swaths of the ordinance. Staff had argued that Dominion and the county’s overlapping rules cause confusion and eat up staff time even though the company, not the county, ultimately controls what’s built on the lake.
But that version sparked concern from Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter who advocated for a reworked version. During a brief discussion of the proposal at last Monday’s meeting, McCotter described it as a “good compromise.”
“I looked into this and followed the process from the beginning, worked with staff. This is a very good document,” McCotter said. “I think that it keeps Louisa involved in the process. It also eases the burden on staff.”
Public hearing on VDOT’s Six-Year Secondary Road Plan
Supervisors will hold a public hearing and consider approval of the Six-Year Plan for Secondary Road System Construction in Louisa County.
Developed in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the plan covers road improvements in the secondary system from 2024-25 through 2029-30, earmarking between $166,491 and $256,276 a year for improvements for a total projected allocation of roughly $1.409 million. The funds are drawn from the state’s Rural Rustic Program, which is specifically aimed at paving unpaved public roads that carry more than 50 vehicles per day, and “telefee” funds, money paid by telecommunications companies that use public right of ways.
The plan earmarks about $812,633 million to pave parts of several unpaved roads and $596,676 for the Rural Additions Program, which pays for upgrades to private roads to bring them into the state system.
The plan includes funding to pave parts of the following roads over the next five years: West Greens Springs Road; Harts Mill Road; Poplar Avenue; Albemarle Avenue; Piedmont Avenue; Midway Lane; and New Anna Road.
Board to appropriate budget, ok reimbursement resolution
The board will formally appropriate the FY25 Operations and Maintenance Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. The $156.2 million operating budget covers the daily cost of running county government while the $51.6 million CIP pays for big-ticket items like school buildings, school buses and emergency service equipment.
While the approved capital budget is technically $51.6 million, the board okayed more than $81 million in capital projects as part of the FY25 budget process. But one of those projects—$29.4 million to construct a 500-seat addition to Louisa County Middle School and an accompanying alternative education center—will get underway this May, so the board moved the appropriation to FY24.
In a related item, the board will consider a resolution permitting it to reimburse itself for costs incurred during the early stages of construction of the middle school addition and a $31.6 million career and technical education center, also approved as part of the FY25 budget.
The resolution authorizes the board to pay itself back for cash on hand it expends prior to the arrival of proceeds from some $62 million in bonds it plans to issue via the Virginia Public School Authority’s fall bond pool to pay for the project.
Supes to consider accepting unsolicited bid for AWS water and sewer project
Supervisors will consider a resolution authorizing the acceptance of an unsolicited bid to design and build water and sewer infrastructure to serve a pair of data center campuses that Amazon Web Services is developing in the county’s Technology Overlay District.
One of the campuses—the Lake Anna Technology Campus (LATC)—is slated for 150 acres at the corner of Kentucky Springs Road and Haley Drive adjacent to the North Anna Nuclear Power Station. The other—the North Creek Technology Campus (NCTC)—is planned for about 830 acres of a 1444-acre tract south of Route 33 and east of Mount Airy Road near the Northeast Creek Reservoir.
According to a water service agreement inked by county officials and AWS last December, the county will build a 10-mile raw waterline to deliver cooling water for the data centers at the LATC and a pair of 2,000-foot lines to deliver raw and potable water to the NCTC.
The county will also construct a two-headed water pump station to serve the campuses and public sewer infrastructure for the North Creek site. The water and sewer infrastructure for the NCTC is expected to be complete by July 2026 while the LATC’s raw waterline should be done by January 2027.
AWS will foot the bill for the infrastructure, which is expected to cost about $35 million, with some of that expense offset by local and state grants. The county will build, maintain, own and operate it. AWS is responsible for 30 percent of the project’s design with the county taking over after that.
The resolution proposed for approval on Monday doesn’t say which company the county has chosen to design and build the infrastructure or how much it bid.
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.