This week in county government; Louisa legislators busy in 2024 General Assembly session; Lawsuit challenging LA Resort rezoning withdrawn
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, Jan. 29 through Feb. 3
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here. (Note: Louisa County occasionally schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Wednesday, Jan. 31
Finance Committee, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 10 am.
Lake Anna Advisory Committee, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 6 pm. At publication time, an agenda wasn't publicly available.
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.
Louisa legislators busy in 2024 General Assembly session
The four lawmakers representing parts of Louisa County in the General Assembly have been busy over the last several weeks with the 2024 legislative session kicking off January 10.
Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-SD11) and Del. Amy Laufer (D-HD55), who represent a slice of western Louisa County, and Sen. John McGuire (R-SD10) and Del. Buddy Fowler (R-HD59), who represent most of the county, have filed nearly 60 bills for consideration during the 60-day session. The legislation covers everything from hot-button issues like gun law reform to more mundane topics like increasing the maximum number of days Virginians can fish without a license.
Aside from dealing with the more than 2,000 bills filed by senators and delegates, the legislature’s chief goal over the next two months is hammering out a biennial state budget.
To that end, Louisa’s legislators have introduced more than 100 budget amendments, several of which they’re carrying at the request of Louisa County officials.
Passing bills into law and adopting a budget won’t be easy as divided government grips Richmond. Democrats narrowly control both chambers in the General Assembly—they hold a 51-49 edge in the House of Delegates and a 21-19 advantage in the Senate—and Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin occupies the Executive Mansion.
That means some of Democrats’ flashiest bills--like a proposal from Deeds to ban new assault-style weapons—are likely to find favor in the legislature but meet resistance from Youngkin, who has the power to veto any legislation that lands on his desk.
Republican efforts to roll back reforms enacted by Democrats when they had full control of state government—like sweeping legislation to fight climate change—are expected to die quick deaths in House and Senate committees, which Democrats control by virtue of their slim majorities.
For lawmakers to accomplish almost anything during the legislative session, they’ll have to find common ground and broker compromise.
Here’s a roundup of some notable legislation introduced by Louisa’s representatives.
McGuire files wide range of bills focused on homeschooling, concealed weapons and more
Senator John McGuire, who spent six years representing Louisa County in the House of Delegates before winning a seat in the legislature’s upper chamber, has filed 16 bills, addressing everything from qualifications for parents to homeschool their children to vehicle emission standards.
Several of the conservative Republican’s proposals have already been killed in Democratic-controlled committees, mostly on party-line votes.
McGuire’s SB 82, voted down by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee last week, would’ve permitted Virginians who obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun to also conceal and carry other weapons including but not limited to machetes, throwing stars, ballistic knives, blackjacks, nun chucks, razors and sling bows.
McGuire and other supporters of the bill told the committee that Virginians have a right to defend themselves and their families, and the bill provides the option to carry less lethal weapons. Opponents of the bill, including Andrew Goddard from the Virginia Center for Public Safety, argued that it could endanger Virginians.
“I saw a presentation recently about the proliferation of gang members in Virginia and I believe taking this law and making it more expansive would take another tool away from our police to deal with the gang problem,” Goddard said.
The committee killed the bill on a party-line 9-6 vote.
McGuire and two other Republican senators introduced bills to repeal the states’s “Clean Cars law.” Passed by Democrats in 2021, the law ties Virginia to California’s vehicle emission standards, which set stricter limits on greenhouse gas emission than federal regulations and ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles beginning in 2035. For the third straight year, Democrats killed the proposal in a party-line vote.
During a January 16 hearing, McGuire told the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee that Virginia shouldn’t cede its authority to California, contending that the state should set its own emission standards. Under federal law, states are required to either adhere to standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency or California’s more stringent rules.
A few of McGuire’s proposals have faced resistance from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
His SB 83 would’ve removed qualifications for parents wishing to homeschool a child. Under current law, parents must meet one of four criteria: hold a high school diploma, be a teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education, provide the child with a program of study or curriculum via a correspondence course, distance learning program or in any other manner, or provide evidence of the ability to provide an adequate education for the child. The committee killed the bill in a 11-4 vote with two Republicans opposing the legislation.
McGuire’s SB 161 would’ve directed the Board of Education to create an alternative pathway for students to receive an advanced studies diploma. The pathway would’ve replaced the requirement for coursework in laboratory science with a requirement for coursework in a career and technical education field. Under current law, there’s no pathway to an advanced studies diploma without laboratory science credits. The Education Committee voted the bill down, 13-2, but agreed to send a letter to the Board of Education requesting that its members look into the change.
Several of McGuire’s bills are still awaiting hearings in senate committees including SB 612, which would prohibit localities from cutting funding for law enforcement unless its unanimously agreed to by the locality’s governing body, and SB 603, which would establish a stakeholders’ workgroup to study and make recommendations to address the needs of incarcerated individuals who are pregnant and need substance abuse treatment.
Check out all of McGuire’s bills here.
Deeds introduces gun restrictions, legislation allowing SCC to approve some clean energy projects
Democrat Creigh Deeds, one of the Senate’s longest serving members, has introduced 23 bills including two proposals that would significantly tighten restrictions on guns. Deeds also introduced a controversial measure that would empower the State Corporation Commission to approve some clean energy infrastructure.
Deeds’ SB 2 would bring sweeping change to the state’s gun laws. The bill would ban assault-style weapons manufactured after July 1, 2024, making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to sell, possess, transport or manufacture the devices. It would also prohibit the sale of large capacity ammunition feeding devices and bar people under 21 years old from buying or possessing an assault-style weapon regardless of the date it’s manufactured.
During a meeting of the Senate Courts of Justice committee last week, supporters of the bill, including Moms Demand Action, the Virginia NAACP, the Virginia Education Association, the Virginia Center for Public Safety and the Virginia Catholic Conference, said the bill could save lives by making it harder to access high-powered firearms, the weapons of choice in mass shootings.
“Every human life is sacred and we’ve said that over the years on many different bills on different topics. It applies here too. We think this bill could save lives and, if it could save even one life, we think it’s well worth doing,” Jeff Caruso of the Virginia Catholic Conference told the committee.
Opponents questioned the bill’s constitutionality, particularly in light of the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. In that case, the high court laid out a new test to determine if gun regulations are constitutional in which the government must demonstrate that restrictions are “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Taylor McKee, a lobbyist with the National Rifle Association, said that the bill would ban the country’s most popular firearm, the AR-15, and “there’s no historical analogy in the history of this country where the most popular firearm has been banned.”
Deeds argued that the bill doesn’t run afoul of the constitution.
“I think (the bill is) consistent with what (late Supreme Court) Justice (Antonin) Scalia noted in a footnote years ago when he said that even this Second Amendment right to possess firearms doesn’t apply to weapons of war that shouldn’t be on the street, have no place on the streets of this country,” Deeds said.
The committee passed the bill in a party-line 9-6 vote, referring it to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to consider its fiscal impact. Deeds carried the same bill last year, which passed the Senate, but died in then-Republican-controlled House.
Even if Deeds’ bill clears the General Assembly, it’s unlikely to win support from Youngkin. During his State of the Commonwealth address earlier this month, Youngkin said the state’s gun laws are “already among the toughest in the nation,” and the legislature should focus on holding accountable “those criminals that commit crimes with guns.”
Deeds also introduced legislation that would mandate a two-day waiting period to purchase a firearm. The Courts of Justice Committee rolled his SB 551 into another bill, carried by Democrat Suhas Subramanyam, that would implement a five-day waiting period. The committee passed Subramanyam’s bill, referring it to the Finance Committee in another party-line vote.
Proponents of the bill called the five-day wait a “cooling off period” that could reduce impulsive acts of violence and suicides. Opponents said the bill would deny Virginians the right to quickly access firearms for personal protection.
In moving to advance the bill, Deeds said the legislation is aimed at preventing suicide.
“This bill is about suicide. I had a constituent contact me in probably April by email and tell me about witnessing somebody going to a pawn shop north of Charlottesville and come out 15 minutes later and take their own life in their car on the lot,” Deeds said. “They had gone through the background check. They had done everything they were supposed to do, but without an involuntary commitment, without a red flag on their record, that person was able to legally obtain a firearm and take their life.”
Deeds introduced another bill that has also garnered headlines and sparked debate. His SB 567, currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, would essentially allow the State Corporation Commission to approve some large-scale clean energy generation facilities when those facilities face difficulties in the local approval process.
Under the bill, applicants seeking to develop utility-scale solar facilities producing at least 50 MW of power, wind energy facilities generating at least 100 MW or large battery storage facilities could appeal to the SCC for approval in some circumstances.
Developers would have the right to ask the commission to green-light their project if a locality fails to approve or deny an application in a timely manner or if the application complies with SCC requirements, but the host locality denies its approval. Developers could also appeal to the SCC if they’re notified that a locality’s requirements are compatible with commission rules then the locality amends its ordinance to make it more restrictive. If the SCC approves a project, it would be exempt from obtaining approvals or permits under the locality’s regulations and ordinances.
In an email to constituents on Saturday, Deeds said the bill would “encourage faster development of industrial solar projects,” noting the “hodgepodge” of local regulations that solar developers must navigate. He said that clean energy generation is a statewide issue and “we need to be thinking about it that way.”
Both Dominion Energy and the Virginia Association of Counties oppose the legislation. VACO says on its website that the state “should not usurp local authority to determine how such facilities fit within local landscapes.”
The proposal has also drawn criticism from Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chair Duane Adams. Adams and several other supervisors have grown increasingly wary of large-scale solar development, particularly in the wake of significant issues with erosion and sediment control at Dominion’s Belcher Solar Facility off Waldrop Church Road.
In 2022, the board revised the county’s solar ordinance, beefing up erosion and sediment control standards and limiting large-scale solar generation to no more than three percent of the county’s land or 9,800 acres. To date, the county has approved seven utility-scale solar facilities, covering some 5,200 acres, but none since toughening its rules.
“Elections do have consequences. State Senate Democrats move to strip away local control of solar and wind projects,” Adams said in a Facebook post last week. “The last thing we need is for Richmond to tell us how to manage Louisa County.”
Check out all of Deeds’ bills here.
Fowler carries Youngkin administration’s tax proposal
Six-term Delegate Buddy Fowler, a Republican from Hanover County, has introduced eight bills, touching on everything from the tax code to the number of days people can fish without a license.
Fowler’s marquee legislative proposal is HB 1281, a bill he’s carrying on Youngkin’s behalf. The bill would make several significant changes to the state’s tax code, matching a budget proposal introduced by the governor in December.
Specifically, the bill would implement across the board cuts to the state’s individual income tax, reducing the rate from two percent to 1.75 percent for the lowest tax bracket and from 5.75 percent to 5.1 percent for the highest, which covers annual income over $17,000. The proposal would also expand the earned income tax credit, increasing from 20 to 25 percent the amount of the federal credit low-income taxpayers can claim on state taxes.
To offset some of the lost revenue from lower income taxes, the bill would raise the state’s sales and use tax from 4.3 percent to 5.2 percent and extend sales taxes to “digital personal property,” including streaming services like Netflix, software downloads, e-books and other digital purchases.
Youngkin has framed the proposal as way to keep Virginia competitive and modernize the tax code, noting in his State of the Commonwealth address that many of Virginia’s southern neighbors are lowering taxes and attracting residents and businesses. Youngkin described the new tax on digital goods as “closing the tech tax loophole.”
Some Democrats have expressed opposition to the proposal, accusing Youngkin of being out-of-touch with everyday Virginians. The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a left-leaning think tank, said that the proposal would mostly benefit wealthy Virginians while increasing the tax burden on lower-income residents.
“The combined impact of these policy choices would result in families who make less than $30,000 (the bottom 20% of incomes) facing an average tax increase of $44. This is because the average benefit for families in the bottom 20% of reducing income tax rates will be wiped out by the increase in the sales tax, and very few will see any help from increasing the non-refundable EITC,” the Commonwealth Institute said in its analysis. “Meanwhile, households in the top 1% (earning more than $763,000) will see an average cut of $9,640.”
Finding common ground on taxes will be one of the key hurdles in adopting a two-year state budget.
In another proposal related to tax cuts, Fowler’s HB 1407 would expand the definition of "military benefits,” allowing residents who served in the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service to subtract their retirement benefits from their taxable income. Under current law, the subtraction is only allowed for military retirement income received for service in the Armed Forces.
Both bills have been referred to the House Finance Committee.
Like McGuire, Fowler has introduced a bill that seeks to repeal the “Clean Cars Law,” legislation that links Virginia’s motor vehicle emission standards to standards set by the state of California. McGuire’s attempt to repeal the law was killed in a senate committee earlier this month. Fowler’s bill is awaiting a hearing in a House subcommittee where it’s expected meet the same fate.
An avid outdoorsman, Fowler has also introduced HB 1406, a proposal that could provide Virginians more opportunities to fish sans a license. The bill would increase, from three to six, the maximum number of days that the Board of Wildlife Resources may designate as “free fishing days.” On “free fishing days,” people can fish in any of the state’s inland waters without a license. At publication time, the bill is awaiting a hearing in a House subcommittee.
Check out all of Fowler’s bills here.
Laufer pushes for gun law reforms, expanded use of speed cameras
Freshman Delegate Amy Laufer, a Democrat from Albemarle County, has introduced 12 bills, three of which aim to reform the state’s gun laws.
Laufer’s HB 1181 would add a five percent tax to the sale of any firearm and ammunition, exempting sales to state and local agencies and law enforcement officers. Revenues from the tax would fund the Virginia Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program.
The program, administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services, would award grants, on a competitive basis, to localities and organizations for the purpose of improving public health and safety. The grants would support violence reduction initiatives in communities that are disproportionately impacted by violence, particularly homicides, shootings and aggravated assaults. The funding could also be used to hire public school counselors and research gun violence prevention initiatives.
Laufer’s HB 23 would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor to bring a firearm or other dangerous weapon, including explosives and some knives, into any facility that provides mental health or developmental services including hospitals and other facilities that offer emergency medical care.
Her HB 1462 would prohibit people from leaving a handgun in an unattended motor vehicle where it’s visible to anyone outside the vehicle. Violators of the law would be subject to an up to $500 civil penalty and law enforcement would be authorized to tow the vehicle for safekeeping.
The bill aims to address the growing number of guns stolen from motor vehicles. According statistics from the Richmond Police Department, 225 firearms were stolen from vehicles in the city in 2017 while 637 were stolen in 2022, a 64 percent increase.
While Laufer’s bills are more limited in scope than some of the gun law reforms proposed by her Democratic colleagues, they’ve sparked staunch opposition from gun rights groups like the Virginia Citizens Defense League. On its website, VCDL criticized the proposal that would penalize people who leave a firearm visible in an unattended vehicle, saying it “punishes the innocent victim of breaking and entering.”
All three bills have been referred to the House Public Safety Committee. HB 1462 is awaiting consideration in the Firearms Subcommittee. The subcommittee recommended rolling HB 23 into a duplicate bill filed by Democrat Phil Hernandez.
Laufer has also introduced legislation aimed at improving highway safety by providing localities another tool to tackle speeding. Her HB 521 would give localities the power to pass an ordinance authorizing law enforcement to install speed cameras on some public roads.
The bill, which is awaiting a hearing in a House Transportation subcommittee, requires the ordinance to list the location of each camera and identify the speeding offenses to be enforced via the device. To be eligible for a camera, roads must have a speed limit of at least 35 miles per hour and be in the state’s secondary system or designated as a Virginia byway. In addition, speeding, crash, or fatality data must support the need for stronger enforcement. Under current law, speed cameras are authorized in work zones and school crossing zones.
The Virginia Association of Counties supports the legislation, stating on its website that the bill increases “the ability for local governments to respond to constituent concerns regarding safety on local roadways.”
Check out all of Laufer’s bills here.
Legislators seek state aid for Lake Anna
At the request of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, McGuire, Fowler and Laufer have each introduced budget amendments seeking state aid for Lake Anna.
McGuire and Laufer are requesting $1 million for the next two fiscal years to fight Harmful Algal Blooms at the lake while Fowler is asking for $1 million in FY25.
Composed of toxin-producing cyanobacteria that can be detrimental to human health and harmful to wildlife and pets, the blooms have become a persistent problem at the lake in recent years, prompting the Virginia Department of Health to issue no swim advisories for parts of its upper reaches every summer since 2018. In 2022, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) named Lake Anna to its list of impaired waterways because of the blooms.
Supervisors have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the issue, arguing that Lake Anna is an economic engine, drawing thousands of tourists to the region and generating millions of dollars in tax revenue annually. They’ve warned that the blooms’ persistence could impact tourism and harm the local economy.
The legislators’ request would fund short-term remediation and mitigation efforts through the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The current state budget allotted $1 million for the same purpose. That budget also provided $3.5 million to DEQ to study HAB at Lake Anna and in the Shenandoah River and craft long-term strategies to address the problem in both waterways.
During a work session with legislators in November, Cuckoo District Supervisor Chris McCotter and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represent the lake, said it could take as much as $20 million over three years to implement an effective short-term mitigation plan.
Laufer is also requesting $30,000 in FY25 and FY26 to fund buoy placement and maintenance and treatment for invasive hydrilla. The county’s legislative platform, approved by supervisors in November, states that the Lake Anna Advisory Committee, a multi-jurisdictional panel funded by Louisa, Spotsylvania and Orange counties, spends, on average, $9,300 a year maintaining buoys on the public side of the lake and managing hydrilla, an aquatic weed that can clog waterways and damage infrastructure. The board requested state funding for both efforts, noting that buoys in public waters are regulated through the Department of Wildlife Resources and hydrilla is a statewide issue.
Lawsuit challenging LA Resort rezoning withdrawn
A lawsuit challenging a controversial rezoning that clears the way for a mixed-used development on Lake Anna has been withdrawn.
Candace Dowling sued the Louisa County Board of Supervisors last February, seeking to overturn the board’s decision in January 2023 to rezone, from commercial to Planned Unit Development, 15.2 acres just west of the Route 208 bridge in the Lake Anna Growth Area. The rezoning permits LA Resort, LLC (LAR), the property’s owner, to develop a mixed-use complex featuring an up to 96-unit residential condominium building, a 130-key hotel, restaurant, and marina fronting Mitchell Creek, a narrow cove just south of Route 208 that’s lined with single-family homes.
Dowling, her husband, David, and another relative, Tracy Lott, owned a lakefront home on 2.66 acres across Mitchell Creek Cove from the subject property. Dowling argued in court filings that the board violated state and county code in approving the rezoning and, as an adjacent property owner, she would be uniquely harmed by the action.
But the suit came to an end in late December when Dowling, who represented herself, contacted Acting County Attorney Dale Mullen about withdrawing the case, per court records. Mullen filed a motion on December 28 in which Dowling asked for the suit’s dismissal.
While the filing doesn’t provide any insight into why Dowling dropped the suit, Louisa County land records show that the Dowlings and Lott sold their 5,600-square foot home on October 17, 2023. The property traded for $1.59 million, slightly more than its assessed value.
Dowling spent much of the last year trying to convince Louisa County Circuit Court that she had standing to sue the county. To reach that threshold, according to Circuit Court Judge Timothy K. Sanner, she had to pass a two-pronged test: own or occupy property in close proximity to the subject parcel and demonstrate that she would be particularly harmed by the board’s action.
Sanner also told Dowling that, as a pro se litigant who isn’t a licensed attorney in Virginia, she could only argue on behalf of herself and couldn’t make arguments about how the board’s decision would impact her neighbors.
In a 26-page complaint filed last June, Dowling contended that the rezoning would open the door for a high-density development that would increase boat traffic along Mitchell Creek, making her less safe, exacerbate the Harmful Algal Blooms that have prompted the state to repeatedly issue no swim advisories for parts of the lake, putting her health at risk, and diminish her home’s value due to, as she put it, “the unsightly views from (her) property.”
During a hearing in mid-September, Sanner determined that Dowling had a right to bring the suit, overruling the county’s motion to dismiss the case. He said that Dowling clearly met the test’s first prong because she owned property across a narrow cove from where LAR plans to build its development and that she’d adequately convinced him that she met the second.
Sanner cited recent rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court that take an expansive view of “particularized harm,” giving citizens wider latitude to challenge local land use decisions.
Just over a month after the ruling, the Dowlings and Lott sold their property.
Beyond Dowling’s suit, LAR’s proposal has sparked significant opposition from other Mitchell Creek property owners, who argued throughout the public approval process that the complex is ill-suited for the area. Neighbors have described the project as high-density “Northern Virginia-style” development that will overwhelm local infrastructure, threaten public safety, harm the environment and disrupt the community’s rural character.
Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents the area, has faced sharp criticism for his support of the proposal including accusations of conflict of interest because of political contributions he received from the project’s developers.
During the rezoning process, two Mitchell Creek property owners publicly asked Adams to recuse himself from voting on LAR’s application and Dowling raised the issue in her petition to the court, suggesting that the board had been “unduly influenced by the developers.” Virginia’s conflict of interest statute doesn’t require state or local officials to recuse themselves from considering matters involving campaign donors.
Supervisors approved LAR’s request at their Jan. 17, 2023 meeting in a 6-1 vote with Adams supporting the application.
Adams declined to comment on Dowling’s withdrawal of the suit.
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