This week in county government; Public hearing on controversial solar facility deferred
Engage Louisa is a community newsletter aimed at keeping folks informed about Louisa County government. It’s free, non-partisan, and powered by volunteers. 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, June 21-26
Monday, June 21
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Public Meeting Room, 1 Woolfolk Ave., 6 pm. The board will convene in closed session at 5 pm. (agenda) (livestream)
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors will convene its second June meeting with one public hearing on the agenda and several other items of note.
A few agenda highlights:
Discussion of Jaunt funding: The board will discuss funding for Jaunt, the regional transit service that operates buses in Louisa and several surrounding localities. The service has been under scrutiny since an audit determined that former Executive Director Brad Sheffield spent extravagantly on travel and meals.
The audit prompted Jaunt’s Board of Directors, which includes Cuckoo District Supervisor Willie Gentry and Louisa County resident Randy Parker, to ask for Sheffield’s resignation, which he subsequently submitted.
Receipts obtained by Charlottesville Tomorrow show that between June 2019 and March 2020, Sheffield and others in Jaunt leadership travelled extensively to conferences in Europe and across the United States. Sheffield enjoyed luxury accommodations and expensive meals.
In October 2019, for example, Sheffield paid over $7,000 for a plane ticket from New York to Paris. He stayed five nights in a Paris hotel, that cost $1,000 a night. The next month, receipts show, two guests racked up a $1,294 dinner tab at Washington, D.C.’s Capital Grille.
That lavish spending attracted the attention of the Office of the Attorney General and other state agencies, who are jointly investigating Jaunt. The organization’s state and federal funding has been frozen, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow.
On his personal website, Sheffield insists that no federal money was used for his travel, only private contracts, and his spending didn’t violate Jaunt policy.
Gentry briefly discussed Jaunt’s troubles at the June 7 Board of Supervisors meeting where he noted that its services, which are essential for many elderly and disabled residents, weren’t expected to be impacted by frozen funding. He said the organization’s interim CEO is willing to talk with the board about newly-implemented financial controls.
“We deeply regret the loss of confidence that these audit findings have created,“ Jaunt said in a statement on its website, adding that the company hopes to “restore community trust.”
Jaunt, a public service corporation jointly owned by the localities it serves, receives 37 percent of its funding from federal and state grants and 56 percent from local tax dollars, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow. Louisa County contributed about $294,000 to Jaunt in FY21 and appropriated the same funding for FY22, per county budget documents.
Schools request funding for virtual academy: Louisa County Public Schools will return to the classroom for in-person instruction five days a week this fall. But, the school system will continue to offer a virtual learning option via the LCPS Virtual Academy.
The board will consider a resolution to approve the school division’s request for a $594,000 supplemental appropriation to fund six teachers to staff the academy and additional stipends for faculty who will teach both in-person and virtual courses.
The school division conducted a survey to determine how many students plan to attend school in person next year and how many will opt for virtual learning. Superintendent Doug Straley told Engage Louisa that currently 321 students plan to enroll in the virtual academy, 6.6 percent of the student body. Of those students, 119 are enrolled in kindergarten through 5th grade while 202 are middle and high school students.
Last year, about 33 percent of LCPS students opted for the virtual academy over the division’s hybrid learning plan, which provided in-person instruction two days a week.
Straley said that the funding request will cover salaries and benefits for one virtual-only teacher per grade at the elementary school level (K-5), totaling $474,000. The additional $120,000 will cover stipends for middle and high school teachers who pick up virtual teaching duties in addition to their in-person jobs. The school system also plans to use a virtual learning service to supplement what it offers locally.
The funding request would cover one year of salaries, benefits, and stipends. Straley said that the division also applied for funding though the Virginia Department of Education, which set aside $40 million to help divisions fund virtual programs.
If approved, the supplemental appropriation will be pulled from the long-term school capital projects reserve fund. Straley noted that LCPS returned “a couple million dollars” in funding to the county, which it didn’t use during the 2019-2020 school year. Schools closed for the remainder of the school year in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cracking down on roaming dogs in Reedy Creek: For the second time this month, the public will have an opportunity to weigh in on a decision that could impact residents in the Reedy Creek subdivision.
The board will hold a public hearing and consider approval of a beefed up “dogs at large” ordinance for parts of Reedy Creek.
Currently, Reedy Creek I falls under a more stringent “dogs at large” policy than the rest of the subdivision. That policy prohibits dogs from roaming off leash, beyond the property of their owner and out of the owner’s control, any time of year. The remainder of Reedy Creek is governed by the county-wide “dogs at large” ordinance, which only prohibits roaming dogs during the months of April, May, and June. The amendment under consideration would add Reedy Creek II and III to the more stringent ordinance, which already includes a number of subdivisions across the county.
Wednesday, June 23
Louisa County Agricultural/Forestal and Rural Preservation Committee, Public Meeting Room, 1 Woolfolk Ave., 7 pm. (public notice)
Over the last few months, the Ag/Forestal and Rural Preservation Committee played a key role in creating and expanding two Ag/Forestal Districts (AFDs) in western Louisa County. Now, the committee is exploring another land conservation tool already in place in more than 20 Virginia localities.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee will learn about Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs, which are designed to compensate landowners who voluntarily place an agricultural conservation easement on their property. Generally, the programs enable landowners to sell development rights on qualifying property to a locality while maintaining ownership and continuing to use the land. Albemarle, Goochland, Spotsylvania, and Nelson all have a PDR programs.
Ray Pickering, the director of Fauquier County's PDR initiative, will share details about his county’s efforts to preserve farms from encroaching development in northern Virginia. As of March 2021, Fauquier has approved nearly 13,000 acres for inclusion in its program. The county leads the Commonwealth in farm land acreage protected through PDR, according to its website.
Following a heated battle over the development of Shannon Hill Business Park near Interstate 64, Louisa County revamped its Ag/Forestal Committee, broadening its scope beyond its traditional role facilitating the creation of AFDs. The committee also “identifies, researches and promotes programs and projects to preserve the rural character of Louisa County.”
In an email announcing Pickering’s presentation, committee chair Jim Riddell noted that Louisa County has “devoted vast local, state and federal resources for future economic development over the last 10 years,” adding that now is the time to protect agricultural and forestry as a “vital economic and environmental resource.”
Whether the Board of Supervisors would be willing to invest in a PDR program remains to be seen. Riddell noted that landowners have paid over $733,000 in rollback taxes to the county since 2015 as they “converted farm/forest land to development” and pointed to the General Assembly’s recent investments in land conservation efforts.
The state administers the Farmland Preservation Fund, which provides matching grants to local PDR programs. In FY22, Virginia will allocate $1 million to the fund. In April, Governor Ralph Northam awarded $270,000 in grants to support PDR programs in five localities including Fauquier. Since 2008, the fund has awarded $12.4 million to local PDR initiatives.
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.
At applicant’s request, public hearing on controversial solar facility deferred
A controversial application to construct a solar facility off School Bus Road won't be the subject of a previously-scheduled public hearing at this Monday’s Louisa County Board of Supervisors meeting.
According to sources in county government, Energix Aditya LLC asked the county to defer the public hearing on its request for a Conditional Use Permit to construct a 60-acre, 11MW solar array on a 95-acre parcel (tmp 42 86A) near the intersection of Davis Highway (Route 22) and School Bus Road (Route 767). The applicant asked the county to delay the hearing until later this summer.
In an email sent Friday, when county offices were closed in observance of the Juneteenth holiday, County Administrator Christian Goodwin informed supervisors of the deferral. Energix indicated that it is awaiting additional information regarding traffic around the site and evaluating the possibility of an alternative access point. Currently, the site’s entrance is located off School Bus Road.
A new public hearing date has not been set. The Board of Supervisors will meet only once in July and August.
Many residents on School Bus Road strongly oppose the proposed facility. Sixteen people showed up to speak against its construction at the Planning Commission’s public hearing in mid-May. Besides the applicant and county staff, no one spoke in support of the CUP. Planners recommended the Board of Supervisors approve the project in a 5-2 vote.
Neighbors of the proposed project expressed a range of concerns including a possible decline in property values, the facility’s impact on wildlife, increased traffic in the area during construction, and other negative impacts on their quality of life.
Traffic concerns along School Bus Road and Routes 22 and 33 raised the eyebrows of several planners as the area emerges as a hotbed for solar installation. Last summer, the county approved construction of a nearly 1400-acre solar project on land that stretches from School Bus Road to the county reservoir off Route 33. That property is owned by Louisa District Supervisor Eric Purcell and his father, Charles, via Fisher Chewning LLC.
“This area is already saturated particularly when school lets out,” Cuckoo District Commissioner George Goodwin said. “You want to talk about a nightmare? Think about these two projects being constructed at the same time.”
In an effort to ease the impact of construction traffic, commissioners recommended an additional condition to Energix’s CUP. They stipulated the submission of an application to VDOT requesting a reduction in the speed limit on School Bus Road from 45 to 35 miles per hour.
Goodwin and Jackson District Planner Cy Weaver voted in opposition to the project.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.
Find agendas and minutes from previous 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.