This week in county government; Supervisors expected to defer public hearing for more dwellings at Zion Town Center; Board to consider busy agenda in final meeting of 2022
This week in county government; Supervisors expected to defer public hearing for more dwellings at Zion Town Center; Board to consider busy agenda in final meeting of 2022
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, Dec. 19 through Dec. 24
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 frequently schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Monday, December 19
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.
Wednesday, December 21
Community Policy Management Team, Executive Board Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 1 pm.
Other meetings
Tuesday, December 20
Louisa Town Council, 212 Fredericksburg Ave., Louisa, 6 pm. (agenda)
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.
Supervisors expected to defer public hearing for more dwellings at Zion Town Center
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Monday night isn’t expected to hold a public hearing on a controversial request to bring more homes to Zion Town Center, a Planned Unit Development already approved for 599 units and nearly 275,000 square feet of commercial space at Zion Crossroads.
Emerson-Roper Companies, LLC last Tuesday asked the board to defer the hearing. Board Chair Duane Adams said he anticipates that supervisors will grant the deferral as they customarily do for applicants seeking a delay. He added that the board will likely consider Emerson-Roper’s application in early 2023.
The Zion project is one of two dense, mixed-use developments currently working its way through the public approval process. The other, LA Resort, LLC’s request to rezone 15.27 acres at Lake Anna for an up to 96-unit residential condo building, 130-room hotel, restaurant, and marina fronting Mitchell Creek, has also been beset by controversy and delays. The board is expected to hold a public hearing on that application at its January 17 meeting after the applicant twice postponed supervisors’ consideration of the request.
While LA Resort seeks to rezone commercial property for a Planned Unit Development, Zion Town Center cleared that hurdle in 2019 when Zions Town Center, LLC won the board’s approval to develop a PUD on 113.8 acres at the end of Camp Creek Parkway behind Walmart and Lowes (tmp 52-12-4).
Now, Emerson-Roper has contracted to buy the project’s 90-acre residential component with plans to put its own spin on the complex. The Chesterfield-based developer has requested amendments to the PUD’s proffers and master plan that would increase the number of dwellings to 723 and tweak the development’s layout and design, in part, by concentrating more heavily on townhomes. Zions Town Center, LLC plans to retain the project’s commercial section.
In presentations at two community meetings and in front of the Louisa County Planning Commission, Emerson-Roper representative Jeff Geiger branded the proposed changes as upgrades that would diversify the county’s housing supply and offer “attainable” residential options to prospective homebuyers and renters.
“There’s a lot of single-family detached homes in Louisa already. We’d like to create that middle market housing opportunity. We believe townhouses provide us with that opportunity not only for young people finishing their education and looking to buy their first home, but also the opportunity for somebody who is an empty nester and wants to downsize,” Geiger said at a community meeting last March.
Specifically, Emerson-Roper proposes to add 124 dwellings, increasing the number of townhomes from 99 to 275, decreasing the number of single-family detached homes from 164 to 112, and maintaining the number of apartments at 336 albeit with a revamped design that replaces 14 walk-up buildings with two fully enclosed, elevator-serviced structures. The rental apartments would feature various amenities including gathering spaces, a pool, and gym.
Geiger has said that many of the townhomes would be taller than originally proposed and feature garages and deeper lots along wider streets that allow for both on and off-street parking. He said that the units would range in price from $250,000 to $325,000 in today’s dollars and that the developer has agreed to build a minimum of 24 two-story townhomes, which would start at a lower price point than larger units. The single-family homes would average about 2,300 square feet and start at about $375,000 in today’s dollars, Geiger said in March.
The developer contends that its proposed changes won’t significantly impact county services including Louisa County Public Schools. Geiger noted that townhomes and elevator-serviced apartment buildings with club amenities tend to attract residents with fewer children than detached single-family homes. He has also said that the additional units would only slightly increase projected traffic counts because shifting from single-family homes, which tend to have more occupants, to townhomes means fewer vehicle trips per unit.
The developer plans to implement the same traffic improvements okayed during the 2019 rezoning including adding and enhancing turn lanes and through lanes at Camp Creek Parkway’s intersections with Route 15 and Market Street. In addition, the developer has agreed to prohibit the construction of an inter-parcel road connecting the PUD to the parcel directly to its east (tmp 52-22). A tweak to the proffers presented at the Planning Commission’s November 10 meeting permits changes to the road improvement plan subject to VDOT’s recommendations and county approval.
Emerson-Roper’s plans have raised concerns among some neighbors and county officials. When the Planning Commission reviewed the project in November, commissioners and residents said they worried about the potential for trespassing on large, undeveloped adjoining tracts. The county’s Fire and EMS chief submitted a letter arguing that the department would need to spend more on fire equipment to service taller buildings. And a representative of Historic Green Springs, Inc., an organization that seeks to protect the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District just to the north of Zion Crossroads, said that there isn’t adequate water in the area to support the development.
To address the first two concerns, Emerson-Roper submitted revised proffers to the Community Development Department last week. According to the document, the developer agrees to post eight no trespassing signs along the property’s border with an agriculturally-zoned tract to its east (tmp 52-22), provided the developer has permission to access the adjoining land to place and maintain the signs. The developer also agrees to pay nearly $124,000 to the county’s Fire and EMS Department to offset its impact on emergency services.
With respect to water, the proffers maintain a provision agreed to during the 2019 rezoning, which stipulates that public water is available on a “first come, first serve” basis. The Board of Supervisors enacted a policy that year to cap water usage from the ultra-deep wells that feed Zion at 75 percent of their capacity as determined by the Virginia Department of Health. So, if demand for water reaches that threshold, the county will curtail its sale to new developments, per the policy.
According to a memo from the Louisa County Water Authority, dated December 14, 2022, the wells currently use about 35 percent of their permitted 587,250-gallon per day capacity while more than 40 percent of that capacity has been sold to LCWA customers. A water feasibility study performed by Dewberry Engineering in 2021 for Zion Town Center’s 599-unit development states that the complex would require, on average, 179,700 gallons of water per day and more than 395,000 gallons at peak demand. The latter figure would push the wells beyond their current limit.
The LCWA memo states that the authority has taken steps to secure more water including acquiring VDH approval to bring two additional wells online and sending a draft agreement to Fluvanna County to gauge its interest in selling excess water capacity in its system.
Louisa County’s long-term solution to Zion’s water woes is a pipeline to the James River that, when complete, will channel millions of gallons of water to development along the Interstate 64 corridor. The project, a joint effort with Fluvanna County via the James River Water Authority, has been stymied by delays, most of which stem from an initial plan to build a water pump station at a significant Native American historic and cultural site.
In early March, JRWA opted to move the station to a location slightly upstream, triggering a new federal permitting process. According to the latest timeline, the pipeline is expected to be complete between 2025 and 2027. Zion Town Center is expected to reach full build out within the next decade, according to Geiger.
The promise of water from the James wasn’t enough to ease the concerns of Planning Commission Chair John Disosway, who was the lone dissenting voice in the commission’s 5-1 vote to recommend approval of Emerson-Roper request.
Disosway said that while he believes water from the James will eventually arrive, “it’s not here now.”
“The thing that is most concerning to me is what we don’t have in place right now to make this serious decision and that is water. That is a resource that I find very hard to overlook,” Disosway said, adding he’s worried about depleting the water supply and putting Green Springs farms at risk.
Board to consider busy agenda in final meeting of 2022
While supervisors are expected to remove from Monday night’s agenda a public hearing on a controversial land use request at Zion Crossroads, their final meeting of 2022 is shaping up to be a busy one, nonetheless. The board will hold six other public hearings, hear five presentations, and consider two action items. Check out the agenda highlights below.
Board to consider extending option agreement for purchase of wastewater treatment facility at Lake Anna: In July, supervisors entered into an option agreement to purchase a privately-owned wastewater treatment plant at Lake Anna. On Monday night, the board will consider extending that agreement for another six months, meaning the county will have the option to purchase the facility, based on the terms of the agreement, until July 2023.
If the county ultimately decides to buy the facility, it will pay Lake Anna Environmental Services, the plant’s current owner, $90,000, per the agreement.
The plant is located on about two and half acres off New Bridge Road (Route 208) at Lake Anna and provides sewer service to Lake Anna Plaza and adjoining townhomes. It currently has the capacity to process 20,000 gallons of wastewater per day, but it’s permitted to discharge 99,000 gallons daily. The facility, which has been repeatedly cited for violations by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, discharges its treated effluent into lake.
The county is considering acquiring the plant to support continued economic development along the Route 208 corridor, one of eight areas targeted for the growth in its 2040 Comprehensive Plan. County officials have said that, if they ultimately move forward with the purchase, they’ll upgrade the facility to at least its permitted capacity at an estimated cost of more than $7 million. Economic Development Director Andy Wade has also pitched the possibility of expanding the plant to handle 300,000 gallons of wastewater daily, an upgrade that could cost nearly $11 million.
While the board has yet to endorse the plant’s purchase, Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams, who represents the area, is on record backing the acquisition. Adams has said upgrading the plant would be a net positive investment for the county based on projected tax revenue from future customers and user fees, and that relying on a county-owned wastewater treatment facility to support development along Route 208 would better protect the health of the lake.
“I don’t want that townhouse association responsible for that wastewater treatment plant because they are held to the absolute lowest standards that DEQ has. I don’t want developers responsible for the effluent that goes into that lake. I want the county government, who is held to the absolute highest standards by DEQ and EPA, to be responsible for the effluent that goes into that lake from commercial development,” Adams said at a recent town hall meeting.
The Windwood Coves Property Owners Association also supports the purchase, stating in a 2021 letter to supervisors that a county-owned facility “will result in better compliance with environmental regulations and ensure more reliable operations.”
But the potential acquisition has sparked intense debate at recent county meetings because of its connection to a controversial rezoning request for property on other side of Route 208.
LA Resort, LLC has requested to rezone, from commercial (C-2 GAOD) to Planned Unit Development (PUD), 15.27 acres just west of the Route 208 bridge for a mixed-use development featuring an up to 96-unit residential condominium building, 130-room hotel, restaurant, and marina fronting Mitchell Creek. The developer inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the county in February 2021 agreeing to chip in $1 million towards the county’s purchase and upgrade of the facility and to pay $250,000 to connect to the infrastructure.
LAR’s rezoning request, currently set for a public hearing at the board’s January 17 meeting, is contingent upon the county acquiring the plant. But supervisors could reject the rezoning and still move forward with the purchase sans the $1 million proffer.
Some Mitchell Creek residents have argued that the county’s acquisition of the plant is a risky deal for taxpayers and only serves to subsidize wealthy developers.
Supervisors to consider approving application for affordable housing plan: At its November 7 meeting, supervisors voted unanimously to move forward with a draft plan to use $775,000 in federal funding toward the construction of a 25-unit affordable housing complex between the Towns of Louisa and Mineral.
On Monday night, the board will consider formal approval of an application to secure that funding. The money was originally earmarked for development of an 80-unit mixed income affordable housing community courtesy of a Community Projects Funding Request submitted in 2021 by Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s office. The county’s current plan requires federal approval prior to the funding’s allocation.
The application up for consideration on Monday is broadly consistent with the project that Cuckoo District Supervisor Willie Gentry, a member of the board’s affordable housing work group, and Fluvanna/Louisa Housing Foundation Executive Director Kim Hyland presented in November though it comes with a significantly higher price tag.
According to a project narrative, the county plans to partner with FLHF to build 25 one and two-bedroom rental units on an 8.3-acre parcel at the corner of Chalklevel Road and Davis Highway that’s currently owned by the Louisa County Industrial Development Authority (tmp 42 4C). The units would be available to income-eligible seniors and essential workers like first responders and teachers.
The project is expected to cost $3.2 million, about a million more than the initial estimate presented last month. Much of that increase is tied to the cost of bringing public sewer and water infrastructure to the property.
The complex would be built in two phases with the first phase consisting of eight one-bedroom units. The initial phase is expected to cost $1.75 million including $900,000 for water and sewer, $625,000 for construction, and $225,000 for site work and paving.
The second phase, expected to cost $1.45 million, would include a second set of eight, one-bedroom units plus nine two-bedroom units with an estimated price tag of $625,000 and $825,000, respectively. The one-bedroom units would be targeted at low-income seniors “with older, unsafe homes” while the two-bedroom units would provide “missing middle-income housing for essential workers,” per the project narrative.
The county plans to combine the $775,000 federal earmark with $647,000 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships program. FLHF plans to chip in $1.778 million for the development.
Hyland told the board in November that FLHF has developed application criteria for prospective tenants and the organization intends to give priority to Louisa County residents and members of the local workforce. The organization currently offers more than 20 rental units to income-eligible residents in Louisa and Fluvanna counties. Its Evergreen Place complex on Route 33, which includes four units that will serve as a model for the proposed facility, routinely has a waiting list, Hyland said.
Pending approval, FLHF could begin work on the project in the spring of 2023. The complex could be finished by June of 2025, per the application.
County officials initially planned to use the $775,000 earmark for Ferncliff Place, a 80-unit mixed income community they hoped to build in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. The community’s proposed location, 13 acres of county-owned land on the corner of Mallory Road and Route 250, sparked backlash from neighbors, who said the property was ill-suited for dense development, citing public safety and environmental concerns. Supervisors eventually chose to explore other options.
After not publicly discussing the project for months and facing an end-of-the year deadline to secure the federal funding, the board in September reconvened its affordable housing work group—a committee originally formed last year amid backlash to the Ferncliff proposal—to scout locations and craft a new plan. After two meetings, the work group opted for a partnership with FLHF and the Chalklevel Road location.
“I’m personally looking forward to moving on with this because we have an excellent location. We have an excellent project and excellent goals,” Gentry told the board in November, noting that the property is in proximity to a range of community services and the complex will meet a significant community need.
Board to consider rezoning for additional residential lots: Supervisors will hold a public hearing and consider Donald Bickley and Denise Bickley Hoffman’s request to rezone 41.97 acres (tmp 33-1) in the Green Springs Voting District from A-1 to A-2. The property is located at the corner of Pelham and Beaverdam Roads near the Louisa, Albemarle, and Fluvanna County lines.
The applicant requested the rezoning to divide the property into five residential lots, four of which would encompass four to six acres, according to a conceptual plan. The residue would cover about 24 acres.
Under the county’s rules for A-1 zoning, parent parcels can be divided into three lots while A-2 zoning allows for a maximum of seven lots. Two lots were previously divided from the property.
Attorney Torrey Williams, representing the applicant, argued at the Planning Commission's November meeting that the rezoning would not be detrimental to the neighborhood, pointing out that the parcel is in proximity to several residential developments with relatively small lots and it’s surrounded by parcels zoned A-2. Williams added that an elderly member of the Bickley family lives on an adjoining parcel and the family wants to sell the lots to ensure her financial security.
“(This) rezoning will allow Ms. Bickley to utilize her land for her benefit. It will create four lots in harmony with the nature and circumstances of the communities around them. We do not believe it will be a burden to the community. We do not believe it will harm the community and we believe it’s consistent with the Comprehensive Plan,” Williams said.
Those arguments proved persuasive with commissioners, who voted 6-0 to recommend approval of the rezoning. County staff also recommended approval, noting in its report that the 2040 Comp Plan designates the area rural/agricultural, but five additional homes on appropriately sized lots wouldn’t conflict with the plan’s vision.
Board to consider commercial rezoning for three parcels at Zion Crossroads: Supervisors will hold two public hearings and consider whether to approve rezonings for three parcels in the Zion Crossroads Growth Area Overlay District. The rezonings would move the parcels from industrial (IND) to commercial (C-2 GAOD). One parcel is home to the Best Western hotel (tmp 51-5-2C), one is home to IHOP restaurant (tmp 51-5-2D), and the third is vacant (tmp 51-5-2B).
According to staff’s report, the applicants, Zion Investment, LLC & Crossroads Land, LLC (51-5-2B, 51-5-2C) and Harvest ZC Assets, LLC (51-5-2D), are requesting the rezonings for consistency with surrounding properties, nearly all of which are zoned commercial, and to ensure that the parcels adhere to permitted uses under the county’s current zoning code. At the time of the Best Western and IHOP’s construction, hotels and restaurants were permitted on industrially-zoned property. Under current county rules, neither are permitted uses in industrial zoning in Growth Area Overlay Districts.
Paul Gerhardt, an attorney representing the applicants, told the Planning Commission that the nonconforming use of the hotel parcel presented an issue with the lender when Zion Investments, LLC & Crossroads Land, LLC acquired the Best Western property and the adjoining lot last year.
“What we found out is that if we wanted to expand at some point or improve this property and find loans to do that, it would be a big problem,” Gerhardt said.
Zion Investment & Crossroads Land agreed to exclude a car wash and drive-thru restaurant as permitted uses for the vacant parcel as a proffered condition of the rezoning.
Commissioners voted 6-0 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve both requests. Staff also recommended approval, pointing out in its report that moving the parcels from industrial to commercial zoning “provides more appropriate zoning for existing land uses, and limits industrial uses that may not be suited to the surrounding area.”
Board to consider changes to buoy application process, fee hike: Supervisors will hold a public hearing and consider whether to approve two significant changes to the county’s application process to place a no-wake buoy on the public side of Lake Anna. They’ll weigh hiking the application fee from $50 to $450 and lengthening, from 30 days to 90 days, the time the county has to review applications before making a recommendation to the Division of Wildlife Resources, the state agency tasked with approving new buoys.
Staff suggested raising the fee to $450, equal to what Spotsylvania County charges. The Lake Anna Advisory Committee requested lengthening the local review period.
County Administrator Christian Goodwin told the board in October that LAAC recommended extending the review period so it could play a larger role in green-lighting new buoys. The committee is a cross-jurisdictional panel that includes representatives from Louisa, Spotsylvania, and Orange counties, the three localities home to Lake Anna shoreline.
Goodwin said that, under the current process, LAAC reviews buoy applications before county officials gather input from stakeholders and make a recommendation to DWR. Lengthening the evaluation period to 90 days would allow LAAC, which meets once every other month, to weigh in later in the process and provide stakeholders more time to comment, Goodwin said. Spotsylvania County is also considering lengthening its application process to 90 days, per LAAC’s request.
“Everybody wants (the approval of new buoys) to be in the hands of the parties that are most familiar with the lake,” Goodwin said, noting that DWR has the final say on approval but relies heavily on the county administrator’s recommendation. Once an application is forwarded to DWR, the agency has 30 days to make its decision, per state code.
Buoys are an important navigational tool for boaters, marking natural and artificial hazards. Louisa County’s buoy application guidelines state that the county primarily focuses on “the issue of potential wake hazards and public safety” when reviewing applications. The guidelines note that state law “doesn’t permit the placement of a no-wake buoy simply because someone wants to slow down boat traffic.”
Board to consider adding civil penalties as enforcement tool for code violations: Louisa County could have new ways to rectify violations of its land development regulations.
Supervisors will hold a public hearing and consider whether to approve changes to county code that would allow for the use of abatement and civil penalties, in addition to criminal penalties, to address various code violations.
Under Virginia law, localities can adopt an ordinance establishing civil penalties for violations of certain provisions in the zoning and building code. But current county code only allows for criminal prosecution.
Assistant County Attorney Kyle Eldridge said at several meetings that responding to zoning and land use violations with criminal charges presents several challenges: if a criminal case is dismissed, the county has no further recourse to remedy ongoing violations; the burden of proof for criminal violations is beyond a reasonable doubt; and criminal charges must be brought within one year of the date of discovery. Civil charges, on the other hand, provide more leeway, Eldridge said, including requiring a lower burden of proof based on a “preponderance of the evidence” standard.
Staff believes that permitting the use of abatement, which provides property owners an opportunity to fix violations and avoid penalties, and civil charges will enable the county to better enforce its rules.
In a memo to supervisors earlier this year, County Attorney Helen Phillips pointed to specific zoning cases that could benefit from the addition of civil penalties. In 2018, a citizen reported that a dock was constructed and expanded without a permit. Another citizen, in 2018, reported that a “house has black mold” and “the deck is about to fall in,” among other problems. To date, Phillips writes, there has been no enforcement of the building code and the cases remain open. In addition, she points out, there are other zoning and land regulation cases open from 2018 including sheds built without permits that violate setback regulations and homeowners operating businesses out of garages without permits.
The Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval of the amendments at its November meeting.
Supervisors to consider amendment to C-PACE ordinance: In June 2021, supervisors opted into C-PACE, a statewide program that offers an innovative way to finance clean energy upgrades for commercial and multifamily properties. The program allows property owners to pay for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water management improvements and infrastructure via a voluntary special assessment on their property. The program is administered through the Virginia C-Pace Authority with loans, which run with the property, made through approved lenders. The program has minimal cost for localities that opt to participate.
On Monday night, the board will hold a public hearing and consider an amendment to its C-PACE ordinance that provides additional details about how assessments are levied, their recordation, enforcement, and associated collection costs.
Board to hear five presentations: The board’s agenda includes five presentations.
The Fluvanna/Louisa Housing Foundation will update the board on its work. Pending supervisors’ approval and a green light from the federal government, the non-profit organization plans to partner with the county on development of a 25-unit affordable housing complex between the Towns of Louisa and Mineral. (See above). The agency also recently received a $300,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Health to repair and replace damaged and aging septic systems for income-eligible residents.
A representative from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will brief the board on the agency’s study of Harmful Algal Blooms at Lake Anna. The biennial state budget approved last June includes $3.5 million to study HAB, a growing problem in the upper end of the lake and other freshwater bodies across the state. The blooms, composed on toxin-producing cyanobacteria that can be detrimental to human health and harmful to wildlife and pets, prompted the Virginia Department of Health to issue no-swim advisory for parts of Lake Anna in each of the last five summers and recently landed the lake on DEQ’s list of impaired waterways.
The board will receive a summary of the county’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2022.
Rounding out the presentations, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Louisa County Water Authority will deliver their quarterly reports.
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