Monday, June 2, 2025: Tie-breaker to decide fate of solar project in Halifax County
Plus: Louisa Supervisors to consider growth study; Utility rate increase in Charlottesville
Back for another week of previews of local government meetings! If you’ve not seen this before, my name is Sean Tubbs and I’m an independent publisher and reporter based in Charlottesville. I grew up in Campbell County and have lived in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District for a long time.
This is not a newsletter about Congress or about Virginia government. It is my attempt to learn about the 24 localities within a political jurisdiction that didn’t exist until the 2020 redistricting. For the first time in my life, the district makes geographic sense and I want to learn as much as I can about each place.
I do this work out of love for the place where I have lived for most of my life. I believe there are more commonalities than differences. I say that from the perspective of a reporter who has focused on the details of municipal government for 20 years. I’m fascinated to see how all of these localities work.
For instance, Halifax County is unique in that there are an even number of members of the Board of Supervisors. If they deadlock 4 to 4, there is an official tie-breaker elected by the county to weigh in. That comes into play tonight. I may have to write about that just to understand. Albemarle County also an even number of Supervisors.
Over time I hope to expand this work. I do not have paid subscriptions turned on, but you are welcome to take out one for Charlottesville Community Engagement. This might change in the future. In any case, now I have to publish this so I can write a story for C-Ville Weekly as well publish today’s edition of CCE.
Today I am forgoing links to other stories. I’ve got to get to work!
Halifax County’s elected tie-breaker to consider fate of solar projects that deadlocked in May
The eight members of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the County Administration Building at 1050 Mary Bethune Street in Halifax, Virginia. (agenda packet)
The headline will be explained, but first some interesting things to note from draft minutes:
The War Memorial Advisory Committee met on April 22. There are efforts to add more names to the memorial to World War I. At least 57 people from Halifax County died in that war. (learn more)
There are details about how Halifax County is seeking to staff fire and rescue personnel in the Public Safety Committee minutes from April 29. These are important things to know about if you’re interested in emergency management. We also learn that Hitachi is offering the use of a drone to assist in public safety calls. (learn more)
The plant manager for Hitachi’s power transformer factory, Ryland Clark, appeared at the May 5 meeting to seek a partnership with the county. He said the facility in Halifax County is the second largest factory of its kind in North America and he wants to make it number one. Clark explained how many employees commute from Greensboro and other North Carolina communities, and he wants to work to help make Halifax County a place people would want to live. Hitachi is investing in some outdoor parks and athletic fields. (learn more)
I particularly like that there’s a section in the agenda packet that has written updates from staff on inquiries from elected officials. Review that here.
There are two public hearings.
The first has the title “Spring Turkey Season Prohibition of Hunting with Rifle.” More details in the image below. (learn more)
The second is on the county budget and school budget for Fiscal Year 2026. This was pulled from the May 5 meeting at the request of Supervisor P. Riddle due to a discrepancy. The budget itself will be adopted on June 23. Details here.
There are six items under new business.
The first is for a conditional use permit for a primitive campground at 7149 Chatham Road. (learn more)
The second is for a rezoning from Residential-1 to A-1 ED#6 at 1249 Old Grubby Road. (learn more)
The third is to adopt the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Secondary Six-Year Plan. (learn more)
The fourth is a resolution to adopt the Riverdale Drive Community Improvement Project. (learn more)
The fifth is a discussion about compensation for the Board of Supervisors. (learn more)
The sixth is an agreement for a donation from Purina for the animal shelter. (learn more)
Under new items there are two conditional use permits for two solar projects.
Materials for RWE Clean Energy are here. This is for a 5 megawatt facility on 35 acres. On May 5 a vote to deny a conditional use permit for the project deadlocked on a 4 to 4 vote. Tiebreaker Wayne Smith requested a 30-day grace period to review the issue. In the meantime, RWE Clean Energy has offered an amendment.
There’s also an item with the title “Hitachi Funding Request and Memorandum of Understanding.” This relates to a request of $52,000 in county funds to help cover the costs of installing putting in lights at the athletic fields mentioned above.
Then Supervisors will go into a closed session and the agenda lists the citation of Virginia’s rules for closed meetings. This will be for appointments to board and commissions.
The motion to come out of closed session is also printed in the agenda. That’s a best practice! And then they’ll make the appointments.
Charlottesville City Council to hold public hearing on use of $12 million from capital contingency fund
Charlottesville City Council will meet at 4 p.m. for a work session followed by a regular session at 6:30 p.m. There’s a lot on this agenda.
In between the two open sessions they’ll hold a closed meeting to appoint a member of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners. The terms of Wes Bellamy and Laura Goldblatt expire on June 30 according to the city’s website.
This meeting marks the debut of a new format for the agenda which includes a description of what the closed session will be about. I’m very glad to see that information publicly posted.
The work session will feature an update on the city’s transportation program.
“This presentation is an annual update on the city’s ongoing efforts to manage and execute a comprehensive transportation strategy,” reads the staff report. There’s no advance information in the packet, but if you want to catch up on recent stories check out this section of Information Charlottesville.
If you want to know where things were this time last year, here are two stories:
Charlottesville transportation planners seeking to rebuild public trust, May 16, 2024
Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects, May 17, 2025
There are two items on the consent agenda I want to highlight. The first is a resolution to appropriate $266,387 in a surplus the city-owned Meadowcreek Golf Course has from fiscal year 2024. The funds will be used to reinvest in the course in a series of repairs. In all there were 43,618 rounds of golf played in Pen Park between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. Learn more in the staff report.
The second is a resolution allowing City Manager Sam Sanders to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Local Energy Alliance Program for work they will conduct to advance the city’s climate protection program. There’s also a resolution to appropriate $125,350 in city funds for this purpose.
“In 2024, in response to the recognized need to scale up community adoption of energy efficiency and electrification actions to reach our community greenhouse gas reduction goals, the City partnered with Albemarle County, LEAP, and the Community Climate Collaborative (C3) to launch the Energy Resource Hub, an online and in-person service to assist both residents and businesses in navigating and accessing energy programs and incentives,” reads the staff report.
After the consent agenda, Council will hear from CRHA Executive Director John Sales regarding the properties his agency bought jointly with the city in the spring of 2023. Council agreed to contribute half of the $10 million to purchase dozens of units known collectively as Dogwood Housing. These date back to 1980 when Eugene Williams began buying and renovating properties to keep them affordable. Woodard Properties purchased them all in 2007 and agreed to follow suit.
CRHA has been adding to the portfolio by purchasing additional properties. Council last got an update last spring as I wrote about for C-Ville Weekly.
Council will then move into action items with two public hearings. The first regards a granting of easements to Dominion Energy at Pen Park and Quarry Road to allow for some equipment to be placed underground.
The second public hearing will attract more attention. This is on the allocation of funding over $12 million from the city’s Capital Improvement Program contingency fund. Council agreed to park $22.4 million from the fiscal year 2024 surplus into the contingency fund as well as $2.7 million in “gainsharing” funds from the School Board.
On May 19, Sanders described how he wanted to use $5.4 million of that funds. In addition to the staff report, you can learn the details in an article I wrote about his presentation.
“In addition to these items, two additional community intervention items have been added as well as a few items to ensure compliance with budgetary guidelines and financial policy,” reads the staff report.
The report doesn’t spell out what the new two items are but they appear to be $1.1 million for “Downtown Mall Improvements” as well as $1.5 million for “City Environmental and Mobility Plans.”
There’s an additional $5,135,000 in those “few items” which do not appear to have anything to do with capital infrastructure needs.
They are:
$3.5 million for “Health Care Fund Reserve Replenishment”
$1.1 million to cover additional funding need to pay for items in the city’s contract with the Teamsters for the fourth collective bargaining agreement
$300,000 for implementation of an asset management implementation system
$175,000 in legal fees incurred by the City Attorney’s office
$60,000 to cover losses the Human Services department had in Fiscal Year 2024.
Included in the packet is a list of how the CIP contingency fund has been used since 2006. One item that jumps out at me is a transfer of $9 million on June 17, 2024 as a contribution to the city’s retirement fund. Another is the appropriation of $1.4 million last year to the Charlottesville Parking Center related to an increase in the rent the city pays for the ground lease. If you want to know more about that, here’s a story from last October.
After that is a public hearing on utility rate increases. I wrote a story about this last week which you can read here. My goal is to write up a story from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority meeting last week that will explain the reason for the proposed increases. But I encourage everyone to read the source materials. A second reading will be required.
Next up there will be an ordinance to readopt the ordinance that governs the city’s transient occupancy tax.
“After years of wrangling with AirBnB over its role in providing localities with the data that will allow local tax assessors to fairly and equitably administer transient occupancy and other local taxes, HB 2398 passed the 2025 General Assembly,” reads the staff report. “That legislation removed the language on which AirBnB was basing its (dubious) claim that sharing address and gross receipts data was a violation of its hosts' privacy.
After that will be a vote to adopt the Move Safely Blue Ridge study put together by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission as well as to authorize a demonstration project to alter the traffic patterns on East High Street. Details are here and I’ll try to write up this portion of the meeting.
The final item is for Council to officially appoint John Maddux as City Attorney. Maybe there will be a question about that $175,000 in legal fees? Either way, here’s a story I wrote in May about his appointment.
I had expected there to be an item about financing for the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. More on that when we get to the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.
Louisa Supervisors to consider Planning Commission’s request for a growth study
The seven members of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors will meet at 5 p.m for a closed session. There’s no indication of what they’ll discuss. These will eventually be in the minutes but it would be nice to know in advance.
At 6 p.m. they will convene in the Louisa County Public Meeting Room for the regular meeting. (meeting packet) (meeting overview)
There are three items under information and presentations.
The first is a proposal from the Louisa County Planning Commission. The appointed body wants the county to hire a firm to review the by-right potential for growth under existing zoning. Read the solution for more information.
The second is an update of the Comprehensive Plan review. There’s no information in the packet. The last plan was adopted in August 2019. Learn more here.
The third is an update on the short term rental compliance. There’s no information in the packet.
There’s a fourth item visible in the “meeting overview” tab labeled “Future Revenues” but there’s no information.
Under new business there is a resolution to waive the permit fees for Bowler’s Mill Reservoir and to authorize reciprocal use by permit holders in the Northeast Creek Reservoir. Take a look here if you are interested.
There are two public hearings and both of them relate to the land development regulations. The first is on places that sell controlled substances and the second is for several miscellaneous changes.
“In prior discussions with the Planning Commission, members expressed a desire to find a way to allow licensed medical facilities to operate by-right while still maintaining appropriate controls over the retail sale of controlled substances,” reads the staff report for the first.
“These amendments remove conflicts and outdated provisions; improving consistency in the organization of regulations, including additional standards to ensure safety in the application of the regulations; and providing language within the subdivision regulations regarding review, road standards, completion of improvements and responsibility for completion,” reads the staff report for the second.