Category Archives: Zoning Requests

Public Hearing on ACP Request to Cross Floodplains

A Public Hearing will be held at 7 pm Monday December 3, 2018, in the auditorium at Nelson County High/Middle School (6919 Thomas Nelson Hwy, Lovingston) to review four of the deferred floodplain variance applications submitted by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in early 2018.  On January 31, 2018, ACP requested the deferrals until such time as they could provide the additional information requested by Nelson County on behalf of the BZA for these four applications to cross designated floodplains.

The Board of Zoning Appeals Web page has details about the ACP application as well as links to written comments on the requests submitted to the BZA. (Scroll down past the comments section to get to the links for the ACP application.)

Those wishing to speak at the hearing will be required to sign in before the meeting. Nelson County has guidelines for speakers at hearings; note that speakers representing a group will have 5 minutes, individual speakers will have 3 minutes (and may not allocate their time to another individual).

The hearing will address these four variance requests:

Variance # 2018-007

Consideration of a request from Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC for a Variance to construct a pipeline across a floodplain in conformance with Article 10 of the Nelson County Zoning Code for construction of a natural gas pipeline across property owned by Ronald Slaughter Jr. & Others, 14815 Thomas Nelson Hwy, Lovingston, Virginia and further identified as Tax Map #45-A-25.

Variance # 2018-008

Consideration of a request from Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC for a Variance to construct a pipeline across a floodplain in conformance with Article 10 of the Nelson County Zoning Code for construction of a natural gas pipeline across the following properties:

  • 1434 Starvale Ln, Shipman, VA – owned by Gillis Rodgers, and further identified as Tax Map #46-A-34.

  • Tax Map #46-A-12 – owned by Equity Trust Company

Variance # 2018-009

Consideration of a request from Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC for a Variance to construct a pipeline across a floodplain in conformance with Article 10 of the Nelson County Zoning Code for construction of a natural gas pipeline across property owned by James & Virginia Powell, 884 Wheelers Cove Rd, Shipman, Virginia and further identified as Tax Map #59-A-23.

Variance # 2018-010

Consideration of a request from Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC for a Variance to construct a pipeline across a floodplain in conformance with Article 10 of the Nelson County Zoning Code for construction of a natural gas pipeline across properties owned by Greenway S Corporation, Tax Maps #60-3-15, 60-3-16, and 60-A-28.

See a map of the FEMA floodplains on the ACP route. The blue dots on the map (look for them along the orange line that is the pipeline route) are the water crossings. The A (red), AE (yellow), and X (green) areas on the map are FEMA designated Floodplain Areas. A & AE are the most dangerous part of Floodplains, called Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA), and any permanent structures are prohibited there, with or without Higher Standards.

Augusta County Rejects ACP Storage Yard

In a 4-1 vote at their meeting on November 1, 2018, the Augusta County Board of Zoning Appeals denied the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s proposed special use permit for a pipeline storage yard just south of West Augusta. The proposal had been tabled at the Board’s September and October meetings. The action marks the second time this year that the BZA rejected a storage yard in the county, having denied a permit on March 1 for a similar facility that would have been located north of Churchville.

See press coverage in the Staunton News Leader here.

Cart Before the Horse

In her guest column in the September 21, 2018, Staunton News Leader (West Augusta pipe yard is putting the ‘cart before the horse’), Nancy Sorrells discusses Dominion’s request to the Augusta Board of Zoning Appeals for a proposed pipe yard in West Augusta. She notes that when FERC was contacted to verify Dominion’s Emmett Toms’ statement to the BZA that they had approval to “leave the thousand dump truck loads of contaminated gravel from the parking area in a pile in the field after construction, rather than take the cleaned gravel to an approved landfill as is standard procedure,” they were told by FERC that “the contractor/pipe yard you referenced below has not been proposed to FERC.”

Further, the area where Dominion proposes the pipe yard (that FERC doesn’t know about) is one that has paved roads of “less than minimum design standards” because the county agreed in 2010 that the area is not to be the target of any development, and therefore should certainly not “have the kind of traffic and heavy equipment that would occur on this road for two years or more with ACP’s proposed construction yard.”

She concludes, “So there you have it: Dominion has proposed something that both DEQ and FERC are unaware of in an area that the county has legally promised never to develop. Cart before the horse? In reality there never should have been a cart or a horse proposed here.”

BREDL Files VA Supreme Court Appeal Against Buckingham Supervisors and ACP

Press Release from Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, July 19, 2018:

BREDL and its Buckingham Chapter, Concern for the New Generation, File Supreme Court Appeal regarding Special Use Permit for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Lovingston, VA—This week the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) and its chapter, Concern for the New Generation (CNG), and its members filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia regarding Buckingham County’s approval of a special use permit for a compressor station for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The suit was originally filed February 6, 2017 pro se. Circuit Court Judge William Alexander dismissed the case in January, 2018 on technicalities regarding the form used in the pro se filing.

BREDL’s Stop the Pipeline Campaign Coordinator, Sharon Ponton, stated, “We believe this case deserves to be heard on its merits. We contend that the special exception in the zoning ordinance which was used in the permitting process is for utilities…water, sewer, or even a natural gas utility company which delivers a product to residents of the community. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not a utility. It is a natural gas transmission company.”

Kathie Mosley, chair of CNG, stated, “The Union Hill community has been ignored and marginalized throughout the approval process for the proposed pipeline and its compressor station. The County ignored the evidence we presented at the hearings and approved the permit anyway. Our plan to stop the compressor station from being constructed in our historically significant African-American community moves forward with this appeal.”

“Judge Alexander remarked during the hearing, he believed the case should be appealed, and that’s what we have done,” stated Lou Zeller, Executive Director of BREDL. Zeller continued, “The County has done everything it could to slow walk this process, but we are persistent in our support of the Union Hill community, and look forward to a positive outcome from the Supreme Court of Virginia.”

View the Appeal to Virginia Supreme Court

Stand with Union Hill


Stand with Union Hill: The Buckingham County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on Monday, July 9, 2018 to hear public input regarding a rezoning request to allow the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to install a “man camp” across from the proposed Union Hill compressor station.

Be there at 5 pm for peaceful witness at the meeting, which begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Peter Francisco Auditorium of the Buckingham County Administration Complex at 13380 W. James Anderson Hwy, Buckingham, Virginia 23921.

The Circle of Protection collaborators and Water is Life. Protect It. are asking for your presence and peaceful witness to this meeting and this proposal which represents a further violation of the zoning and comprehensive plan for Buckingham County.

Highland County Considers ACP Applications

In their meeting on April 26, 2018, the Highland County Board of Supervisors and Highland County Planning Commission held hearings and reviewed applications related to the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.

Supervisors cited neighborhood incompatibility and denied the application to rezone the Jack Mountain Village property in Monterey, tabled the application to rezone a property in McDowell from residential to agricultural so the property will no longer be used for the pipeline project, and tabled action on the request for a conditional use permit for a construction yard on the same property.

Planners forwarded to the Supervisors with no recommendation the application for a conditional use permit for an RV park/camp on a property in the Blue Grass; Supervisors decided to wait for new zoning ordinance language regarding temporary work camps before considering the request. Planners found the pipeline project to be substantially in accord with the Highland County Comprehensive Plan.