Dominion, PEC Projects OKd

By Bill Walsh

By Bill Walsh

Times-Democrat Staff Writer

It's not every day that the Piedmont Environmental Council and Dominion Virginia Power go before a judicial panel and both emerge victorious.

But both the PEC and Dominion left the Warren Green Building on Thursday with Board of Zoning Appeals special-exception permits in hand.

In the interest of accurate and unbiased reporting, it should be pointed out that PEC and Dominion did not attend the meeting as adversaries, but, rather, came with independent requests that couldn't have been more diverse.

PEC was awarded a special exception to open a conservation easement tract that straddles the Fauquier - Clarke border near Paris to deceased supporters of its land-preservation efforts and their families.

The special exception allows survivors to scatter the ashes of PEC-supporting family members on this pristine spot overlooking some of the commonwealth's most striking beauty.

The BZA limited such ceremonies to no more than 10 per year, with no more than 12 cars in attendance at any one rite.

Dominion, for its part, was before the BZA seeking special exception to use a Remington-area farm as a staging area for the construction of a 500-kv power line.

Presumably, the Lucky Hill Road staging will be for the Fauquier portion of the construction, which is also planned to cross parts of Loudoun, Rappahannock, Frederick, Culpeper and Prince William counties.

The special exception is good for three years, and Dominion is required to return the farm to its pre-development condition when the work is completed.

Are you jumping the gun a little bit, BZA panelist Serf Guerra asked the Dominion representative, acknowledging that the question was probably inappropriately directed to an engineer, whose concerns and responsibilities for the line construction probably did not equip him to answer the question.

Whether the power line will get built or not is now before the Virginia Supreme Court, Guerra noted.

The Supreme Court challenge has been brought by Piedmont Environmental Council, among others.

The BZA meets on the first Thursday of the month in the Warren Green meeting room. It issues special-use permits, considers waivers to the zoning ordinance and hears appeals to ordinance interpretations by the zoning administrator.