Representatives from Valley Link declined to attend Tuesday’s Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting–days after confirming the appearance.
On Friday, District 5 Supervisor and board chairman Bryan Nicol and District 1 Supervisor Jason Cappelle held a call with Valley Link representatives. The joint venture, of which Dominion is included, is proposing the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Project which would run approximately 115 miles of 765kV transmission lines from Campbell County to Culpeper County crossing nine localities including Orange County. At 765kV, the transmission lines are the highest voltage, highest capacity transmission line type available in the country and would include structures between 135 and 160 feet tall requiring approximately 200 feet of right-of-way.
During the call on Friday, which was also attended by county staff members, Nicol said he asked Valley Link representatives to attend the board’s upcoming meeting and present an update on the project. He said Valley Link representatives were prepared to disclose the next iteration of its project during the call, but Nicol requested that be during a public meeting, not a private phone call. He said Valley Link agreed to the appearance and the meeting agenda was updated to reflect the change.
However, days later Nicol said he received a call from a Dominion representative who said leadership asked them to decline the invite. He said he was disappointed, both by the change and because Dominion leadership declined to relay the message themselves.
“I’m upset at the way they handled this and let them know that,” Nicol said. “Time and time again Valley Link and Dominion you come short, you never seem to get in the right place in terms of openness and transparency.”
On Wednesday, Valley Link released new maps, showing updated routes. The changes reflect comments and ongoing routing research conducted since the first maps were published in March. The new routes fluctuate from the originals, moving further west in some areas of Orange County. The routes can be viewed at https://vltransmission.com/joshua-falls-to-yeat/#resources. A second round of open house style meetings has been scheduled in each of the impacted counties in June. The Orange County meeting has been scheduled for Monday, June 15, 3:30-7:30 p.m. at Orange County High School. Orange County’s meeting is the first of the nine county-located meetings, along with Spotsylvania which is scheduled for the same date and time. A virtual meeting has been scheduled for June 10, 12-1 p.m.
Orange County Planning Commissioners and Supervisors are continuing work to strengthen the county’s comprehensive plan ahead of Valley Link’s plan to submit the Joshua Falls-Yeat project to the SCC for approval in September. That approval is expected to take a year. The comprehensive plan is one of the documents the SCC considers as part of the application process. County leaders hope to strengthen the document in relation to transmission lines. The planning commission suggested 10 changes. Supervisors opted to instruct the commission to prioritize pursuing four of them. These include recommending that all transmission lines adhere to the county’s application process and prioritize the use of existing corridors over new corridors with deviations from the comprehensive plan requiring a special use permit or rezoning. Transmission lines should also be clearly identified in terms of location and impacts with studies and site inspections with a clear specific timeline for completion. Commissioners also suggest requiring all lines to be located underground for new transmission line developments in historically significant areas and environmental planned overlays. All electric lines should also use existing power lines not to exceed 500kV.
The commission will meet June 4 at 6 p.m. and is expected to begin work on the comprehensive plan changes at that time. Capelle said this effort should take priority since the plan has to be updated before Valley Link submits its application to the SCC.
