Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Florida. He did let us know that he was going to be absent. Yeah. Mr. Fox. I'm just doing roll call. Okay. Mr. Williams here. Mr. Kendrick here. Mr. Matet not here yet. Miss Flattley here. Mr. Myers. Uh Mr. Nicely here. And Mr. Palibota here.

We do have a quum, sir. Very well. Uh, if we can now stand for our pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we ask that you bless this meeting. gather the hearts and minds of our members to do what is best for this county. These and other blessings we pray. Amen. See

all right. All right. Each members do have a copy of the meeting agenda. At this time, I'd like you to review it, make any recommendations of any amendments or adjustments. Um, we will amend the uh agenda to um strike out or to to move the special presentation to uh the month of September. He's not going to be with us. Uh yes. Yes. The uh recognition of um Mr. Chris Parker.

All right. Are there any other uh amendments this time? Okay. I make a motion to approve the meeting agenda as noted. Right. Motion's been made. Second

and seconded. Um, all in favor with just a show of hands. All right, the agenda passes unanimously. Okay, on that same note, next we're going to look at the approval of the minutes from July uh 8th of 2025. So, take a moment to review those Are there any amendments that need to be made to the minutes?

Okay. If I can get a um motion to accept the minutes. I make a motion that we approve the minutes from July 8th, 2025. All right. Motion's been made and seconded. Are there any abstensions? Uh Mr. Chairman, I abstain. I was not present last month.

Farewell. Thank you, Mr. Kendrick. All right. All in favor of the uh show of hands to accept the minutes. All right. Let us show that the approval of the minutes passed unanimously with one extens what am I trying to say? Exemption. Okay. All right. Next on the agenda is our citizens public comment period. All right. This is just a general um general comment period. All right. The if you're here to speak on the um application for the Monopole sale tower, that will come later on. But this is just general uh public hearing, right? So we ask that your comments will be limited to three minutes per person to afford anyone or everyone an opportunity to speak. If comments relate to a specific public hearing item, please offer them at that time of public hearing. All right. So, all right. First, I do I do have um a few people listed on the signup sheet. First is it looks like Aaron Alison.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. Aron Elias's my name. I'm uh from James Madison district. As you all know, uh groundwater levels are at historic lows. Officials at the Virginia DEEQ are concerned that our aquifer could run completely dry by 2025, 2055, pardon me. Plans are being considered to use surface water to meet the county's growing needs. And the surface water referred to as generally the Rapahhanic River. Our beautiful Rapahhanic River is now number six on the America River list of endangered rivers due to declining groundwater. Rapid population growth and expanding industries in the Fredericksburg region. Chief among the industries putting pressure on water resources are data centers. A single large data center may use five million gallons of data of water per day and plans to use gray water or partially treated waste water does decrease consumption of portable water but still causes enormous losses of water due to the evaporative process in cooling. In Stafford County, there are four data centers approved for construction. 12 more data centers are under review and it is unknown how many more proposals are in the pipeline. Spennsylvania County has approved five data centers with byite potential for many more. Caroline County has applied to withdraw 13 million gallons per day for a variety of projects as well. And for perspective, 13 million gallons is enough water to fill a large football field 39 ft deep. We have a looming crisis in our county concerning our water. But there's good news also. Senator Richard Stewart and Delegate Hillary Pew Kent, who represent parts of the Northern Neck, championed a measure in the General Assembly to fund a three-year study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, VIMS, to

assess the impacts of such activity on water quality in Virginia rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. VIMS has been directed to present its findings by October 1st, 2028. There are two critical things that the planning commission and the county board of supervisors are advised to do. First, water usage must be coordinated at a regional level for it to make any sense and to allow for fairness in water distribution. And second, major decisions on approval of data centers in King George County and regionally must be delayed until studies on the effects of water withdrawal have been completed. We need information in order to act appropriately. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Right. Next on the list, I have Tudy, excuse me, Tutti Moniure, James Madison district. Thank you all for what you do for our county. I wanted to take time to give thanks and appreciation to our representatives on the George Washington Regional Commission. The GWRC is a regional commission consisting of four counties in the city of Fredericksburg. Supervisor Bender as chair and Supervisor Sullins as committee member represent King George County. This is good news for the evaluation of water consumption, particularly the Rapahhanic River, which all jurisdictions border. We hope cooperation among these groups, including yours, leads to smart outcomes. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right, that concludes uh those I have signed up on the list. The floor is now open uh for anyone who who wishes to come up and speak at this time. All right, seeing that there are none, the Oh, well, let me ask Chris, is there anyone uh on online? No, Mr. Chairman.

All right. Thank you, sir. All right, seeing that no one's online and we have no one here in the audience, uh the uh citizens public comment period is now closed. All right, I'll now open the floor for discussion on any public comment uh for the panel. Yes, sir. Mr. L nicely.

Yeah, I'd just like to make a quick comment on on the first speaker. I'm sorry I missed your name, sir. Uh but I want I want to be clear with you and and give you some assurance that at least myself and most of the members of this panel if you've really been listening to the applications that have been coming to us for data centers we have not allowed any data center to come to this board that is expecting to use at least recently since I've been on it anyone that's going to use water for their cooling purposes. So those millions of gallons of water cooling is not something that I, as one of the members on this panel, will will ever approve for this county. What we do in other counties, we have no control over. But at least since I've been on this board, we've been pretty solid that we understand the water problem and we're very cognizant of that. And if you look at the last at least the last two applications, neither one of those they use they use water for, you know, bathrooms and and regular services, but not for the cooling purposes. They're coming up with other technologies for that. So, we're we're certainly aware of the concerns.

Thank you, Mr. Nicely, for those those comments and clarification. Mr. of fate. You just to add on that, it's expressly prohibited in the county for a data center to use water for cooling purposes. So even if they came before the commission or the board with an application that said that, it wouldn't be allowed because it's written in black and white, you cannot use water for cooling purposes in this county. Period.

Thank you, sir. Are there any other comments report? All right. All right. discuss discussion on the public comment period is now closed. Uh with next on the list is our community planning lesson officer Mr. of Naval Support Facility South PTOIC uh dog, Mr. Adam Lynch. Mr. Lynch, good to see you, sir. Good evening, chairman. Yeah, very much. Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Now, I had a wonderful six weeks with my family. Uh my son Archer was born on uh June 27th and mom and baby are doing well. I'm very very happy to have the opportunity toh spend that time with with my family. Um um so uh new on on uh Dogren's side, we recently had a change in command which I had alluded to previously but it is now official. Captain Townsen, Captain Jonathan Townsen was relieved of command and uh sworn in was Captain John Nater. We're excited to have him in the saddle. Captain Townsen is uh just recently received his uh rear admiral and has been promoted to the commanding officer of Naval Region Northwest. So, uh very very exciting for him. Uh couldn't be uh assigned to a a more exciting place for a fisherman such as himself. So, I know he's excited out there for that opportunity. Um Captain Nater is getting quickly spun up, but he's got a lot on his plate, though. I hope to have him introduced to you guys and the support of supervisors as soon as we find some space in his schedule. New on base. Um, now yesterday was my first day back at work, so I'm also getting spun up myself and what we've been doing. Um, recently reached a topping out of the new Naval Gateway Inn and Suites, which is a new hotel on base. Uh, that's exciting for us. Uh certainly having a modern hotel and better accommodations for our guests is exciting for us. Uh expected to be complete in summer of 2026. Also exciting is that the old NGIS is going to be repurposed to help us add more space for barracks. Uh so that will help us uh add more housing on base for our uh our sailors and their families. Um, on the transportation side, we recently reactivated Eegis Way, which is a ring road on base within the fence line that uh runs sort of around the

northwest uh I would say quadrant of the installation. it had been um uh basically deactivated for through traffic for vehicles during COVID um in part to um because there wasn't as much of a need for as much onbase traffic, but also uh the old configuration was a little bit confusing because it was a oneway, it's a one lane road. It was one way uh one time a day and then it would switch to a the other direction. So, it was like a birectional road and it was causing confusion and some safety issues. So it has now been converted to an exclusively one way always in the same direction. Uh it will be accessible to vehicles during uh daytime business hours but in off hours it will be again a pedestrian and bicycle route. Uh and the last thing is uh we're excited to uh continue on with a project um called daylighting. Uh I come from a a water quality background. Daylighting is where you replace an underground sewer storm sewer pipe with a natural streamscape. Right? So, we have an old um sewer pipe that carries quite a bit of runoff drainage on base. Mr. Kendrick would probably know the one I'm referring to. It is uh at the end of its useful life and uh the most feasible replacement for it was to remove the pipe and to um essentially restore a natural streamscape which will help improve water quality as well as improve uh wildlife habitat which helps us uh um execute our natural resource obligations for the installation. So, um I don't have a timeline on that, but I know it's in the planning and design phase at this point. And once we get through some more permits, we're looking forward to breaking ground on that. And that is my report.

Thank you. Any questions? Mr. Lynch, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Next on the agenda is uh our public hearing. Uh this is for application Z-2025-0000263 resolution PC-15-25 the Berthville um Monopole cell tower special exception um let's see do we have uh some okay great awesome can I leave my notes up here

all right thank you sir I'll just give a little introduction before Tracy gives her presentation Um, representatives from Telecom Capital Group have applied for a special exception permit to construct a 175 ft monipole wireless telecommunications facility with a 4-foot lightning rod on property owned by the trustees of St. Paul's Church, which is located at 5520 St. Paul's Road. The tower compound is proposed to encompass approximately 3,500 square feet. The King George County zoning ordinance requires a special exception permit in the A2 district for any telecommunications facility. The zoning ordinance contains specific performance standards which the applicant will be required to meet during the site plan review process. They've also addressed those performance standards in their application. The applicants held a community meeting and also conducted a balloon test in March which was advertised in the newspaper and all the adjacent property owners were notified. They received no comments. The application was reviewed by all of our county reviewing agencies as well as VOTE and there were no major comments. The proposed tower is in a location that currently is lacking in service and will provide vital communication for fire and emergency service. Staff has also received no comment from the public regarding this application. There are five draft permit conditions listed in resolution PC-15-25 for your consideration and draft motions are included at the end of the staff report. Now I'll invite Tracy back up to give her presentation. Thank you.

Good evening members of the commission. We saw you um last month and we went through this same PowerPoint. So, I'm going to go through it briefly just so that you can be aware of any areas that you want to focus on and I'm like to delve more into depth on the particular issues that you'd like to get to. But, um, as staff recommended, um, in their in their staff report, we are here because this is a, um, a need-based driven facility. Um with every new generation of um wireless we are seeing more demand on the existing macro sites um both for uh coverage and capacity. So uh last time we talked about the macro sites that are currently in place um are seeing more traffic due to voice and data and so there is an increased need for additional macro sites as well as small cell. We are here for telecom capital group proposing a new macro site at 5520 St. calls. Um this shows you some of the data. Um and this is an important statistic um showing the different range that the different levels of technology have. When um 1G was first introduced into the market, it had a range of about 7 miles. So it could interact with another macro site approximately 7 miles away. 2G coverage was less. 3G coverage and today 4G coverage only reaches about 1.5 miles to another macro site. So what we're seeing is and then you have on top of that the increased number of cell phones and computers and wireless devices that are putting demand on those towers. So um when we propose a macro site it's for these reasons people are using wireless devices more and we need to increase the towers that are that are accommodating those devices. These towers are not only interacting directly with cell phones and computers but also within the wireless technology within the house. So we have boosters, we have um high-speed internet and those

devices need to reach macro sites as well to be able to function for internet in the home. Specific to this application, we looked for existing towers because it is of course an expensive endeavor to come and build a site if there isn't a need. um wireless carriers aren't going to seek out the infrastructure providers if they can colllocate on an existing tower and simply be a tenant. Um there were no existing structures within the 1m radius and the existing structures for were both SBA um and were approximately 1.65 and 1.9 miles from the proposed site which of course is out of the radius of um of effectiveness for 4G and then uh which we know is 1.5 miles. So this our goal here was to get a site in the search ring central to the search ring that would provide coverage in conjunction with those two towers and also offload some of the demand from them so they will operate more effectively and coverage in the gapped areas which you will see here on the next slides will be would be filled in. What you're looking at right now is the levels of of coverage currently provided um with the existing structures in place. The worst coverage, there's clearly white gaps, which is no coverage. Then you see the the coverage in red, which is spotty coverage. The yellow coverage, which is outdoor, intermittent coverage. Green coverage indicate indicates um inbuilding coverage, which which is what we're seeking. You want to be able to place um and keep calls within your house and within buildings. So even with the two previously mentioned SBA towers, this is the coverage that we're seeing in this area and this is the area where Verizon was getting co customer complaints and so came to TCG and said this is the search ring that we need to find a tower in. Um again ideally you look for something in the center of that so that it will

in in um when constructed fill in as much of that red and white and yellow area as possible. Uh when TCG goes out and looks, this is not an easy process. Uh we talked about this um at the last hearing. In order to find a location, um they are looking for parcels that will meet things like setbacks. We have to have a willing landlord. There's a lot of topographical issues that come into play because we don't want to have to have an exorbitantly large tower if we don't have to. But if we have dips in terrain, that comes into play. We're looking at resource protection areas and things that we don't want to have to do. We're looking for a lot of tree coverage without the need to to remove trees with things like the access drive to the compound and the fence compound at the base of the cell tower. So, there's a lot of components that come in to search for that and they do an exhaustive search. Um, they were able to find the subject property which is located in the A district. I believe it's slightly over 2.5 acres. There is existing tree coverage on the site. I do not believe we will be removing any trees. Um, and so this slide shows the subject property and the coverage that will be provided once the 175 ft monopole is in place. Um, when I speak of the 175 ft monopol, as staff mentioned, it's 175 ft tall with a 4ft lightning rod for an overall height of 179. Um, when originally proposed, this tower was much it was about 20 ft higher. Uh TCG heard from the community, from staff to see if we could reduce it at all and we did. We came down 20 feet. Um that was the minimum height that Verizon said they could still effectively propagate their signal and make this worthwhile and achieve the coverage in the gaps that you saw in the previous slide. So Verizon Wireless will be installing at the center line of 170 ft. And there will be space for two additional

providers at a center lines of 160 and 150. So if another carrier were to come and need coverage in this area, we avoid um the pin cushion effect, which is them having to go and stick another macro site too close simply because there's not a height available on this structure that can clear the tree lines and all obstacles in its way so that they have effective coverage as well. Um each carrier is required to have a 10-ft separation. So that's why you're hearing those 170, 160, and 150 numbers so that there's no interference between carriers. Again, this will show this slide shows how it will interact with the existing sites in the area. They are far away, but you can see the yellow and green areas beginning to overlap. So that indicates the handoff that can happen between the macro sites once the new TCG site is in place. So, we're covering some of that white area, we're improving the red area, and we're gaining a lot of green, which indicates the inbuilding coverage. Um, talking specifically about the structure itself, um, we got to that briefly last time, but as you know, it's 175 ft tower. It's designed to collapse onto itself. So, it actually has an 80 foot fall radius, which is clearly within the um the boundary lines of the property. It also meets all of the required setbacks, the 400 uh feet from the closest off-site dwelling, the the setbacks from the road, and also the 100 foot setback from the actual outside of the compound to the property lines. So, I know in some jurisdictions, we're measuring from the base of the monopole. Here in King George, as you're aware, we measure from the outside of the ancillary compound, and it meets all of those to all property lines, north,sou, east, and west. Um we have heard from Shipo and Nepa also that they would like the tower to be painted. Um we call it a graduated paint scheme. So the tower will we are proposing in order to comply

that the tower would be painted a brown from the base to the tree line and then a sky blue at the tree line. Um in another effort to minimize visual effect. Uh sometimes the questions we get are why aren't we getting uh what we call a monopine or some other sort of stealth structure here? Um if we put up a picture of a monopine, I believe when the trees are low, it ends up looking somewhat like a toilet brush because you've got something that doesn't remember resemble trees at all and the monopole actually blends more with the bucolic setting than actually a fake tree. So, those are all considerations we take into consideration when we're looking at the photo sims after we fly the balloon and we generate those SIMs to see what the visual impact is. And we believe working with um Shipo and Nebo, we've achieved the shortest poll at the right in the right colors um at the right location on the parcel. Um since the last hearing, I know we've also reached out to emergency um response personnel because that is of course one of the biggest reasons these are critical. Um, the FCC actually has laws in place that carriers are required to provide documentation for a certain percentage of being able to find cell phones during E911 calls. Um, so carriers that have gaps like this, like Verizon, are unable to do that. If somebody calls from their cell phone and they can't actually communicate, the carriers need to be able to locate that cell phone without their help. Um, macro sites like this make that possible and make them meet those benchmarks set by the by the FCC. Um so there there was that and then again I think last time I had mentioned we did hold a virtual community meeting. Nobody attended. Um so I was there by myself online but we were happy to share the materials. We can email materials if needed to to members of the public before so that they have a chance to comment here or go to you with questions or the best scenario is to have us answer those questions prior to the hearing which is our goal. But nobody attended. So I would give you a synopsis of that hear that community meeting but

nobody attended. So I really just want to uh I I know also virtually we have attending our RF specialist Narendra Mangra um and also our A&E Camille Shabsha from Entrex. Um we also have the principal from Telecom Capital Group here. So whichever one of us can best field your specific questions, we're happy to do that, but we'd like to leave it open for you now. All right. Um, I think what I want to do first, um, I want to give the public an opportunity to speak. Sure.

And then I'll open the floor for to the commission. So, with that being said, um the public hearing now for application Z-20- I'm sorry, Z-2025-0000263 resolution PC1525 Monopole special exception is now open. I ask that comments will be limited to three minutes per person to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. um if comments and make sure that the comments are related to uh this special exception. Um I have my signup sheet here. Seeing that there are no one there's none on the signup sheet, the floor is now open uh for anyone who wants to be recognized to to come up and speak. Floor is now open. Is there one? I feel like I'm a pastor at church. Right. Okay. Seeing that there are none in the audience, uh Chris, is there anyone online who is wishing to to speak?

No, Mr. Chairman. Farewell. Thank you, sir. All right. Seeing that there are no uh speakers at this time, public hearing for application uh Z-2025- 000263 is now closed. Uh I will now open the floor for comment rec recognizing Mr. Fox. Did you or anyone from the team make an attempt to knock on any doors in the area for you know neighbors?

Um I think the best person to answer that is Mr. Fischer, but yes, they they go door to door trying to find out essentially as part of the searching investigation, seeing what willing landlords were around, and there were none. Um, the church was it uh you'll probably recall an application for this a couple years ago. It was similar. Um, and nobody I'm sorry. So, you mean like nobody answered the door or nobody had anything? Nobody had any interest. Yep. Uh, okay. Okay. Do you know if the church uh uh aired this issue in the at to the congregation there? Presumably their local uh I can do you know if they Yeah. Mark, do you want to come up? Yeah. Oh, okay. We have some members of the church here, too. Great.

I'm Whit Turner from the Doin district. I'm a I'm a trustee and and a senior warden at St. Paul's. uh our our congregation knows and approves of this and it's going to be helpful to us. So, we're we're for it. Thank you, sir. That's all I had. All right, Mr. Nicely, you had the floor. Yeah, I just had a question. I um what is the use of the residence that's there on the property? Is there is it rented? Is it used for the church purposes exactly? What is it? I do believe it's rented out. It's a it's used as a residence and the renter is aware obviously that this is going on and approves. There's no concern there. Yes, sir.

Okay. Uh my other question actually is to Mr. Lynch. Mr. Lynch, do you know of any reason that we need to communicate this application to Dolren specifically NSWC B50 division?

Well, I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. I do know that uh tall buildings over a certain height are automatically um communicated to the department of defense um as part of a automatic notification system. Uh I certainly I know that from my background doing air force work when a a sorry a solar a wind turbine or something. All of those are automatically submitted through that uh higher office. But I I don't know if our uh local warfare center would uh would have an objection to this. Well, I'm I'm just since it is sort of my field that I work on on the base, they may be interested to know about additional electromagnetic radiation because they do a lot of outdoor testing and it might end up influencing their test results potentially. So, it might be at least worth t taking the package and forwarding it to the NSWC B50 division ad.

That would be the primary organization that I would suggest. I'd be happy to do that. I I don't think that I don't think the base has got any authority to to disapprove this for any particular reason, but it might be worth their their awareness. All right, sounds good, sir. I will do that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nicely. Did anyone else? There is also I'm sorry to interrupt. There is also we are required not the RF admission interference issue but we are required to go through the FA no hazard um process which this did go through and typically towers above 200 f feet for lighting purposes and obstruction is typically the threshold there so because this one's lower but we're happy to interact with them so that they know what's going on

I was I was just meaning to do that for an awareness purpose for them because they do a lot of electromagnetic testing on that base and specifically I was noticing you're looking to put one of the 5G mid-band. Yes. 3.7 antennas on there, which could potentially impact some things I deal with. So, I would like your business card, and we can talk about that later. Sure. All right. Is there anyone else with uh any comments? We We have some very intelligent people who sit on this board. So, All right. All right. Seeing that there are no additional comments. Thank you so much, ma'am, for your presentation.

Thank you for your time. Um and the um comment period from the commission is now closed. All right. Moving on to the next item uh on the agenda is items deferred from the previous meeting. And I don't see Mr. Chairman point of order. You need to vote. You need a motion. You need to vote. I guess we do. All right. Um, so we've we've heard uh from uh our presenter. Um, so I'm looking for a motion either for or against.

Sorry. [Music] Kelly, where's your recommended motions? Sorry. Page five of the staff report.

For some reason, I can't zoom in on it, so I'm struggling here. Okay. Uh, I move to adopt resolution number PC15-25 to forward application Z-2025-00002 [Music] 63 to the King George County Board of Supervisors with a recommendation for approval. I further move that the planning commission finds the project to be in substantial accord with the comprehensive plan. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Uh, Mr. Duke, if we can get a roll call. Yes, sir. Mr. Kendrick, hi. Mr. Meyers, I Mr. Palota. Hi, Mr. Matet. Hi,

Miss Flattley. Hi, Mr. Fox. I, Mr. Nicely. I, and Chair Williams, I. Motion carries.

All right. Motion carries unanimously for a recommendation of approval. Thank you. Okay. All right. Now we can move on to items deferred from previous meeting which we have uh deferred once more. Uh which brings us to old business. Uh seeing that there is none there as well. And which takes us to new business. And so we've got a few items on news business. And the first one is a presentation for application Z-2025-0000302 King George Moay Services Reszoning.

I'll just take a second to introduce Miss Ivy Spicer with Historic Funeral Homes. She's going to give you all a brief presentation and then this will come back before the the commission in September for public hearing.

Hello, I am Ivy Spicer. I'm the manager of the King George Chapel of Stork Funeral Home. And so Stork Funeral Home purchased uh the King George Chapel in 2016. It was previously Nash and Slaw Funeral Home. And at that time um realizing the need for expansion within the historic funeral home business, we were interested in um adding a crematory. And we realized at that time that the zoning for the parcel that we had bought that was National Slaw Funeral Home had two designations. Um it was not all zoned as C1. Um so that changed the location of our crematory that was taken care of in 22 I believe. Um so now we're asking that the line you can um kind of see it on the left third of the property. um be removed and everything be zoned as C1. At this point, it's just a continuity issue. Um there is no agricultural land here. It's all historic funeral home and we're just asking for a um continuity in the zoning on this parcel. All right. Okay. Um, so are you planning to build an an additional building there or the building is there and you're just trying to get the zoning straightened out?

So everything is built at this point. We didn't realize there was a different zoning until we went to build the crematory and that happened in 22. Um, so at this point we're you can still see that zoning line on there, but we're trying to get everything to be C1. Originally, it was A2 and C1, and we're just asking that everything be moved to C1. Um, we do not have plans to build another building. Okay. I will say in the future, that's entirely plausible. Um, but at this time, we're just asking for uh the zoning to be C1 for the entire plat. Okay. So, there's no plans to build at this time. There's no plans to build something new. You're just trying to get your zoning straight. Correct. Yes, sir. Thank you,

Mr. Fox. Sir, uh I think I correct me if I'm wrong, please. Uh I think I saw on your application that you're the the total site is something like 27 acres or could you clarify that for us? Sure. How much is C1 and how much currently is A is agriculture? Absolutely. So it's 27.5 um that's the A2. Um and then 78.42 42 is the total 50 acres would be currently C1. So you want to reszone essentially 20 some odd acres

27.5 was previous or is currently A2 and we're asking for it to be C1. Why do you need so much land to be reszoned commercial to do just a crematorium? to this this has nothing I'm sorry I I apologize for misleading this has nothing to do with the crematory at the time that was built is when we realized that the entire parcel wasn't zoned as one designation at that time we realized that our parcel had two zoning designations so at this time we're we're not asking to build anything the crematory is done we are just asking that our zoning be um consistent for the entire parcel

that's a lot of commercial land in this county 27 acres is a big change to the commercial, total commercial, of course, but they already own the lot. We do already own the lot and we also have neighbors that are already C1 as well. Um neighbors beside us are C1. We're bordered um by C1. This is a grandfathered parcel um that has been A2 and we're just asking for that to be When you say grandfathered, could you explain a bit more about that? what what's the grandfathering aspect you're

sure so that happened before we purchased the property in 2016 so at that time um I don't know when the designations were put in place but at the time that we purchased um the line was removed um you see the zoning line on this map we were told the line was removed but the zoning was not changed it was held as a grandfathered A2 and we're asking for that to And when you when you purchased the land, were you aware of that?

So, I have to admit I was not here at that time. It's my understanding that that was not um a consideration at the time until we went to build the crematory and that did impact the location of that building because it needed to be on CT. Okay. So, you're you're not asserting that there was uh some defect in the way the plat or the title of registered with the county? Not that I'm aware of. It's not going to impact the uh the crematorium. Oh no. So the we're just asking to reszone it for the sake of reszoning it basically in a matter for the sake of clarity just so that our plat has a singular zoning designation.

Correct. This Yeah. This is so it's one piece of property with with two zonings. Yes. And what makes it more difficult is that the actual structure is on the A2 portion. So if they ever wanted to expand any sort of commercial or funeral home type, I'm wondering why they're not asking just to include that piece in the in the the commercial zoning. We're just asking for everything to be C1. It would still create an odd situation where you got one piece of land, one deed piece of land with two different zonings. what's essentially the Yeah. Yeah. is pretty common. Yeah. That should just be platted that way basically. And

to my mind, I'm just speaking for myself here. I would think the appropriate remedy is to simply carve out a nice buffer around that crematorium part and call that C. May I know I'm stepping away from the mic, but if I may, on the map, can I point to where the cremator is? She has a pointer, right? There's a Is it on here? Joseph,

I'm sorry. Now you're lost. That is definitely not helpful. Let me put my hands back in my pocket.

Thank you, sir. I'm sorry. in the picture. The aerial photo. Yep.

The 27 acres. You wanted Yeah. I don't understand, but that I'm just Yeah, funeral. That's a big crowd. It's a funeral. I don't understand your concern. It's It's a fairness issue. A lot of people Miss Miss Flatley has the floor. Flatly has the floor. My question is on that 27 acres, are you currently using it as a cemetery? No, ma'am. Um, History Land Memorial Park is our neighbor. Um, and they're cut out in the middle, but it is not the property. We're talking about historic funeral home. It is not the cemetery.

So, I I think putting some some boundaries on what you could do there might be important. Okay. Uh, for for us to know that you're not going to put any commercial property just like, you know, a wide scale of commercial properties there. Is it going to be ined? I can share a long junction with what you're already doing.

Sure. I can share a long-term goal. Um, I'll be perfectly honest, I don't know a timeline for this. Um, but we currently have um like a carport where our hearse is parked and we would like to do like a Amish pole barn so that squirrels aren't under the hearse. Um, that would be a project for the future. Something that we would like to do.

Is that not allowed on A2? Well, it would start the project for future um expansions like ADA, like adding a ramp for our um facility. I don't know if you've visited us, but there's one location to walk in on ground level, but once you're in the building, if you need restrooms or any other amenities, you have to go up steps. Every access point to a restroom includes steps. So, there's other projects that we would like to do in the future to update um and meet community needs that might include um things that would require us to be correctly. You can't do that because it's A2.

That I can't speak to at this point. We're just saying that we would like to have a level of continuity in our zoning. Again, I can't speak to future plans. I know that Storm Home has no um interest in selling and going anywhere. We are a committed member of the community. Um, but we would like Sorry, go ahead.

No, I I just I think what you're going to hear from most everybody up here is that we want some kind of intentional reasoning, some something that we know uh is not just continuity sounds like a great reason, but it opens things up that that we might drastically change uh that that property and the surrounding properties. And so I think we would like to know uh how it would be used and if it's going to be consistent with what you're already using that space for or if you're going to put in a restaurant. No, no, no. I I can 100% sure on that score that store. Sorry, excuse me. Sean Sean, you had the floor. Sean,

I just want to I want to point out first of all, I think what you're doing is smart and I understand um they're grandfathered commercial use. So if you know if they want to add an awning to the building that increases the the expansion of that, you're not allowed to do it because it's not zoned. You know, they're grandfathered for what they're doing. It it it makes sense what they're asking for, but I'm just looking um crematorium is is set for industrial. And so, um if you were going to reszone, I would I would think that you would make a portion of your property industrial for the crematorium. Um

so, I can't speak to that. That that's um already in existence. I I don't know. I wasn't involved in that process. Um, we're just asking at this time for the future of Stork Funeral Home, not for a restaurant, not for a strip mall, not for any I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Fox. You have the floor. Uh, are you suggesting that you might be willing to enter in an agreement with the county that it would not be used for those purposes in the future? Absolutely. That could change the way we view the nature of your requests. Absolutely. No, I can certainly say it will not be used for any other purpose than store funeral home. Very well.

So, so can I Sure. Absolutely. I mean, I'm not sure I understand exactly what the concern is other than it's a large parcel of land being converted to C2. Although just as an aside, I remember not long ago we converted a parcel that was predicated on the idea that it might turn into a boat sales place. But, you know, putting that aside, if they profered that they're asking for C2 zoning and that it will only be used for a funeral home or a service, you know, services, would that satisfy everybody's concern?

I think that's the consensus. I think you and Mr. Fox are relatively saying the same thing. Um um and I I I personally don't have any quum with that either. Uh any anyone else any any comments or Mr. Myers with the conditions? I'm absolutely fine with it. You just want to make sure that's exactly what you want to do and not a portion of it because it's going to make a big difference tax-wise, okay, for you to pay commercial taxes on the whole piece. If you're good with it and you have the condition, I'm okay. But you just want to make sure that's what you want to do. Okay. Thank you, sir.

All right. Any more comments from Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Any more comments? All right. And let's go. All right. Ready for the next?

All right. All right, moving on to the next uh presentation. Uh it's application Z-2024-0000240 Kan Kaladan special I'm sorry solar special exception um the applicant good evening my name is Tyler McGelry with Terraform form power formerly for formerly Sun Tribe Development. I was born and raised in the Commonwealth and have been working with land owners to preserve their family farms here for almost a decade. My work began in traditional land conservation with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and now I work with land owners to design well-sighted solar projects just like Caladon. This bring they bring tangible benefit to the counties in which they reside. This is work that I'm deeply passionate about and extremely proud of and I'm excited to share this project with you tonight. Each of these four sections represents attributes of the project that I feel are important to highlight and they will be expanded upon throughout our presentation. Caladon will benefit the county. The project will provide $1.3 million in economic benefit over the project life, all without drawing on county services such as schools, water, or sewer. This number includes over $3 million in direct revenue to the county. The power produced by the facility will be consumed locally right here in King George County, and the resiliency of the grid will improve as a result of the project. Calon will protect the watershed. As an avid fisherman, I've spent most of my

life in and around the Chesapeake Bay. Watershed preservation is extremely important to me. This site was previously considered for oil and gas development, which is a permitted use per the Eastman. But this project takes a different approach by opting for a low impact form of energy production. It helps preserve the wershed and avoids the environmental and health hazards that are associated with fossil fuel extraction. Vegetation will also be reestablished in the Chesapeake Bay resource protection areas internal to the site. Kaladon will steward the land respectfully. Native pollinators will be planted on site in accordance with Department of Conservation and Recreation's Pollinator Smart program. Additionally, a wildlife corridor will be maintained through the site to facilitate unencumbered movement of wildlife across the property. Finally, Kaladon will be a good neighbor. The project will be well hidden and well screened from adjacent roadways and properties. Kaladon solar is a known and predictable quantity. This is a passive, quiet, and unlit use with no dust, noise, or odor during operation. Through the remaining slides, I plan to demonstrate how Terraform develops solar differently than other projects you may have seen in the news or around the Commonwealth. Oftentimes I get asked what does this project do for me and my community. As we dig into the project speci specifics here, I will be addressing each item with that question in mind. The project is located on the north side of Kaladon Road just west of the intersection with Dogren Road. It is a proposed 22 megawatt solar facility with no battery component that occupies just 120 acres of a431 acre parcel or 8% 8.4% of the property.

Projects like Kaladon Solar are a great addition to the local economy. This is a use that on an annualized basis will 9x the project area's tax obligation to King George, all without drawing on county services such as school, water, or sewer. By bringing money in this way, King George can keep taxes down. Additionally, 100% of the electricity produced will be consumed locally. At the proposed 22 megawatt capacity, this project will produce enough electricity to power 30% of the homes in King George County. This represents a step towards energy independence for King George. Also, not only does solar energy generation produce no emissions, but it also is the cheapest and quickest to deploy form of electricity in the US today. This project plays a valuable role in Governor Yncan's all of the above approach to energy generation in the Commonwealth. Caladon Solar is reimagining the energy development future for this property. The clean, quiet, emissionfree energy that Kaledon Solar will provide is a conservation positive outcome on a property that's already been contemplated for oil and gas extraction. In line with the open space easement and the conservation focus of both our landowner and terraform power, we didn't want to stop there. That's why the project is going above and beyond in many areas. Pollinator habitat will be planted throughout the project area per department of conservation and recreation's pollinator smart program. Vegetation will be reestablished within the resource protection areas to enhance Ches Bay wershed protections. A newly planted 100 foot wide vegetative buffer will be planted on the project's eastern boundary to mitigate viewhed impacts to the project's only adjacent neighbors. And finally, a wildlife corridor will be maintained through the site for Department of Wildlife

Resources guidance to allow unencumbered movement of wildlife across the property. As I mentioned before, I worked in conservation for a long time, so preserving viewsheds and protecting wersheds, especially the Chesapeake Bay, is extremely important to me. That's why a lot of effort was put into this project's thoughtful location, setbacks and buffering. The facility will not be visible from any roadway, including Kaladon Road, which is half a mile to the south, and it's over 500 ft from the closest residence to the east, whose viewshed impact has been mitigated by the 100 foot wide vegetative buffer. To further limit any impact to our neighbors, our design doubled the county setback requirements for project equipment from the property lines from 100 to 200 ft. Finally, the project will interconnect underground to existing 345 KV distribution power lines on site along Kaladon Road. I've mentioned a few times that Kaladon, which is a non-permanent facility, will protect the environment in King George County, but I'd like to take a couple of minutes here to discuss how that's realized. The property in its current state and agricultural use is unregulated and has the potential for unmanaged runoff. The project, which is regulated by DEEQ and King George County, mitigates this with robust storm water management features to protect the land and local waterways. As I said, the facility will be planted with native grasses and pollinator friendly plants. Calon Solar will not impact streams or wetlands, and it's safe for both people and the environment. The panels used for the site are fully enclosed in protective plastic and they do not produce light or noise outside of the facility. Solar electricity generation is safe and it's an effective technology that's been

used for decades on our homes, schools, hospitals, and other buildings. Kaledon's promise to be a good neighbor began the moment that we started working with our landowner. During development of this project, it has looked like meetings with neighbors and two community meetings where we gained valuable feedback from citizens. Those meetings are special moments in the process where we're able to dig in, understand concerns, and improve the project. Construction of the facility is expected to take 8 to 10 months with only a small portion of that time constitutes constituting the actual construction of the facility. This means that six to seven months will be low inensity low traffic work such as site stabilization, testing, erosion and sediment control management closeouts and approvals. During this time, there will be a community liaison who will be the main point of contact to provide project updates and address any concerns that the county or citizens may have. After construction is complete, the project will be a quiet neighbor with basically no traffic, noise, and 24/7 remote monitoring for performance and safety for the life of the project. At the end of Caladon's operational life, the entire facility is required to be removed and decommissioned. At that time, facility materials will be recycled, repurposed, or salvaged as practical. This decommissioning process requires oversight and approval by the county and will be entirely paid for by the project, not the land owner, not the neighbor, not the counties, not the county, excuse me. To guarantee this, the removable is paid for upfront, held by the county in a bond and is updated every 5 years to ensure the money is available to the remove the project when the time comes. After decommissioning, the land, which will still be owned by the landowner and

his family, can be returned to its existing use at their discretion. I'd like to end reiterating the points that I started with. Kaladon will benefit the county. This project will provide 11.3 million in economic benefit over the life of the project. This includes over $3 million in direct direct revenue to the county and a proposed year 1 payment of $580,000 per the proposed sighting agreement. The power produced by this facility will be consumed locally right here in King George County and the resiliency of the grid will improve as a result of the project. Calon will protect the wershed. Again, this is us opting for a low impact form of energy production. This project helps preserve the wershed and avoids the environmental health hazards that are associated with oil and gas extraction and development. Vegetation will also be reestablished in the resource protection areas internal to the site. Kaledon solar will steward the land respectfully. Native pollinators will be planted as I mentioned and the wildlife corridor will be be maintained. Kaledon will be a good neighbor. This project is well hidden and it's well screened from nearby roads and properties. This is a passive, quiet and unlit use with no dust, odor, or noise during operation. This project is is low impact. It provides and it provides significant tangible benefits to the county. Thank you for your time tonight. I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Um, conservation you said was is something that's near and dear to you. Um, just like Mr. Nicely is an engineer, Sean's a realtor. Um, everybody knows I'm from Tennessee. I love fresh air, love fresh water. So, conservation is near and dear to me as well. With that being said, the and I'll I know I have a minister in the house, so I'll say this in the most polite way, the road to Hades has always been paid with good intentions. Um my question is if let's say something goes ary um to where the environment is impacted are you committed to correcting that that error um if in the event that something something down the road that you you don't foresee foresee happening meaning you know some say some some runoff that that's not being caught. Um, so that that type of thing is what I'm asking.

Understood. Um, yeah. As as the long-term owner and operator of the facility, we would be committed to um, yeah, to ensuring that anything that occurred that wasn't supposed to, how you're saying, I know that's kind of an open-ended box. Um, but we would be committing to rectifying any um, any issues that might occur. Very well. Um, you said you have met with with neighbors, I guess, people who who live around. You've door to door. That seems to be uh um one of the main questions that we we want to make sure that that those who will be directly impacted or are close to it that you've communicated with them. So you

Yes, sir. Uh door to door um mailers have been sent out multiple times. As I said, we've hosted um two neighborhood meetings, both at the public library. Um had relatively good attendance um to both of those. received a lot of really good feedback on those. Um I stand very constant communication with um the closest neighbors to the project, make sure they understand, you know, where we're at in the process and um you know, any updates to the project as as as a result of that communication. You know, you see the 100 foot vegetative buffer on the eastern side. Those are really the closest neighbors to to the project.

Okay. Right. And then you mentioned that you have a you have a liaison um individual. has that communication like their email or phone number or how how would the general public or someone who lives close how do they get a hold of that that leaison or has that been established? Has not been established yet since we're just in the development phase here. I would be the best point of contact for the project at this time. Okay. Um we do have a project website that's been stood up. It's uh calonsolar.com

have posted um you know updates like when the when the community meeting was in June um and would share that information both with the county and and through that medium um as as well as mailers to make sure that everybody was kept a breast when um when the liaison is assigned. Very well. All right. I have no more questions. I open the floor to the uh commission will go first. Others go first. Is the property currently in land use now? The property is in land use. That's correct.

So, the solar farm, it it says uh 580,000 in the first operational year. Does that include the roll back taxes? No, it does not. I don't believe it does.

Okay. And is that personal property tax or is that real estate tax? The 580. So, what's being proposed as part of the sighting agreement is a one-time year one $25,000 per megawatt upfront payment. That's the year one. And then we're proposing the higher of two. So, it would be the higher of machinery and tools tax or higher energy revenue share on an annual basis. Um, and I would have to defer to Kelly. I don't believe that the county has adopted energy revenue share. Um, that's correct. Okay. Do do you have an estimate on the U machinery tax that it would be? Not off the top of my head.

Do you know how much the uh solar panels and equipment would cost? Not off the top of my head. Okay. I have an I have an estimate for the Yeah. entire cost of the facility which I think I could estimate to be 35 to $40 million. Okay. Right. Thank you. Yep. Mr. Mufett, you have the floor. Uh, I might have missed this. What was the lifespan on the project? Uh, 40 years. 40 years. Yes, sir. All right. Um, and you say 100% of energy is going to go local, like to the county local. Is that Yes, sir. So, yeah. No, it's

Yeah. So, it, you know, different than a much larger project, um, a transmission level project. we're interconnecting to three-phase 345 KV lines and so that energy goes to the closest load. Um, so it's not it's not attaching to a transmission line and getting shipped out of the county on a highspeed line to like Northern Virginia or something like that. It's being used by load or by use that's approximate to the project because that's where it's pull it's going to pull from.

Excellent. Um and then I'll bring up the previous applicant. We had um strongly suggested a will not buy solar panels from foreign adversaries uh proper and that was something that did come up during public commentary for that project. So I would probably encourage the same here. Thank you sir. Thank you.

Okay Mr. Nicely. Yeah, I would just suggest um that that you take a look at a lot of the issues and the concerns that were brought up with the previous solar panel project that came to the county. We had them add quite a few things to their agreements that that they put forth with the county terms of storm water management in terms of conservation of the land after the end of the project. We even got into details about how the project was constructed. Are you planning to, you know, pour big concrete footers and and are you are you what is your construction methodology for doing this? How do you plan to maintain the land? Yeah, you're going to put in pollinators eventually. Those have to be cut or something or you're going to get I guarantee you you will get sweet gum growing up in between your in between your uh panels. So, you're going to have to be in there and be maintaining this to some extent. So, we need a little more details about storm water management, your conservation, what you'll do after the project. We had people here that were all up in arms about hazardous chemicals coming off of their coming off of their electrical panels. So, we had they were agreeing to do chemical testing of the of the water and and storm water management. This is a nice start, but there's a lot of details and I highly recommend you you take a look at the other projects and the level of detail that they got into with their statements to the county and start bringing that level of detail.

Consistent soil testing was similar. Excuse me. There was a lot of consistent soil testing. Yes. Previously as well. So, just another layer. They profered in chemical testing. I I'm not I can't ask for things. I just suggest you go take a look at the others that were put forth to the county and see what you think is appropriate for your project. Mr. Fox, you have the floor. Um, so it's it's correct understanding is that you're going to interconnect to the distribution level lines. So there will not be any uh overhead transmission lines coming to the site. Is that right? That's correct. Everything will be interconnecting underground.

Okay, that's a good thing. And uh if you're going to in any way rework your sighting agreement or profers, I think that's a very key fact of this project that uh should be enshrined in some type of agreement because there's a lot of land there and who knows maybe maybe the project is potentially expanded or the the the nature of the project becomes different over time and they want to put a substation uh and overhead lines in there. things can evolve over 10, 15, 20 years. Uh so I I think it's fair to say we would never want to see overhead transmission lines going into essentially Kaledon Park over there. Right. So that that's just something that was on my mind, a quick remark. And then you're leasing the land, correct?

Yes, sir. Okay. Uh, and you have, can you tell me is it a 40-year lease or 45 year lease or I believe it's 40-year lease. You have a 40-year lease. And do you know or can you share with us whether you have the right to extend that uh beyond the 40 years?

I believe it's a 30-year lease with two 5-year extensions. Okay, that's good to know because useful life is is a little bit amorphous term because if you just keep replacing the panels every 20 years, that useful life just keeps going indefinitely. Uh but if we know that your your lease is essentially 40 years the way you've described it, I think that does give us some comfort. Uh and I guess in principle just stepping back from everything for a minute this is really one of the first of this scale or maybe the first of the scale I think that's come before us. I think we're all kind of cognizant of the precedent that we may be setting for the person that comes next, right? uh and the more that you can distinguish this project, the merits, let's say, of the project, uh in a sense, the easier it is to approve it because we have a little bit of, I guess, for lack of a better term, ammunition to critique the next one that comes along and contrast the next one that comes along because without that, you know, we we may be under pressure to kind of just approve very anything that looks similar, you know, we'll be under pressure maybe to approve it uh or explain why we're not approving. Right. So that's just a general remark. You can take that uh as you may. Okay. I don't have anything further. Thanks. Muffin, you have the floor.

So you mentioned that going forward with this takes away the right effectively for oil andor gas um exploration, pumping, whatever on the property. Is that in perpetuity or is that just over the course of the 40-year project?

It would be over the in its current form in over the course of the 40-year project. Um maybe to speak to Mr. Fox your um comment about the project getting expanded and and Mr. Mafford, I think this answers that a little bit as well. Um there's open space easement on the project. this is the only location that that you know ends size basically that this project could could be located. Um and so the opportunity for expansion is uh simply not there. Um and and that's where the oil and gas exploration comes from as well. Uh yes sir. All right.

Yeah. Sean the floor there. Sorry. Uh, can you speak to the conservation easement? This this property isn't a conservation easement. Is that correct? Yes, sir. So, so what are the um what are the restrictions? Does this fit into those restrictions? Yes, sir. Yeah. Oil and gas development are a explicitly permitted use um as is solar development. So, does Kaledan State Park have an easement to this or no? Uh they're completely separate. Okay. Any others? The the power company that you're dealing is that is it Dominion there? Yes, sir.

Okay, it is Dominion. and the existing lines coming to the property. There's no upgrade required to those lines from where they are currently or Yeah, there will be a there will be upgrades in between um yeah, in between the point of interconnection and the substation, but it would Sorry, this is my engineer, Sonia.

Hi, good evening. My name is Sonia Kamar. I'm the development engineer for this project. Um, to hopefully answer your question, no new infrastructure will be required as part of the upgrades, but Dominion may have to reconductor some of their lines and or add in some new equipment, but that shouldn't require any new easements or anything like that. Okay. No, no substations, eminent domain, correct? It would be upgrades to existing infrastructure, current lines on current polls. Yes, sir. Basically. Okay. Um, that was only for that question. Um, you're about 250,000 a year in revenue for the county. Is that sound right? Yes. When I did my math backwards. Um, yes. A little bit higher than that. I think it's like 300.

Okay. Okay. And you said it was 8% of the property. I guess it's all in an easement. Yes, sir. So they're prof basically it's profering no other use on the property. Correct. Is that uh certainly no other energy development? Um there's there's very limited development that can happen um on the you know residual 143 31 acres. Okay. It seemed like you were going most of your power lines were in wetlands the way the pictures looked. Is is that I can um much from that. I don't think I have the ability to actually I hand if you guys have a sheet set in front of you. Mhm.

This would be the best way to look at that.

Um P 104 And if everybody's there, P 104 is the um conceptual site plan. And you'll see that um the underground there it's it's a dotted red line. It would be the underground uh genti and it the so the underground lines follow the existing access road on the property. And so it'll just be underground through that existing rightway.

Okay. And then they go up to the top and it looks like they're in the edge of wetland and then they turn into the wetland. Then they cross it and then they come back. Correct. Up at the top of the picture. Um the right below the uh the panel area. Right. Right up in here. Oh no, I'm sorry. So that's the um that's the spe that's the purple special exception permit area. So, that's just showing the extent of the um of the of the permit application that we're requesting. Um if you look down at the south end of the property, there's a star. Mhm. Um and so that's the point of interconnection. You'll see a little red box,

that's the proposed underground five, you know, five, we call it a five-pole structure when it's overhead, but that's what the proposed underground interconnection facilities are. And then the line will will just follow the existing access road all the way up and then enter the project from you know right the southwest corner of the right and it turns into a black line there and then goes up to the top and through the wetlands. Um those are that's the access that's the existing access road. Oh is it? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So there's an access road and then it it comes down to that T right through the middle of the panels. That's correct. That would be the internal access road for that uh project parcel or the par uh project area. Excuse me.

So that's that will be abandoned or the sorry the black it looks like it's dotted. I can't I don't have my glasses. We have um yeah this line that's the project. There's a hidden slide. Okay. So that's a road going through wetlands. Right. Right. around and all that.

I guess the question is where where is the interconnect between the in this in this on this page between the section of of solar panels on the right hand side and the solar panels on the left hand side. How are you crossing that wetland? There is an um there's an existing crossing. You'll see if um the access road goes up the western portion of the property, cuts to the east north of the project area, and then it goes up and across right where that purple line is across the wetland. And that's an existing wetland crossing. Um

so you're basically going to follow the road with the underground line. There's an existing covert there. And what is the the yellow box down in the bottom? What is there with the wetland all around it with the orange the orange box? Uh yeah. Yeah. Yes. Uh lay down area. That's Yeah. Proposed lay down area. Um that would just be where the um you know panels and and racking and stuff would be dropped off um during construction. Okay. Do you have an office building somewhere on the site? I'm sorry.

Have an office building somewhere on the site? Um not not in this conceptual um site plan. It would most likely be in that area. Lay down. Yes, sir. That's all my questions I have. All right. Any more questions from the commission?

All right. Okay. Um, thank you so much, sir, for your presentation. Um, thank you. Please u consider any recommendations or points um that uh the commission has has pointed out. They they'll go they'll take you take you far. Certainly. I appreciate that. And thank you. And I know that I had reached out to each of you. Um would love to have you guys out to the site if that's something that you would be interested in either individually in pairs or I could certainly work with um with Kelly and getting everybody out at the same time. So,

thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. All right. Our next presentation uh is actually from the board of supervisors recommendation for zoning ordinance amendments.

I'll take this one, my fellow staff and I. So this is the zoning ordinance updates that we had been working on since that were initiated back in November. Um the board had appointed uh what we call the Zotax learning ordinance text amendment committee and they met um six times came up with some recommendations brought them to the board and then the board came up with some recommendations which is what we're bringing to you all tonight to start talking about so I can go through them. um they're kind of laid out in this staff memorandum and then this is basically just to start the discussion about what they came up with and see what y'all think and then eventually it'll get to public hearings. So, um I'll just I prepared some some comments to kind of go through them one by one if that's okay. Um, so in your packet are the ordinance amendments that the board of supervisors asked us to prepare regarding increasing the lot sizes and the agricultural zoning districts as well as amendments to some access requirements for subdivisions. We'll bring them these back eventually for a public hearing. The proposed changes to the lot sizes in the agricultural zoning districts are from you can see in the table in the A1 from 10 acres to 20 acres and A2 from 2 acres to 5 acres and from A3 from 1 acre to 3 acres minimum lot size. There will be no change to the lot size requirements proposed for family subdivisions. So the edits that you see under section 10-2-4 are to clarify that and I highlighted those in yellow in page four of the staff memo. There was a lot of discussion throughout the process regarding major subdivisions and whether or not to prohibit them somehow in the agricultural zoning districts, but it turns out that that would be illegal. So the discussion then

turned to how we could better control access points onto primary and secondary roads. And those are the proposed edits that you see in sections 10-3-6. So, turns out the previous subdivision ordinance had language in it that required major subdivision lots to access off internal roads. So, we had proposed putting that language back in. There are also some proposed changes in the access number table. And keep in mind that in most cases, major subdivision proposals would be coming before the commission and the board anyway as resonings. So that's where you guys could consider how many access points would be appropriate for a subdivision on a case-byase basis. So that's where the planning commission role would come in in that third the right hand section of the table. And then uh the last part of the changes is just some cleanup language. All those notes pretty much say the same thing. So, I just wanted to simplify them. So, this is to start the discussion about these changes and we're happy to let you sit on them and read through them and ask questions, but and take your recommendations back for hopefully eventually a public hearing.

All right. Thank you, Miss Leuke. Um, I'm going to open the floor to the commission for any comments. I I just have a very quick Could you go back and explain to us what you said was illegal that we thought we were going to do and what was the problem with it? Well, this it was one idea that came up throughout the discussion and I'm going to tap Sean in too. He was on the committee to to help out if I if I'm struggling, but there was an idea about just prohibiting major subdivisions altogether in any of the agricultural zoning districts, but you you can't do that. You can't prohibit a byite subdivision. So that wasn't that was taken off the table because in state law there's a they can do it by rights and

Yeah.

Yeah. So I think I think the the concept was just that um if you make it very difficult to do a major subdivision in agricultural land. The thought process is is that um we would make a major subdivision in residentially zoned land relatively straightforward and easy. So the uh applicants could come apply to reszone their property to residential if they wanted to do a major subdivision. Um you don't you can do that without banning a major subdivision in agricultural. We can just change the requirements such that it's um much more difficult or uh we already have that. If you're doing a major subdivision, you got a whole different set of rules that you got to follow. So we could just we could just add to our rules. Um, I don't I I think uh the board misinterpreted, you know, the the objective there, but um as I'm running for office and as I'm canvasing, um this proposal is wildly unpopular. I mean, wildly it's it's got other um concerns is that if you if you reduce the density of a property, it makes it less valuable and the the market will react immediately. you know, if you if you could have had two lots before, your land is worth more money. So, when you sell it, if you only have one lot, it's it's not worth as much. And uh when these people come to the real estate equalization board, they're going to say, "We don't want to pay the taxes that we're paying before." So, I think I think it's counter it's it's counterintuitive to the intentions of what the what the board is trying to do. There's there's probably a better way than changing the density. we we could go back and and and look at how we could discourage a major subdivision by adding to the requirements that we already have for a major subdivision.

Go ahead.

So, some of the thoughts I've had on this is that um something like this that's going to cause big changes in the county, it's going to cause a lot of non-conforming lots should be looked at uh as part of the comprehensive plan. say that numerous times. Um but and also looking at what the motivation is. Motivation obviously I think is that um I think there was uh maybe a misunderstanding about uh the access points of major subdivisions whether or not that was a road or a driveway. And I think that needs some clarification that the subdivisions need to be served by interior roads. Um, but as far as just slowing down residential growth in our county, if that's the motivation, um, I don't I don't know that changing lot sizes uh, is necessarily the answer to do that. And I think one of the things we can do by by looking at the access points, there's a lot of land that's not buildable. um if it's going to dead end, you know, and we've had lots of conversations about neighborhoods and how they let out. Walnut Hills one, there's there's other ones. Um and so if we have enough mountains, not mountains, but hills and and water, that if we say, "Okay, you can only build 30 houses because you only have one access point to to a road, that's going to solve some of the problems." Kelly or or Ken, do either one of you have the statistical data showing where King George lies in growth in comparison to the rest of the state?

About a 1.5% growth rate, but in comparison to we can pull it. Yeah. Yeah. I it was just a curious. I mean, it's nothing that's burning, but um but it's safe to say we're a lot slower already in a lot of places than a lot of the most of the state. Okay. All right. Yeah, M Mr. Chairman, that that data has been shared a lot by by one of the local realtors, Mr. Gary Butler, is is presented and I believe I can't remember the name of the other organization. They're constantly sending out

the Fredericksburg and and they send out relative rates for each of the surrounding counties and and I guess I I personally am struggling to understand what the problem is that we're trying to solve when you look at these growth rates. So what I do know is that housing um is a big burden on our our infrastructure. So, police, firemen, school systems. Right now, I think most of the schools are near at capacity,

but we're already at a very low rate. How much lower? And maybe maybe it would be useful for us to get some target from the board of supervisors for what growth rate do they see as sustainable for the county. So, we have a target. We're const, you know, we can't be in this, well, this is too much. Well, we cut it back. Well, it's still too much. Will you cut it back? Was it still too much? Yes. 15 years ago, I remember seeing things when King George County was one of the by percentage one of the fastest growing counties in the country. That's no longer the case. And we we need data. Sorry, I'm an engineer. I need data to drive this. We just can't go, oh, we're growing too fast. How fast is sustainable for the county? And and that's why instead of making a knee-jerk decision that hey we don't like this so let's change it we don't like what happened there so let's make sure we can't do that again we have to look at it comprehensively and um so I I think solving one of the problems about the interior roads I'm for solving that problem now but as far as uh changing um the lot sizes I'm not I'm not sure I'm okay with uh moving forward with that. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Moffet, you sir.

So, just to add some additional context to the motivation, at least as I understand it, um the problem I believe as perceived by the board is that our infrastructure, whether it be schools or power or the water system or you name it, any infrastructure the county has right now, is effectively tapped out. Right. We we added how big of a percentage of an expansion on the middle school three years ago, four years ago. That's already beyond capacity again, right? PTOIC had actually both elementary schools had an entire grade cleared out and they've got trailers back filled with capacity is my my understanding. Right? So the concern is that we just don't have the infrastructure to be able to support even the one and a half to 2% growth rate that we currently have. Right? And it takes a lot of capital expenditure on behalf of the county, a lot of, you know, voted on approved bonds and time to expand the infrastructure, especially the school. And I don't think that even begins to approach the subject of, you know, the water problems here, right? So they're looking I believe for ways of tamping down on unofficial developments built by right by developers right who are doing everything completely legal um whether it be emergency schooling water whatever that does not exist period end of story. So I I think that's just the motivation. Whether whether it's 100% valid or not, I don't have the data either. I can't entirely comment on that. So that would be helpful. But the motivations conceptually seem pretty valid to my mind or in my mind and frankly kind of about time we need to be having them because we are tapped out as

a county as it currently exists.

Sean, you have the floor. I noticed a member of our board of supervisors is here. I don't know if he he probably doesn't want to comment, but if he wants to comment as to the the motivation or the goal, uh that might help further our discussion on this. I thought you were my friend. I came to listen in here, not to participate. So, um I don't know that um I think from I think Mr. nicely. I I don't know that we have a uh a hard fast number that we're looking at. What we are looking at um I've shared this before um it's widely known that for every new home that comes in on average it c it um only covers down about 75 to 80% of the taxes I'm sorry the cost of having it here in terms of roads, fire and rescue, sheriff's office, schools, you name it. There's a gap. So, um, and we talked about the water as well, or you guys talked about the water as well. Um, we're trying to get that under a little bit of control. Um, right now, y'all alluded to the fact that there's a whole lot of buy right stuff all around the county where things little houses just keep popping up here, there, and everywhere. I say little, they're not little houses, they're very expensive houses. Um, one thing that we would like to see is something more, you know, workforce housing. You know, the most recent uh real estate report that came out from the Freddersburg Area Association of Realtors, the median house price here in King George is up 16%. $570,000. I challenge you to find anybody that doesn't work on the bay. Heck, most people that work on the base or go up town, you know, that that's expensive. Our teachers, our firefighters, um those guys are not affording that kind of a home. But that's what's being built. that's what's being sold right now. So, I'm kind of got off on a tangent, but back to your question. Um,

yeah, we're trying to get that back under control a little bit, at least somewhat regulated. We don't want to stop it. You know, you can't stop it and we're not trying to. We're just trying to get it under a little bit of control, allow the infrastructure to catch up. the other option to to make up that gap, that 25% that the uh the property taxes for the new the new homes um doesn't cover, the other option to make that up is to raise taxes. And we don't want to do that either. You know, there's a lot of retirees, a lot of farmers around the county that, you know, we basically we basically start pricing them out of their homes if we start doing things like that. Mr. Fox,

I don't know if what I'm going to ask is even is even legal or so forth, but uh what about the concept of a new build adder tax uh until such time as the the budget is is where we want it? I mean if you mean a split uh well if somebody wants to new on new construction only so uh it makes the essentially the uh the cost of new construction

while we're in this deficit if you will uh bit higher so that it's a less it's a disincentive to build unless they want to pay the difference frankly speaking. So, we're not raising taxes on everybody, but only an adder on those who want to build new construction until we fix the problem. I'd have to look into it. My gut feeling says it it's not legal. I I can't see how it would be legal to have um the two of you living adjacent to one another, but because your house is established, you pay lower taxes than what you do in the same neighborhood. I I

just Well, well, I'm talking about an ongoing property tax. Well, you could take any shape you want, but basically an upfront something that amounts to a fee, but only for so long as the uh the issue exists. So, we get a data center and situation writes itself in seven or 10 years and then that that fee goes away kind of thing, right? Just just thinking out of the box here. That's all. Yeah, it's it's out of the box. It's unique. It's a possibility. We can look into it. Um my gut feeling right up front is I'm not crazy about it. Um, I I know this is any of us are crazy about anything that's going on here.

Apples and oranges, but I'm I'm looking at the uh the water debt fees that the people in Ptoic Landing and Hopyard and I I look at the stuff that they're dealing with it. Um, we can barely see the flicker of the light at the end of the tunnel on that. I I don't know that we want to create another headache like that in the county. All right.

I guess the other one, maybe I need to have Sean take me aside and give me a little real estate lesson, but it seems like the direction we're going is the opposite of what you said we wanted, which was a workforce housing. If we make the requirement that you have to have five or 10 acres to buy a lot, isn't that just going to drive up the prices and all you're going to have is high-end, you know, double income, no kids type of residents? That's coming, which isn't going to bode well for your young couple that's trying to get a house here. Yeah. Right. So,

they're not all five acres, but yeah, that's a good point. That's one of the reasons we sent it back to you guys to ask questions like that, make us think through it. This just seems to be driving us in the wrong direction if we're trying to make affordable housing for young couples, right, to come in, have high density housing in the area for those people to make it affordable. It's just people going in the wrong direction to me. Miss Vladley, you have the floor. So, one thing to consider is the high density housing isn't going to happen in um agricultural districts. It's going to happen in residential districts. That's where you

Well, and that's why we need to plan for that. These are things again I'll go keep repeating myself with a comprehensive plan, but that's why we need to decide where we're going to grow. Now, I appreciate the challenges that the board of supervisors have because you're looking at the county as a whole. You're looking at the schools and the police department and the fire department, everything, but as the planning commission, I really think that we have to focus on land use. Correct. And um that's not to discount other things, but we need to plan in a way that says that the land is being used appropriately and that we are planning for the future of of what our needs are going to be. And so, uh I just I want to make sure that we don't forget that piece.

That's great. That's great. Yeah, she's right. Um and and keep taking in consideration your favorite phrase is the uh comprehension comprehensive plan. All right. Um Mr. I think Mr. Muffet has handle first.

I agree with you. The counterargument would be what defines appropriate. Is it appropriate to allow a 30 house development that's going to have 70 children in it that need to go to school if the school can only house an additional 15 students? Right? So we we can't look at it solely in this in this black and white non-neuance manner that there is a lot of gray area that comes into appropriate land use because of what it means for the rest of the county. So, yes, while we're not the board and we're not taking into consideration,

um the the dollars and cents behind everything, it all needs to be considered because it all rolls up and ultimately all compounds the problems that they're deal dealing with. And that's why we continue to ask questions of every applicant that gets up here about emergency services, right, and other such things or or land height use, right? Um it all feeds up into the same thing. So, I'm not discouraging what you're saying. In principle, I agree with it. But it is just not that simple when it comes to demand on infrastructure

and and I don't think she and in fact I know she did she just said that it's it's not all black and white. She did she did allude to that. Um however, she does make a valid point. Our responsibility, our job, it's land use. let the sup the supervisors talk about the things and deal with the financial aspects of it. Yes, we take that into some consideration but that's not our lane. Our lane is land use of the floor. I think the board has a heck of a job because the controls that you have that are easiest to the levers that you have that are easiest to pull make houses more expensive and not less expensive.

Yep. and and that's part of the problem. Now, Gary was on I I think Gary was the only other one with me on the on the planning commission when we did affordable housing and we work the numbers backwards and affordable housing is a lot more expensive than what it is. I think we've all let time go by and it's like because at that point I think we were I don't know if you remember the number was like 425 or something. Yeah. This this is not a King George issue. This is a national issue, right? Right.

Property values are just crazy. And and I and Mr. Sullivan, all due respect, I I I'd want to think about this a whole lot more and maybe have some discussion with some other folks to cover in the gaps that I'm not thinking about. But

again, I hope you would. That's why we sent it back to you, so that you're seeing things that we don't necessarily see. But what I see going on with this, you know, changing the the A a1, A2, A3 lot sizes, you know, they're not going to put affordable houses on those. They'll still sell those, but they'll be McMansions with, you know, three, five, and 20 acre lots associated with them. And you you can drive around in the local area and see those kind of subdivisions. It doesn't stop them. it'll probably encourage them to some degree. Um, I don't know how you get affordable housing and again define affordable because it ain't what I grew up thinking affordable was. I mean, I hate to do this because it tells everybody how old I am, but you know, 45 years ago and affordable housing was, you know, 100,000.

There is no such creature anymore. You know, they're just not. It's just, you know, like you said there, it's I don't know what you find in this county for under 3 or 350 to be honest with you. If there are any, there's not very many of them. I mean, coming down 301, coming up to three down heading east on three, coming up to 301. They cleared a bunch of lots and they popped up a couple little bitty houses and renovated one or two. And, you know, that was like three years ago. And I'm still sitting there looking at them. They got one house occupied, you know, and the lots are just sitting there vacant now. So, I mean, developers are not building small houses cuz there's no profit in them,

right?

This says, "Come build me some McMansions and I'll market them and you'll get a whole bunch of folks, two income, no kids. don't worry about. They're no impact to the schools because they probably don't have kids school age. But I don't know. I'm not sure this is achieving what the board is looking for. If I understand you're concerned about growth, I think you're just going to get growth in a different manner and not the kind of growth you're wanting necessarily. It it's not going to help those working level people that are just getting by. You know, the base is a nice place to work because there's good salaries.

Yeah. But, you know, you're still stretching the average employees on the base, you know, their financial wherewithal by trying to sell a $500,000 house to them. I mean, what would you say the average income on base for an engineer? 12 or 13 engineer. 100 to 20. Yeah. You're going to go four times their annual income for the price of a house. That's sort of steep in anybody's language. Yeah. Well, like I say, the reason I came tonight was to to listen and learn

because when when we get reports from you guys, basically all we get is the vote, how you vote on something. We don't get to hear the logic and and the discussion behind it. So, that's why I came. I wanted to hear, you know, the feedback and your you guys thoughts on these and and and I think you got some very valid points. Some of it, you know, I agree with um we've talked about the possibility and I can't speak on behalf of the board. I'm not the chair, but we have talked about the possibility of having a joint session with you guys so that we could have a conversation like this, you know, back and forth. So, that might be something that So, you you you've stole my thunder, Mr. Silence. Uh that's exactly what I sit down then. Thank you.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you. And thank you so much. Thank you so much. So, um it's one of the things what he just said I had discussed with u uh Denise here. Um um I think we can go a couple of hours talking talking about this. Um so what I would like to do um is one do a poll to see if a joint session with the board of supervisors to discuss this uh is something that you that uh each member is is on board with. certainly think it would help us to better understand what the intent is and what their goal is and and together we should be able to knock around at least some ideas. But like I said, this is not a local problem. This is a national problem.

Right. Yeah, I agree. I'd love to have a meeting with that. But Kelly, I I would challenge you to before we have that meeting, if it's if it's not for everybody, it certainly would help me to understand some of the data. We've talked about, you know, how many non-conforming lots would this create? You know, what what size are the lots, how many houses, what's our school capacity, you know, yes, we're supposed to be land, but if we're going to have a joint meeting with the board of supervisors, we need to all understand the big picture and the big objective and and what issues we're trying to resolve. There's a whole lot of supposition out there and without hard data I have a hard time.

Thanks sir. Mr. Fox, are you is that a yes or no for you? I think it would be in in principle. Sure. We should have as much dialogue as uh as we should between the board of supervisors and the planning commission. uh just would be very helpful before we sit down to maybe once again have the board of supervisors just crystallize for us kind of what the what the goals are, what the what the outcomes we're trying to achieve are and so forth. Thanks. Thank you.

Uh yeah, I I think it's a great idea. I also just want to thank staff because I know you guys have put a lot of effort into looking at different options and meeting with the subcommittee and um putting together a solution and I I don't want it to go unrecognized that uh you guys did present us with um some solutions and uh we appreciate it.

John, you have the floor. Um, I'll make a motion that we bifurcate um the downzoning and the um the internal streets for a major subdivision. Um, I move that we hold a public hearing on the major major streets um to be served um all the all the lots being served on the inter interior. If we have that public um meeting, then we can vote and get that going. And um I have a second motion after that to

Are we ready for that? I mean, I'd rather have this discussion about what's proposed here first and and decide rather than start peacemealing this. I I'd rather look at not putting it off indefinitely, but I don't want to jump into a vote right now. So, a motion's been made. Is is there uh still any more discussion on that motion or is there a second to that motion? Seeing that there's not a second, your motion has been denied. Okay. I have another motion.

No, not a motion that we um we we table this to the next meeting. that'll give us all uh a minute to talk to to our constituents and and bring some ideas. Well, so that's that's kind of what we're I'm getting to now, which is I'm trying to have establish uh an agreement amongst us all so that we can have a joint uh session with the board of supervisors and I I think I've got that support. If I can get a I'll withdraw that from what we discussed. Very well. Thank you, Mr. Yes, sir.

Okay. Okay, Mr. M, you're good. All right. Okay. So, um, do we need to make a motion to uh request that a joint meeting? I don't think so. We just need to figure out logistics. Okay. When that would work. Um, I will say I will ask that whatever date we choose in time that we put a time frame on it. Say from 6 to 8. I don't want to be there all night. So same. So all right. Understood. Yes, sir. You have the floor. So we can all I see.

Yeah, that's a that's a good So so the request is that if we can have it at least a month um uh so it gives us time to to gather some ideas and uh um some things to present. Okay. At the meeting. Okay. Is everyone good with that? All right. So, we can look towards maybe end of September, second half of September. Okay. That sounds good. I will get with Matt and we'll try to figure out a good time for everybody. Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Okay. Next on our agenda um is staff reports. Uh so the director's report for August 2025, I think, is attached. Is that right? Yep. Yes, sir. It is. If anyone has any questions, um, give me a call or give Shandi a call. And I didn't have anything else for staff reports. I'm not going to be here at the next planning commission meeting in September. So, we we've got to call the meeting. Kenny and Lucy are in charge. Okay. Lucy's got it.

I think what right right now I'm going to get with um Ivy to talk to her about the funeral home and all your concerns about maybe some proposed profers. She wants to meet as soon as possible on that. So, that could still be ready for a public hearing in September. Very well. Um, I don't know about the Caladon project if that's going to be ready or not. It is still under some level of staff review. So, we'll get back to you on that. And then we may have another brief presentation on another solar project that's currently under review, but they may not be ready yet. But that's kind of what's in the queue right now. Okay. Very well. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right. Uh, see committee reports. Uh, none commission reports. Uh, none. Uh, any other future business? I see none. Uh, now comes to the favorite part of our meeting, which is the adjournment. Um, I make a motion that we adjourn to our next regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 9th. Motion to made second. All show of hands. Meetings adjourned.