The Culpeper County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a permit to build a sewage-treatment plant to serve a proposed 1,000-home mixed-use development near Boston.
If approved as expected by the Board of Supervisors, the 470,000-gallons-per-day plant would be built by the Boston Water and Sewer Co. and then turned over to the newly formed Culpeper County Water and Sewer Authority.
When complete, the plant would serve some 1,000 new residential units plus a proposed conference center and a small commercial development proposed on the Longlea Estate.
County staff recommended approval of the use permit with two stipulations. First, the plant would be built in full compliance with a strict and complex set of wastewater-technology rules the county developed to help resolve the Clevenger's Village rezoning issue earlier this year.
Second, a building permit cannot be issued for the plant until a water/sewer agreement is made with the county.
Several neighbors of the Longlea Estate made their concerns known during a public hearing on the matter Wednesday night. Sheri Armstrong told the commission the Department of Environmental Quality in 2003 cited the small sewage-treatment plant that now serves the CCA Printing operation on the property for at least three violations.
Judy Vigay said she was strongly opposed to the plant and the proposed development. She also criticized the commission's stance on growth, saying, "You guys have become a rubber-stamp committee."
Commission member David Lowery reminded Vigay that his group had twice unanimously voted against the Clevenger's Village project, a 766-home residential and commercial development near Jeffersonton, only to have its recommendation overruled by the Board of Supervisors.
Commission member Mary Foley spoke out against the permit and the coming residential development in such a scenic part of the county.
"I don't think the county is ready for development up that way," she said. "I think we should postpone this insanity."
But Foley's motion to recommend denial of the plant's use permit failed on a 5-2 vote.
Both County Planner John Egerston and County Attorney Dave Maddox explained to the commission that the 640-acre parcel along the Hazel River was rezoned as a village center and a planned urban development a decade ago.
The development--and the sewage-treatment plant--appears on the county's comprehensive plan, and there is little anyone can do to stop it, Egerston said.
"I don't know that you could ask for a better location for the plant," he added.
Maddox said the plant would "look to the needs [of the county] for the next 10, 20, even 40 years without the citizens having to pick up the tab."
As with the sewage-treatment facility being built with Clevenger's Village, the Boston plant will be completely funded by the developer and bonded against future failure.
Commission member Ian Phillips agreed with Maddox's assessment.
"As a taxpayer, I don't want to gamble that I'm going to have to pay [for a sewage treatment plant]," Phillips said. "It would be nice to delay, but I don't know what delaying would do except invite failure."
Donald F. Hearl, representing Boston Water and Sewer, said his company has already obtained a permit from the DEQ. If supervisors approve the permit next month, construction could begin in the near future.
He estimated that the plant, to be built in three stages, could be ready in two to three years. He added that the present plant, built to serve CCA and the now-defunct Freedom Studies Center, was old and could develop serious problems at any time.
The county is guaranteed 70,000 gallons of capacity from the plant for schools or other projects.
Approval was recommended by a 5-2 vote, with Foley and Lowery in opposition.
The Longlea Estate was the home of Alice Glass, a friend of then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson. The future president was a frequent visitor there in the 1930s.
In other business, a request by Environmental Systems Services for a use permit to build a sewage-treatment plant in the Mount Dumpling area near Brandy Station was tabled for 60 days at the request of the applicant.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON: DJohn40330@aol.com