Board approves Dominion Energy expansion at Coal Landing substation with drainage and screening conditions

Planning staff presented a request from Virginia Electric & Power Company (Dominion Energy) to reclassify 1.349 acres from A-1 (agricultural) to M-1 (light industrial) and to grant a conditional-use permit to expand the existing Coal Landing electrical substation. Amy Taylor, planning staff, said the expansion (roughly 2,000 square feet) would accommodate replacement equipment, a new transmission-support ("backbone") structure approximately 74–77 feet tall and a replacement security fence increased to 12 feet to meet modern security requirements. Taylor said the expansion will be located in the southwest corner of the existing fenced compound, that the site predates county zoning and is an existing nonconforming utility use, and that the planning commission voted 7–0 to recommend approval.

Applicant representative Kyle LeClair described infrastructure work tied to the project. He said the site has chronic drainage issues and that the project will “upgrade that system and upgrade the culvert system going across Coal Landing Road as well,” repairing plugged pipes and improving on-site drainage. LeClair also described a planned security-fence upgrade (tighter-mesh fence), a new concrete retaining wall to replace the existing legacy structure and landscape screening along the western property line to reduce visual impacts on nearby properties.

Staff and the applicant proposed proffers and CUP conditions to mitigate impacts: restrict permitted uses to an electrical substation and accessory functions; maintain the existing front-yard setback where feasible; allow a reduced side-yard setback of 32 feet for the backbone structure; limit structure height for this project to no more than 77 feet; limit fence height to 12 feet; provide understory evergreen plantings along the southwestern property line per the GDP; and undertake stormwater and drainage improvements depicted in the plan. Taylor said staff finds the project consistent with the comprehensive plan because it supports utility infrastructure within transmission corridors and minimizes impacts with proposed screening and drainage mitigation.

Board members asked about adjacent property notification and documentation; Taylor said the nearby homeowner received written notice and that a subsequent staff conversation with that owner was verbal and not memorialized in the record. LeClair and staff said noise was not expected to increase because the existing transformers remain in place and the expansion focuses on transmission support structures and drainage/security improvements.

After public hearing (no speakers came forward on this item), the board voted to approve the rezoning ordinance and the CUP conditions; the approvals carry the proffers and the conditions described on the GDP and in staff recommendations.