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King George
Volume 38, Number 16
Project Faith loses second round in court
Wednesday, April 16, 2014 50 Cents
helping you relate to your community
Board will reconsider Walnut Hill rezoning
Healthy kids
Phyllis Cook The King George Planning Commission was informed last week on April 8 that the Board of Supervisors is scheduled on May 6 to reconsider a rezoning request in Dahlgren adjacent to the Bayberry subdivision. The applicant has again revised the proffers to try to accommodate the concerns of members of the Board of Supervisors and subdivision residents. The request from JPI Walnut Hill LLC by Jay Jarrell is a proposal to rezone a 6.75-acre site on US 301 (James Madison Pkwy) from Rural Agricultural (A-2) to General Trade (C-2).
Phyllis Cook Clark Leming, attorney for Project Faith, Inc., lost a second round in court last week on April 9 in King George’s case to get a parcel of donated land back from the nonprofit developer due to breach of contract for failure to commence construction by a deadline last year. Project Faith failed in its attempt to establish a successful counterclaim against King George for breach of contract alleging the County had prevented its contract performance and asking for damages of $300,000 as a result. The court granted the County’s demurrer, which asked for dismissal of that counterclaim. But the Circuit Court Judge, Hon. Joseph J. Ellis, also offered Project Faith another bite of the apple, giving it 21 days to file an amended counterclaim. ARGUMENTS Attorney Edward “Sunny” Cameron shredded the linchpin of Project Faith’s allegation that the County was obligated to supply lease commitment letters to occupy space in the proposed facility. Cameron, acting for King George along with County attorney Eric Gregory, noted the performance agreement is clear that there exists no such commitment. Further, there is no obligation for the County to actually occupy any space in the facility and no date required for the County to say whether it will lease space, or not lease space. “You have Project Faith that signed the contract they signed,” Cameron told the court. “The County agreed to what they agreed to.” He added, “There is no commitment by the County to use any portion of the facility.” Cameron summed up, saying, “If Project Faith had wanted, they could have contracted up front for the County to take a certain amount of space. It didn’t do that.” Cameron also briefly addressed another couple of Project Faith’s allegations, that two Supervisors made comments critical of the project, and that an individual was appointed to the Social Services Board critical of the proposed construction project. Cameron said those items were not ‘actionable.’ He added that nothing ties the hands of individual board members making comments and that the allegations didn’t tie up to anything in the performance agreement. When it was Leming’s turn, he tried to score points, but didn’t appear to have much left to argue. He repeated the allegation that Project Faith was required to make space for the Department of Social Services and added that without tenant commitments, it could not obtain financing. Judge Ellis asked if there was a demand made to the County for lease See faith, page 5
Leonard Banks
Kids from throughout the King George community were excited to participate in the Healthy Kid’s Day Fun 1-Mile Run at the YMCA on April 12.
June 30 date for DEQ water-withdrawal permits Phyllis Cook The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is continuing its outreach to existing water users who withdraw large amounts of water from wells or recharge ponds fed by groundwater with mechanical assistance. There are about 30-40 such existing users in the county identified by DEQ, including the county’s water systems and those with large community wells, along with agricultural users and some businesses. But at a meeting on April 1, Scott Kudlas, Director of DEQ’s Office of Water Supply, told the King George Board of Supervisors that DEQ had only heard from one agricultural user in the county. It is hoped that more farmers may have gotten
the word by now through the Farm Bureau, with Supervisors saying they would help spread the word there. Kudlas had told Supervisors, “Any agricultural user that uses a center pivot or that irrigates 10 acres more than 1-inch per week in the summer time, they would need a permit. So, I’m hoping to see some activity on the agricultural side before we get too close to the deadline.” The deadline is June 30 for all existing users who wish to exercise their right to file a complete application with DEQ for an “existing user permit.” PERMIT FEE REDUCED COST, OTHER BENEFITS The cost of the permit fee is free for agricultural user withdrawals.
School Board to have $300,000 extra to spend
It costs $1,200 for an initial permit for existing users based solely on their historic withdrawals. The fee is $6,000 for existing users who miss the deadline or who are new large water users or expanded users of groundwater in excess of 300,000 gallons per month. The permit it good for 10 years. Other benefits for existing users who apply by June 30 include skipping a requirement to perform and provide a number of technical studies. Those studies include a geophysical technical study about how user’s wells are constructed, which aquifer it withdraws from, how it’s grouted, whether there’s gravel pack, where the screens are, and a number of other things that See DEQ, page 5
In case you missed it
Phyllis Cook The King George School Board heard good news at last week’s meeting on April 7. Superintendent Rob Benson indicated the latest calculation for student ‘average daily membership’ (ADM) was 4,202 for student enrollment for the current school and fiscal year, 2013-14. The current year’s School Board budget was built on about 100 fewer students with an ADM of 4,100. Benson said recent monthly financial reports provided by Robyn Shugart, county director of finance, have indicated higher revenue than budgeted due to additional money expected to come from the state, using an ADM of 4,165. Benson said the expenditures in those reports have been adjusted to encumber costs for additional kindergarten teachers and several paraprofessionals that were hired earlier this year. Even with those encumbrances, the school division is expecting to have money left to spend at the end of this fiscal year, prior to June 30. $300,000 TO SPEND BY YEAR’S END This week’s monthly finance report for the month ending on March 31 indicates a current surplus of $157,823 based on the 4,165 ADM figure. But that’s just the half of it. Benson told the School Board last week that each additional student over the 4,165 is expected to bring in an additional $4,000 in state basic aid. That means the division is currently anticipating having about $305,823 left. That figure is arrived at by adding $148,000 (37 students multiplied by $4,000) to the current finance report’s projected surplus of $157,823. It was no surprise to the School Board that they will have money to spend prior to the end of the school year. But perhaps the amount of the projected unspent money was surprising. See ADM, page 5
Linda Farneth
SIGNIFICANT PROFFER CHANGES Jarrell has made significant changes to proffers and the associated general development plan since a public hearing was held by Supervisors on March 18. He has added 12 more uses to the five that he had already proffered that would be prohibited in a “Restricted Area” on the property subject to the proposed rezoning. He has converted a proposed 30foot wide “landscaped buffer” to instead become a proffered 100-foot wide “natural vegetative buffer.” The natural vegetative buffer would retain the woods and other growth currently on the strip of land and be preserved in perpetuity. All proffers, if accepted, run with the land, no matter who becomes the owner in the future. The applicant has also revised the general development plan to indicate that it would widen the “Restricted Area” from 132-feet wide at the back of the parcel proposed for rezoning, to 150 feet wide, though it would also narrow the “Restricted Area” at the front of the property along US 301 from 223 feet wide to 150 feet. PROFFER DETAILS Should the rezoning be approved, the newly-revised request would include proffers that would increase the list of prohibited uses from five to 17 uses that are normally allowed in C-2 zoning districts. The previous five commercial by-right uses that were proffered out earlier remain on the list of prohibited uses that could not extend onto a portion of the property, which is designated as the 150-foot wide “Restricted Area.” That first list included auto repair facility, boat sales, contractors equipment yard, commercial garage and commercial parking lot. The additional prohibited uses in the current proffer are building supply/ lumber sales, commercial cemetery, fast-food restaurant, commercial marina, vehicle sales, construction material supply business with storage under cover, but not to include fabricating, farm supply sales including vehicular equipment, hospital, mobile home and modular home sales, radio/ television station, vehicle sales and service, and mini warehouse.
The lunar eclipse, the first of four consecutive lunar eclipses, began around 1 a.m. and lasted well into the morning past 5:30 a.m. The moon turned a bright red between 3:07 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. The total eclipse lasted more than 70 minutes. The eclipse is the first of four “blood moons” which will be visible in North America. The next events will be Oct. 8, April 4, 2015 and Sept. 28, 2015.
See Walnut Hill, page 5
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May 3rd, 2014
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