LCPS Announces Supreme Court Appeal, Asks SCC To Reconsider Golden-to-Mars Route Order

ASHBURN, VA – The Loudoun County School Board on Friday filed a notice of appeal to Virginia’s Supreme Court to reconsider the route of the Golden to Mars transmission line ordered by the state’s utility regulator.

The board also formally asked the regulator, the State Corporation Commission, to reconsider its final order on the route, as did the Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association, a group of Ashburn homeowners who have been fighting the transmission routes project.

The exact route of the 6.5-mile route through the county has been debated for a year.

The SCC in April ruled that running the power lines underground, an option promoted by many community members and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, was unfeasible.

Several overland routes were proposed for the roughly 165-foot monopoles. The SCC preferred Route 4, one of the shortest, but it would require an easement from the Loudoun County School Board because it would run along property belonging to a public elementary school and high school. LCPS has consistently refused to grant the easement.

With Route 4 blocked by the school board, the SCC indicated that the “clearly inferior” Route 3a would be its ultimate choice. The board of supervisors asked LCPS to reconsider its decision to withhold the easement, but the board ultimately stood by its choice.

Ahead of the SCC’s final order, however, the Loudoun Valley Homeowners Association donated private land that Route 3a would have used to the school board. The board accepted the donation, but the change was not acknowledged by the SCC in its final order of Route 3a days later.

Now, the two groups have asked the regulator to reconsider.

In its two separate filings, LCPS asks the SCC to reconsider its decision. One filing is based on the fact that LCPS now owns land required by both Route 4 and Route 3a. The second argues, among other objections, that the SCC was over reliant on Dominion’s preferred schedule when it dismissed calls for more study of undergrounding or targeted undergrounding of the lines.

The Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association filing references a new Virginia law enacted in the spring, allowing for four pilot projects to build 500 kilovolt electrical transmission lines underground and authorizing the SCC to approve and expedite the review of such applications. It says the Golden to Mars project could qualify for such a program and calls on the SCC to reconsider in that light, as well as on other grounds.

The SCC now has until July 20 to act, or it can pause the case while it considers, Loudoun Now reports.