Loudoun School Board Files Objections To Golden To Mars Route With SCC

ASHBURN, VA – The Loudoun County School Board has enumerated its objections to the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s order that a new power line be built through newly-acquired school property.

In a July 14 filing with the state’s utility regulator, the school system laid out a number of objections. Among them was its complaint that the SCC had ignored the fact that the school board had acquired land through which the SCC’s proposed Golden-to-Mars power line route would run before the SCC made its final order.

The exact route of the new power line, which would cut an eight- or nine-mile path through Ashburn, has been debated for the past year.

Ultimately, the SCC and power company Dominion Energy declared a preference for Route 4. However, that pathway was blocked by LCPS, which has the power to grant a necessary easement to use school land for the route and has refused.

Another route, 3a, appeared poised for selection.

However, on June 23, a group of homeowners, the Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association, donated a plot of their land that the power line would run through to the school system. The land is an open space some students walk through to get to school.

A week later, the SCC ordered that the project move forward along Route 3a, without acknowledging this land transfer.

In its statement of objections to the order, LCPS notes that the SCC failed to consider that change of ownership and is behaving inconsistently. It also accuses the SCC of failing to adequately consider full or partial undergrounding of the line, of adhering to Dominion’s preferred schedule and unnecessarily curtailing research and negotiations, and other shortcomings.

This document, however, is not a formal appeal of the order.

Loudoun Now reports that a request for reconsideration can be made to the SCC until July 20. After that, appeals will have to be made to the State Supreme Court.