AGENDA DATE: 9/17/2025
TITLE:
Title
Huckleberry Hill Farm Utility Easement
BODY
SUBJECT/PROPOSAL/REQUEST: Request for conservation-easement holder approval for a new underground utility easement on a property that is under a conservation easement co-held by the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority and the Board of Supervisors.
ITEM TYPE: Consent Action Item
STAFF CONTACT(S): Richardson, Wall, Herrick, DeLoria, Filardo, Barnes, Maliszewski, Clark, Van Vranken
PRESENTER (S): N/A
LEGAL REVIEW: Yes
REVIEWED BY: Jeffrey B. Richardson
BACKGROUND: The Huckleberry Hill conservation easement was acquired through the County’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements (ACE) program in December 2007 and is co-held by the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority (ACEA) and the Board of Supervisors. The easement protects 238 acres on Simmons Gap Road (Tax Map 19 Parcels 1, 1G, and 4), owned by the Weinersmith and Weiner families. The property consists of open pasture, hayfields, and forest.
STRATEGIC PLAN: Quality of life: Encourage a vibrant community with economic and recreational opportunities that serve all community members.
DISCUSSION: Virginia Electric and Power Company, operating as Dominion Energy, requests approval from the ACEA and the Board of a 15-foot-wide underground utility easement on the Huckleberry Hill property (Attachment A). The proposed easement runs northeast alongside the driveway (Attachment B) until it joins an existing overhead line, which it follows north for approximately 1,000 feet to the parcel boundary with TMP 19-1A. That 1,000-foot section of overhead line—plus a further 2,000 feet of overhead line that crosses TMP 19-4C almost to Simmons Gap Road—would be removed with this undergrounding project. The new underground lines would be installed by directional boring, which means that no trenching or vegetation removal is needed.
The proposed utility line would serve the Huckleberry Hill property and other properties to the north. The conservation easement permits “driveways and other improvements and facilities customary and related to the use of a single parcel,” so long as they are “otherwise consistent with this Easement” (Attachment C). Staff understands “improvements and facilities” to include utility service to permitted uses and structures. The deed is silent on utilities crossing the parcel to serve other properties.
Activities that are not anticipated by the deed are checked against the deed’s conservation purposes to make sure none of the stated conservation values will be impaired. The conservation purposes of this easement are listed as “maintaining the integrity of existing stream channels,” “protecting the availability and quality of surface drinking water supplies [and] groundwater resources,” “conserving ecological communities,” and “promoting the protection of…important open space lands.”
The proposed utility line crosses one intermittent stream. Directional boring would keep the utility line at least three feet below the streambed and will avoid surface disturbance within 50 feet of the stream banks. The proposed line would not cross wooded areas, except along an already cleared utility corridor that passes through a wooded area to the west of the dwelling. No riparian buffers or other protection areas are specified in the deed. For these reasons, staff does not anticipate that the installation or maintenance of this utility line would impair the conservation values of the property.
The property owners consent to the proposed utility line. At its August 14, 2025 meeting, the ACEA found that the proposed utility easement is permitted under the conservation easement and requested that existing overhead utility easements be vacated (Attachment D).
BUDGET IMPACT: There is no budget impact.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors adopt the resolution approving the new utility easement (Attachment E).
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment A – Proposed utility easement agreement and plat
Attachment B – Image of property driveway
Attachment C – ACE200500004 Huckleberry Hill Farm Deed of Conservation Easement
Attachment D – ACEA August 14, 2025 Draft Minutes
Attachment E – Resolution