Heather Michon
Editor
After months of hearings and deferrals, the Fluvanna County Planning Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday night (Feb. 24), to recommend denial of Tenaska’s proposed Expedition Generation gas-fired power plant.
The vote followed roughly three hours of public comment and extended commissioner deliberations that increasingly turned from technical compliance to a more fundamental question of community fit.
Public comment stretched nearly two hours. As in previous hearings, most speakers urged the commission to deny the plant, while a smaller number argued in favor of it, citing economic development, tax revenue and grid reliability.
One remark captured the broader stakes of the debate.
“This is a generational vote,” one speaker said. “It’s not just going to affect us. It’s going to affect our kids. It’s going to affect our kids’ kids.”
The meeting packet ran nearly 300 pages — a compilation of traffic analyses, environmental studies, staff reports and consultant memos. The Special Use Permit expanded to include tighter noise thresholds, defined financial penalties for violations and more specific land-use buffers around the plant site.
Tenaska also increased its financial commitments. The company pledged $5 million to a “Good Neighbor Fund” to provide annual payments to homeowners within two miles of the facility and another $5 million to help fund a new fire station near Kidd’s Store.
Yet as the paperwork grew thicker and the conditions more detailed, the debate itself grew simpler.
Commissioners wrestled with a broader question: Is this the right project for Fluvanna County? Does it protect residents’ health and well-being? And does a gas-fired power plant of this scale reflect the community’s long-term vision?
For each commissioner, the answer was no.
Chair Barry Bibb (Cunningham) said his concerns evolved over several months of research and conversations with residents. While noise was initially the primary issue raised at early meetings, he later examined potential long-term health impacts.
Bibb cited research suggesting that constant, chronic noise — even at levels below those that cause hearing damage — can function as a sustained stressor, with possible links to elevated stress hormones, hypertension, heart disease, stroke risk, sleep disruption, chronic fatigue and anxiety.
Beyond noise, he raised concerns about air emissions and what he described as the potential “cumulative effect” of multiple emission stacks located in close proximity.
“I have some friends around there that take care of children. By looking at this, I have concerns,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m also on the board of a daycare center that has 38 children, and I’m concerned about that.”
Commissioner Lorretta Johnson-Morgan (Columbia) said her concerns extended beyond the plant itself to the broader direction of development in the county.
She questioned why energy infrastructure and industrial growth appeared to be concentrating in Fluvanna, citing proposed transmission lines, data center interest and past environmental challenges.
“Why does everything have to be centered in Fluvanna County?” she asked.
Johnson-Morgan also expressed concern that expanding transmission capacity and adding large-scale energy infrastructure could invite additional development, particularly data centers. Referencing growth in neighboring counties, she said she did not want Fluvanna to “become Northern Virginia,” where data centers have reshaped the landscape. The county, she said, should “step back” and reevaluate its long-term direction.
Commissioner Kathleen Kilpatrick (Fork Union) grounded her opposition in the county’s Comprehensive Plan.
“It’s not something that a bunch of people like us sit in a room and write,” she said, describing the plan as the product of extensive public input and a reflection of the community’s long-term vision.
Kilpatrick said she could not find the proposal in “substantial accord” with that vision. While acknowledging measurable economic benefits, including tax revenue, she said the Comprehensive Plan repeatedly calls for preserving rural character and heritage.
“One thing that is fundamentally clear to me is that this is not what people have asked for in the Comprehensive Plan, and I could not approve it,” she said.
Kilpatrick then moved to recommend denial of the Special Use Permit. The motion passed unanimously.
For residents who have spent more than six months organizing against the project, the 5-0 vote marked a significant milestone.
Yet it was not the final word.
The recommendation now moves to the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, which holds final authority over the application. At its March 18 meeting, supervisors may approve the permit, deny it or impose additional conditions by majority vote.
Supervisors are also expected to address a separate appeal concerning whether the project is in “substantial accord” with the Comprehensive Plan.
