By Heather Michon, Editor
Valley Link representatives returned to Fluvanna County on June 22 to answer community concerns about the latest set of maps for the proposed Joshua Falls-to-Yeat transmission line, saying public comments and conversations with landowners have helped shape revisions to the controversial project.
The open house at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Palmyra was the project team’s second in-person meeting in Fluvanna this year.
Representatives said they had received and reviewed thousands of comments since the first round of open houses in March and had spoken with many affected property owners.
The updated maps, they said, reflect an effort to reduce impacts on homes, farms, historic sites and environmentally sensitive areas while still meeting the project’s engineering requirements.
Company representatives stressed that the new routes use timber tracts whenever possible to reduce impacts on homeowners and historically or environmentally sensitive sites.
The Project
The proposed Joshua Falls-to-Yeat line is a 115-mile, 765-kilovolt transmission project that would run from Campbell County to a proposed new substation in Culpeper County, crossing parts of Central Virginia, including Fluvanna. Valley Link is a joint venture involving Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission, and Transource.
The company says the line is needed to strengthen the regional electric grid and meet rapidly rising power demand across Virginia and the broader Mid-Atlantic region.
For many Fluvanna residents, however, the central question remains less about regional grid planning and more about local cost.
As at earlier meetings, residents raised concerns about property values, noise, viewsheds, farms, forests, wildlife, electromagnetic fields, and the use of private land for a project many see as primarily serving demand elsewhere, especially Northern Virginia data centers.
Local Opposition
Groups that have formed to oppose the project were outside the meeting space, distributing petitions and flyers.
“I don’t want to see it turned into an industrial corridor,” said a representative of Preserve Rural Virginia. “People have worked so hard all their lives – there are large parcels of land that have been in the same ownership for generations. And now you have Dominion Energy that just wants to grab it and do whatever it wants with it, and it’s morally wrong to me.”
The project has also drawn increasing attention from historic preservation groups. Preservation Virginia named the nine-county Valley Link corridor to its 2026 list of Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places, citing potential effects on rural landscapes, battlefields, historic districts, scenic rivers and other cultural resources.
In Fluvanna, local preservationists have raised concerns about possible impacts to the Bremo Historic District, the Fluvanna County Courthouse Historic District, historic properties along Bremo Bluff Road, and other locally significant sites.
Next steps
If the project moves forward, the final decision on whether to approve the line and where it may be built will rest with the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Valley Link’s current project schedule calls for an SCC filing in the final quarter of 2026, with SCC approval projected in 2027, permitting and easement acquisition running into 2028, and construction beginning in late 2028.
Once the SCC application is filed, the public will have another chance to comment through the formal state review process. The SCC will evaluate the project’s necessity, proposed routes, costs, and potential impacts, including effects on scenic assets, historic districts, and the environment.
For now, Valley Link is continuing to accept comments through its website, interactive GeoVoice map, dedicated email address, and project hotline. Visit https://vltransmission.com/joshua-falls-to-yeat/ for details.
