Lake Anna is one step closer to having 10 new lakefront homes, despite opposition from nearby homeowners.
The Spotsylvania County Planning Commission on Wednesday recommended approval of an application to rezone 54 acres off Days Bridge Road for the new neighborhood. Commissioner Cristine Lynch cast the sole dissenting vote.
The land’s current zoning designation allows for just one home on the property near the Southwind Shores subdivision. The Board of Supervisors on July 10 is scheduled to make the final decision on the rezoning of the proposed community, called the Estates at Terry’s Run.
Seventeen people spoke about the proposal at a Planning Commission public hearing Wednesday, and all but one of them opposed it.  Reasons for the opposition included damage to the environment and  the development’s impact to  historic areas, including a nearby home that qualifies to be on the National Register of Historic Places. 

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Spotsylvania County will host its annual spring yard sale on Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon.
The yard sale/craft sale will be held in the front parking lot of the Holbert Building, 9104 Courthouse Road.
The county is selling spaces to vendors at rates of $15 for one parking space; $20 for two; and $30 for three. Proceeds from those sales will benefit the Rappahannock United Way. People interested in purchasing spaces should contact Niki Dickinson at 540/507-7010.
The rain date for the event is May 19.

The Spotsylvania Farmers Market is opening a new weekday location at 3 p.m. May 16 at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, 4600 Spotsylvania Parkway.

The market will be open every Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m. through Sept. 26, according to a press release. It will have 16 vendors selling locally produced fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, baked goods and plants.

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Matt Lohr will speak briefly at the May 16 opening celebration.

“By connecting consumers and producers in a new healthcare venue, the new market will positively impact community health and create new sales opportunities for family farms,” according to a county press release.

The market will accept food stamps.  It will also offer a 10 percent discount coupon during its first month of operation.

The Spotsylvania Farmers Market’s main location is open Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the commuter lot at Route 3 and Gordon Road.  A small market is open most Saturdays and Wednesdays at Spotsylvania Courthouse Village, located at the intersection of Brock Road and Route 208.

The Fredericksburg Area Soccer Association plans to finish construction on seven irrigated soccer fields in Spotsylvania County by this fall.
The $3.5 million build-out is part of what the organization is calling a “Field of Dreams”—a complex with 16 soccer fields in New Post. The Virginia Youth Soccer Association  is building the other nine fields, but it’s unclear when that group will break ground.
The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors signed an agreement for the outdoor soccer complex, which officials say will be among the largest on the East Coast, in July 2010.
“It’s certainly been a long road but well worth every minute,” FASA General Manager Pete Cinalli said.
FASA is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony Friday at noon. Attendees are expected to include Spotsylvania supervisors and State. Sen. Bryce Reeves, R–Spotsylvania.
County and soccer officials have said the complex will bring families from across the state and country and provide an economic boost to the county.
FASA closed on 230 acres at New Post late last year and will build its seven, Bermuda-grass soccer fields on 30 acres. 
The state association is building its 10 fields on about 40 acres, Cinalli said. He said he assumes it will break ground in the next year.

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The owner of a planned 127-home neighborhood in Spotsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the county for denying his request to reduce cash proffers for the development by about $2 million.
Stafford County attorney Clark Leming filed a complaint this month on behalf of Marion Hicks, who owns the land for  Summerfield off U.S. 1 near the Kingswood subdivision. The suit asks the Circuit Court to declare that the Board of Supervisors was wrong to deny Hicks’ proffer amendment.
But Leming asked Spotsylvania Circuit Court Clerk Christalyn Jett to not serve the suit at this time.
In a telephone interview, Leming said he’s reviewing alternatives—including submitting a new proffer amendment for Summerfield—but filed the suit on April 12 because of a 30-day statute of limitations period. The Board of Supervisors denied Hicks’ request for a proffer reduction on March 13. Hicks had initially agreed to pay the county $3.5 million in proffers to offset the costs that new residents would  bring to schools, emergency services and roads.
“It is our intention to work with the county and to affect a cash proffer reduction that will work for Mr. Hicks and put him in a position where he can actually develop the property, and that’s simply not the case now,” Leming said.
He said he hopes to file another proffer amendment with the county within a month if they decide to go that route.
Under state law, the application would have to be substantially different from the one denied by the Board of Supervisors. Hicks would have to wait a year before resubmitting the failed application.
County Attorney Jacob Stroman said he didn’t find the complaint’s arguments “compelling.”
“I just don’t see anything in this complaint that appears meritorious,” he said.
Click here to see the complaint.

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Spotsylvania County’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recently received a reward for “outstanding membership recruitment,” according to a press release.
The NAACP’s headquarters recognized the local branch with the Region VII Membership Award.  The region includes branches in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
Thomas Roberson, president of the Spotsylvania NAACP said in a statement that he “proudly congratulates and welcomes all of the new NAACP members in taking a positive step to improve the Spotsylvania community for all citizens by becoming actively involved in local, state, and national issues.”
The branch meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month  at Mount Hope Baptist Church, 6823 Harrison Road.

Spotsylvania County’s Citizens Budget Review Committee recommended several budget reductions at a work session on Tuesday. You can check out the full report here.

Spotsylvania County will appeal a recent ruling that it must refund more than $200,000 in real-estate taxes to a commercial property owner.

After meeting in closed session late Tuesday night, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to appeal the case to the Virginia Supreme Court.

An affiliate of Washington-based Bernstein Management filed a lawsuit against the county in June 2010, claiming the former Capital One building at 10300 Spotsylvania Ave. was assessed well above market value.

The building near Interstate 95 south of Four-Mile Fork has struggled to attract tenants over the years.

Circuit Court Judge David Beck signed a court order this week that reduces the property’s assessed value from about $20.3 million to 12.8 million in 2008 and 2009, and from $20.3 million to about $14 million in 2010 and 2011.

That’s a difference of about $27.6 million. Based on the tax rates at the time—62 cents for the first two years and 86 cents for the next two—the county owes Bernstein $201,202.

Supervisors had to respond quickly because the court order required the county to pay back the taxes with interest by March 29.

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UPDATE: Spotsylvania County spokeswoman Kathy Smith said today (3/19)  in an email that the Mine Road Convenience Center will be open on Wednesday.

Here is Smith’s release:

 The Mine Road Convenience Center will be open as usual on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.   The contractor will not be doing the water line relocation, and so the County will not be required to close the site.   The County had originally scheduled a one-day closure for Wednesday, March 21, to accommodate this water line relocation, but based on the contractor’s notice, it will NOT be necessary to close the Center on that day.  Thank you.

Here is an earlier blog post:

The Mine Road Convenience Center in Spotsylvania County will be closed Wednesday, March 21, because of a waterline relocation for a construction project at Mine Road and Lansdowne Road.

The rain date for the work is Thursday, March 22.

Normal center hours are 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Signs are posted to alert the community about the planned one-day closure.

Spotsylvania County’s advertised real-estate tax rate for 2012-13 will be a penny less than originally planned.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night voted 4-3 to advertise a tax rate of 89 cents per $100 of assessed property value—a cent below the equalized rate of 90 cents.

The vote overturned the board’s decision last month to advertise the equalized rate, which is four cents more than the current levy of 86 cents.

 Supervisors Benjamin Pitts, Gary Skinner and Emmitt Marshall cast the dissenting votes. Pitts said the board shouldn’t reduce the rate until after the budget public hearing on March 29. The board can lower the rate at any time after the hearing, but can’t raise it without re-advertising the levy and having another public hearing. 

“We haven’t given the public the opportunity to…tell this board what they expect this board to fund, and how they expect it to be funded and what quality of life they expect this county to provide to them,” Pitts said.

The equalized rate would’ve generated the same amount of money as the previous year plus 1 percent, based on the 2012 countywide property reassessment in which overall home values dropped about 2 percent.

Each penny on the tax rate equals about $1.2 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Supervisors Ann Heidig, Timothy McLaughlin, David Ross and Paul Trampe—who were elected in November on a low-tax platform—were in favor of decreasing the advertised rate.

McLaughlin first sought the lower rate at a meeting last month, but the board opted to hold off on a decision because Skinner wasn’t present. McLaughlin said he talks regularly with members of the recently re-established citizen budget review committee.

“I found plenty of areas that we can make that reduction,” he said.

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