Protect these areas from transmission development—don’t target them!

On Monday, June 22, the Buckingham County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing — and your presence matters.

The Planning Commission is considering a Comprehensive Plan amendment that would designate “preferred corridors” for future high-voltage transmission lines and encourage future projects to expand, parallel, or be located adjacent to existing utility corridors.

While intended to protect Buckingham County, this approach could have serious unintended consequences for residents, landowners, farms, forests, watersheds, conservation lands, scenic resources, and communities located along and adjacent to existing transmission corridors.

WHAT WE ARE ASKING

We support efforts to protect Buckingham County from the impacts of future high-voltage transmission projects.

But the County should not protect one area by steering future transmission burdens onto another.

We urge the Planning Commission to remove language that:

• Designates “preferred corridors” for future transmission development.
• Encourages transmission lines to expand existing corridors.
• Encourages the construction of transmission lines parallel to or adjacent to existing utility corridors.

Instead, the County should adopt a resource-protection approach that focuses on avoiding and minimizing impacts to farms, prime agricultural soils, forests, streams, watersheds, conservation lands, historic and cultural resources, scenic resources, village centers, and established communities.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

The proposed amendment says Buckingham should protect farms, forests, streams, watersheds, scenic resources, conservation lands, historic resources, and rural communities.

At the same time, it encourages future transmission lines to expand existing corridors or be built parallel or adjacent to them.

In many parts of Buckingham County, the very resources the County says it wants to protect are located directly along those corridors.

The proposed amendment presents two conflicting objectives at the same time:

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

The amendment treats existing transmission corridors—and land beside them—as preferred locations for future transmission expansion.

But land beside an existing corridor is not empty or already sacrificed. It may include working farms, mature forests, streams, creeks, watersheds, conservation lands, homes, and scenic views.

Many existing transmission corridors were established decades ago under different standards and priorities. The fact that a corridor already exists should not be used to assume that expanding or paralleling it is the best environmental, agricultural, or community outcome today.

Expanding or paralleling existing corridors can mean clearing additional trees, affecting streams and watersheds, damaging environmental resources, and placing new burdens on the same lands, families, and communities that already live with transmission infrastructure.

The preferred corridor designation may also make it more difficult for some landowners to place their property under future conservation easements. Families who want to preserve farmland, forests, wildlife habitat, or scenic resources should not be disadvantaged simply because their property is located along or near an existing transmission corridor.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please take four steps:

• Contact Planning Commission members before the hearing.
• Attend the June 22 public hearing.

  Buckingham County Planning Commission
  Public Hearing – Monday, June 22,  6:00 PM

  County Administration Building
  Peter Francisco Meeting Room
  www.buckinghamcountyva.org

• Sign up to speak between 5:30 p.m. and 5:55 p.m. Even a brief statement can make a difference.
• Share this alert with friends, neighbors, family members, community organizations, and anyone who cares about Buckingham County's future.

The more people who understand the issue, attend the hearing, and speak out, the stronger the message to the Planning Commission.

Ask the Planning Commission to remove the preferred-corridor language and protect Buckingham’s resources countywide—without steering future transmission projects toward the same residents, landowners, farms, forests, streams, and communities already located along existing corridors.

A strong public turnout and public participation can make a difference.

PROTECT BUCKINGHAM

• Protect farms, forests, streams, and watersheds
• Protect property rights and conservation
• Protect all communities equally.