Louisa supervisors unanimously deny conditional use permit for proposed renewable natural gas unloading station on Poindexter Road

The Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4 denied CUP2025‑04, rejecting a plan by Amelia 81 LLC (doing business as Vanguard Renewables) to build a renewable natural gas (RNG) unloading station and truck staging area at the intersection of Brickhouse Road (Route 637) and Poindexter Road (Route 613).

The permit request would have allowed an unloading facility and related truck activity on a parcel adjacent to an existing Columbia Gas Transmission compressor station. The planning commission recommended denial on July 10 and the board upheld that recommendation after a lengthy public hearing and staff and applicant presentations.

The proposal drew sustained public opposition focused on the amount and routing of heavy truck traffic on Poindexter Road, a narrow, winding corridor designated a scenic byway that runs through agricultural and rural properties. Dozens of residents from the Patrick Henry and Green Springs districts described frequent close calls with commercial trucks, instances of vehicles running off the roadway, and a general safety hazard caused by large vehicles on that route.

At the public hearing, applicant representatives described the project as a “virtual pipeline” arrangement: RNG produced at farm-based anaerobic digesters in other localities would be loaded into tank trailers and trucked to the proposed unloading station for injection into the nearby transmission system. The applicant said typical operations would use tractor‑trailer rigs carrying pressurized tanks and proposed limits on deliveries; the applicant’s traffic consultant said it had identified six sites along Poindexter Road for further engineering study and proposed working with VDOT on road improvements. In the course of the hearing the company said it would post a cash security (described by the applicant as $150,000) to underwrite required road work, while acknowledging the final engineering scope and costs remained under study.

Residents contested the traffic forecasts and the adequacy of the proposed road improvements and bond. “It is physically impossible for a semi truck to stay in his lane on Poindexter Road,” said resident Bob Rivers, describing repeated incidents where vehicles ran into his yard. Bill Walling, a commenter, called the proposed data‑center and pipeline projects “negligent, callous, careless, irresponsible, greedy,” remarks echoed by multiple speakers who said the location is inconsistent with the county’s rural and agricultural character.

Columbia Gas representative Cedric Klein explained that the proposed facility would meter and inject gas into the transmission system and that the unloading facility could itself use skid‑mounted compression to push product into the pipeline; he said some nearby compressor sites do not have spare land or the necessary configuration to host the proposed operation.

After board discussion that included questions about the applicant’s road‑improvement assurances, the applicant’s traffic modeling and the operational schedule, Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes moved to deny the permit; the motion passed unanimously. The board recorded a unanimous vote in favor of denial.

Staff had provided the board with the planning commission’s recommendation and 21 conditions that had been proposed for approval; the applicant sought limited modifications to those conditions but the board concluded the outstanding technical and safety concerns and community opposition weighed against approval.

The denial means the project cannot proceed at the proposed location without a new application and substantial additional review.