By Elizabeth McGowan
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
Open-space advocates are so agitated by the “awful precedent” set by a state agency’s greenlighting of a 22-megawatt solar array on a prominent Virginia senator’s farm that they’re on the verge of asking the General Assembly to tighten a milestone law designed to protect ecologically valuable properties in perpetuity.
Without such legislative intervention—more likely in the 2027 session—they envision subdivisions, shopping malls and even data centers popping up on private land where commercial development is supposed to be severely restricted.
At issue is a 215-acre renewable energy project—Caledon Solar—proposed by Republican Sen. Richard Stuart on his 1,431-acre Cedar Grove Farm fronting the Potomac River in King George County.
Conservationists say this type of commercial development violates terms of a perpetual open-space conservation easement Stuart inherited upon buying the property in 2016.
In exchange for giving up clearly defined development rights, landowners such as Stuart receive a break on real estate taxes under the Virginia Land Conservation Act.
Mike Kane, conservation director at the Warrenton-based Piedmont Environmental Council, asks why Virginians should have confidence in land trusts if it’s relatively simple to break agreements initiated by the 60-year-old Open-Space Land Act.
“We’re supportive of a renewable energy future and solar is an important part of that,” Kane said. “But there are areas that are identified as special areas of protection, and not suitable for development, whether it be utility-scale solar or residential housing developments.
If the original intent is manipulated, why should Virginians trust this whole process?”
Through June, about 1.33 million private and public acres have been preserved by open space easements commonwealth-wide, according to the Virginia Conservation Lands Database. That accounts for 31% of protected lands statewide.
The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation is the primary source for that money, allocated annually by the General Assembly since 2000. The state spent $15.5 million last year. Stuart serves as a trustee on the foundation’s board.
Conservationists are hopeful that the new Democratic administration will halt Caledon Solar by reversing a December decision made by the previous, Republican-appointed director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
If not, they say they will prod legislators to insert an oversight measure into the 1966 law that it now lacks. Hutcherson said the provision would give land trusts, adjacent landowners or other members of the public the legal standing to hold accountable the government agencies that are responsible for the open-space easements that preserve protected landscapes.
Stuart is confounded by the argument that Caledon is a “good idea sited in the wrong place.” He has complied with all county and state conditions, the latest being an amendment to the deed of easement he recorded on Dec. 18, he said.
“I will put my conservation record up against anybody,” Stuart, first elected in 2007, said in an interview. He serves on the Senate Finance and Appropriations and Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources committees. “I’m a conservationist Republican and I remind people all the time the root word of conservative is ‘conserve’.
“I don’t understand what they are talking about” or “why they have picked this particular project, you know, to die on this hill.”
Attorney Kerry Hutcherson, who splits his time representing commercial developers and nonprofit land trusts, said those questioning Stuart’s pursuit are on sound legal footing.
“An awful precedent would be set with this solar project,” Hutcherson said. “Any use of the property that is inconsistent with the easement and the easement holder fails to enforce it, all that does is send a giant bat signal to land developers that ‘The door is open. Come on in.’”
He also fears lack of easement enforcement will fuel critics already questioning why Virginia forgoes tens of millions of dollars in income tax revenue annually via the Land Preservation Tax Credit.
DCR, the sole holder of the conservation easement since 2018, oversees protection of Stuart’s land. In December, interim DCR Director Andrew Smith signed an amendment to the easement, clearing the way for Caledon.
Conservationists fearful of speaking out because of retribution say Stuart won that DCR approval only after intervention by top staff in Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
Stuart said he followed the proper procedures. The state agency did not respond to queries about the amendment.
But Hutcherson said it “opens a playbook for other landowners who may wish to use influence and pressure to press government agency holders to authorize actions that are not consistent with the easement’s purpose.” That results in a degradation of resources that “public policies determined were in the public interest to protect.”
Politics and zoning trigger land trusts’ scrutiny
Caledon Solar has drawn scrutiny since solar developer Sun Tribe applied for a special exception permit in late 2024 to build on Stuart’s property.
Rural county politics have also raised concerns: Stuart is the King George County attorney.
Stuart is aware that Caledon Solar opponents believe his county gave him sway with local government officials, but he emphasized that he purposely didn’t participate in those meetings.
“It was a negotiation at the end of the day, just like anything is in an easement,” Stuart said about his methodical pursuit of solar.
Last November, the King George County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the requested zoning change, ignoring the county planning commission’s recommendation to deny it.
Kane, who attended the November meeting, said he was shocked that local officials didn’t defer the case to DCR, and that, in turn, DCR representatives hadn’t spoken out in opposition.
“Usually, an open-space easement is a trigger at the county level to contact the proper state agency,” he said. “That was rare. What we’re saying is, let’s not let this become a regular occurrence.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is also skeptical about the solar project. It funded the bulk of the initial conservation easement on Cedar Grove Farm in 2001 through a $986,094 grant to DCR. Since 1994, Virginia has spent $9.8 million from that particular FWS fund to conserve 9,354 acres.
DCR provided $46,000 of the matching funds needed to complete the transaction.
In a June 2024 letter to DCR, an FWS authority said that the easement on Stuart’s farm prohibits commercial solar development, adding that “while the Easement provides for up to 30,000 square feet for ‘new farm and environmental education structures,’ the proposed commercial solar development would consist of 5,445,000 square feet, over 180 times larger than the Easement allows.”
Last May, the Piedmont Environmental Council and eight other Virginia land trusts signed onto a letter that the 950-member Land Trust Alliance, sent to state Natural and Historic Resources Secretary Stefanie Taillon, pleading with the state to protect conservation values and honor the integrity of “a legally binding promise in perpetuity.”
Rex Linville is the Charlottesville-based director of field programs for the 44-year-old alliance’s Eastern Division.
“We worry about precedent when a permanent conservation restriction is not upheld,” Linville said. “That erodes public support and confidence in easements in Virginia and nationally.”
‘Flat as a Pancake’
Stuart bought Cedar Grove Farm, which is adjacent to Caledon State Park, because it’s where his ancestors settled upon arriving from Scotland. “It got out of the family during the Depression,” he said about his family’s 300-plus-year presence on the Northern Neck.
The easement he inherited from the previous owner, James Nash, “was a big deal and it still is a big deal. We have cleaned (the property) up and we take really good care of it. It’s a different place than what it was when I bought it.”
He fielded requests from numerous solar suitors before settling on a lease option with Charlottesville-based Sun Tribe Solar on the Caledon Road plot zoned as agriculture preservation. (TerraForm Power acquired Sun Tribe’s development arm last spring.)
“Apparently it’s a very good spot,” he explained. “It’s flat as a pancake, it has southern exposure, you don’t have to cut any trees and it’s already graded.”
Clean energy seemed an appealing way to cover expenses such as taxes, maintenance and insurance, he said. Signing the lease option in 2023 provided Stuart a one-time payment of $60,000, according to records filed in King George County. If Caledon Solar is built, TerraForm would pay Stuart an undisclosed annual lease fee.
“If you own a lot of land, you’ve got to find a way to get income off it,” he said. “This is a steady stream of rent for the next 30 to 40 years.”
The project would generate enough electricity to serve roughly 2,530 homes in Virginia, according to state-specific calculations by the Solar Energy Industries Association.
He also noted that as a stickler for the solar site being “very conservation-minded because I didn’t want my neighbors to see it nor did I want to see it,” he required buffers and screening to far exceed county requirements.
All well and good, environmentalists say, but the solar farm still flies in the face of the advice former DCR Director Matthew Wells spelled out in an August 2023 letter responding to Stuart’s query.
“It is our position that the Conservation Protections do not allow the commercial development as preliminarily described,” Wells wrote. “As you know, any proposed development must be compatible with the specific restrictions that are laid out in the Conservation Protections.”
Those protections are twofold. An easement protects the entirety of Cedar Grove Farm. In addition, 323 acres are under a separate management plan, which allows certain developments.
Stuart claims he’s allowed to pursue any number of industrial, commercial, educational and agricultural activities on those 323 acres, which include the site where Caledon Solar is proposed.
“The whole thing has easements on it, but they excluded out these certain areas for certain activities,” Stuart said. “In fact, this exact site that Sun Tribe wants to lease was allowed for oil and gas production. I don’t understand these people. Why would you not want solar instead of oil and gas production?”
Hutcherson said that’s beside the point because the disruption caused by installing solar anywhere on the property still violates the open-space agreement.
Stuart said he has always been a staunch backer of the 1966 state law that created the Open-Space Land Act. “The easement program is a wonderful thing,” he said. “The genesis of that act was to stop urban sprawl and stop subdivisions.”
The problem is that “many of these people have become so rigid. They believe you should pay the taxes on the land and you should be able to do nothing but look at it. It is their rigidness that will ultimately undo the program. People are going to become disgusted with it.”
A different solution was possible
Hutcherson pointed out that the Open-Space Land Act includes an option Stuart chose not to pursue.
But Stuart insisted the amendment to his conservation easement satisfies specific parameters laid out in correspondence with Wells and another high-level Youngkin appointee.
Public records reveal that Stuart aggressively pushed state regulators for Caledon Solar approval. In a July 2024 letter to Wells, Stuart wrote, “If you take any action to impede my right to proceed, it will be met with swift legal action.”
Hutcherson said he is concerned that Stuart’s actions could jeopardize Virginia’s access to federal conservation-easement funding. Relatedly, FWS asked DCR to compile a report by April listing projects funded by its conservation investment office—and whether they comply with its restrictions.
Meanwhile, TerraForm has submitted a permit application to the State Department of Environmental Quality to advance the solar project.
What’s unfolding in Virginia troubles Steve Kline, CEO of Maryland’s Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.
“If solar can proceed on these protected acres, why not other protected acres?” he wrote in a member newsletter. “And if solar, why not data centers? Transmission lines? Where would it end?”
Reach Elizabeth McGowan at elizabeth.mcgowan@renewalnews.org