BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
A circuit judge on Tuesday, June 16, paused enforcement of the Accomack County Board of Zoning Appeals’ decision to stop work on a Wattsville energy storage facility.
Scout Storage LLC filed an appeal in Accomack County Circuit Court of the zoning board’s June 3 ruling that the company was not in compliance with its conditional-use permit because it took too long to begin the project.
The filing asks the court to reverse the appeal’s board decision, which ended construction on the energy storage facility.
Circuit Judge Lynwood Lewis Jr. granted a restraining order staying the appeals board’s ruling until the case is heard.
A hearing date has not been set.
According to the court filing, which was prepared by Scout’s lawyer, George Bowles, “Scout diligently worked to complete construction as provided by the CUP.”
The company stated in the court filing that the appeals board’s ruling that the conditional-use permit expired “was plainly wrong and/or is based on erroneous principles of law.”
The appeals board ended the construction of the electricity storage facility because work did not begin on the property within the three-year window allowed by the permit.
Representatives of Scout Storage said work on the facility, which uses large batteries to store electricity to be used during energy-grid demand, actually had begun — much of the project is being built offsite before being transferred to the property.
They say Lee Pambid, Accomack’s deputy county administrator of planning and community development, approved a site plan for the project eight months after the conditional use permit for it had expired.
Bowles told the appeals board that the county indicated no problems with the facility’s progress before a stop-work order was issued April 1 — three weeks after the site plan was approved.
Scout Storage received a preliminary court injunction to continue work on the property until the board of zoning appeals met to rule on the matter.
At the appeals board hearing, Pambid called signing off on the site plan an “inadvertent approval.”
Accomack County attorney Jan Proctor said a county employee’s mistake does not override provisions of the zoning ordinance.
“The county made the mistake in approving the site plan and land disturbance permits,” she said, adding the county is “not bound by these mistakes.”
In his court filing, Bowles said Proctor’s reasoning is “directly contrary” to state code.
The court filing also alleged Proctor wrongly told the appeals board it should consider the comments of residents who spoke against the energy storage facility at the meeting.
The five-member appeals board voted, 3-1, to uphold the county’s ruling that Scout Storage did not begin the project until after the permit had expired. Appeals board member Logan Holland did not attend the meeting.
Bowles told the appeals board that the project is “within weeks” of being completed.
Harold Patterson, the owner of the company building the facility, said “$10 million worth of batteries” already have been ordered for the project.
