Virginia Beach funeral home loses eminent domain fight to keep Dominion Energy wind project off property
VIRGINIA BEACH — For nearly 60 years, Walton Funeral Home on Holland Road has provided comfort to grieving families in a quiet setting. The neatly landscaped entrance and building with a red brick facade sit in between wooded lots.
But that serene setting will soon be altered.
Transmission lines for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project will run through the funeral home property and other privately-held land in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. It’s one of four properties Dominion is seeking to acquire for the project through the process of eminent domain.
Owner Frank Walton had wanted to negotiate a less impactful scenario on his business through litigation.
Frank Walton stands outside of his family’s funeral home, Walton Funeral Home, in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. To the left of Walton, infrastructure for Dominion Energy’s wind turbine transmission lines that will cross over his property can be seen. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot)
But Dominion Energy recently requested early entry onto the property, before a trial set for next April. Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Stephen Mahan granted Dominion’s request Aug. 5 as a matter of “public necessity.”
Trees on the funeral home property will be razed soon and three new high voltage transmission lines will run across his building’s entrance and parking lot. A large pole will be installed adjacent to the property.
Large poles installed by Dominion Energy that will carry wind turbine transmission lines are seen beyond a Walton Funeral Home hearse in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. The infrastructure for Dominion Energy’s wind turbine transmission lines will cross over owner Frank Walton’s property potentially harming his family business. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot)
“We’d had hope to work something out with Dominion,” said Walton’s attorney, Stephen Clarke of the Norfolk firm Waldo & Lyle. “We wanted to talk about any possibilities of lessening the impact.”
Now, Walton says he’s losing sleep over the future viability of his business and the land.
“It’s lost its commercial appeal,” he said.
New poles were installed across the street from the funeral home last week and the work is heading Walton’s way.
The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm will be 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach and will include 176 wind turbines. The $9.8 billion project will generate energy to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion. Offshore construction began in May and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
Dominion will pay nearly $60 million to acquire 95% of the easements needed for the offshore wind transmission infrastructure, according to Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton. Approximately 5% of the easements, which includes four of the 68 impacted properties, that Dominion needs are going through the eminent domain process, Slayton said.
Dominion EnergyProposed route of Dominion Energy’s transmission lines for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. The route runs through parts of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake and is shown in blue.
Requirements for eminent domain, which were applied in Walton’s case, include a public purpose or use, the assurance of compensation to the property owner and the due process of law.
“Eminent domain is a mediated purchase settlement and an action of last resort and only considered after all other options have been exhausted,” Slayton wrote in an email.
Walton’s parents opened the funeral home in 1967, and he said it may be the oldest continuously operated minority-owned business in the city.
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“A lot of his clients come there, and they’re in this moment of grief in their lives,” said Clarke, the attorney. “He’s very concerned that instead of being able to process their grief, they’re going to be confronted by this construction or this screen of power lines.”
Undersea cables will deliver the wind turbine-generated energy onshore at State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach. The cables will continue underground to Naval Air Station Oceana.
From there, above-ground concrete monopoles and power lines will continue toward Dam Neck Road, connecting with an existing transmission right-of-way near the Castleton neighborhood, according to the city.
The proposed route continues west, overlapping the former Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt roadway project until just past Princess Anne Road. It then moves southwest, crossing Salem Road and the Intracoastal Waterway in Chesapeake. The route turns south toward Battlefield Golf Course before heading west to Dominion’s existing Fentress Substation in Chesapeake.
Frank Walton walks a portion of his property where trees will be cut down and power lines will cross over at Walton Funeral Home in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. The lines will be infrastructure for Dominion Energy’s wind turbine transmission which the company has been able to do via eminent domain. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot)
The power company will raze roughly 38 acres of tree canopy in Virginia Beach for its offshore wind project.
Walton Funeral Home, located along a section of Holland Road between Dam Neck Road and Nimmo Parkway, sits in the crux of the onshore transmission route.
Dominion paid Virginia Beach $19 million for roughly 4 miles of city easements to transmit energy from the offshore wind project. The power company has also agreed to provide $1.14 million to replace trees that will be taken down to make room for the transmission lines and power poles.
Soon, trees next to Walton Funeral Home will be cut down and poles will be installed. Walton’s compensation trial is still scheduled in April, but it doesn’t offer him any comfort. The court required Dominion to set aside roughly $60,000, but it’s unclear how much Walton will receive.
“I just feel so powerless,” he said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]
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