Goochland County, represented by Michael J. Finney, Esq. of
the Gentry Locke Law firm, faced off against Phillip Strother, Esq. of Strother
Law Offices, PLC representing the plaintiff, county residents opposing the Technology
Overlay District (TOD) created by Goochland Supervisors last November, before
the Hon. Timothy K. Sanner in Circuit Court on May 26 for pretrial motions. The lawsuit was filed on December 4,
2025.
The plaintiff contends that the Goochland Board of Supervisors
and Planning Commission failed to comply with Virginia statutory law and constitutional
principles in the approval of the TOD, which, it contends, also conflicted with
county zoning ordinances.
Since the suit was filed last December, the plaintiff has
nonsuited—removed from the complaint—Count VIII, which said that approval of
the TOD constituted unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious rezoning in
violation of Virginia law.
The complaint asks the Court to declare the TOD and related amendments
to county zoning ordinances, regulations, and comprehensive land use plan, null
and void.
During the pretrial motions, Finney asked the Court to admit
8,500 pages of documents and other exhibits relating to the process of TOD
approval to support Goochland’s case. Strother argued that the volume of
material that Goochland presented for inclusion in the case was excessive. He
cited a Virgina Mercury article dated weeks after the November 6 TOD approval included
on the 8,500 pages, as an item irrelevant to the case.
Finney contended that without a clearer picture of the plaintiff’s
case, the County cannot determine which of the documents and exhibits are essential
to its defense. The Judge denied the County’s request to have all the initial documentation
material admitted but allowed the county to return with a revised set of
documents sometime in the summer after it has had the opportunity to review the
plaintiff’s case. A demurrer, the next step in the legal process, on the suit, is
scheduled to be heard in Circuit Court on October 20.
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