ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, VA (Rocktown Now) – The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors unanimously denied a request for a special use permit for a battery storage facility in the Timberville area.

The area in question is currently A-1, which is meant to preserve farmland and forestry.

“An expansion of a second location of an energy storage facility seemed to be more of a non-agricultural use that was already being utilized to the north,” Supervisor Sally Wolfe-Garrison explained. “And I didn’t feel like it needed to be expanded to the south and further limit the availability of keeping that land in an agricultural use.”

The vote came after a number of residents came out and spoke against the proposal during a public hearing at Wednesday night’s meeting.

Rocktown Power LLC made the special use permit request to locate the storage facility on Hulings Lane not far from Endless Caverns.