Members of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of approving a special use permit—with an amendment to strike one of the conditions—to expand the Virginia Keys School facility by renovating a property on 2010 High Rock Road Monday.

Bill Lay, director of community outreach with Virginia Keys School, said in response to a question posed by District Seven representative Danny Allen that the property they planned to renovate would be used to provide housing for children and adolescents for short-term emergencies. The adolescents, who Lay estimated would be between 12-16 years old, would be in the foster care system with the Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS).

Virginia Keys School is a day-school and residential program that offer skills training to boys, who are typically in their teenage years.

Lay noted during an April board of supervisors meeting that school representatives would also “utilize the house for bedrooms and two office spaces.” He noted they would refurbish the garage area to be used for a business space.

Lay said in addition to working with the Buckingham County DSS, Virginia Keys School also works with 32 other area DSS facilities, including those ranging from Richmond to Fredericksburg.

“We’re running a very successful business out there, and we’re helping young people, once they transition away from our program, they do not re-enter social service. They are able to stay independent, on their own, which is a great benefit for the Commonwealth and for our communities,” Lay said during the April meeting.

David Ball, of District Three, spoke during the hearing and supported the program, noting that at-risk kids can often be forgotten, and said potential for grant opportunities could be available to the program.

District Four representative Morgan Dunnavant took issue with the fourth and fifth conditions listed in the special use permit. The fourth condition requires that the program have insurance to protect against liability for injury or property damage, contending that it would not be within the county’s right to dictate that a business carry insurance. He also was unsure why, in the fifth condition student trespassing would be considered a private nuisance rather than a public nuisance.

“Being a businessperson myself, I thoroughly believe you should have adequate insurance,” Dunnavant said, “and that should be on ya’ll. But it shouldn’t be us up here as a county dictating insurance that private entities should have.”

Lay joked that Virginia Keys School had insurance to cover insurance, and noted that the school would support eliminating the fourth condition as it requires an annual fee.

“We are governed and licensed by the department of social services and the department of education,” Lay said. “We would not be bringing young adolescent boys to our campus without making sure that both the kids and staff and our neighbors were well taken care of and covered.”

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rebecca Cobb noted that that specific condition, the fifth condition, was made several years ago when the board received concerns after a facility that was not Virginia Keys School, but had a similar goal, involving incidents of students leaving the facility and damaging and stealing neighboring property.

Members of the board voted to eliminate the fourth condition following its vote to approve the special use permit.