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The lawsuit against Cumberland County supervisors now has a judge appointed. Next it’s just a question of when he’ll set a date for the case to be heard, as well as address the filings up to this point.

Bernard Goodwyn, Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, announced in a filing that he’s chosen retired judge Melvin R. Hughes to hear arguments in the case. Hughes takes the place of “the judges of the 10th judicial circuit,” Goodwyn wrote, “who are so situated as to render it improper, in their opinion, for them to preside at the trial of this case.”

Since the beginning of this case, the argument has been that local judges shouldn’t be overseeing this lawsuit. That was made officials back in October, when Chief Judge Donald Blessing of the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court ruled that it was improper for any local judges of the Tenth Circuit to hear this case. As a result, he filed a request to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, to name a special judge to oversee the case. So now that’s happened and Judge Hughes has agreed to oversee the case. 

So what do we know about Judge Melvin R. Hughes? He retired from the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond with more than 33 years of judicial experience. First he served as a Judge of the General District Court, before joining the Circuit Bench in 1984. He was a founding member of the Richmond law firm of Chambliss, Cunningham, Hughes and Macbeth, before being appointed to the Committee on Virginia Model Jury Instructions, which updates jury instructions as new cases are decided each year. He is also the former president of the Old Dominion Bar Association’s Richmond chapter and a former board member of the Neighborhood Legal Aid Society. 

A case of wait and see for Cumberland

Now we wait until Judge Hughes sets a schedule for the case, which is expected after the Christmas holiday break. And to explain, when we mention a lawsuit, we’re referring to the one filed against Cumberland County supervisors by the members of the Cumberland County Landfill Alert (CCLA) group, operating under the name of Love Central Virginia Inc. 

The argument by CCLA is that they want to stop the process now, before the proposed Green Ridge landfill project makes it to a hearing for a conditional use permit. In an attempt to shut things down, the group has sued Cumberland County, asking a circuit court judge to issue an injunction.

The CCLA group believes they have standing in this case to legally challenge the county and put a stop to the Host Agreement between Cumberland and Green Ridge. Over the last two months, filings have gone back and forth, with Cumberland arguing that any legal challenge to the host agreement should have happened when the original was signed in 2018.

Representing Cumberland County, Blair O’Brien and Andrew Mullen from the Richmond-based firm Harman, Claytor, Corrigan and Wellman basically asked why now? In their Oct. 24 filing, O’Brien and Mullen pointed to the Virginia Code. Specifically, Section 15.2-2285 of the Code says “Every action contesting a decision of the local governing body adopting or failing to adopt a proposed zoning ordinance or amendment thereto or granting or failing to grant a special exception shall be filed within thirty days of the decision with the circuit court having jurisdiction of the land affected by the decision.”

The two lawyers pointed out the decision in this case happened back in 2018. To follow state law, they argued, a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Host Agreement needed to happen within 30 days of that original decision, not six years later. The same goes for the amended agreement, which was voted on in 2019.

The county’s position 

As for the Host Agreement, they’re referring to two votes taken almost a year apart. In August 2018, the Cumberland board of supervisors voted 3-2 to adopt a community host agreement with Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal. Of the members at that time, then-Chairman Kevin Ingle and District Two Supervisor Lloyd Banks voted in opposition to the motion and District One Supervisor William “Bill” Osl, District Four Supervisor David Meinhard and District Five Supervisor Parker Wheeler voted in favor.

The board then voted again, on July 12, 2019, to amend that agreement and insert one key change. In Sect. 3.5(b) in the amended agreement, it says the county has to cooperate with Green Ridge’s efforts to obtain permits, provide data pertaining to the landfill as requested and send them through the regular process for approval or rejection. Basically, if attempts are made to reject the project without allowing the company to go through the regular application process, the argument is that it violates the agreement the previous Cumberland supervisors willingly signed. And in turn, opens the county up to a lawsuit from Green Ridge.

This has been why Cumberland hasn’t simply tossed out the Green Ridge proposed landfill, saying it’s not wanted. The language in that 2019 amended agreement says “the County will take no action intended to frustrate or prevent Green Ridge from receiving and maintaining a permit, and other local permits and approvals that are consistent with the applicable ordinances and zoning, including any conditional use permits,” the document says. 

Project goes through Cumberland process

So what happens to Green Ridge in the meantime, while this is being fought over in court? It still moves forward.

In order for the proposed Cumberland landfill to be either rejected or approved, first it has to go through the full conditional use process. Green Ridge Virginia, part of GFL (Green for Life) Environmental, has to apply for a permit with Cumberland, requesting permission to move forward with the landfill. The company has taken the first step in that process, as county staff acknowledged in September that the permit has been filed. It was just not complete as of the last county board meeting.

There is also no estimated timeframe for when it would be complete, but when that happens, unless the injunction is granted by the Circuit Court, Green Ridge will go before the planning commission, which will hear the request and hold a public hearing. After that, the planning commission decides if they recommend it or not to supervisors. Then it would go to supervisors, where another public hearing would be held. Afterward, the board could make a decision.