After serving one year on the King George County Board of Supervisors, William “Bill” Davis is the new chairman.
Davis was unanimously elected to lead the board during its annual reorganization meeting Tuesday night. David Sullins was elected vice chair.
Both Davis and Sullins were elected to the board in November 2023. Davis represents the Dahlgren District, while Sullins is an at-large supervisor.
At the time of his election, Davis, a lifelong county resident, cited transparency, accountability, low taxes and improving the county’s service authority as his primary objectives.
Sullins, meanwhile, has said he wants to focus on the county’s service authority while also decreasing debt and emphasizing economic development and strategic planning.
Davis replaces T.C. Collins, who oversaw a tumultuous 2024 that included mass departures in county offices and a declaration of war with Amazon Data Services over a performance agreement to build a data center in the county.
Sullins replaces Cathy Binder as vice chair. Later in the meeting, Binder was elected chair of the board of directors for the service authority, which oversees sewer and water for approximately 4,800 homes and businesses in the county. Lee Robotham is the only non-supervisor appointed to the Service Authority board of directors Tuesday night. Conversely, Supervisor Ken Stroud of the James Madison District is the only supervisor not on the board.
In other business, the board voted 4-1 to enter into a settlement with the Walnut Hill Development Corporation over the denial of a rezoning permit on Dec. 19, 2023.
Walnut Hill requested to rezone approximately 46 of 123 total acres off Owens Drive (State Route 624) from the Rural Agricultural District to the Multifamily Dwelling District. The proposal included 25 detached single-family homes and 75 attached townhomes, all to be served by public water and sewer.
Walnut Hill officials appealed the supervisors’ decision to the King George Circuit Court. King George Chief Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Charlie Clark, who represented the county in the case and wrote a proposed settlement agreement with Walnut Hill, said he did so “to protect the county’s interests, address the board’s concerns and to avoid the high cost of litigation.”
The court declared the previous decision void and sent it back to the supervisors for reconsideration. Walnut Hill subsequently increased its proffers towards the school division from $240,000 to $440,000 and pledged to phase in 33 units per year in order to alleviate pressure on schools and other county services.
The board voted 4-1 to instruct Clark to settle the matter at the circuit court. Collins, who questioned if the discussion was transparent to the public before action was taken, was the lone dissenting vote.
