N. Stafford Zoning Re-Studied ., By WILLIAM LAKEMAN
Re study of zoning in the water area, including a 600-acre industrial site owned by Virginia Electric & Power Co, is going to be made by the Stafford Planning Commission.... He called for a similar zoning review of the whole peninsula area east of the RF& P Railroad tracks from the boundary of the Marine Corps reservation *down to Brent's Point, That would include the Widewater Beach area and the 600- acre Vepco tract, which Graninger said now has dim prospects for industrial usage after being passed over three times for • choice as a power -plant site, The re -study task was assigned • to a five-member zoning -review committee, headed by John M. Porter, with W. A. Griffis Jr. added as a sixth member. No timetable was set for the committee to report back its recommendations.
The Free Lance-Star, November 5, 1968, Page 8. via Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star/189540316/ : accessed January 22, 2026)
The following appeared in the FLS after Lake Anna was chosen as the site for the nuclear power plant Vepco had promised to Stafford.
"After consideration of many alternatives," he said, "the selection at this location was determined to be the most economical and reliable power source available." Both the Arkendale tract in Stafford and the Northumberland County site on the Chesapeake Bay were known to be under consideration for the plant site, following Vepco's announcement last year that it contemplated a second nuclear-powered plant. It stirred renewed hopes in Stafford that the twice deferred site at Arkendale might be picked.
The 650 acres was acquired in 1963 with a promise that a $200 - million generating plant would be built there "sometime after 1966."
Vepco officials declined to say yesterday the future Arkendale plant is dead, but they acknowledged the prospect for it is indefinitely postponed. The leading factor in bypassing the Arkendale site appeared to be the difficulties that would loom in discharging heated water from the plant into the Potomac River. After public hearings last year on water -quality standards for the Potomac River the state overrode a Vepco request for a waiver of the maximum heat limits proposed for the Arkendale section of the river. Harrison Hubard, former district manager here and now a Vepco vice president, said there were many factors, however, leading to the choice of the Louisa site. Soil foundations were more suitable for the plant, he said, compared to the marshy site under study at the tip of Northumberland.
The Free Lance-Star, April 10, 1968, Page 3. via Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star/189540638/ : accessed January 22, 2026)
Vepco Condemnation Suit In County Stirs Curiosity By WILLIAM LAKEMAN
A condemnation suit in Stafford Circuit Court is stirring curiosity about the future plans of Virginia Electric & Power Co. for a large site it owns at Arkendale. In the suit, Vepco is seeking -way easements through 11 properties for a future crosscounty transmission line that would run from Arkendale to Cropp. The cross line has been in the plans since 1963 when Vepco bought the 650 acres at Arkendale and announced that it planned a future power -generating plant there. But since then the Arkendale site has been passed over three times by Vepco in announcing plans for new power plants. The latest was in April when a Louisa County site was picked for a nuclear -powered plant on the North Anna River. Why, then, the question is asked, should Vepco push for a cross-county link-up to a tract that seems out of the running for power -plant sites? Adding to the curiosity is an apparent change in plans for the western end of the cross-country Instead of tying into the 500 kilovolt power line that crosses the western tip of Stafford as it makes a big loop from Richmond to Mt. Storm, W. Va., the crosscounty line will dip under the 500 KV line and continue west to link with another network near Remington, a Vepco spokesman has indicated. An official explanation by co says "we propose to build a 230,000-volt line to the west on the land now in condemnation proceedings."
'As to whether a power station| will be built on the Stafford site | (at Arkendale),"it adds, a number of factors will have to be determined. One of the principal factors is the establishment of quality water standards." The latter refers to a problem of thermal pollution which figures in the release of heated waters from an atomic-powered generating plant. It was a major factor in choosing the Louisa County site in April instead of the Arkendale tract. Scientific research is said to be developing new techniques for atomic -powered plants that could make thermal pollution less of a problem, but the process is not yet economically competitive with other forms of generating power. Once perfected, however, the process could make the Arkendale site a possibility for Vepco plans again. The company statement, meanwhile, says "'we do not know what the design criteria will be for a station until the water standard criteria are established." It terms the cross-county line *a transmission corridor that we presently propose to use to tie in with other transmission facilities in the area to improve service to the whole area." If the Arkendale site is developed, Vepco said, "these lines will be utilized to take power out of the area to our transmission network. "At present," it noted, "we have a 230,000-volt and lesser voltage lines in the area of the Stafford property."
The right -of -way easements sought in the condemnation suit vary from a 500-foot-wide belt across Wigginton Island in Aquia Creek to 335-foot-wide belts through the Roseville area. A circuit court hearing is set for 2 p.m. on Sept. 23 on Vepco's request for condemnation commissioners to be appointed to decide the amounts of payment for the easements. Bona fide efforts to buy the easements have failed, the suit declares, because the company could not come to terms with the property owners. Over 30 defendants are named in the suit, including co-owners, mortgage -holders and four heirs of an estate, in one case. The principal defendants are Ralph and Malcomb Dombrower,. Farrar A, Simons, Clara K. Armstrong, Lee Armstrong, Charles R. Beavers, John M. MacClarence, Nelson R. Crocker and Wilson H. Greenlaw.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star-easement-suit-staffo/189536183/
History Hasn't Been Kind to Stafford
The Free Lance- Star And City, County State
FDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA* THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1968
History has not been kind to Stafford County. A stepchild of reconstruction and ravaged by the Civil War, it also went through Indian uprisings and a wave of religious bigotry, but few moments of glory.
Fate seemed to conspire against every promising start. The first settlement at Marlboro was bypassed by the movement West. The river silted up the port at Falmouth and the market for Aquia sandstone petered out.
Symbolic of Stafford's Ill luck sore point about Fredericksburg claiming to be George Washington's boyhood town.
The boy never lived there, Stafford grumbles; but not too loudly, because he never lived in Stafford either. Ferry Farm was still within King George County when be was a boy.
Today the same roll of dice seems to be plaguing Stafford.
It leads the Fredericksburg area in population growth rates, but lacks the financial tax based to bloom and flower with the growth.
More and more ¡a bedroom county, it has no shopping centers like Fredericksburg, no big motels like Spotsylvania, no big industries like the FMC Avisco plant. What it has is school children, a mounting school debt and bigger school needs coming.
What it has is school children, a mounting school debt and bigger school needs coming.
It sits in the cannon's mouth of a projected urban corridor that could go off at any time with booming growth along Interstate 95. And that means more children and more needs.
Ironically, Stafford has been, remarkably progressive in many things. It was the first area county to adopt the executive secretary form, the first to begin zoning, planning and comprehensive water-sewer plans, and not least, the first to completely integrate its schools.
But y the progress has been, lumbering and fitful and all too frequently overtaken by events, The shaping of a master plan was bowled over by the trailer problem; there is still no capital outlay plan for what's ahead. Schools made tremendous strides toward a goal of prestige accreditation by the Southern Association, then dropped it at the last minute a casualty of the budget crisis last winter.
Bitterest of all are the broken hopes of half promises. Vepco said it would build a $200-million power plant at Arkendale. Stafford Harbor said it would build a $300-million development, with. maybe a $500-million Exposition included. Aldon Construction Co. said it would build a $17-million shopping center in North Stafford, None of these ever happened.
"So the handwriting on the wall looks more and more like a boot- strap-lifting operation. The odds of history do not favor a wind- fall or a helping hand out of the blue. Stafford will have to make its own progress by its own sweat and toil."
The Free Lance-Star, December 26, 1968, Page 13. via Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star/189541122/ : accessed January 22, 2026)
Stafford site is reactivated as possible power plant site By WILLIAM LAKEMAN. Staff Reporter
A dormant power-plant site at Arkendale in Stafford County is being considered for a new fossil-fuel generating station, Vepco disclosed today. A series of site-exploration and evaluation. tests will be conducted at the 650-acre tract to determine the feasibility of a plant there, said Vepco senior vice president Stanley Ragone.
The announcement followed weeks of rumors that unusual activity was going on at the site, which flanks the eastern shore of Aquia Creek and includes a corridor of land across to the Potomac River banks. The site was first acquired by Vepco in 1962. amid announcements that a $200-million generating plant would be built there "sometime after 1966." But it lay dormant thereafter as' subsequent Vepco plans were pushed at Chesterfield, Surry, North Anna and Possum Point. Ragone said a consulting firm, Dames and Moore, has been retained to study various plant locations, including Arkendale, to meet the energy needs of Vepco customers by 1980.3 0 The firm has termed the Stafford County site favorable, he said, because of good rail access, an adequate supply of cooling system makeup water and meteorology of the area.
It also noted that the land is already zoned for industrial use and is close to existing transmission lines. Engineering and : environmental studies will be conducted over the next several months, Ragone said, before a decision is made on the Stafford site. The engineering studies are being conducted by Brown and Root, of Houston, Tex. In a notable comment, he added "any generating units b built at the site will be designed to be capable of burning either coal or oil. Earlier in. February 1972 Ragone intimated the Arkendale site might be a strong contender for a nuclear-powered plant that Vepco was projecting in the future by 1981. At that time he was cautioning the Stafford Board of Supervisors against premature hopes that a $156 million plant would be located there.
One month later Vepco announced it would be added to the Possum Point facility in Prince William County. The new engineering studies, said Ragone, will deal with the size, cost and number of employes expected to complete construction of the facility at Arkendale. He assured that "if the current. studies confirm the feasibility of developing the site for a a a a a fossil fuel generating station, Vepco will employ technology that fully complies with state and federal guidelines for protecting, the environment." He also that forestry management operations now going on at the site will continue until the summer of 1975. Some" of the land will be re-forested, he said, and a wide buffer zone will be maintained along the boundaries of the site if it is developed for a fossil-fuel plant.
The Free Lance-Star, November 19, 1973, Page 1. via Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star/189541613/ : accessed January 22, 2026)
A spokesman for Vepco said he was "delighted to see Miller's interest in the property." The Arkendale tract, he said," is now considered unsuitable for a power station because its proximity to the airport at Quantico would prevent construction of adequate stacks for a fossil fuel plant. It has been up for sale for about six months.
The Free Lance-Star, February 4, 1976, Page 19. via Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-free-lance-star/189541759/ : accessed January 22, 2026)
History of the East-west Arkendale, or Kraken Loop, segments 5 and 6 in Stafford County
In October 1963, Vepco announced plans to build a power plant in the Arkendale area of Stafford County near what is now Aquia Harbor. The Stafford Board of Supervisors, ecstatic about the potential for jobs and development in the county, began making plans on how to develop the county for the "windfall" -- a potential doubling of the county tax base.
It was not until April 1965, however, that Vepco began making purchases of easements within the county to bring a 500 kV power line to the promised Arkendale plant, and by October 1965, it was becoming apparent that the promised power plant was a pipe dream, the project having been pushed back "indefinitely" by Vepco.
In a last-ditch attempt to entice the power plant to Stafford, the Board of Supervisors wrote a letter to Vepco in December 1967, promising "full county cooperation if [Vepco] should decide on its Arkendale tract for a nuclear powered plant" believing an announcement of the site location would be made in January 1968. Vepco passed over Stafford and built the power plant at Lake Anna instead.
Although the Stafford site was now a bust, Vepco had not yet acquired the entirety of an easement from east to west through the county. It sued in court to seize the remaining properties beginning in August 1969, claiming that it now needed a 230 kV power line across Stafford County, much to the confusion of Stafford residents, who wondered why the easements were needed for a dead project. True to its word, Stafford cooperated in attempt to bring Vepco back to the county, and the last of the lands were condemned.
Said the Free Lance Star: "Bitterest of all are the broken hopes of half promises. Vepco said it would build a $200-million power plant at Arkendale. Stafford Harbor said it would build a $300-million development, with. maybe a $500-million Exposition included. Aldon Construction Co. said it would build a $17-million shopping center in North Stafford, None of these ever happened."
Briefly again in 1973 Stafford was mentioned as a contender for a new power plant, however, by 1976 Vepco acknowledged the site's infeasibility publicly and put the Arkendale property up for sale.
The Kraken Loop project, which utilizes the old Arkendale easement, was announced publicly in October 2025.
