For the second time in four years, residents of the Brown Grove Historic District are taking Wegmans and the Hanover County Board of Supervisors to court.
Neighbors and residents are seeking relief from the alleged adverse traffic, noise and environmental impacts after the county approved construction of a 1-million-sq.-ft. distribution center in the heart of the historic Black community in 2020.
Although the groups’ initial lawsuit was dismissed by Hanover Circuit Court judges on two separate occasions, attorney Brian Buniva told VPM News he’s confident Brown Grove’s coalition of concerned residents will receive the recompense they deserve.
Buniva was supported by a combination of neighbors and local nonprofits during a Tuesday press conference — including the Hanover NAACP, the Coalition for Hanover’s Future, the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“The fact is that the law is on our side, the facts are on our side, and eventually they are going to learn that you just don't march in and push your way around,” Buniva said. “That is not the way it works in America or in Virginia, and if it does work, I'm here to stop it.”
Brown Grove’s legal battle started in 2020 when Hanover supervisors began reviewing a zoning application for a Wegmans distribution center. The proposed location was not far from Brown Grove Baptist Church, the anchor of the historic district recognized by both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
The county’s planning commission reviewed the project on Feb. 20, 2020, and Hanover’s seven-member governing board approved the application after a public hearing on May 6, 2020.
The initial lawsuit against the development was filed on June 5, 2020 by Buniva on behalf of Brown Grove’s community. It alleged that the May 2020 public hearing was unlawful and inconsistent with restrictions placed on local governments during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At that time, then-Gov. Ralph Northam had issued Executive Orders 53 and 55 allowing for the ongoing operation of local governments — albeit at a limited capacity. Hanover also adopted its own emergency procedures to ensure the county government’s continuity.
The first complaint also alleged that the local restrictions imposed by Hanover “deprived some of the plaintiffs their constitutional and statutory right to meaningfully participate and present their views to the board.”
Since public attendance to the meeting was limited, the group alleged that Hanover violated Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act and that the supervisors’ proceedings were not fully open to the public.
These and other allegations were heard in Hanover Circuit Court in November 2020 and August 2021. The court found the residents of Brown Grove had no standing to challenge the county’s approval, and the first case was dismissed.
However in 2023, the Supreme Court of Virginia reversed the circuit court’s decision and set the trial back — where parts of the case were once again dismissed in February 2024.
Now, Buniva is looking to the Court of Appeals of Virginia to overturn the circuit court’s decisions. The latest court appeal was filed in June, with a brief submitted in July of this year. A hearing date has not yet been determined.
“I recommended to my clients, and they agreed, to drop the parts of the case that the judge had not dismissed, so that we could appeal to the court of appeals,” Buniva said. “And that's where we are now. So it's a pure issue of law.”
Buniva added, “I’m glad to be in the Court of Appeals and eventually there probably will be an appeal to the Supreme Court again.”
Over the course of these yearslong legal proceedings, Wegmans’ distribution center has been in operation and stirred negativity amongst its neighbors.
Residents like Kathy Woodcock — one of several named in the case against Wegmans — said she and others are hoping these proceedings will lead to a reduction of working days and hours at the site, along with accommodations for the traffic and noise concerns, and mitigation of impacts on the neighboring environment and historic sites.
Renada Harris, co-executive director of the Brown Grove Preservation Group, told VPM News that despite legal setbacks, neighbors are banding together to restore their quality of life — and that the “small wins keep us going.”
“I've been doing this work since 2020 and without the support of the organizations, the nonprofit organizations, it probably would not have been as easy,” Harris said. “It's hard to organize a community, especially a community that has been oppressed and dismissed since the beginning.”
The Brown Grove Preservation Group has dedicated itself to preserving the history of a community established by formally freed slaves from being overrun and overdeveloped. Since Wegmans’ arrival, the group has become extremely active in preventing further developments from damaging the community's historic sites.
Most recently, the group's advocacy led to Hanover recognizing Brown Grove’s historic significance in the county’s comprehensive plan as the Brown Grove Rural Historic District. The plan offers general guidelines to ensure the historically significant structures and grave sites are preserved. It also contains recommendations for potential developments.
“The Virginia Supreme Court's recent ruling to revive Hanover residents’ lawsuit is a beacon of hope,” Harris said. “It acknowledges that our concerns are valid, and our land deserves protection. We deserve to be heard.”
Harris said residents in the neighborhood hope that after these legal skirmishes end, the county and other local stakeholders will join their fight for environmental justice . According to her, that would ensure the history and voices of the neighborhood remain for generations.
“We have to have our voices heard,” Harris said. “They're showing up to the board of supervisors meetings, any of the local meetings that we have, the community is showing up.”
