VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach business that has kept its doors open for nearly 60 years took on an energy giant, and lost.
Walton Funeral Home will now have three transmission lines running across its property to help power Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
It's a clean energy endeavor that will bring power to thousands of people, but for Frank Walton, he said it's turning his solace for grief into an industrial area.
"I have cried, I'm not sleeping, I'm sleep deprived. I feel powerless is how I feel," Walton said on Wednesday.
Walton's land is one of four properties that Dominion Energy is looking to acquire through the means of "eminent domain." This is a power set aside by government to take private property for the sake of public use.
A spokesman with Dominion Energy told 13News Now that using eminent domain in litigation is always done as a last resort, and that negotiations are attempted several times leading up to it.
However, Walton said the offer Dominion gave him did not come close to what he sees in the value of his family's property, which has stood on Holland Road since 1967.
"They offered me twenty thousand dollars for the easement," he said. "I just want to be treated fairly, like another large corporation would be, if you were buying from them."
For now, Dominion Energy has been granted early entry onto the property to cut down trees that would block the transmission lines. A judge sided with Dominion Energy for the access, calling it a "public necessity."
The wires will then cross over Walton's property, but the poles will be dug into a property that is adjacent to the funeral home.
Still, Walton is afraid his property just lost any commercial value, and fears what would happen if he tried to sell the land.
"We have not gone down that road yet, have not wanted to, but I feel like a sacrificial lamb to make room for all this," Walton said.
A spokesman with Dominion Energy said the company is prepared to pay nearly $60 million to acquire 95 percent of the easements needed for the transmission infrastructure. However, it's not clear yet just how much Walton could be compensated.
A hearing is set for April to determine what "just" compensation could look like for Walton.
"I've got friends in this business that have been there for a long time and have the same type history, they don't look like me, and I don't think Dominion Energy would have treated them in the same fashion as they have treated me," Walton said.