This article is protected under copyright law and is not to be copied for distribution virtually or otherwise.
Hundreds of residents attended Brentsville Supervisor Jeanine Lawson’s-R town hall at Chris Yung Elementary, Thursday, making it clear they opposed data centers near their homes and schools.
Residents from Lanier Farms, Sheffield Manor, Victory Lakes, Silver Leaf, Amberleigh Station, Victory Lakes and other communities near Devlin Road were especially concerned about how noise coming from HVAC systems would affect their lives.
Others were concerned about more immediate noise from construction and blasting. Lastly, people thought it was crazy they would see 90' data centers from their homes.
“We did not buy houses in a residential area to live next to an industrial area,” said one Bristow resident. The gymnasium erupted in applause.
Stanley Martin Homes has an application for Devlin Technology ‘Park’ campus to be built on 269.85 acres off Devlin Road. The campus of 13-14 90’ buildings, totaling 2.5 million square feet would back up to Chris Yung Elementary School. It would abut other data centers to the north and west.
The noise may carry between 1-2 miles depending on various weather conditions.
The Prince William County Board of County Supervisors is scheduled to vote on rezoning the land to industrial, Feb. 7. The application received the recommendation of the Prince William Planning Commission and the county’s planning department. Supervisors recently added it to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
What it does not have is the support of Bristow residents, at least not from those attending the meeting. But based upon previous board votes, residents feared that will not matter. Still many do plan to speak the public hearing, Tuesday.
“Stanley Martin has sold us out. The board has sold us out,” said one resident. “Jeanine Lawson has sold us out,” a woman yelled from the back of the room.
Some said they would not be in the mess if Lawson had not gone along with Stanley Martin’s plan. Others asked what their next steps should be. Everyone there agreed they were in a bad situation.
Lawson admitted to supporting the Devlin Tech Park in the past, but she promised to vote against the project presently. She said she hears her constituents and understands at this point, they would rather have the homes. (However, Young told Bristow Beat Stanley Martin will not go back to the previous plan.)
Lawson said Coles Supervisor Yesli Vega-R will vote with her and Occoquan Supervisor Kenny Boddye-D may since he voted against the data center on the Hunter property. Andrea Bailey-D (Potomac) may support may oppose the applications as well as a similar situation developing in her district.
If she can get four votes that is all they need since there are now seven on the board.
Still, Boddye and Bailey often vote along with the Chair who sees data center opportunities as transformative for the county. She would rather look into mitigations to protect nearby residents.
Lawson recommended everyone attend the Feb. 7 meeting at the McCoart building to speak and reach out to supervisors via email.
People said the vote should wait until the Gainesville District has a supervisor especially as Gainesville District children attend schools that would be affected.
Lawson agreed but said the Chair Wheeler set the schedule.
“What bothers me the most about this is we are a residential community. We moved out here because we wanted to be in a residential community, not in an industrial park. What does that do to the value of my home?” asked a woman of color. She said this is the only “general wealth” her family has and it is being taken away.
She asked that they talk to an attorney about a class action lawsuit. People said they would agree.
Background
Originally rural, Stanley Martin had planned to build the Stone Haven community to match surrounding neighborhoods. After failing to pass Stone Haven in 2015, Stanley Martin decrease the number of homes to 519 in 2019. Lawson pushed for even fewer homes.
Northern Virginia VP of Land J. Truett Young, withdrew the company’s application in March of 2020. “Massive transmission lines,” made the site attractive to the data center industry, said Lawson. She supported the plan, believing more residential homes would overcrowd schools.
Then, in September of 2021, with her support, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors rezoned the adjacent Hunter property to allow an 11-building data center campus. The applicant never revealed the number of buildings, and residents said they were duped.
Boddye was the only supervisor to vote against it, saying it was too close to schools even though there was no residential outcry at the time. But Amberleigh residents now did not understand what was at stake. Data centers were described as light industrial. No one mentioned a data center would include so many buildings.
In the summer of 2022, the noise issues regarding the Amazon data center on Tanner Way in Manassas gained attention. Gainesville residents opposed to the Digital Gateway educated and organized with Bristow residents in opposition to data centers, saying data centers should not be sited near national and state parks, schools or homes.
Scientist Dr. John Lyver conducted a noise study, saying it was similar to the kinds of studies he conducted for NASA. His finding showed that homes and schools would be badly affected by data center noise with noise exceeding the regular noise ordinances near them.
Lyver and Kathy Kulick of the HOA Roundtable said sat said down with Tom Gordy of the Brentsville Planning Commissioner for hours explaining the problems with the Devlin project. The fact that the noise ordinance exempts the noisy HVAC systems, complicated the matter.
Kulick posed the question: how could the county mitigate the data centers and how could the buildings be quieted? Those questions have yet to be answered, she told Bristow Beat.
Nonetheless, Gordy voted to recommend the project adding some proffers to mitigate noise. But the commission vote Bristow and Gainesville residents dug in even harder, holding protests and contacting media outlets.
Now, “data centers were the talk of the town,” said Lawson.
Stanley Martin decided to postpone the vote on the data centers, which was scheduled for October.
Current Issues
Lawson told attendees that in her opinion, supervisors entertaining the massive Prince William Digital Gateway turned the data center industry into a Godzilla in the county.
She said that site is“absurd,” but made the data center industry more confident and bold. Instead of finding ways to reduce their effect on residents, they continue to request taller buildings while keeping small buffers.
“I personally don’t think he is coming even close to reducing the footprint of this process. The data center industry has become incredibly aggressive,” Lawson said.
Lawson requested the county conduct a noise study, but that has yet to happen.
Young of Stanley Martin held three meetings last week for neighbors of the proposed data center. Besides tax revenue, residents were unconvinced of the benefit. Even then, most said the county should raise the rate at which data centers are taxed.
Young did not offer to scale down the project. Buffers would only be 100 feet of the tree line and they will only plant baby evergreen trees. But, he argued proffers would keep noise levels at 60 decibels at the property line.
He did offer proffers to mitigate sound by promising to keep it at 60 decibels at the edge of the property. Young claimed the county would be able to enforce that properly.
He said the county had a solution that would be announced.
One can assume the announcement was that on Feb. 28, the board is scheduled a vote on an amendment to a noise ordinance, saying the county would no longer exempt HVAC at night. But residents said that is backward. The study should be done ahead of the Devlin Tech Park vote. Lawson said she absolutely agreed.
Worse, she said any noise ordinance they pass may be unenforcible. There is no mechanism for holding data centers to the agreement. “That’s another reason that this project is dismal,” she said.
Kulick told Bristow Beat the group proposing the new policy did not go far enough. “They were worried about the unintended consequences.” She represents the residents in Bristow and wants them to be protected.
“I don’t think mitigation can do anything. We just can’t have it. Period,” said one man. The room agreed.
Schools
Kevin Smith, HOA President of Sheffield Manor, said they cannot overlook the fact that Chris Young would be surrounded by data centers on three sides. “What is the county’s mitigation strategy for the liability the county will receive putting children within an industrial zone?”
“Right now the school system is not taking a stance,” said Brentsville school board member Adele Jackson, although she has been personally appealing to her board to oppose the project.
“I have sent a number of emails on this topic,” said Gainesville school board member Jennifer Wall. “I have the same issue in my district. I’m trying to get a response.”
Wall said the school board can weigh in, but she and Jackson have not received any support from the others on the board. They rather it remain a county issue.
“We have a high mountain to climb on that but it is not for lack of trying. I am really mad about it actually,” Wall said. “We know it is going to impact communities. We know it is going to impact children.”
She said she is concerned about blasting, the cost of any HVAC noise mitigations the school division may have to assume.
Schools however have their own noisy HVAC systems and some people have a difficult time believing that off-property data centers would exceed the sound they make.
But Dr. John Lyver is very concerned. His study shows that with so many clustered together- not only Devlin but other adjacent centers- noise becomes additive and can carry for over a mile.
He said it would cost $20 million to protect the school from that ugly, distracting noise that could cause mental and physical maladies. There are so many unknowns. Lyver thinks his model actually underestimates the noise because of unannounced projects.
Others argue there will be better mitigations than he accounted for and not all data centers would be as loud as the Amazon one in Manassas. However, Kulick challenges them to explain the mechanism for quieting an HVAC system besides liquid cooling, which is still rare in the industry.
Data centers in colder locations may be quieter too, she explained, since they are air conditioning systems and will not need to run as high when temperatures are low.
“I think it’s safe to say everyone here tonight is against this project,” said one man as the meeting was wrapping up. “We need you to get those two extra votes.”
Criticisms
Many expressed their anger with the board of supervisors for letting the situation progress this far.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. You seem lovely, but (Chair) Ann Wheeler should be fired immediately,” said a Victory Lakes woman. “This is outrageous this is coming into my backyard.”
A Bridlewood Manor woman blamed Lawson. “The fact that you even considered this as an industrial area- who wants to live next to a data center? You made this a reality now.”
Lawson admitted she did originally support it, but now said she is following what her constituents want.
“You did wrong. Now the fight is on, and we are likely going to lose the fight, and all of our children will be affected by the loss of this fight,” the resident continued. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”
Others agreed. “Everything destroyed because you considered it. I will consider my vote next time,” said one man.
Lawson said her disapproval would likely not have mattered as she is only one vote.
“I hope they are going to show deference to me in my community. I believe maybe they realize they need to show more deference,” Lawson said. “The land is still zoned residential right now. That is an advantage.”
If you wish to share this article, please share via the link. Only a short excerpt may be copied and pasted for dissemination via print, web, or email. Sharing this content in full or more than two-three paragraphs is illegal. Additionally, it hurts Bristow Beat and its local advertisers who make our news coverage possible at no cost to our readers.
Support Bristow Beat - Donate Today!