The Prince William County Supervisors approved the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Prince William County Digital Gateway by a 5-2 vote, Wednesday morning, after a 14-hour meeting.
The amendment is not the same as a more definitive rezoning; however, the amendment to the comp plan paves the way for future rezoning.
The property is poised to become the world’s largest data center park on 2133 acres of land along Pageland Lane in the rural Catharpin area of the Gainesville Magisterial District. The land could house an estimated 90 data center buildings near to the Manassas National Battlefield, Conway Robinson State Park and Heritage Hunt senior HOA community. It is estimated to bring an additional $400 million in annual revenue by the time it is fully built out, but that could take up to 20 years for full completion.
One small comfort for environmentalists is that the board approved the original version of the proposal, which included a list of environmental mitigations and preservation areas as per the staff recommendation. These include wildlife corridors, open space parks, historic preservation areas and buffers along Pageland Lane. The developers must coordinate with the National Park Service. They also must not exceed the county sound ordinance at their border even as the sound ordinance is currently not designed to apply to HVAC equipment.
Chair At-Large Ann Wheeler-D and supervisors Kenny Boddye (Occoquan-D), Margaret Franklin (Woodbridge-D), Victor Angry (Neabsco-D) and Andrea Bailey (Potomac-D) voted in favor the amendment. Brentsville Supervisors Jeanine Lawson-R and Supervisor Yesli Vega-R voted no.
Gainesville Supervisor Peter Candland-R, who is selling his property along Pageland, recused himself and did not attend the meeting. A petition for his recall was spurred by the fact he refused to step down and provide his constituents with representation for this monumental vote.
On Sept. 15, the Prince William Planning Commission recommended a version that significantly reduced mitigations at the request of data center developers QTS and Compass. Some commissioners complained changes itemized in a 31-page-letter were not publicized nor discussed but only received a quick mention before their final vote.
But the draft that passed included those beneficial features, it even increased protections for historic preservation, particularly historic grave sites of Native Americans, Black Americans or Civil War Soldiers due to an amendment Supervisor Franklin proposed who said, "we all own our history."
Staff said the open space would accommodate a south park near Conway Robinson State Park, the Thornton School Resource Park, and a Natural Cultural Resources Park recognizing Jenny Dean, a woman who ran black schools in the county.
Proponents of the project called it a "huge benefit," since right now the land is privately owned and of no use to county residents or visitors. Now there will be walking and riding paths from one park to another.
The wildlife corridors would allow animals to travel from one forested area to another. There would also be buffers between incompatible uses. But some of the mitigations were "recommended" rather than required, something Supervisor Lawson voiced concerns about.
The project is heralded as a significant change for Prince William County. The industry will not only diversify the tax base but revolutionize how the county conducts business. Should the rezoning be approved, the burden of funding the county would no longer fall so heavily upon the residential taxpayer.
Wheeler celebrated the project. “This is a bold plan, and it will change the landscape of Prince William County. What I’ve been trying to figure out is- someone brings us an economic development project of billions and billions of dollars, a $36 billion dollars of investment (and we don’t) work together?”
Wheeler said instead of cooperation, she has been faced with a “just say no,” campaign, which astounded her. “It is positive tax revenue. The infrastructure is borne by the developer. That we have to shell out a lot of money- that is just not true. Sustainability is not about doing nothing; it is about doing things well.”
Lawson said development is the opposite of preservation. If the project really did a great job of conservation, why do all the conservation groups oppose it?
“This is not the golden goose; it’s fool’s gold," said Lawson. "I want to be remembered like Annie Snyder who dedicated her life to preserving both local history, country history and culture. Her entire life was just erased by her own family, no less. Let me go down in the history books with Annie Snyder.”
According to Dominion Power plan will require additional high-powered power towers and substations. Lawson warned they could cross the county into other districts. Dominion said the rates would be borne by all Virginia energy users.
Pageland Lane will be widened to a four-lane road with a divider in the center and a speed limit of 45 miles per hour. It will not be the Bi-County Parkway, a highway designed to go between I-66 and Route 234 and serve Loudoun County. Lawson argued it could become that in the future. VDOT said anything is possible with enough funding, but that is not the plan.
Planning staff said the data buildings would be relatively low, 45 feet, near the battlefield and the developers will work with the battlefield to mitigate viewshed.
Fairfax Water had asked Prince William to do a water study on how runoff would affect the Occoquan Reservoir, but experts said the area is too small to be measurable. Rather, Prince William County will conduct a larger water study.
Last week, the Fairfax County Supervisors wrote to the Prince William Board to state their concerns over the water issue as they also get their drinking water from the Occoquan.
The county did not have an estimate of the cost of buildout but said most would be borne by the developers.
The hearing went on all night. Hundreds of speakers participated in the public hearing. Thirty environmental groups spoke out against the project, believing it would harm the environment, historical preservation and battlefield tourism. The HOA Roundtable alone represents 50-plus communities throughout the region that oppose the project.
“We are not a minority," said Kathy Kulick of the HOA Roundtable. “How much are we expected to give up?” History, the environment? She said data center noise is already making residents “miserable." "You don’t know what you’re doing with the noise, and neither does this industry.”
She asked if they cared so much about alleviating the tax burden, why did they pass a meal tax during record inflation?
Those in favor of the project said it would be a significant boon to help schools, fire, police and other county employees and services. They noted Prince William County Schools are overcrowded; teachers are underpaid. Loudoun County was able to better fund its needs due to data centers without having to raise taxes on residents.
Supervisor Vega said that was disingenuous. Many of the pro-digital gateway speakers were landowners along Pageland Lane. They even had a sophisticated marketing campaign working on their behalf.
“I’ve never seen so many people care about the police and our schools until this little issue came up, so people will weaponize certain things and they use it to their advantage to get what they want, but not because they care about what they are saying," she said.
The great majority of speakers, pro or against, resided in the Gainesville Magisterial District. Some were rural land owners, others lived in HOA neighborhoods.
Some proponents of the gateway described the environmentalist as “special interest groups.”They said they launched nasty character attacks on elected officials, citing the recall Ann Wheeler petition, letters questioning her characters, and caricature cartoons created by the Coalition to Protect Prince William County. Boddye described one cartoon in which supervisors dangled as puppets on a string, as racist.
But Lawson noted that environmental activists are not making any money off their advocacy. She also said Candland, who is white, was also caricatured. The first cartoon caricatures only Wheeler and Candland, both of whom are white.
Some speakers and supervisors framed the conversation as ‘progress’ versus living in the ‘past,' but conservationists rejected that dichotomy. They said they are not opposed to progress, but data centers should not be near parks.
Boddye said the opposition was underestimating the mitigations for environmental protections. "The guardrails the staff has included. I don’t believe it is just flower language at all. These are guiding documents. If the applicants aren’t up to snuff,” he said, they could recommend denial of the application.
The digital gateway abuts the Manassas National Battlefield and Conway Robinson State Park, and 4,000 homes within a mile or so radius. They said data center development should stay in the industrially zoned areas.
However, they also disagreed over whether there is enough land in the data center overlay opportunity zone to continue to build data center parks. If there is enough room, opponents argument the digital gateway is altogether unnecessary for the county and only benefits the landowners, data center developers, and tech companies.
Wheeler said that Economic Development Director Christina Winn made clear that there is no more room. Perhaps nondisclosure agreements hide the true numbers, but Lawson said that is untrue that the overlay is at capacity.
Lawson said she is still getting requests for data center development and county staff say the new parks can be accommodated within the industrial area of her district. She requested the supervisors stomp the breaks and first look at the opportunities in the opportunity zones.
Vega agreed. She said she is also not against data centers, but she felt this was being rushed through when more studies could be completed before the approval. She said she would not be doing her job if she did not require due diligence. Others disagreed saying the project has been studied for more than a year.
Lawson said if this was really about revenue, they should increase the computer peripheral tax rate. That could get them tax revenue immediately, rather than a decade down the line. Boddye agreed while still supporting the digital gateway.
Boddye said he would prefer village-style housing and a tourism area, but that is just not popular with residents. It would require new schools and infrastructure, traffic on roads, etc. He said that this project is clearly better for Gainesville because the data centers do not require those county services.
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