Sanders Lane data center plans proceeding in western Prince William

Plans for another massive data center campus in rural Prince William appear to be advancing.

Developers are working to assemble 1,930 acres through land sales with current residents and property owners along Sanders Lane -- a four-mile, two-lane road that runs between Sudley and Braddock roads near Gainesville -- with the intent to eventually build a data center campus rivaling the now-stalled Digital Gateway data center campus.

Sanders Lane is just north of Pageland Lane, where the contentious 2,100-acre Digital Gateway is located. The Sanders Lane-area properties are currently zoned agricultural and would need to be rezoned industrial to allow for data centers.

InsideNoVa previously reported the land sale campaign along Sanders Lane, confirmed at the time by the late Supervisor Bob Weir.

The Washington Business Journal on Wednesday reported an affiliate of Warrenton-based LSI Communications has filed a cultural resources assessment, a survey of potential historical, cultural or archaeological sites on the land in question. That can be seen as a first step toward a rezoning request for the land, and LSI has well-established connections to the data center industry.

In an email to InsideNoVa Thursday, county spokesperson Nikki Brown said, "The Planning Office’s Cultural Resources staff next will conduct a search of existing databases and historic maps and review any cultural resources studies that may have been done in the project area to determine if a Phase 1 Cultural Resources Survey would be required as part of the application submission. They anticipate that the assessment will be completed mid-January 2026 and posted in ePortal."

The Sanders Lane project is being dubbed Dulles South Innovation Center, according to the Business Journal.

DullesSouthIC.com features a vague, futuristic website espousing “the digital brain,” “protecting our nation,” “enabling dreamers,” and “safeguarding our environment.”

Specific information about the number of data center buildings or total acreage on which facilities would be built is not yet available. No rezoning requests, site plans and renderings have been submitted to the county.