Ahead of a final vote next week before the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, the county’s professional planning staff is continuing to recommend denial of all three rezonings associated with the PW Digital Gateway data center project.
The Prince William County Planning Office on Thursday issued new reports addressing amended applications from QTS Realty Trust Inc. and Compass Datacenters, companies proposing to build 23 million square feet of data centers on roughly 2,100 acres along Pageland Lane in western Prince William near Gainesville in what would become the largest data center corridor in the world.
The companies in November re-submitted project applications to Prince William County leaders in response to the county’s planning staff in October rejecting their initial plans. The newly released staff reports hold that the data center developers didn’t do enough to remedy what officials continue to believe are substantial deficiencies in the applications.
While county planners acknowledged the developers have taken strides to improve some portions of the applications, staff continues to question the volume of critical information being withheld, such as details about what will be built and where. Staff also maintained the Digital Gateway would be environmentally unfriendly, threaten the county’s historic resources and be out of compliance with the Comprehensive Plan.
Staff continues to object to the developers’ lack of a building footprint or site layout for each application, which they say will make the plans difficult to enforce.
“At this point, no one truly knows what site challenges will come up that may alter the site layout,” the reports read. “It is possible that enough engineering has been done by the Applicant to know that the site layouts can be met, but that is not demonstrated on the [master plan]. Thus, when it comes time to review and approve the final site plans, the County’s Project Managers are going to do the best they can with what is truly an illustration, in an effort to get some form of conformance.”
Staff also nailed each application for not including elevations for the roughly 30 proposed buildings. Without that information, staff said it would be improper to grant the developers permits to build given the uncertainty of the projects. Under the current proposal, staff say it will be difficult to hold the developers accountable for their design of any buildings given the lack of specificity.
Staff continues to oppose the amount of flexibility the developers give themselves in the proposal to modify their plans should they be approved. The applicants did not provide information on the proposed location of electrical infrastructure that will serve the facilities in each land bay, such as transmission lines, another sticking point leading staff to oppose the project.
Staff also noted the project’s proximity to the Manassas battlefield, citing the National Park Service's opposition to the Digital Gateway, which “determined that the proposed rezoning will adversely affect the battlefield and the numerous historic resources outside of the [park] boundary, and the application does not provide sufficient modifications to mitigate the impacts to these resources,” staff said.
They also pointed to the project’s proximity to Conway Robinson State Park, noting the Virginia Department of Forestry’s belief that the rezoning could have “substantial impacts” on the “forest and ecosystem services, which consist of flood mitigation, water quality, clean air, habitat for forest and aquatic biodiversity, and scenic value.” The forestry service also raised concern about the loss of open space land and riparian forest, fragmentation, and loss of ecosystem functions, staff said.
But based on the short time frame between the Planning Commission recommending denial of the project and the supervisors upcoming hearing, staff said neither the National Park Service nor the Department of Forestry have been provided, nor have reviewed, the companies’ most recent applications.
"We have reviewed the County Staff report published on December 7 and while we disagree with Staff's conclusion we appreciate their time and feedback on our amended rezoning application," a representative with Compass Datacenters said in a statement. "We look forward to discussing our application with the Board of County Supervisors at its December 12 meeting, where we will share how our plan aligns with the vision for data center development Prince William County laid out in its Digital Gateway plan adopted last year."
A QTS representative, meanwhile, said the company “appreciate[s] the staff’s diligence and look[s] forward to working through the remainder of the process."
"The Prince William Digital Gateway will boost tax revenues and support the County’s educational and public safety priorities, and we remain optimistic that the Supervisors understand the value of the project and will ultimately approve the Digital Gateway next week," the QTS statement reads.
Dec. 12 meeting, logistics
The supervisors on Dec. 12 will have their final say on whether the divisive data center proposal will be built.
The board will meet at an unusually early start time of 10 a.m. in chambers at the James McCoart Building, a shift they hope will avoid having the meeting run late into the night or even early into the next day. But if history is any indication, the upcoming meeting is likely to run for many hours.
The Democratic majority is widely expected to approve the project.
The Digital Gateway proposal has been the subject of exacting public discourse in the county for more than two years, having also helped to decide the outcome of local elections.
After more than 20 hours of discussion and public comment that began Nov. 8 and ended the following day, the Planning Commission voted to recommend supervisors deny the project, in line with what county staff suggested.
All of the supervisors’ eight members have been quiet on how they plan to vote on the proposal in the lead-up to the hearing. Many have made clear over the past several years how they feel about the proposal.
The project is a nonstarter for the board's Republican minority, who argue it’s a threat to rural living on the county’s western end and an environmental wrecking ball for the nearby state and national parks. Republicans for months have attempted to kill the project by making appeals to Democrats and attempting to pressure them with voters’ anti-data center sentiment in hopes that the hearings could be pushed to next year when Democratic chair-elect Deshundra Jefferson, who is less friendly to data center development than current leadership, takes office.
In a last-ditch effort to throw a wrench in the proposal, Republicans argued on Tuesday the public hearing notices for the Digital Gateway rezonings didn’t comply with the law and that the meeting should be rescheduled. Democrats swiftly shut down the attempt in a 4-3 vote.
The board’s Democratic majority generally backs data centers and views the Digital Gateway as an opportunity for the county to capitalize on a commercial tax revenue generator. In 2022 they approved an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan intended to pave way for the Digital Gateway.
Members of the public who wish to speak on any of the rezonings at the board’s upcoming meeting can sign up in-person beginning at 8 a.m. in the atrium of the McCoart building, which will open at that time. Those wishing to speak remotely may sign up online before 5 p.m. on Dec. 11.
Those who sign up to speak in-person will be given a number, which is the official order in which speakers will be called upon. If the speaker is not present when their number is called, they will have to wait until the end to speak. Those speaking in-person will speak before those online.
Under county rules, each of the three applications gets its own public hearing, meaning members of the public who wish to speak during public comment will likely be allotted three separate occasions of three minutes each.
(28) comments
Mr, Wright: A very good expression of your opinion. You do a good job looking at democrats in the micro sense. I look at them in the macro sense, Liberalism is not the benchmark I judge myself towards, That's how they want it. The vast majority of democrats are idiots. Some may have a semblance of principle here and there, but the party as a whole is full of anti-American morons. Hence, it's the JFK democrat party no more and those with any JFK democrat party tendencies tend to be mute so their tires don't get slashed by non-JFK democrats.
The two prolific leftist psychopaths pop up in unison akin to two throbbing pimples on a donkey's ass.
It's like mutual bubble bath time in the utopian paradise of brain-dead leftism.
The more they tout their exaggerated street cred, the higher the pile of crap gets.
The leftist gong show on here prevails.
There's got to be some semi-sane democrat on this forum that' embarrassed by these two jerks.
Crickets.
You are one of those Holocaust deniers, aren't ya?
Don’t confuse charlatans supporting Democratic officials with legitimate support of Democratic principles.
A true Democrat would support environmental preservation and protecting citizens from corporate predation and exploitation. A true Democrat would not tell others with differing viewpoints to move to another state. That is distinctly anti-democratic.
The two-party system was designed to distill the best solutions from competing philosophies, in recognition that no one has all the answers.
Consider true Democrats like Deshundra Jefferson, Danica Roem and Josh Thomas. You may or may not agree with their viewpoints, but at least they are honest practitioners of their principles. Contrast them with the five donor-beholden stooges on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors whose sole interest is self-promotion.
Principled is principled and dishonorable is dishonorable, regardless of party affiliation.
See the opinion piece here:
https://www.princewilliamtimes.com/opinion/letter-democratic-supervisors-land-use-votes-prove-a-need-to-look-beyond-political-labels/article_e0874cc8-821b-11ed-b2db-9f6adf2a10df.html
He supports bulldozing the entire Rural Crescent. He believes all rural people are insane hicks. He touts his superiority over those that want to preserve the resource. He brags about his intellect. He touts his credentials as nauseum.
He's not only a democrat, but he's also an insane leftist.
Is he a planted agitator here? Perhaps not. He has fellow leftist idiots on here cheering him.
There's many like him out there. Just look at the leftist nuts like him being pumped out of major colleges.
They do not scare us. They're punk pissants.
He's just king pissant.
You support Trump because you are failing in life and think immigrants and/or China is to blame.
I have an intellect and credentials. Something you resent because you don't have those things.
I am not only a Democrat, I am someone who backs up my words with actions.
Planted? Nope. I participate on this board to remind people like you that you don't belong in NoVA and rather than complain about our wealthy, thriving. liberal community, you should just move.
There are plenty of people like me in NoVA. And we work together to keep people like you on the sidelines. At work and in politics.
Yes, there is an Army getting pumped out of colleges every year. In 20 years people like you won't make an impact on any significant election. The future is very bright.
Of course we scare you. You know we control technology, healthcare, media, education, and the military. We also put a whole lot of your friends in prison after J6. I understand you were too much of a coward to show up.
Compared to you, I guess I seem like royalty.
"Just look at the leftist nuts like him being pumped out of major colleges."
It's pretty crazy that, world-wide, higher educated people are more liberal. More open-minded.
And those that don't are conservative. More close-minded.
Today's Brain Dead Demtardstupidism #1
"Modesty and humility died a long time ago.'
The distinct catharsis of a clinical psychotic narcissist. The grandiose of self always having to be qualified by the destruction of others, especially their choices not on par with the insane democrat.
Don't worry Dumb Patriot...When the board comes to vote in a stadium in your neighborhood....I will be there in the front supporting it...You destroy my section of the county...we will destroy yours.
I don't live in Woodbridge. And I support the Commanders stadium moving there.
I doubt you can afford to live in Data Center Country (where I live). The median income here is far beyond your potential earnings. If you are here, the cost of living will soon drive you out like it did with several of the people who comment on this board.
Data Centers didn't "destroy" Loudoun, it won't destroy western PWC either.
Haymarket today looks ten times better than it did a decade ago and all that development (to include data centers) has made it richer. Haymarket is what all of western PWC will look like in a decade.
@Educated Patriot. Either you weren’t raised right or you just want to insult your parents by bragging (I actually don’t believe any of it!). You probably can)t afford to live in Arlington. D.C. is where the good jobs are, close to Arlington!!
We have been through this before.
My parents are both dead and I have grown children of my own (plus three still in high school).
I live in Loudoun. Loudoun has a higher median income than even Arlington. We are the richest county in America. And we have more data centers than anyone.
This is the era of social media. Modesty and humility died a long time ago. Try to keep up. Its all about self promotion now. Successful people have a "brand."
Mine is the Educated Patriot. Talk is cheap. Accomplishment speaks louder than words.
And my office is in McLean, not Arlington.
Yes, DC is where good jobs are. But anyone in NoVA can commute to DC. That is why Loudoun County beats Arlington and Fairfax. And why I moved from Mount Vernon to Loudoun a decade ago.
I don't really care what you believe. If it is so important to you, post your LinkedIn url and I will message you.
I will continue to answer insults with better insults.
Enjoy your tiny apartment or condo living among all the hipster 20 somethings. I did for a while when I was young.
This “Educated Patriot” guy is such an arrogant cuss, that it’s almost irresistible to put him in his place. But don’t. I think these exchanges are therapeutic for him to address his insecurities through anonymous high-hatting. If you could just grab the SOB by the lapels, I’ll guarantee all his pseudo-superiority would melt like butter.
My mother used to say about irritating people like this: “Just ignore them and maybe they’ll go away.”
He reminds me of a character Bullwinkle used to play called “Mr. Know It All”. He was a complete buffoon, but that didn’t deter him from constantly shooting his mouth off.
“Educated Patriot” is like Bullwinkle without the antlers.
So you don't even live in the county. No wonder you don't care what happens to it.
Of course I care. I have real estate investment in Haymarket. Data Centers will benefit my investment by providing millions for schools and law enforcement while minimizing property tax growth.
If Data Center are good enough for Loudoun, why would they not be good enough for Haymarket/Gainsville (which I would argue has more in common with Loudoun than it does with eastern PWC)?
Data Centers helped Loudoun become one of the best counties in America (measured by income, quality of life, health, and education).
@Bill
Arrogant? No. I am accomplished. Something you should have learned from the Navy. Never apologize for success and never make excuse for failure.
When all the Data Centers are built, what will your excuse be?
Hope you take "John Sebastian" up on his offer. Move to whatever part of flyover he is in when the Data Centers get built in Pageland. Maybe the rest of F.O.R.C.E will go with you.?
Bullwinkle? Even I only remember that from syndication. Most of NoVA was not even born when that was in production.
Today's Demtardstupidism #8
"House Majority Leader said that God is talking to him."
Who do you pray to? Joe Biden or Karl Marx?
You are the dumbest person hear by a mile.
Legit blasphemy.
Sounds more like a Sharia nutjob.
If you aren't Roman Catholic, you are a heretic and deserve to burn in hell.
This is a "facts be damned" BOCS. Chairwoman Mao Wheeler, and her band of misfits (Angry = Stalin, Boddye = Pol Pot, Bailey = Castro, Franklin = Kim Jung Un) are paid to keep their mouths shut and do what they are told. This has become an unelected body and should be treated as such.
You do know that your boy Trump praises all of these dictators.
Today's Demtardstupidism #7
"We all know this is a done deal."
So, when Republicans act beyond the will of the people it's a 'threat to democracy." When Democrats do it it's a 'done deal' and the opposition should just stay home otherwise it's a waste of time.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
House Majority Leader said that God is talking to him.
Who is deranged?
Well, if the conversation is public record, there should be a transcript.
Or Elon chipped him.
[alien]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAUQhbZG9dk
3 min 27 sec mark.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/house-speaker-mike-johnson-moses-speech-rcna128126
It is good to see there is still some integrity in local government!
We all know this is a done deal.
I wonder how many people will show up at the next hearing to waste their time?
Bravo to the Prince William County Planning Office staff for sticking to their professional guns under what must have been unrelenting pressure. Their next beer is on me.
So, the Planning Office staff has thrown two strikes and the Planning Commission one. Isn’t it three strikes and you’re out? Not necessarily. Expect our “march to their own drum” Democratic supervisors to claim the last strike was foul tipped.
The drama now will be to see what the mad hatters on the Board of County Supervisors do next. If they follow the pattern of behavior from the despicable Devlin Technology Park vote, the unholy five (Wheeler, Boddye, Franklin, Bailey and Angry) will simply roll their eyes, wait for everyone to stop talking and vote to approve as if no one else’s opinion or expertise matters. After all, everyone who disagrees with them is “misinformed”.
As comical as these five seem, it’s really not funny. Their irresponsible behavior is exposing the county to legal liabilities for which the taxpayers will foot the bill. This episode will end badly.
But the Planning Office’s fingerprints will not be on it. Wheeler, Boddye, Franklin, Bailey and Angry will own this one outright.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.