Community Report, January 18 2022; read online here. You make our work possible! Donate today

Community Meetings: Data Center Opportunity Zone Review & PW Digital Gateway

In-person at Beacon Hall Conference Center; Virtual registration is available

Thursday, Jan 20 at 6:30 pm, details HERE. Thursday, Jan 27 at 6pm, details HERE.

The Planning Office is hosting an in-person community meeting on the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District Comprehensive Review on Thursday, January 20, 2022, and on the PW Digital Gateway Comprehensive Plan Amendment, at the Beacon Hall Conference Center on the George Mason University SciTech Campus in Manassas. Remote participation methods are being developed.

We are concerned that these meetings are being planned with such short public notice, in the middle of COVID-19 surge that has triggered a 30-day state of emergency without a clear remote option. Additionally, details of how comments will be collected and incorporated into these respective processes remain unclear. Lastly, the Planning Office will not have recommendations or draft policies on which to receive feedback.

PWCA has signed on to a letter urging the Board to delay this meeting to a later date. Read the full letter here.

These meetings are scheduled to proceed, and we will be participating virtually.

Smart Growth Protects What We Have!

A discussion on Data Centers... from the Rural Crescent to the Occoquan Reservoir

Watch a recording of the webinar HERE

Local and regional experts Dr. Jack Kooyoomjian, Julie Bolthouse, and Stewart Schwartz highlighted how upcoming land-use decisions surrounding the PW Gateway proposal impact the entire county from east to west.

We have been presented with a false choice between increasing our commercial tax base and protecting our national parks, rural area, and drinking water. Industrial land is still available to accommodate more data centers, which means we can do both.

Sponsored by Prince William Conservation Alliance with the Piedmont Environmental Council, National Parks Conservation Association 

More Data Centers Proposed in the Rural Crescent

By Chris Carroll

While it's hard to keep track of the many data center applications throughout Prince William County and the Rural Crescent, it is important to realize that multiple data center proposals are currently under consideration in Nokesville. 

One of these, the 279-acre House Farm Data Center application, proposes to remove several hundred acres from the Rural Crescent; this would allow for industrial sprawl and development into the rural area. Read more...

In the News:

County's environmental staff rejects rural crescent data center plan over 'major' impacts to natural resources

Prince William Times, Dec 21

PWC's environmental officials are recommending that the board of county supervisors deny a request to replan 2,133 acres in the rural crescent for data centers because of the risks the development poses to nearby forests, streams, and wildlife.  

Around Prince William: Are data centers really progress? InsideNOVA, December 25

Some say progress is inevitable. The question is how do you define progress? Al Alborn gets back to basics in his article that explores a fundamental question surrounding data centers on Pageland and the resulting road widening. 

Prince William County aims to approve more data center space than the market demands Potomac Local, January 1

Claim: There are only 90 to 830 developable greenfield acres remaining with the data center opportunity zone.

Truth: There are at minimum 1,645 developable greenfield acres in the data center opportunity zone, not counting the 1,216 acres already approved for Data Center Development.

Filmmaker Ken Burns warns of 'devastating impact' of data centers near Manassas battlefield

Prince William Times, January 7

Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns has penned a letter to Prince William Board of County Supervisors' Chair Ann Wheeler (D) warning of the 'devastating impacts' a massive data center campus would pose to the Manassas National Battlefield Park, which he called "hallowed ground."