If this feels like deja vu, when the last powerline struggle erupted right before Thanksgiving, you would be correct. The threat now is a proposed data center in Gainesville, which we believe will necessitate a new transmission line. This time, however, we are going to advocate PRO-actively, NOT RE-actively. Take Action!
In 2015 and 2016, after the Haymarket data center and transmission line debacle, the Coalition worked closely with the Director of Planning to create a Data Center Opportunity Zone/Overlay District, and revisions to the Zoning text. We understood that power infrastructure is the one critical component which must be identified before any data center campus is approved. This enacted zoning now restricts “by right” data centers to specific commercial areas, appropriate for data centers, with sufficient power infrastructure to support their operation. Any proposed data center outside of the data center opportunity zone must go through an SUP (Special Use Permit) review.
Now, in spite of the Coalition’s hard work to ensure that there would no longer be data centers “by right” in the wrong areas, here we go again. With a “waive” of the Planning Staff, a new massive 4.5 million sq. ft. data center campus, requiring an additional 300 MW, is being proposed in Gainesville – without adequate review. Why is the planning office recommending this use in this location? Why was the required SUP waived for a data center outside the Overlay District? Why have a data center overlay district at all? Is our community having to deal with more county trickery again? Isn’t insanity doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?
There is little power left over from the Haymarket transmission line for the surrounding growth in Haymarket – certainly not sufficient power for another additional data center complex in neighboring Gainesville The Haymarket Amazon data center campus is comprised of three buildings, encompassing just under 450,000 sq. ft. There are only 300 MW available on the Haymarket transmission line. 97% of this power is going to be taken by Amazon.
If the land use is changed for the proposed Gainesville data center complex to “by right,” citizens and our Board of County Supervisors will have NO oversight on the substation required to power this data center campus – which is 10 times larger than the campus in Haymarket. Dominion will be mandated to provide power to a “by right” approved facility – which could mean yet another transmission line to be added in this area. This is exactly the fight we had in Haymarket.
The really big question is: Why does this county refuse to enforce basic land use rules? The site is zoned REC, Regional Employment Center, where sustainable jobs and community building should be planned. Not big box data centers that provide few jobs, but will certainly create havoc when citizens start reacting to their property being seized for another private extension cord.
This sounds like a real opportunity, with a new state legislature, to pass Line Extension legislation to enforce the same rules for big corporations as for regular homeowners.
Do we really want to look like Route 606 in Loudoun? Industrial blight, littered with massive transmission lines and substations marring the landscape – right next to Conway Robinson Memorial State Forest Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, and, once again, just outside the Rural Crescent?
Take action by noon tomorrow, Wednesday Nov. 20 – the Planning Commission votes on the proposed rezoning for the data center on Wednesday evening.
Please access this easy click-to-send email NOW and ask the Planning Commissioners to deny the rezoning; and to require this data center campus proposal be fully and properly vetted for its location, and for its massive power need.