Dear Commissioners,
It’s easy to forget important historical lessons when the crisis is in your rear view mirror. But for those of us that lived it, and fought against inappropriate data center placement, and advocated for a smart policy moving forward, we thought it important to share the timeline of how and why data center placement in Prince William County required a new 21st century overlay district. I am sharing this background because it appears from the Independent Hill SAP, that a massive data center campus is not only being pushed OUTSIDE of our county’s Data Center Overlay District, but to add insult to injury, this data center complex would be placed on parcels within the Rural Crescent.
The seeds for a much larger fight about where data centers should appropriately go truly began in the summer of 2014, within the little Town of Haymarket. The first community impacted by a proposed high voltage transmission line, Somerset, a mix of single family, townhomes, and condos, was the first to fight back. Then Dominion turned to the Rural Area with their proposed transmission line, and the Coalition to Protect PWC was created. No matter what new transmission line route was added for the path of the proposed transmission line, Amazon’s extension cord, this community, few in numbers but big in resolve, fought back. When the Historic Settlement of Carver Road was the final route proposed by Dominion and chosen by the SCC, our fight for the I-66 hybrid route was never more critical to win. Well, history has been written. We did ultimately prevail. This community proved, that by working together with local and state leaders, anything is possible.
We learned that while we could not go back in time and prevent the Amazon data center campus from their “by right” approval, we could and should, ensure that no other community in our county would have to deal with this kind of poor land use decision again. Putting data centers in the wrong places doesn’t serve the small businesses they impact, nor the residential communities who see their little slice of heaven impacted by the negative impacts of transmission lines on their property and home values.
In the midst of fighting a Goliath like Dominion, the Coalition worked with PWC local government to ensure that the stage was set to implement an effective long term fix – a data center overlay district. In 2015, in a large conference room in the McCourt building, alongside the head of planning, county attorney, head of economic development, and multiple stakeholders in the Coalition, together we agreed to work on a resolution that best expressed the support of our elected leaders for the community. Specifically, this provision is called out in the Board of Supervisor’s Resolution, unanimously adopted in 2015 (copy attached):
8. Declare its intent to immediately initiate a zoning text amendment to incorporate appropriate zoning requirements for data centers which would address the infrastructure necessary to support such uses and the potential impacts to other properties. This amendment will continue the County’s efforts to advance commercial and industrial development; and
Watch Karen Sheehan, director for the Coalition, speak to the importance of good governance, and the contract between citizens and their elected leaders.
Once this critical first step was accomplished, the hard work of putting in place a comprehensive ZTA data center overlay district began. It took several months, and many collaborative meetings, which also included input from Dominion Energy. The overlay district was not only intended to catch up our county with our sister counties who also had overlay districts, but to incentivize data centers to come to Prince William County.
Every data center campus requires a large substation. When you allow for a data center to be approved OUTSIDE of the overlay district, you not only negate the intention of the overlay district, you allow your oversight power to be diminished. Trust me, your community will demand you protect their biggest asset, which is their home, when transmission lines and more substations are required. And it is almost a guarantee, for anything outside the overlay district, that there is not appropriate power, so more substations and transmission lines are part of the equation.
To put a data center campus not only IN the Rural Crescent, but also adjacent to one of Virginia’s most important forested parks – in fact, the largest protected Piedmont forest in the entire Washington-Baltimore Region – flies in the face of ensuring that what sets this county apart from all others cannot and will not be sustained. We are the singular county in Virginia that can claim we traverse from the Potomac river to the majesty of the Bull Run mountains. We can maintain a tapestry of high tech assets, as well as lush green open spaces – by protecting what makes this county special and must be saved, and also building in appropriate locations.
But, we are starting to go backwards. Already in Gainesville, a 4 million sq. ft. data center campus outside of the data center overlay district was approved in December as the old board was on its way out. It’s like we are entering our own Groundhog day movie, with no lessons learned.
We understand that especially now, given the new circumstances of COVID-19, now more than ever data is required to keep our economy going. But, we must resist the old ways that only invited chaos.
Where is the Comprehensive Plan Amendment specific to the removal of land from the Rural Crescent? Or is this how Planning will reduce the Rural Crescent? By simply including it in high density developments that include other parcels that are NOT Rural Crescent? Seems to me, this kind of Sector Plan is a sneaky way to remove land out of the Rural Crescent with little to no notice to the community. Is this how we highlight our most impressive smart growth tool? By dismantling it piece by piece in the “dead of the night?”
What may be the two most egregious failures of this sprawl development, are that the proposed development is too far from mass transit and also too close to the Marine Corps Quantico base.
It is miles and miles away from any mass transit, as noted on from page 20 of the Staff Report:
“The study area is not directly served by rail or commuter rail (Virginia Rail Express-VRE) or bus. However, two VRE lines are located roughly equidistant from Independent Hill. TheBroad Run/Manassas Airport VRE station is located approximately 9 miles northwest near Manassas. The Woodbridge Station is approximately 13 miles south west of the Independent Hill Small Area Plan.
The Marine Core goal for Quantico is to REDUCE the amount of development that is adjacent to their base. This plan is the antithesis of that goal. What have their comments been in response to this Small Area Plan? We would like those comments to be reviewed by this Planning Commission, and also to be made public.
Isn’t it sad that per PWC’s usual style, it razes it’s unique historical assets and replaces them instead with a placard – for good measure. All one has to do is look on page 31 of the staff report and observe that on the map, identified for high density housing and commercial development, it states:
“Within the plan area, a large section is classified as Historic High Sensitivity in the Comprehensive Plan.”
We can, and should, do so much better.
The Coalition is strongly urging you to deny this plan as presented. It’s time we started putting into practice what we advocate in words…….. Innovative 21st century development. The Planning Staff has the right goals, the right “language”, just the wrong implementation. This plan does not promote equity of resources and infrastructure, does not promote open space, does not protect our biggest government ally the Marine Core Quantico Base, does not promote smart growth COG guidelines, it dis-incentivizes our goals of redevelopment along Route 1 and other areas throughout the county in need of investment, and it only propagates that the Data Center Overlay District is a farce.
Sincerely,
Elena Schlossberg
Executive Director The Coalition to Protect PWC