Upscale Catharpin Farm Estates residents offer their homes for county’s proposed data center corridor
Candland has led the charge on the board of county supervisors to keep new development out of the rural crescent, but said he decided to sign onto the CPA with his neighbors “due to the distinct possibility that his home would be an island in a sea of data centers” if he did not join in, according to Paul O’Meara, a spokesman for Candland’s office.
“Supervisor Candland and his wife were the last ones in their neighborhood to sign the CPA application,” O’Meara said in a Thursday email. “… Supervisor Candland has been very clear on his opposition to data centers in the rural crescent. He has voted several times to stop this process from continuing. Unfortunately, it seems evident that the majority of the board of county supervisors seems intent on allowing data centers in the rural crescent.
Now that Candland’s own home is included in the CPA application, Candland is disqualified from voting on any data center proposals along the Pageland Lane corridor, O’Meara said. That will leave the approval of data centers along Pageland Lane to the remaining seven board members.
Only two supervisors have explicitly said they oppose building data centers in the rural area, Supervisors Yesli Vega, R-Coles, and Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville.
The Catharpin Farm Estates CPA, known as “Pageland North,” totals 127 acres. The application comes on the heels of two other Pageland Lane data center applications: the 810-acre “PW Digital Gateway,” which directly borders Catharpin Farm Estates, and an application from 12 residents of the nearby Dominique Estates neighborhood totaling 143 acres.
In all, 43 Pageland Lane-area homeowners are requesting a total of 1,080 acres be considered for data center uses, according to county documents.
County supervisors directed county staff in a July vote to begin studying the PW Digital Gateway proposal and the entire Pageland Lane corridor for potential inclusion in the county’s existing “Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District.” If approved, it will be the largest land-use change in Prince William County in decades.
The PW Digital Gateway is split into three non-contiguous sections. One borders Manassas National Battlefield Park, another borders Conway Robinson State Forest and a third area lies further north.
Data centers are critical infrastructure needed to run the internet. Companies like Amazon are snapping up vacant land at a high price in Prince William County as the industry expands to keep up with an ever-increasing need for data, in some cases, paying close to $1 million per acre.
The county’s existing “Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District” covers about 10,000 acres, and allows data centers by right. County officials have said between 90 and 830 acres of land suitable for new data centers remained in the overlay district as of July – a claim disputed by environmental and conservation groups.
The county is drawing a steadily increasing stream of local tax revenue from new data centers, adding $79 million to the county budget in 2021.
Pageland Lane was once a rural farming community. The landowners on Pageland Lane who want to sell their land for data centers say it has become a heavy commuter traffic and utility corridor that is “no longer rural.”
In all three applications, landowners have cited a major Dominion transmission line that parallels Pageland Lane as a reason why they believe data centers are suitable for the area. Data centers use large amounts of electricity and may be able to draw power from those transmission lines.
“The residents of Catharpin Farms have experienced first-hand the negative impacts that have resulted from the transformation of a rural environment to the present-day situation of transmission lines that feed data centers in neighboring localities and the detrimental effect on their properties,” the Pageland North application states.
Landowners have specifically cited heavy traffic congestion on two-lane Pageland Lane from the nearby Gainesville commuter parking lot, the Heritage Hunt neighborhood and Luck Quarry.
The “Pageland North” application is almost certain to escalate already heightened tensions over allowing data centers near the county’s state forests and national parks.
Western Prince William County residents, civic associations and conservation groups have all raised major concerns about the impact of such development on the area, which is both historical and environmentally sensitive. Several streams traverse the area that flow to the Occoquan River, and are protected under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.
A coalition of six local, regional and national conservation groups began ramping up efforts to oppose PW Digital Gateway over the summer. The Prince William Conservation Alliance, Piedmont Environmental Council, National Parks Conservation Association and the American Battlefield Association are among the group.
In a statement on their website, the Piedmont Environmental Council said the digital gateway is an example of “ill-chosen and unsensible development typically more of a detriment than a benefit to their localities” and would “diminish the natural, historical and cultural qualities” of the rural crescent.
If you bought your property for $1 million and can sell it to a data center for $10 million any one would take that deal. All these land owners hit the lottery. I just hope they have to pay capital gains taxes. By limiting this area to 10 acre mini-estate they created this possibility. A few people becoming very wealth.
They better get it while they can because the data centers might offer less after all of the property owners jump on the bandwagon. BTW, the real estate tax revenue generated from the data centers is very small compared to the county budget. Something like 4-5%. I don’t expect my real estate taxes will ever decrease by 5% unless there’s another severe housing crash. Unfortunately, some county board members have the nerve to suggest that your taxes will go down because of the data centers. By how much, a penny?
To say Pete Candland had lost his integrity presumes it once existed. “I’m not a puppet, right, Mac?”
RESIGN Candland. You are useless. Take your money and run like the coward your are
His new theme song should be Kenny Roger’s “Coward of the County” without the happy ending.
He better not try. He will move waaaay out of this county. His lies are catching up to him.
If you can’t beat ’em….take the money & run. I don’t think Candland will be seeking another term.