Prince William Times: Opposition mounts against rural crescent data center plans

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Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, one of several groups organizing against opening the county’s rural area to data centers, speaks during a Nov. 10 event at Sunshine Ridge Winery in Gainesville.

 

A coalition of local, regional and national conservation groups are organizing the opposition against a plan for data centers and other industrial uses in Prince William County’s “rural crescent,” laying the groundwork for what may become a major land-use brawl in the coming months.

The Prince William Conservation Alliance, The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, the Piedmont Environmental Council, a regional nonprofit – as well as the American Battlefield Trust and the National Parks Conservation Association, two national associations – held an informational event at Sunshine Ridge Winery in Gainesville on Wednesday, Nov. 10, attended by around 130 people.

The organizations are sounding the alarm about the impact of “industrial sprawl” on rural communities, historic sites, wildlife and the Occoquan watershed in Prince William County, where thousands of acres are being considered for potential data centers and other industrial uses.

“We should not be building roads in rural Prince William County where we don’t want them. We should not be putting water lines out to data centers in rural Prince William County where we don’t need them, and it’s extremely expensive,” Julie Bolthouse, deputy director of the Piedmont Environmental Council, told an energetic crowd. 
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“We should not be building roads in rural Prince William County where we don’t want them. We should not be putting water lines out to data centers in rural Prince William County where we don’t need them, and it’s extremely expensive,” said Julie Bolthouse, deputy director of the Piedmont Environmental Council.

Speakers from each group spent about 10 minutes addressing the audience at the winery before taking questions and comments.

They outlined several major new developments that could impact Prince William County’s rural area, including a plan to expand the county’s existing, 10,000-acre “Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District,” as well as proposed changes being considered for the county’s first comprehensive plan update in more than 10 years.

Most concerning, they said, is a proposal known as the “PW Digital Gateway,” which could see up to 2,000 acres of land in the rural crescent re-planned from agricultural to “tech/flex” industrial uses. The area runs along rural, two-lane Pageland Lane and abuts Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Forest. The plan is being pursued by more than 80 homeowners who say they want to sell their homes for data center uses.

Environmental impact, land speculation top concerns