by E. Bruce David
Nov. 25, 2021
Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, was prophetic when she predicted at the Nov. 4 Town Hall meeting at Heritage Hunt on Proposed Data Centers, this was just the beginning of events regarding the data center controversy.
– On Nov. 5, Mary Ann Ghadban and Paige Snyder, Pageland Lane property owners, emailed Mark Silverman, the homeowners’ association director for the Heritage Hunt community in Gainesville, requesting the opportunity “to present the facts to you, your Advisory Committee and the Heritage Hunt community. We’d like to present the real facts and opportunities to Heritage Hunt, so that you and your attractive community ban be informed, rather than just inflamed.”
The duo said they had attended the Nov. 4 Town Hall meeting, and wrote, “Out of respect for the presenters, we did not speak. There was unfortunately a lot of misinformation and panic peddling.”
– Ken Knarr and Mike Grossman sent a similar email, saying, “There were several half-truths and misrepresentations of factual, public information presented,” and other misconceptions.
They would willingly speak and answer questions in conjunction with Ghadban and Snyder.
– Also on Nov. 5, Silverman, and other subscribers to The Wheeler Report received the Prince William County Planning Office’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District survey.
The homeowners’ association later posted the survey in the Heritage Hunt e-communicator for HH residents.
Some community residents complained that the survey contained “forced answer” questions that would give tacit approval to local data centers, including question 11.
This read, “Which of the following elements do you believe could help mitigate impacts of the data center?”
Possible answers included architectural design guidelines, sustainability design guidelines, site design guidelines, transitions (buffers/berms) and height restrictions. A blank was provided to suggest others.
HH had previously scheduled a Nov. 16 meeting to discuss the PWC Economic Development Report.
Roger Yackel of the HH strategic Advisory Committee, said he expected Pageland Lane people to attend, but not wanting the meeting to be dominated by data center issues, questions would be prepared for them.
– Pete Candland, Gainesville District Supervisor, stated in his Oct.30 Tele-Town Meeting, his position was that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) should not approve more data centers outside the “data center overlay district” until a county-wide data center placement analysis was completed.
However, in his Nov, 9 message to his mailing list subscribers, Candland, a Pageland Lane resident, made good on his promise of transparency on the data center issue in his neighborhood.
His family had planned to remain living there. However, he wrote, “My neighborhood faced a choice of two paths forward: remain an island of houses in a sea of data centers or submit an application along with the rest of the expanded study area to amend our comprehensive plan designation. I have fought throughout my time on the Board as your Gainesville Representative to defend our Rural Crescent.”
He had hoped to stop the plan for data centers in rural areas on many fronts but was in the minority on 5-3 votes taken by the BOCS.
He continued, “With the passage of Res. No. 21-445….,” on July 20, on which he cast a negative vote in another 5-3 decision, “Our home was drawn into an expanded study area without us ever applying for it… The assault on the Rural Crescent was in our front yard, our back yard, and every neighbor we had was facing the same reality of being in this expanded study area.”
Pageland Lane homeowners were faced with being “An island among data centers.”
Candland told his newsletter subscribers that he and his wife Robyn discussed and prayed for weeks, before deciding, realizing many would be disappointed, to join their neighbors in filing a Comprehensive Plan Amendment Request.
He wrote, “Last week, Robyn and I became the last signers in our neighborhood. If the neighborhood was going to become a sea of data centers, we didn’t want that for our family.”
In an exclusive Bull Run Observer interview, Candland said he believed no Pageland properties have been sold yet, which usually takes place after rezoning.
– On Nov. 10 the Prince William Conservation Alliance and others hosted Smarter Growth and Sauvignon: A Conversation About Development in Prince William County.
The Alliance’s website said, “Representatives from sponsoring organizations will share information and answer questions regarding these troubling proposals and their significant impacts to our green open space, national parks, farmland, drinking water, and the availability of funds to address infrastructure needs in underserved areas.
– Heritage Hunt recently formed an Advisory for Strategic Planning and Data Center Working Group to gather information to oppose the Pageland rezoning effort to allow data centers to be built. Residents were encouraged to attend its Nov. 17, 3PM meeting in the Clubhouse Craft Room