Updated
Manassas National Battlefield Park “strongly opposes” the potential of data centers along Pageland Lane.
Then-Park Superintendent Brandon Bies sent a letter to Prince William County on Dec. 3 opposing the proposed PW Digital Gateway.
Dozens of landowners in western Prince William, including Gainesville District Supervisor Pete Candland, have filed requests to change the land designation of their properties in the county’s Comprehensive Plan from agricultural zoning to technology zoning.
Bies has since left his post and Raquel Montez is acting superintendent.
The requests would support more than 27.6 million square feet of data centers, which would be nearly as much data center space as is currently in use or under construction in neighboring Loudoun County, the world’s largest concentration of such facilities.
A Comprehensive Plan amendment does not rezone properties. It only changes what the county says it hopes for future use of the land. It does not bind the county, the board or the landowners to any guaranteed future uses. The properties would still require zoning approval to allow data centers.
Data centers are essentially large warehouses for the hardware needed to support computer systems. Other than real estate taxes, Prince William County’s primary levy on data centers is the business tangible property tax, projected to produce $63.4 million in revenue this fiscal year.
Documents submitted with the application estimate the proposal could support 800 acres of data centers generating $500 million in annual tax revenue. That would account for over one-third of the county’s current annual budget of $1.35 billion.
Bies wrote that the proposal “is certain to have a substantial negative impact on historic resources both within and outside of the park that are significant to the battle.”
Particularly, Bies said the location is significant to the Second Battle of Bull Run, fought from Aug. 28, 1862, to Aug. 30, 1862. Nearly 3,000 soldiers died in the battle, which was a Confederate victory and precipitated the South’s invasion of Maryland the following month.
Maps of the battle drawn at the time show troop movements east of Pageland Lane and southeast of Little Bull Run, which runs through a portion of parcels in the application.
Bies said 10 acres of the proposal are part of what the U.S. Congress designated as the battlefield park, meaning it can and should be part of the park. He said another 100 acres of the application are part of the battlefield’s “core area,” as designated by Congress, meaning it is land where “battle action took place.” He said 390 acres fall within the designated historic district around the park.
Bies also noted two properties at 6304 and 6312 Pageland Lane include historic buildings that were used as hospitals during and after the battle.
Bies said at least one of five historic cemeteries within the application boundaries include Civil War casualties. He expressed concerns about the impact of data centers on water quality in the park and how noise from cooling systems could change the park’s character.
The application includes pictures of transmission lines through the area as part of its argument that Pageland Lane is no longer rural. Bies said power lines are much different than data centers.
“While the towers and lines certainly have a visual impact, the views from the park still maintain an entirely rural and agricultural feeling, to include distant but distinct views of the Bull Run Mountains,” he wrote.
While the application indicates that studies of potential impacts on views from the battlefield would be conducted along with individual rezoning requests, Bies said the county can’t wait that long. He said the county should conduct a comprehensive viewshed study before moving the project forward.
Bies said the battlefield’s viewshed and rural character have been protected through the rural area designation the county has implemented since 1998. Those policies, which limit residential development and the expansion of public sewer lines, have limited development and helped “temper any increase in the already stifling traffic that transits the park each day,” Bies wrote.
Those policies have been weakened this year through several party-line votes, with Democrats voting together to examine land-use topics countywide rather than only in the designated development area.
County staff are still reviewing the request and examining the proposal and its impact on the surrounding area. The board voted to expand the scope of the examination from just the requested properties to the entirety of Pageland Lane between U.S. 29 and Sudley Road.
Meanwhile, a consultant is reviewing a potential expansion of its Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District. The overlay district is currently 10,000 acres designated in 2016 to support data center development by reducing regulatory hurdles.
Bies said the study should be completed before the county votes on the Pageland proposal.
County staff have not scheduled a public hearing on the Pageland application.
Nolan Stout covers Prince William County. Reach him at nstout@insidenova.com or @TheNolanStout on Facebook and Twitter.