By Daniel Berti Times Staff Writer
Prince William County’s environmental officials are recommending that board of county supervisors deny a request to replan 2,133-acres in the rural crescent for data centers because of the risks the development poses to nearby forests, streams and wildlife.
The county’s watershed management division submitted their comments Dec. 10 as part of a standard agency review of a comprehensive plan amendment application known as the “PW Digital Gateway.”
“Major impacts would include loss of extensive tracts of forest land, dramatic increases in impervious area, impact to numerous intermittent and perennial streams, steep slopes with highly erodible soils, wildlife habitat (including habitat for rare, threatened and endangered species) and potential impacts to wetlands,” said Benjamin Eib, assistant chief of the county’s watershed management branch. “… The development of existing data centers has demonstrated that extensive mass grading and the nearly wholesale clearing and flattening of large parcels is the norm.”
The watershed management branch is recommending the county make no changes to the existing comprehensive plan.
However, if the board of county supervisors chooses to approve the application anyway, Eib said the division would like the county to implement “major preservation, buffering and site design strategies” to lessen visual and environmentally detrimental effects. That would include extending tree buffers in areas around protected forests, historic resources and roadways by 200 feet and extending protections around wetlands, streams and wildlife corridors.
The archeology, transportation and parks, recreation and tourism departments, have also posted their comments.
County Archaeologist Justin Patton said the gateway plan and any associated data center rezonings that come with it “have a high potential to adversely affect cultural resources” in the area. Patton recommended that more than 100 hundred acres included in the application that are closest to the Manassas battlefield remain under the current agricultural, or A-1, land-use designation, effectively shielding that land from future data center development.
Agricultural designations “are far less destructive to battlefield resources and the battlefield viewshed than … data center use,” Patton said.
The board of county supervisors has the final say in whether the gateway plan is approved. The plan still must undergo further review from county agencies. The county is planning to hold a public input session early next year before planning staff officially recommends that the application be approved or denied. It then heads to the planning commission for a public hearing, and finally to the board of county supervisors. No dates have yet been set for the public information session or the required public hearings.
Dozens of homeowners who live along the Pageland Lane corridor adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park are requesting county supervisors change the land-use designation on their properties from agricultural uses to allow for data centers. If approved, the CPA would replan the area for 27.6 million square feet of data centers in the vicinity of Manassas Battlefield National Park and Conway Robinson State Forest – more than Loudoun County’s data center alley.
The proposal is within the county’s rural crescent, a 117,000-acre swath of land in western and southern Prince William County created in 1998 where residential, commercial and industrial development is severely restricted.
Virginia state House delegates and county supervisors in western Prince William County are concerned the gateway will have a negative impact on their constituents. Meanwhile, the plan has garnered support from supervisors on the eastern side of the county who live far from the proposed development site.
Del. Danica Roem, D-13th, and county Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville, who represent parts of western Prince William, have both stated their firm opposition to the development. They held a joint town hall meeting at Heritage Hunt, a 55-and-over community in Gainesville, on Dec. 15 to rally their constituents against the plan.
Del. Dan Helmer, D-40th, whose district encompasses western Prince William and southern Fairfax, wrote a letter to the board of county supervisors in December requesting they proceed “extremely cautiously,” with the proposal. In the letter he cited concerns about its impact to the environment, Manassas National Battlefield Park and the rural character of the area.
“The Prince William Digital Gateway stands to be a major economic development opportunity but also would irrevocably transform the character of Northwest Prince William County and may threaten our environment,” Helmer said. “… I also hope the board will reflect deeply on the impact to Manassas National Park, a national treasure.”
Democratic county supervisors have supported efforts to bring more data centers to the county. All five voted in favor of studying the PW Digital Gateway comprehensive plan amendment in July. Of those, four represent eastern districts. They include at-large Chair Ann Wheeler (D) who represents the entire county and lives in western Prince William.
Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com