Dear Neighbors,
Included in this message are updates and opportunities to make a difference. Have hope for 2022!
The PW Conservation Alliance New Year’s Day walk at The Brawner Farm at the Manassas National Battlefield was a huge success. In spite of the gloomy day, residents from all over the county attended, even a few from Fairfax! Our county has hallowed ground – for so many different reasons.
This is a recent data center development in the Ashburn area. It is obvious that these buildings are now even taller than had previously been built. Given the transmission line in the background, they must be near 80′ tall.
We need to be crystal clear – this is about putting data centers in the right place. Data centers need to be compatible with the land use zoning which surrounds them. In our county, that area is in the recently adopted data center opportunity overlay district.
“Does anybody believe that the demand exists for more than 33 million square feet of existing and under-development data centers space in the county? That’s more than the existing square footage in Prince William and Loudoun Counties combined!”
“Does anybody (other than staff and a majority of the Board of County Supervisors) believe that the demand exists for a total of 84 million and 129 million square feet that would result from the approval of additional proposals such as the PW Digital Gateway or House Family CPA?” More: Opinion: Prince William County aims to approve more data center space than the market demands – Potomac Local
Our very own Prince William County Watershed Management Department has rejected the Plunder of Pageland. “…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.” MORE
BREAKING NEWS: The state Department of Forestry, representing the Conway Robinson Memorial State Forest, piles on with all the other conservation organizations opposing the industrialization of Pageland MORE.
Don’t let this Board of Supervisors rush the most consequential land use change in more than two decades. Send a message to the county Board of Supervisors, Planning Office, and Planning Commissioners on their railroaded process with this easy link.
Use this flyer to get the word out to your friends and neighbors.
Get educated, attend the zoom forum January 6th:
Smart Growth Protects What We Have!
A discussion on Data Centers… from the Rural Crescent to the Occoquan Reservoir MORE
Thursday, January 6, 7:00 pm
Webinar
Register HERE
The Rural Crescent watershed flows into the Occoquan Reservoir, which not only provides drinking water to those in the east of our county, but water for the entire Northern Virginia region of 2 million people.
Tactics being used are an underhanded attempt to sow division in our county, between the west and the east. Do not fall for it. While residents in the west of the county will definitely be impacted, residents in the east will be the most impacted by the pollutants that will flow from industrializing the Occoquan watershed in the Rural Crescent.
We ALL have a vested interest, both fiscally and environmentally, to defend the Rural Crescent against a few landowners who stand to gain the most. And even perhaps from some on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.
Access all the latest here
“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”