January 28, 2022
By Daniel Berti Times Staff Writer Jan 28, 2022
More than 150 people gathered at George Mason University Beacon Hall Conference Center in Manassas for a community meeting about the PW Digital Gateway.
More than 200 people came to a meeting on Thursday to express their support for –or opposition to – a 2,133-acre proposed data center plan near Manassas National Battlefield Park. The listening session was hosted by Prince William County.
The development, known as the PW Digital Gateway, would replan more than 2,100 acres of agriculturally zoned land along the Pageland Lane corridor in western Prince William County’s rural area to allow for up to 27.6 million square feet of data centers.
If approved, it would change the county’s comprehensive plan to allow for data center uses on land currently planned for low-density housing and agricultural uses. But it will still require additional rezonings before any data centers could be built there.
The event drew a nearly equal number of supporters and detractors to George Mason University’s Beacon Hall Conference Center. Over three hours, 41 people spoke against the project, and 33 spoke in favor of it.
Those in favor of the plan cite its economic benefits – a potential tax windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars for Prince William County’s local government and school system. Those opposed say it would destroy the area’s environmental and historic resources and open the door to rampant new development in western Prince William County’s rural area.
Supporters included dozens of residents who live near Manassas Battlefield Park who want to sell their homes for data center uses, as well as about 50 construction and trade workers from The Northern Virginia Labor Federation, a coalition of 17 regional construction and trade unions, who held a press conference before the meeting began.
Officials from the Northern Virginia Labor Federation say the project has the potential to create thousands of new construction jobs and decades of consistent work for their members.
Woodbridge resident Fransisco Esparza, a carpenter with Carpenters local 197, said he supports the PW Digital Gateway because the applicants have committed to paying prevailing wages to union workers.
“We need data centers that commit to labor standards such as paying prevailing wages to make sure workers who look like me don’t have to worry about getting exploited,” Esparza said. “… That’s why I’m asking the county board, please approve this project so that workers in Prince William County, particularly Latino immigrants such as myself, are not victims of wage theft.”
Inside, the listening session was mostly civil, although people on both sides traded barbs, occasionally prompting jeering or clapping from one side or the other.
Chris Higginbotham, a resident whose home borders the PW Digital Gateway, said his neighbors had hit the lottery by joining the PW Digital Gateway application – at the expense of everyone else.
“As with any lottery, it provides incredible wealth for the few by taking vast excess from the many,” Higginbotham said.“Stop further destroying it for those of us without winning tickets.”
Several Pageland Lane residents said they stand to gain from the deal. Melanie Williams, a Pageland Lane farm owner, called it “a lifetime opportunity for my family.”
“It’s our family investment and we have every right to make money on our investment,” Williams said.
Several residents from the age-restricted Heritage Hunt community, which borders several parcels in the PW Digital Gateway plan, spoke against it. The Heritage Hunt homeowner’s association wrote a letter officially stating their opposition to the plan in November.
“We’re all very upset about this because we’re surrounded by data centers. We’re not against data centers. Just don’t put them there on Pageland. I know you have it out for Heritage Hunt. Sorry, but we deserve quality of life too,” Phillips said.
Tim Kissler, who lives off Pageland Lane and is part of the PW Digital Gateway application, pointed out that Heritage Hunt started construction in 1998 on what used to be the 700-acre Marsh Farm. Kissler is a local developer with Castle Rock Partners LLC.
“If I was from New Jersey and just moved to Heritage Hunt, I’d be pissed too,” Kissler said.
Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com