Loudoun cool to data center expansion near Pageland Lane proposal | Headlines | insidenova.com
A proposal to direct data center projects to around 2,000 acres in southeastern Loudoun County appears to be a nonstarter among elected officials who want to limit industrial development in the area.
If that sounds familiar to Prince William County residents, it’s because the proposal was recently touted by landowners along Pageland Lane who want Prince William to designate 2,100 acres for data center development.
Pageland landowners want to create the PW Digital Gateway, which could potentially pave the way for more than 27.6 million square feet of data centers along Pageland Lane, or nearly as much data center space as is currently in use or under construction in neighboring Loudoun, the world’s largest concentration of such facilities.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, supporters of the Pageland proposal, which has been fiercely controversial in Prince William, highlighted the potential for Loudoun to support data centers just over the county line as evidence that their application should be approved.
“Why would Loudoun choose that location and not just some other spot? For the exact same sensible reason that the private land in the Pageland corridor is attractive to data centers, which is the power infrastructure and fiber already in place and ready to produce,” J.P. Raflo, one of the Pageland applicants, told the board.
On Wednesday, Loudoun County’s Economic Development Department presented the results of a countywide data center land study to the transportation and land-use subcommittee of Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors.
Loudoun’s data-center land-use proposal map covering about 2,000 acres not far from the proposed PW Digital Gateway project.
Buddy Rizer, Loudoun’s executive director of economic development, told the committee that about 80% of data centers in Northern Virginia are in Loudoun and the majority of others are in Prince William.
The study came with several recommendations and was primarily focused on preventing data center development along Route 7 in the northern part of the county.
One of the other recommendations was to designate another area for development.
The study pinpointed a section of mostly undeveloped property in the southeast section of the county off Route 705. The area is about 3.5 miles directly north of the Pageland Lane proposal, which Rizer pointed out during his presentation.
“When you become the undisputed leader in anything, you have to manage the growth,” Rizer said. “Loudoun land is the most sought after property in the world for this industry.”
The study says the area, proposed to be called Dulles Cloud South, could support 56 million square feet of data centers, generating more than $1 billion in annual tax revenue. Rizer said the area was selected because of two high-voltage power lines and other surrounding infrastructure.
The sticking point for supervisors was the land’s placement in Loudoun’s Transition Policy Area, which is designed to serve as a “visual and spatial transition between the Suburban Policy Area to the east and Rural Policy Area to the west,” according to the county’s website.
“This Dulles South Cloud idea is horrible to me, in my opinion,” said Supervisor Tony Buffington, R-Blue Ridge. “I will fight this so hard every step of the way.”
Rizer said the tax revenue from data center computer equipment is estimated at $500 million this year and about 40% of the county’s commercial revenue is from the industry. He said the market is so hot in Loudoun that “We haven’t proactively marketed to data centers in about five years.”
Board Chair Phyllis Randall, D-At-Large, said the industry’s growth gives the county immense power over its direction locally.
“We can be very selective if we want to because they want to be here,” she said.
Buffington said that just because land is being bought up for the industry in other areas doesn’t mean it’s time to open up the county. He said there’s still land available in targeted data center areas.
“I don’t know that when you run out of something, you immediately need to search for more,” he said. “This is setting off alarms for me.”
The committee unanimously approved two recommendations related to the study. The first is for the Board of Supervisors to quickly pass measures to restrict data center development along Route 7. The second is for the board to tell county staff to cease all exploration of expanding the data center industry to the proposed area.
“They do not belong everywhere,” Randall said of data centers. “In this area, they would be environmentally damaging. … When we start creeping into those places, it’s not a long time until we start creeping further.”
The committee’s actions are recommendations to the full Board of Supervisors. The board would need to take action to shelve the Dulles Cloud South proposal.
The PW Digital Gateway proposal is a request for the county to change the land designation of properties along Pageland Lane in the Comprehensive Plan from agricultural zoning to technology zoning.
A Comprehensive Plan amendment 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.
Prince William County staff have not made a recommendation on the project or scheduled public hearings on the proposal.
Nolan Stout covers Prince William County. Reach him at nstout@insidenova.com or @TheNolanStout on Facebook and Twitter.