Cart before the horse? Trio of civic leaders urges pertinent studies, then land use decisions, then updating 2040 Comprehensive Plan before a Digital Gateway decision
September 16, 2022
To PWC Planning Commissioners:
This letter is in reference to CPA 2021-00004, PW Digital Gateway. We urge you take the following steps before moving this case forward. These steps reflect good planning practice and due diligence.
Please make a decision on whether to expand the Data Center Overlay District as part of the Pathway to 2040 Comprehensive Plan update before deciding on the Digital Gateway case.
This is just common sense – decide on your overall land-use plan before deciding on individual applications.
We urge you to perform all pertinent studies before making any decisions on land-use issues. This includes performing the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) water study and making sure the data center excessive noise issue is resolved before proceeding.
Again, it’s just common-sense to do the studies before making land-use decisions.
The NVRC, the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Lab, the Fairfax County Water Authority, the Prince William County Service Authority, the Prince William County Service Authority, the Virginia Dept. of Health, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the US EPA all need to coordinate to understand the impacts of fully built-out Data Center industry discharges – on the quality of the Occoquan Reservoir water supply with respect to build-up of salts, cooling water anti-fouling agents, and any other wastes; and whether industrial pre-treatment requirements need to be imposed to protect the Occoquan Reservoir drinking water resource.
With respect to the Digital Gateway, we urge you to fully evaluate viewshed and sound requirements to protect the community and the historic Manassas National Battlefield Park.
With respect to the Prince William Forest Park, there is a long-term National Park Service goal to increase accessibility to the park, and this would be best achieved with a northern access entrance and visitor center in the Independent Hill area where the Potomac Technology Park is proposed.
We recommend that this matter should be seriously evaluated and we urge the county to partner with Federal and State officials to make it a reality.
Addendum: We urge the county to seriously consider increasing the computer and peripherals tax on all data centers in the county to more closely track with the average area tax level.
We realize that the county taxes a little bit differently than Loudoun County, but with the combination of property taxes and equipment taxes taken into account, Prince William County is still significantly below Loudoun County, for example, on the overall tax for data centers.
Adjusting the total tax to market rate would help to diversify our tax base and provide needed funding for various county priorities.
We also recommend that the county should seriously consider developing a tax credit program to incentivize positive enhancements, such LEED designed buildings with green roofs and/or solar arrays on the rooftops, sound absorbing baffles and other desired features to minimize the adverse effects of data centers on the surrounding community.
Lynda Silverstrand
Woodbridge Potomac Communities Civic Association
Jack Kooyoomjian
Lake Ridge-Occoquan-Coles Civic Association
Martin Jeter
Mid County Civic Association of Prince William
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The civic associations originally sent this letter to members of the Prince William County Planning Commission and then to the newspaper to share with readers.)