Data centers’ secrecy often keeps residents in the dark | News | princewilliamtimes.com
By Peter Cary Piedmont Journalism Foundation Sep 29, 2022 Updated Sep 29, 2022
Dr. Steven Pleickhardt, a dentist who lives and has an office in Bristow, speaks during a Sept. 10 protest against the Devlin Technology Park, a proposed development of seven to 11 data centers at Devlin and Linton Hall roads.
The protest was also sought to raise awareness about another data center development of up to 11 buildings already approved on land behind Amberleigh Station and Silver Leaf Estates in Bristow.
On Sept. 6, at the end of a long Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ meeting, Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville, took the mic. First, she thanked constituents for their help with various things. Then she lit into Amazon.
Lawson used her “supervisor’s time” to express her displeasure, even her “disgust,” at how the mammoth data center company had dealt with residents of Great Oak subdivision near Manassas, who were complaining about the noise coming from an Amazon complex next door.
Amazon Web Services had refused to answer basic questions posed to the company, she said. “Everything that the community is asking regarding these problems with noise, AWS is, their canned response is always, ‘It’s proprietary.’ It’s proprietary to the point where like, they won’t even tell you what they had for lunch.”
Dale Browne, president of Great Oak’s homeowners’ association, said Amazon has been more cooperative since Lawson’s diatribe and is working on a new solution to try to fix the noise problem. But he said the company had been “very obtuse” and “a master of whitewashing” in the past.
Dale Browne, president of the Great Oak subdivision in Manassas, takes the megaphone during a protest held in front of the Amazon data center complex recently built beside his neighborhood. Great Oak residents have been speaking out about what they say is an annoying and unceasing buzzing noise from the data centers that they bothers them day and night.
Jill Palermo
Amazon’s responses to questions from the press have been equally obtuse. The Prince William Times submitted specific questions to the company regarding its complex near Great Oak and the causes of the noise, only to receive bland assurances that the company was working on it. Similarly, the Times asked Amazon about its secrecy policies, only to be told the company was “addressing our neighbors’ noise concerns.” The AWS spokesperson responding was not identified.
It’s not just Amazon – other data centers have the same penchant. “The big hyperscale data center groups are well known for their over-the-top secrecy. Everything about the industry is opaque. And it’s very difficult to get information of any kind, really,” said one national real estate broker, who, ironically, asked not to be named because he works with the industry.
In Prince William County and elsewhere, data center companies routinely ask local officials to sign non-disclosure agreements that bind them from discussing company information. In both Prince William and Loudoun, data center projects may get code names, like “Buffalo” or “Viper” to hide their identities. In Fauquier County, secrecy stalked a zoning code amendment that paved the way for an Amazon application for a data center in Warrenton.
The suppression of information tends to take three forms: hiding the ownership of projects behind LLCs, requiring public officials to sign NDAs that shield building plans and refusing to divulge information the company deems proprietary. “I very much believe in transparency in government, but I also understand that in business sometimes circumstances require discretion on some projects,” said Loudoun County’s Economic Development Director, Buddy Rizer.
More than other companies, data centers want to maintain site security, hold competition at bay and protect themselves from demonstrations and even lawsuits, industry insiders say. But the practices can make it difficult for residents to know what is going to be built next door, to find out who is building it, to complain to a data center creating problems for the neighborhood – or just to gather basic information.
In Prince William, a citizen-activist Bill Wright questioned a May 2021 statement by the county Economic Development Director, Christina Winn, that most data center companies were looking for lots of 100 acres or more for new development, and that the county is running out of suitable land for the industry. Wright asked Winn for data to verify her claim. She replied in an email that since conversations with data center prospects are under NDAs, she could not provide the data.
Winn confirmed that in an interview. “This is the norm, it’s not an unusual thing. And it’s not just for data centers,” she said.
The companies may ask for an NDA to prevent property owners from raising their prices, to keep financial information private when discussing incentives, or even to keep their plans from their own employees.
As data centers’ plans move forward, they remain covered by NDAs until they expire. When the plans reach Prince William County’s office of development services, where building plans are submitted and reviewed, they may still be under the NDA, which means they are not necessarily open for public view. Winn said that since she signs the NDAs on behalf of the county, if she shares information with county officials, they too cannot disclose it.
If a citizen asks to see a data centers’ plans, a county staffer has to call the county attorney, who asks Winn if the plans are under an NDA. If they are, Winn then has to ask the company if the plans can be partly or fully released. But Winn said when projects proceed, “eventually” the information comes out.
Winn also said Prince William County’s Department of Economic Development had signed NDAs with both QTS and Compass – the two data center companies that have submitted rezoning applications as part of the “Prince William Digital Gateway,” a plan to open 2,100 acres of the county’s once-protected rural crescent to data center development. QTS has also filed a targeted industry application, she said, while Compass has not yet filed that paperwork.
Dr. Steve Pleickhardt speaks at a Sept. 10 protest against the proposed Devlin Technology Park, a campus of seven to 11 data centers proposed at Devlin and Linton Hall roads. Doug Stroud
Dr. Steve Pleickhardt, a dentist and president of Amberleigh Station HOA in Bristow, said he ran into an NDA when he went to county officials to find out who was servicing cables in trenches close to his subdivision. The county officials told him, “We have to ask the company; it’s under an NDA,’” he said. After his HOA hired a lawyer, they eventually got the information. It was Google, which owns a data center nearby.
“So, with the NDA, they can get away with a lot. You know, they can deny you and forget the [Freedom of Information Act],” he said. Pleickhardt said he ran into difficulties, too, trying to get information on an 11-building data center campus proposed to Amberleigh Station.
“The common citizen is completely lost until the first tree falls,” he said.
Warrenton data center plans remain opaque
In Warrenton, Amazon’s attempt to build a data center was shrouded in secrecy from the start. Most recently, the company has postponed two planning commission work sessions without giving a reason. And questions also swirl around NDAs signed by town officials and how long they last.
One ongoing mystery is why the town’s planning staff proposed a zoning amendment to allow data centers in the town, when some of the town’s planning commissioners would have preferred that the amendment be requested by the data center applicant itself — in this case, Amazon.
An exchange at a May 25, 2021, planning commission meeting provides a clue. While presenting the proposed zoning change, Warrenton’s Community Development Director Rob Walton made references to a data center “applicant” and an “entity that’s interested.”
Planning Commissioner James Lawrence then asked why the town staff and council were proposing the amendment, instead of the applicant – which would be preferred if a business wants to change a town law.
Walton said the town had not yet received an official application – just “some interest.” So, the council he said, “decided to move forward and initiate the text, instead of having the applicant [do it]. I do know that data centers typically like to remain anonymous for as long as possible as users of the data center,” he said.
The town’s staff, mainly then-town manager Brandie Schaeffer and Walton, had been telling town planning commissioners and councilmembers the zoning amendment was needed because of general interest from data centers. But a handwritten memo recently released through FOIA shows that a town staff member met with Amazon representatives two weeks before the planning commission meeting and learned key details of Amazon’s project, none of which were shared with the planning commission.
Neither Walton nor Schaeffer responded to questions about the meeting or the memo. In July 2022, Schaeffer quit her government job and then went to work for Amazon.
After Amazon lawyer John Foote revealed much of the Amazon plan at a planning commission meeting in June 2021, the zoning amendment was scheduled to be considered by the town council. But Amazon asked for NDAs and held private meetings with town council and planning commission members before that meeting. At the meeting, the council approved the text amendment, clearing the way for Amazon to apply to build its project. Still, as late as July 2022, the town attorney opined that council members should be wary of talking to the press about the Amazon project or the zoning process because of NDAs.
On Sept. 9, Amazon filed more than 200 pages of paperwork to support its project application. The new filing answered several questions asked by town planners but did not state what Amazon would pay in taxes – a main reason for allowing data centers in Warrenton.
In an Aug. 3, 2021, email obtained through FOIA, Walton wrote that the data center could potentially generate $4.6 million for Warrenton and $10.6 million for Fauquier County over five years.
Fauquier County Commissioner of the Revenue Eric Maybach said he had more exact numbers but could not release them because they were based on proprietary information provided to him by Amazon. Amazon’s latest filing said only that Amazon’s taxes will “assist in promoting a diverse, equitable and stable tax base” – but provides no numbers.
Reach Peter Cary at news@fauquier.com