In the wee morning hours of September 15th, after an all-night meeting starting at 7:30 PM on Sept. 14, which included hundreds of citizens in opposition to the Digital Gateway, 89 opponents had to leave before being able to speak. While they slept, in an unprecedented move, the Planning Commission allowed QTS and Compass to include a letter into the staff recommendation which threatens to remove significant environmental and historic protections.
(YOU can Take Action – see below)
When people, or in this case, corporations, show you who they are – believe them. In the pre-dawn hours, AFTER the public hearing was closed, QTS and Compass, who are NOT the applicant for the Digital Gateway CPA, were allowed to have a letter included in the staff report that changes the modicum of mitigation which had been recommended!
In a nutshell, a party NOT associated with the CPA was given preferential treatment in a way never before seen – in a process that has already lost all trust and credibility.
This Digital Gateway plan is the singular most anti-environmental and anti-historical application this county has witnessed in decades.
From the Prince William Times:
Kuntz (At-Large Planning Commissioner) however, said she saw and read the letter before the vote and does not believe its inclusion in the CPA will diminish the county’s policies aimed at protecting the Manassas National Battlefield Park and enhancing open space — despite its elimination of a wildlife corridor and acres of parkland and its loosening of regulations for stormwater runoff and historic resources, among other things.
Kuntz said her understanding is that the particulars mentioned in the QTS and Compass letter are usually hammered out in the rezoning process.
“I think [QTS and Compass] are opening up the discussion of their concerns [with the CPA], and I believe that is what the applicants want to have – a discussion,” Kuntz said. “But our understanding is that all of this is going to be worked out in the rezonings.”
Kuntz also said she believes the data center development is “a good land use” for the area and understands that the wildlife corridor at issue would cut part of the Compass land “in half,” limiting development.
She further said she believes Compass and QTS have been “very forthcoming” with protected open space, despite their removal of a minimum 300-foot width for the remaining wildlife corridor. (Wildlife corridors of at least 500 feet wide were initially requested by the county’s planning staff based on research into migration patterns, but staff said the corridors should be no less than 300 feet.)
Regarding the Civil War mass burial site, Kuntz said she trusts QTS and Compass will take precautions when building in the area with or without a CPA that requires the possible mass burial site to protected in place.
Contrary to Ms. Kuntz’ claims, in her misunderstanding of the process, it IS the CPA which guides whatever is incorporated into the rezoning. This is why adding this letter to the staff report is so concerning. Neither the stakeholder agencies or the community at large had an opportunity to understand and comment on these “atrocious” changes before the Planning Commission vote.
In response to these threats of the desecration of hundreds of Civil War soldier burial sites, AND the threat of paving over the birth site and community of Jennie Dean, the Historical Commission held an emergency meeting on October 3.
Historical Commission opposes PW Digital Gateway | Headlines | insidenova.com
“The meeting was called after the Planning Commission recommended approval of the project last month and the Board of County Supervisors was expected to hold a hearing on Oct. 11. The board hearing has been rescheduled to Nov. 1.”
“…Burgess said soldiers in those camps suffered from outbreaks of measles, with hundreds of soldiers dying from the disease. Many of those who died were buried in the camps, he said.”
“Burgess said the area also saw fighting ahead of the second battle. He said on Aug. 28, 1862, soldiers from Pennsylvania were traveling along what is now U.S. 29 and came under fire from Confederate artillery stationed at Brawner Farm.”
“The Union soldiers fired back with artillery from a rise near Pageland, Burgess said…”
“…The latter recommendation was tied to potential significance in the life of Jennie Dean, who in 1893 founded what would become the Manassas Industrial School, a post-high school training facility for minority youth across Northern Virginia.”
Blaine Pearsall, Gainesville Historical Commissioner, in response to the allegation from QTS and Compass that there are not impacted burial sites in the proposed Digital Gateway plans, has uncovered not only that there are mass graves from an encampment and a regiment that suffered fatalities from a measles outbreak; but that the area is ALREADY identified in a study, paid for by the County in 2010, as “other protected land.”
This Board is about to embark on a path that will alter the past, the present, and the future.
The nexus of the future for this county is represented not only with our history, but also with the threats to our natural resources. The beginning of the end from an enslaved America to freedom began HERE – along the Pageland corridor. Jennie Dean realized that emancipation from slavery was only the beginning; she understood that real freedom began with economic independence. The first school she opened was on Thornton Lane in her church. And – none of this will matter if our waters and our air continue down the path to pollution.
Nothing about industrializing that corridor honors and protects this critical American history and the sustainability of our natural resources. Our elected leaders at every level are failing us.
You can take action now. Your. voice. matters.
Send emails to Congresswomen Wexton and Spanberger, as well as the corporate leadership of QTS and Compass
Sign the Recall
Join with thousands of your fellow county voters and sign the Wheeler recall petition today. Over 6000 registered county voters have already signed the petition! Given our experience with the Candland petition, our goal is to achieve a 25% cushion, which is 14,000 signatures. Sign the Wheeler Recall Petition
If you are a Gainesville district voter, the window is closing on the time for you to also sign the recall petition for Pete Candland. Sign the Candland Recall Petition
Celebrate the Rural Crescent – Haymarket Day Parade!
Saturday, Oct. 15 – Parade starts at 10 AM, Coalition booth open until 4 PM
Join with your county neighbors to showcase what the Rural Crescent is, what it means to this county and to its citizens, and why it matters – why it matters to EVERYONE. The Coalition is a parade participant, with citizens from across the county in the parade exhibiting the bounty from the Rural Crescent. The Coalition will also have a booth all day at Haymarket Day. Come show your support for this most essential asset to the quality of life of all county residents, and learn about how you can TAKE ACTION to protect and maintain what we CANNOT afford to lose.
“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.” The Lorax