Bristow data center mailers feature photo of a Pennsylvania college campus. And that’s just one reason residents are crying foul. | News | princewilliamtimes.com

• • By Shannon Clark Times Staff Writer

• • Sep 8, 2023 Updated 21 hrs ago

Bristow residents received this mailer about the proposed Devlin Technology Park that features a photo of a college campus in Pennsylvania — not a data center. Residents say the flyers are misleading.

Photo courtesy of Michael Phillips

Some Bristow residents are calling foul over flyers touting the Devlin Technology Park that landed in their mailboxes in recent days. The mailers tout a development of up to 14 data centers proposed behind neighborhoods along Linton Hall and Devlin roads but feature an attractive, one-story, wood-and-glass building with people sitting at tables out front.

The image doesn’t look like a data center because it’s not. It’s actually a photo of building at Chatham University in Pennsylvania.

And that’s just one reason the flyers have upset residents like Michael Phillips, who lives near the proposed data center site.

“That’s not a data center,” said Phillips, who works in public relations. “It’s one story tall. It’s made out of wood and glass and has solar panels on the side. People are hanging out there like it’s a country club. It looks nothing like those big monstrosity warehouses that are going up all over the place. My initial reaction was ‘wow, this is propaganda.’”

Phillips said a member of the Facebook group “Say No To Devlin Technology Park” connected the photo in the flyer to that of the Eden Campus at Chatham University through a reverse Google search.

The flyers ask residents to complete an online, three-question survey to “share your thoughts on how we can improve the project” and states that there is “still an opportunity to impact the design of the final project.”

Phillips said the wording of the flyer is “misleading” and “manipulative” as it makes it appear that the Devlin Technology Park is a “done deal.” He noted the survey does not offer space for additional comments.

“People who are not educated on the matter or who are not invested in it like I am and some other people I know; it’s scary how manipulating and deceiving it is,” Phillips said.

 

The proposed Devlin Technology Park: If approved by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, the plan would allow up 14 data centers on 270 acres near Linton Hall and Devlin roads in Bristow. Data centers have already been approved on the adjacent Hunter property.

 

Devlin Technology Park is a proposal to rezone 270 undeveloped acres along Devlin and Linton Hall roads in Bristow for up to 14 data centers. The land is currently owned by residential developer Stanley Martin and zoned for up to 516 homes. The project is near the communities of Amberleigh Station, Silver Leaf Estates, Lanier Farms, Sheffield Manor, Crossman’s Creek and Victory Lakes, as well as Chris Yung Elementary School.

Truett Young, vice president of land for Stanley Martin Homes, said prior to sending out the mailers, Stanley Martin “engaged an external firm” on how to best gather feedback from neighboring communities regarding the project.

“We have received a lot of good ideas and feedback on what the surrounding communities would like to see and are actively exploring how we can adopt some of that feedback,” Young said.

But Bethany Kelley, an organizer of Say No to Devlin Technology Park, echoed Phillips’ concerns regarding the flyer’s wording and said automated phone calls and text messages with similar surveys were also sent to residents this week.

“We are extremely concerned,” Kelley said. “There were actually a lot of surprise reactions to that flyer (on social media), and the survey made it sound like it’s a done deal and that at this point, we just have to work with Stanley Martin to mitigate.”

The project was last before the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in February, when a vote was deferred at 3 a.m. after resident protests and an hours long meeting. The application has been in deferral status since the county received a letter from Stanley Martin’s attorney, Jonelle Cameron, asking the board to defer a hearing to a “date uncertain.”

Young said the image used on the flyers was sent out to around 50 mailers, and that the company has since decided not to use it again.

“We have since determined that it should not have been used and have removed from any future mailers,” Young said.

Other pro-data center flyers were sent home in Prince William County schools meals bags, earlier this year.

It is not clear when Devlin Technology Park will return to the county board of supervisors for consideration. Back in February, Stanley Martin said it would revise the project to remove data centers from the property adjacent to Chris Yung Elementary School. But the developer has not yet made those changes public.

If the project moves forward, Phillips said he and his family will be directly impacted and said that he and his wife spoke with a real estate agent last year about potentially moving. Phillips has lived in the same neighborhood as Chris Yung Elementary since 2017 and has two children. The original Devlin Technology Park plan would have placed the data centers right behind his backyard.

“So, all of a sudden, all of these dreams that we have for our family are just kind of going up in smoke,” Phillips said.