Dear Coalition Friends and supporters,
The past few weeks certainly have been a wild ride in Prince William County. We’ll start with the ups – and then the downs.
(Email the Board with YOUR name – Rescind the ‘Stay’)
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Good News:
Judge Irving overturned the Digital Gateway rezoning application in the Oak Valley Lawsuit on August 7th.
Digital Gateway Rezoning Overturned By Judge In Prince William County
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American Battlefield Trust and the Coalition to Protect Prince William County held a successful fundraiser on August 16th at the Historic Sudley Methodist Church. (See pictures posted on our website.)
Another Battle of Manassas – by Kellianne Jones
“…Historian C. Vann Woodward said Northern Virginia’s piedmont “has soaked up more of the blood, sweat and tears… has bred more founding fathers, inspired more soaring hopes and ideals and witnessed more triumphs and failures, victories and lost causes” than any other piece of the nation’s landscape. “If such a past can render a soil ‘sacred,’ this sliver is the perfect venue.”
“…Now, it’s at the center of a different kind of war, with industry in a race to claim Manassas for the future instead of the past. In this battle, the enemy is not as obvious, and neighbors blame each other when faced with the hard choices forced upon them.”
“But even on an old Civil War battlefield, where so much life was lost, I was able to end my hike with a renewed hope for humanity in the face of deadly division.”
“This is a story of choice,” the Benson-Rice Storytellers concluded in the Sudley church. But the lesson applies here, too. “Decisions are made for the better or for worse. Seek the full council of God before you make the choice.”
American Battlefield optimistic after Digital Gateway ruling | Headlines | insidenova.com
“Western Prince William community members united Saturday for a trip back in time at Sudley United Methodist Church within the confines of Manassas National Battlefield Park.”
“Seeking to pick up where the Oak Valley-PW Digital Gateway case left off, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County partnered with the American Battlefield Trust to hold a fundraiser for its own legal challenge of the Digital Gateway data center project.”
“…Karen Sheehan, director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, commended local residents for their display of unity. “This lawsuit effort has been just tremendously challenging, time-consuming, all-encompassing,” Sheehan told InsideNoVa. “It really is so gratifying to see the people of this community – all different types, all different belief systems, all different walks of life – coming out and wanting to protect everything that we care so deeply about, and not giving up, just continuously stepping up day after day, doing whatever it takes.”
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Here’s the Bad:
County asks for a stay on Digital Gateway ruling | News | princewilliamtimes.com
“…But just two days later, on Friday, Aug. 15, the board of county supervisors filed a motion supporting the data center companies’ motion for clarification and even going a step further by asking Irving to “stay” or suspend her ruling.”
“The stay would simply preserve the status quo pending the likely appeal,” the county wrote in its motion.”
Prince William County joins Digital Gateway developers’ motions to keep the project moving
“The Prince William Board of County Supervisors has joined separate motions to stay and clarify Judge Kimberly A. Irving’s Aug. 7 ruling declaring the PW Digital Gateway project void ab initio, meaning the project’s rezonings in effect never happened.”
“The board’s efforts mean its pushing to move the project along as planned.”
This betrayal of the community has triggered multiple questions:
1. How would this ‘Stay’ impact the more than one hundred Pageland Lane residents trapped in contracts?
2. If the landowners can’t get paid until ALL appeals are exhausted, can their land be destroyed before they are bought out?
3. When QTS, Compass, and the county ultimately lose, how will those landowners’ properties and homes be made whole again? How will the destroyed land and hallowed ground be made whole again?
4. Is the Board attempting this ‘Stay’ so that the County doesn’t have to pay back any taxes to landowners?
5. Why is this Board working so hard to give QTS and Compass an advantage over county residents?
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Now for the UGLY:
1. When did our Board of Supervisors hold the required emergency meeting to bake up this ‘Stay’ strategy?
2. If the Board did hold an emergency meeting, why was it done in the dark of night?
3. If there was no emergency Board meeting, WHO gave permission to the attorneys representing the County to file the additional motion to ‘Stay?’
§ 15.2-633. Office of the county attorney.
“The board may create the office of county attorney. The county attorney shall be appointed by the county manager, and serve at a salary fixed by the board. He shall be accountable to the county manager.”
“No person shall be appointed a county attorney under the provisions of this section unless at the time of his appointment he has been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Virginia.”
The UGLIEST part of all of this is that the Board, under Ann Wheeler’s leadership, was warned by the County Attorney of a risk if they were to move forward with a hearing and vote on December 12, 2023 – due to the defective Digital Gateway advertisement.
BUT – Supervisors Wheeler, Bailey, Franklin, Boddye, and Angry – with their vote to deny Supervisor Weir’s motion to delay – made the choice to move forward anyway.
County Attorney Robl memo to Board 113023
See Compass attorney Looney’s 11/30/23 letter to the Board here.
See the County’s Motion to ‘Stay’ here.
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TAKE ACTION:
NOW is the time to DEMAND the County Board provide answers – AND WITHDRAW the County’s Motion to ‘Stay’ Judge Irving’s decision.
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