Dear Coalition Friends and supporters,
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-> Email the Board with YOUR name – RESCIND THE ‘STAY’
-> Send this email or this link to EVERYONE you know – EVEN IF they are not in PWC! The more signatures to OUR Supervisors the better! This decision is about MORE than PWC!
-> SHOW UP ON WEDNESDAY AT COURT – SEE BELOW!!
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Judge Irving overturned the Digital Gateway rezoning application in the Oak Valley Lawsuit on August 7th.
(See all the details in our last email! or on our website!
NOW – 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 it’s pushing to move the project along as planned.”
This betrayal of the community has triggered multiple questions:
- How would this ‘Stay’ impact the more than one hundred Pageland Lane residents trapped in contracts?
- If the landowners can’t get paid until ALL appeals are exhausted, can their land be destroyed before they are bought out?
- 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?
- Is the Board attempting this ‘Stay’ so that the County doesn’t have to pay back any taxes to landowners?
- Why is this Board working so hard to give QTS and Compass an advantage over county residents
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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. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR CONTACTS!
RESCIND THE ‘STAY’: Add your name!
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Show up this Wednesday at the Circuit Court for Judge Irving’s consideration of the County’s Motion to ‘Stay’ and ‘Suspend’ her August 7 order to void the Digital Gateway rezoning, and the QTS/Compass Motion to Clarify (County Motion).
Prince William County Circuit Court
9311 Lee Avenue, Manassas
Courtroom 6 (3rd floor)
Wednesday, August 27
1 PM
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