Racial & Social Justice Commission shows ‘strong concern’ over planned data centers next to Manassas Battlefield

Prince William County’s Racial and Social Justice passed two resolutions outlining its concern over to plan to pave over areas next to Manassas National Battlefield to build data centers.

The Board has had a tumultuous past, rarely finding common ground. The resolutions come as the Board of County Supervisors is set to hear the case for the data center project on November 1 and must decide whether to rezone 2,100 acres next to the battlefield for Prince William Digital Gateway. These server farms would help power the internet.

Here’s the text of the RSJC resolutions:

The RSJC expresses its strong concerns about the need to protect historically significant land area, including areas where black communities thrived, black families lived and died – and buried their loved ones in those communities, and ask for full consideration of all information available from stakeholders and experts at the MNBP.

The RSJC expresses its strong concern on the impact PW Digital Gateway will have on Occoquan watershed and reservoir and the 800,000 water consumers, including 350,000 in Prince William County, where the communities of color in a majority-minority county are negatively impacted until all information is available from stakeholders and experts at the respective water authorities.

Democrats on the Board of County Supervisors have voiced support for the project, saying it will help to establish a more substantial commercial tax base, taking more of the burden to fund local government operations off the backs of homeowners.

However, the project polarized neighbors who say they don’t want the unsightly, big-box server farms because of the machine noise they’ll make. Over the summer, environmental conservationists joined Democrats and Republicans in calling for the resignation of two Board of County Supervisors members, At-large Chair Ann Wheeler (D) and Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland (R).

Wheeler failed to disclose stock in QTS, a firm seeking to rezone the land as part of the Digital Gateway project, while Candland stands to make millions by selling his home if the project is approved.

The Racial and Social Justice Commission was formed in 2021 and spent its first year squabbling over equity issues in the county’s public schools. In December, conservatives on the commission pushed to dissolve the body, saying it served no purpose in Prince William, the most diverse county in the state, and the U.S.

So far this year, the commission has bickered over policy and procedures.

Manassas Battlefield drew more than a half-million visitors last year. Soldiers from the U.S. and the Confederate States of America fought one of the first battles of the Civil War on the hallowed ground.