Prince William soon to be new data center king: Digital Gateway approved

Following today’s approval of the massive PW Digital Gateway project, the Manassas National Battlefield Park will get some new neighbors — data centers.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved the contentious project after a record-breaking 28-hour meeting that began at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, and wrapped up just after 1 p.m. today, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023.

The rezoning vote clears the way for two companies, QTS and Compass Datacenters, Inc., to build the nearly 100-foot tall buildings on what has been billed as the world’s most significant data center complex on nearly 900 acres next to the battlefield, a tourist magnet, the site of the first major Civil War battle in 1861.

Once developed, Prince William County will eclipse neighboring Loudoun, which, for years, had been data king, boasting the most server farms on the planet.

Conservationists opposed the proposal citing water concerns and the strain on the east coast’s electrical grid. Supporters of the plan say the new centers would provide a revenue windfall for the county, as much as $460 million to pay police, firefighters, and teachers.

Four Democrats, Ann Wheeler (At-large), Margaret Franklin (Woodbridge), Victor Angry (Neabsco), and Andrea Bailey (Potomac), voted to approve the project. Republicans Yesli Vega (Coles), Jeanine Lawson (Brentsville), and Bob Wier (Gainesville) voted against the measure. Democrat Kenny Boddye (Occoquan) abstained from the vote after his substitution motion to approve two of the three data center complexes (the two furthest from the national park border) failed.

“If they’re not built here, they’re going to be built somewhere else in Virginia, and they’re going to be on the PJM [power] grid. They’re not going anywhere,” said Wheeler. “And these 30 groups that oppose them are all conservation groups that oppose all development. That’s what they do.”

Bailey and Angry approved the projects in the community’s best interest. “I did not ‘sell out.’ That’s not what happened here,” said Bailey.

In October, the supervisors decided to spend as much as $400 million to establish a climate mitigation plan, vowing to cut the county government’s greenhouse emissions to half of what they were in 2005 by 2035.

“The way supervisors affect climate change is with their land-use votes,” said Vega, who opposed the project.

The centers will use large amounts of water and electricity to power the servers inside the buildings, which will sit along Pageland Lane. Multiple homeowners banded together to sell their homes to the data center firms in exchange for large payouts, sums that many who attended the public meeting did not want to discuss.

“It’ll be a public record when the sales go through,” one woman told Potomac Local News.

Supervisors have been debating the project since 2021. Last year, the board approved a comprehensive plan amendment clearing the way data centers next to the battlefield.

“Compass Datacenters is grateful that the Board of County Supervisors has approved its rezoning application, affirming its alignment with the County’s 2022 plan for data center development,” stated a corporate spokesman in a statement emailed to Potomac Local News following the vote.  “We thank the Board of County Supervisors, hundreds of project supporters and community members for their thoughtful feedback at this meeting and over the past year. We are committed to being a good neighbor in Prince William County and continuing a dialogue with all of our stakeholders as this project moves forward.”

Next to the property owners who agreed to sell their homes, the most vocal supporters have been labor unions who stand to benefit from the construction of the new centers and the expansion of government services spurred by additional tax revenues from the data centers.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has donated $130,000 to the five Democrats who make up the board majority in 2023. Since taking office in 2020, that majority has never voted against a data center rezoning.

IBEW gave $49,000 to Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye, his highest donor.

Four of the five were re-elected to a new four-year term in November 2023. Ann Wheeler, chair-at-large, finishes her term at the end of the month after losing a primary election bid to Deshundra Jefferson, who campaigned on reigning in data center development near homes.

Several Democrats in the state legislature have been watching the Board of County Supervisors’ actions and say they will introduce legislation in the January 2024 General Assembly to govern how and where the massive data farms are approved.

Gov. Glenn Younkin has been bullish on data centers, announcing a $35 billion investment from Amazon to build data centers across the state earlier this year.