I'm the Founder and Publisher of Potomac Local News. Raised in Woodbridge, I'm now raising my family in Northern Virginia and care deeply about our community. If you're not getting our FREE email newsletter, you are missing out. Subscribe Now!
Substation ruled inconsistent with city plan; residents blast water, trees, and transmission line impacts
The Fredericksburg Planning Commission has unanimously rejected a proposal to rezone more than 80 acres near Route 3 and Cowan Boulevard for a massive data center campus, after months of controversy over water use, tree loss, and high-voltage transmission lines near neighborhoods.
Christmas festivities were interrupted Friday night when a vehicle crashed through a police barricade during the annual Santa Lights Manassas celebration, injuring an officer and sending families scrambling during one of the city’s most heavily attended holiday events.
The crash occurred around 7:43 p.m. in Old Town at the intersection of West and Center streets, where officers were directing traffic as thousands gathered for the tree lighting, wagon rides, and Santa’s arrival by Virginia Railway Express train.
This is a shining example from my podcast with Deron Blevins, Marketing & Communications Manager, Historic Manassas, Inc.
Suppose you work for a chamber of commerce, tourism office, municipality, Main Street organization, parks and recreation department, nonprofit, or economic development office. In that case, this is the model for how you should be interacting with Potomac Local.
Stafford County officials will revisit their newly adopted data center regulations tonight, considering an ordinance that would exempt five previously approved developments from the stricter rules passed in October after a marathon joint hearing that stretched past 2:30 a.m.
On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, supervisors will weigh Ordinance O25-29(R). This revision would formally grandfather any data center project that had a rezoning, conditional use permit, or site plan approved on or before Oct. 21, 2025. County planners say the exemption was widely understood to be part of the board’s intent during the October vote but was never written into the final ordinance.
We were doing a little shopping along Caroline Street on Small Business Saturday, and the sound of live carolers drifted out onto the sidewalk — the kind of thing that makes Downtown Fredericksburg feel like a Hallmark movie this time of year.
