Prince William Times: “With just weeks until the Nov. 7 election, only about half of the 14 candidates for the Prince William Board of County Supervisors are publicly sharing their positions on five of the most controversial and unresolved data center projects across the county.”
“Of the 14 candidates, 12, including six Democrats and six Republicans, responded to inquiries from the Prince William Times about their positions on the five projects.”
HOA Roundtable of Northern Virginia: “The HOA Roundtable of Northern Virginia, based in Prince William County, is a non-partisan coalition of HOAs, Civic Associations, and independent homeowners who represent more than 150,000 households across the region.”
“Every seat on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors is on the ballot in the November election. Those elected will seal the future of the county.”
“Without a change in leadership, Prince William will cease to be a county for residential communities and families to thrive, and retirees to enjoy…Employment opportunities and
entities providing vital goods and services, will be forced out of Prince William, unable to afford artificially inflated commercial land prices driven by data center development.”
“Given our unique insight, we are proud to endorse the following candidates and encourage the residents of Prince William County to support their strong, consistent campaign message to place residential quality of life and property value as a top priority:”
- PWC Board Chair: Jeanine Lawson
- Woodbridge District: Jeannie LaCroix
- Potomac District: Verndell Robinson
- Brentsville District: Tom Gordy
- Coles District: Yesli Vega
- Gainesville District: Bob Weir
Prince William Times: “Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson on Tuesday held a press conference calling for Pete Candland, her former board colleague, to be investigated for public corruption.”
“Lawson, a Republican who is running for chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in the upcoming Nov. 7 election, shared emails Candland exchanged with a local data center developer to offer his services as a former elected official to help companies “navigate their projects” through Prince William County’s land-use approval process.”
Insidenova.com: “The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday moved to schedule for December the rezoning hearings of all three data center projects connected to the divisive PW Digital Gateway, ensuring the largest development in county history will be voted on by the board’s Democratic majority before new members are sworn in next year.”
Insidenova.com: “Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler on Tuesday walked back her original plans to consider the contentious PW Digital Gateway data center project at the board’s Nov. 21 meeting that falls just days before Thanksgiving.”
“The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is not an appropriate time to hear the Digital Gateway,” Wheeler said during the board’s Sept. 12 meeting.”
The county Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will hold a joint public hearing on October 17, 2023, to discuss new rules on where the server farms that power the internet should be located in the county. Data centers are built on large campuses that take up acres of land and use excessive amounts of electricity to power the servers, and water to cool them.
The county has seen three major applications for new data center complexes -- one by Stafford Hospital, one near the county landfill on Eskimo Hill Road, and another in Falmouth. The county Planning Commission, along with data center operators like Amazon Web Services and Stack Infrastructure, spent three months examining where data centers should go.
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Stafford County held a public meeting about data centers on Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
There are multiple server farm campuses slated for the county. The meeting was an opportunity for elected leaders and planning commissioners to discuss the projects and answer questions from residents.
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Insidenova.com: “The HOA Roundtable of Northern Virginia on Monday wrote to Prince William County leadership, objecting to their decision to take up two rezoning requests related to the contentious PW Digital Gateway data center project in November.”
Ann Wheeler’s anxiousness to schedule a vote on the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway rezoning before the Planning Office has even completed its review is hardly surprising. She has been in the tank for this project from the outset, and her blatant subservience to corporate masters was largely responsible for her electoral defeat.
Now shift the focus to her accomplices, who have thus far evaded the same level of accountability.
The transformation of Prince William County into northern New Jersey cannot be completed without the willing assistance of Wheeler’s four obedient sidekicks: Kenny Boddye, Margaret Franklin, Andrea Bailey and Victor Angry. Is there an independent thought among them? What will they do without their den mother?
And what about our new County Executive Chistopher Shorter? Was he hired to serve the people or enable our lame duck chair’s undemocratic tactics? He’s got just a few months to show us before he answers to a new Board that may have a very different view of his expected role.
As for our volatile Planning Office, you’d need a scorecard to tell who’s running what on any given day. That’s less their fault than the leadership they’ve been saddled with, but it is long overdue for a planner with backbone to emerge and assert some degree of professional integrity. They are clearly being rolled over.
Will we trade the tenuous promise of tax reductions for a county no longer worth living in? Those with means will flee, but those tied here by jobs, families and limited resources will be stuck living in the Wheelerites’ new industrial wasteland.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].
