Remarks to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors: November 23, 2021

My name is Bill Wright.  I live in the Heritage Hunt neighborhood in Gainesville.  I appreciate the opportunity to speak out against rezoning to create the Prince William Digital Gateway.

I appreciate that Chair Wheeler took the time to answer my recent e-mail inquiry about why data centers need to be placed in the rural crescent and cannot be located in the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District specifically set aside for their use only a few years ago. 

Her response offered six reasons for her support of the proposal, but only one was germane to my question.  She claimed, quote: “There is not sufficient room in the current overlay district.  There are some parcels left but they do not total much acreage and are not large enough nor contiguous for this type of project.”  To be charitable, I find this statement implausible.  To be honest, I find it deceptive.

In addition to over 600 of acres of “site ready” parcels in the existing overlay district, there are over 1,100 acres already owned by data center developers but not built upon.  What’s more, land available for data centers is not limited to undeveloped or vacant land.  Any land is available for the right price and there is nothing that prevents some entity from purchasing and assembling any of over 4,000 acres of occupied land there and repurposing them for data center use.  After all, Chair Wheeler doesn’t seem to object to repurposing farmland or residential properties within the rural crescent for data centers.  So why would she object to repurposing industrial and commercially zoned land within a specifically designated area with sufficient infrastructure to support data center use?

Another reason cited was, quote: “This project represents the potential for billions of dollars of investment in Prince William County and to not even consider it would be irresponsible governing.”  It is standard procedure for government officials to make Pollyannaish projections about the economic benefits of their pet projects while giving short shrift to the inevitable collateral damage, unintended consequences and resultant mop-up costs.  How many times do you expect us to fall for this?  Look at the fiscal dilemma Loudoun County now finds itself in after putting too many eggs in the data center basket.  But what is truly “irresponsible governing” is to ram through this hastily conceived brainchild without thorough consideration of the extensive environmental and infrastructure impacts.

If you think converting a pastoral rural and historic area to a sea of thirsty, humming server farms is not enough to ruin our way of life, just set your stopwatch to see how long it takes you to take the Bi-County Parkway plan out of mothballs.  Your logic will be that you’ve already ruined the landscape, so what more harm could possibly be done?  Try selling that to our neighbors in Woodbridge who will gape in horror at the endless stream of big rigs roaring and belching their way from I-95 up 234 on their way to our new industrial wasteland.  

Please ditch this awful idea and consider more thoughtful plans for economic development.  Plan is the operative word.  It means thinking before you act, and we actually have a Planning Office devoted to that end, if your reckless policies don’t drive our best planners to abandon ship.   Do not expect smart growth advocates to endorse the irrational delusions you have fallen for.

Thank you.