Remarks to the Prince William Planning Commission: April 13, 2022

I’m Bill Wright and I live in Gainesville.  I oppose the Prince William Digital Gateway. 

On April 7^th I sent the Planning Commissioners an article on a developer purchasing 22 acres in the data center overlay district for the purpose of building a million square feet of data center capacity on land the Department of Economic Development told us was “Occupied or Not Available for Sale”.  Opponents of this proposal have said all along that there is sufficient usable land in the existing overlay district and the County should step up its marketing game to promote it.

The same day, the Prince William Times reported a meeting of Sanders Lane residents fueled by greed and fear trying to invent their own version of data center bingo.  When are we going to call time out?  When every delusional dreamer thinks they can whimsically amend the County’s Comprehensive Plan, there effectively is no plan. The void created by the County’s abdication of the planning process has left the inmates in charge of the asylum.  And greed crazed inmates won’t build the housing we need.  They’ll sell out to data centers and take a powder.

The Prince William Digital Gateway is not the county’s plan.  It’s a private business proposal the County decided to consider amidst a desert of its own ideas.  Responsible county planners would never have suggested locating a 2,133-acre industrial corridor in a critical watershed between a national park and a state forest.  Can you imagine a data center corridor next to Yellowstone?   

A more thoughtful plan is achievable, but not the way the county is going about it.  We are considering the Prince William Digital Gateway, Data Center Overlay District Review and Comprehensive Plan Update concurrently, rather than in a logical sequence.  The Comprehensive Plan Update should first decide the county’s vision for 2040 and the path to achieve it.  It should determine the goal for data center growth and how to prudently manage it.  If achieving that goal requires additional land, then planners should review the best options for expanding the overlay district to enable it.  Once accomplished, data center proposals should be considered that align with the county’s plan instead of caving to developer’s plans. 

There’s no need to sacrifice tax revenue while we construct an improved plan.  A tremendous amount of data center capacity is already under development, with more land available in the existing overlay district to yield greater tax revenue sooner and with fewer ill effects.  Prince William is already on track to exceed Loudoun’s data center capacity without the Prince William Digital Gateway and its environmental risks. 

Let’s stop settling for developers’ bad ideas and devise better ones ourselves.  That’s what our government is for.

I’d like to thank Commissioner Gordy for joining me on a tour Monday which compared potential data center development sites in the overlay district with those proposed for the Prince William Digital Gateway.  I invite any of the rest of you to join me on a future tour.  Let’s get to the truth on this proposal and make the best recommendation for all our citizens.  

Thank you.