Data Center Opponents Urge County To Let 2,100-Acre Project Die After Court Ruling

A Virginia appeals court has put one of the world’s largest data center development efforts on life support. Now, opponents of the project are calling on local lawmakers to pull the plug.

With plans for dozens of data centers on more than 2,000 acres in Northern Virginia, the PW Digital Gateway team aims to create the largest data center corridor in the world. But it has also been one of the most controversial, drawing fierce opposition in Virginia’s Prince William County since it was first proposed more than four years ago. 

Last week, the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a lower court judgment voiding a county rezoning decision needed for the project to move forward. The ruling represents a victory for opponents of the Digital Gateway, who argued in a pair of lawsuits that county lawmakers had circumvented public meeting laws in an effort to get the project over the finish line. 

The county still has one more avenue to appeal the decision. But data center opponents are urging the Prince William County Board of Supervisors to stop any legal efforts to bring the Digital Gateway to fruition — a decision that would effectively kill the project.

On Tuesday, environmental and community groups that have led efforts to derail the Digital Gateway gathered in front of county offices, calling on officials to “turn a page on the folly of the Digital Gateway” and formally withdraw from any subsequent legal efforts pertaining to the project. 

A coalition of neighborhood associations and environmental groups says the county has already spent more than $1.6M in legal costs fighting lawsuits in service of a project that is deeply unpopular with a significant segment of its taxpayers.

“Prince William County residents deserve better than to have their own tax dollars used against them in legal fees, and the Board should immediately stop any further spending on this lawsuit,” Vida Carroll, representing the Civic Association of Brentsville and Surrounding Areas, said in a statement.

Within the 2,139-acre Digital Gateway, Blackstone subsidiary QTS and Compass Datacenters have planned to develop large data center campuses that at full build-out would span 34 buildings, 22M SF and 1.7 gigawatts of capacity. The rural land abuts the historic Manassas National Battlefield Park, where the first major land battle of the Civil War took place.

First proposed in 2021, this potential influx of industrial development generated furious local opposition almost immediately, with residents and advocacy groups raising concerns about the impact of large-scale industrial infrastructure on the local environment.

The question of whether widespread data center build-out is in the best interest of the county has remained the predominant issue in local politics, debated in editorial pages and becoming a wedge issue in county elections.

The series of legal actions filed against the county by residents, neighborhood associations and conservation groups focused on a public hearing held in December 2023, at which county supervisors approved land use changes that effectively greenlit the Digital Gateway. The high-profile hearing lasted more than 27 hours, with more than 400 people speaking for and against the planned data center cluster.

But groups like the Oak Valley Homeowners Association and the American Battlefield Trust argued in court filings that the county didn’t follow the law in advertising the meeting, failing to send out two public notices at least six days apart from each other and neglecting to publish the meeting's materials until five days prior. 

Opponents of the Digital Gateway have framed these as intentional acts, efforts by lame-duck supervisors to rush the approval over the finish line before a new board — one far more hostile to the project — was seated. 

In August, Virginia Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving agreed that the board had violated state and county public notice rules and voided the county’s rezoning decision. That ruling was affirmed unanimously by a panel of appellate judges late last week. 

“The Court of Appeals agreed with the position we have taken for years,” David Duncan, president of the American Battlefield Trust, said in a statement. “The county did not properly advertise this nightmarish proposal or make its text available to the public, despite the extraordinary public impact that the project would have. Instead, the county rushed to judgment, because they knew support on the Board for this mega-project was eroding.”

The county could still turn to the Virginia Supreme Court in a final attempt to overturn the decision, a step opposition groups are urging it not to take. 

County officials have so far remained mum as to whether they intend to continue fighting to reinstate the zoning changes required for the Digital Gateway to move forward or whether this latest ruling served as the final nail in the contentious project’s coffin. 

“The county is in the process of reviewing the decision of the court,” Nicole Brown, Prince William County director of communications, said in a statement Tuesday. “The County Attorney will then provide legal advice to the Board. Since the decision can be appealed within 30 days, and therefore not yet final, this is still active litigation.”