Prince William County Board Rejects Plan For 1,940-Acre Data Center Hub

Prince William County has stopped a new massive data center plan from taking shape, just days after Blackstone’s QTS abandoned its Digital Gateway project in the same area.

In a unanimous vote, the county’s board of supervisors on Tuesday declined to initiate a comprehensive plan amendment for a proposed project dubbed Dulles South Innovation Center. That amendment would have changed the land use designation of a 1,940-acre site in Gainesville to make way for up to 42M SF of data center space, according to the Prince William Times.

The CPA initiation would have been an early step of the process and not a final approval. 

“People talk about one way or another how this open space of land, just like the plains, is going to be developed one way or another. It's either going to be data centers or high-density housing,” Gainesville District Supervisor George Stewart said before the vote.

“How it is right now, according to this comprehensive plan, is how it needs to be and how it needs to remain,” he said.

The vote came after an hourslong public debate with more than 90 residents arguing on both sides of the issue. Those opposed to the project cited concerns about water and air pollution, higher electric bills and noise disruptions. Homeowners in support of the project argued that traffic growth has transformed their rural area and that data centers are needed for the county’s technological and financial needs. They also urged opponents to let the CPA process unfold so the county can study potential impacts of a new development.

Earlier in the meeting, the board voted against a request to defer consideration of the proposal.

The decision marks another win for advocacy groups and others who have opposed data center construction in Virginia’s second-most populous county. But it dealt a blow to the more than 200 homeowners who had teamed up and agreed to sell their properties to data center firms for the Dulles South project, according to PWT.

Sanders Lane Assemblage I LLC, representing those homeowners, submitted the proposed amendment to change the site’s land use designation from agriculture, forestry and mixed-use to industrial. 

But county staff last week urged the board of supervisors to reject the project, citing concerns about the environment, a lack of adequate infrastructure and how it would impact the area’s rural character.

The proposed project would have been in the Gainesville Magisterial district, adjacent to Loudoun County’s boundary line to the north and Fairfax County’s boundary to the east, according to a meeting document. 

Last week, Blackstone’s QTS dropped its legal fight to pursue a separate project in Prince William County that could have become one of the world’s largest data center clusters. That project, PW Digital Gateway, would have spanned 2,100 acres and comprised 22M SF of data center space. 

The county had approved the rezoning effort for Digital Gateway, but it was knocked down in the courts. QTS on July 2 withdrew its appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Dulles South proposal “leaned on the fact that Digital Gateway still exists,” Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye said before the vote.

“It does not. As of a couple days ago, it is dead,” he said. “We owe this community time to pause, exhale, and work together with their supervisor to shape this area's future holistically.”