An effort to potentially derail a massive data center project in Prince William County by deferring most land-use decisions until the next county board takes office failed Tuesday during a sometimes emotional board meeting where both sides argued that the community’s future is at stake.
Both Lawson and Deshundra Jefferson, who beat current board chair Ann B. Wheeler (At Large) in the Democratic nomination contest for chair, have said they would not support a pending rezoning application for the Digital Gateway plan — vows that could jeopardize the 2,100-acre project in the Gainesville area should it be deferred until next year.
Before a 5-3 vote to reject Lawson’s measure, more than 100 residents lined up for a public comment period, some of them accusing Lawson of political gamesmanship while others — including several Republican supervisor candidates — warned Democratic lawmakers that voting against the moratorium could hamper their chances for reelection in November.
“We’re an army now,” Gainesville resident Sally Peterson said about fellow residents who have fought against data center projects and rallied behind Jefferson’s campaign against Wheeler, a supporter of the Digital Gateway plan. “Ignore us at your peril.”
The board’s five Democrats voted against the plan without discussion.
Several had previously argued that such a moratorium would go against the continuity of government and have a chilling effect on economic development in Prince William by throwing uncertainty over other land-use projects that face relatively little opposition.
Lawson argued that the proposed moratorium was good government policy, similar to moratoriums adopted by neighboring Fairfax and Stafford counties. Prince William also employed land-use moratoriums until 2015.
“It’s not for political gaming, it’s not for political expediency, it’s simply a record of what I believe is good governance for the board of county supervisors,” Lawson said, after noting that she had tried to get similar “lame duck session” moratoriums passed in previous election years.
Supervisor Bob Weir (R-Gainesville) said the Digital Gateway project isn’t even likely to make it to a county board vote before the end of the year because of various rounds of questions and comments that are ongoing.
“If your only reason for voting against this moratorium is the Digital Gateway, you can take that off your list of reasons not to support it,” Weir told his Democratic colleagues.
The Digital Gateway plan has caused political upheaval in Prince William since it was first proposed to the county in 2021 by homeowners in the traffic-congested Pageland Lane area, part of a larger backlash against data center development in Northern Virginia.
Both Wheeler and former Gainesville District supervisor Pete Candland (R), who resigned last year because of a conflict of interest related to his family’s home being part of the Digital Gateway plan, became prime targets of groups opposed to the plan.
The project would require the sale of more than 200 homes and small farms in the Gainesville area to build 27.6 million square feet of data centers a short drive from surrounding houses and Manassas National Battlefield Park.
Proponents of the Digital Gateway, including Wheeler, say the project will eventually generate an extra $400 million in annual tax revenue needed for overcrowded schools and other problems.
Critics say data centers are placing an increasingly unmanageable burden on the local power grid while endangering the surrounding environment by adding more impermeable surfaces that can funnel urban runoff to nearby creeks.
Those arguments were repeated Tuesday, with Digital Gateway opponents staging a rally outside the county government center before the meeting as proponents filed into the board’s chamber.
Residents against the plan urged the board to “put a pause” in deciding on a project that they said would irretrievably alter their community.
Some used a projector to display maps that showed neighborhoods surrounded by data center buildings and electric utility substations and transmission lines that supply energy to those sites.
“We have to stop this destruction that is ruining our county,” said Mary Foster, who lives in Gainesville.
Digital Gateway proponents said the area is already beyond saving as a rural community after surrounding development, including data centers, added to local traffic congestion.
Caroline Chipman, another homeowner who would benefit from the plan, said she is exasperated by the acrimony and uncertainty still surrounding the issue after more than two years.
“I, for one, want it resolved so that we can either look forward to living in our current home or go ahead with plans to find somewhere else,” she said. “Not knowing is very stressful.”