Less than 4% of the data center buildings that have already been zoned for Bristow, Gainesville and Haymarket have been completed. With so few completed it is not possible to adequately assess the cumulative environmental and community impact of so many data centers, zoned so close to each other, and so close to BHG residential areas.
These numbers do NOT include data centers that are yet only proposed, such as the massive Prince William Digital Gateway nor the controversial Devlin Road Technology Park proposed near Chris Yung Elementary School in Bristow.*
It is CRITICAL that data center zoning approvals in BHG be halted until at least 50% of the mega data center campuses that have already been approved are completed.
To continue zoning more and more data center campuses at such a high level of density, without waiting to assess environmental and community impact is an unreasonable risk and burden to tens of thousands of people in BHG.
Due to the speed of approvals of mega data center campuses in Prince William County, and the lack of easy-to-understand maps or 3D models, residents are not aware of the total number and size of data center projects being zoned around them.
As a result, as one after another massive data center campus starts construction, citizens will realize they are unable to stop a process that may seriously impact their health, safety and property values
For example, two communities in Manassas already face awful 24/7 data center noise problems - Great Oak and Regency Apartments. One community is outside the overlay district, the other community is inside.
Even though serious 24/7 data center noise issues are not resolved at this time in either community, BOTH communities are already facing even more data centers starting construction around them! This is unconscionable.
Of course, 24/7 data center noise is just one issue. There are also serious environmental and electrical grid issues that could cascade with each completion of yet another mega data center campus.
The chart shows how many data center campuses have already been zoned in Bristow - Haymarket- Gainesville vs. the tiny number that is currently operational.
This chart clearly shows that BHG [Bristow-Haymarket-Gainesville] is only beginning to feel the impact of what is ALREADY zoned because such a tiny percentage has actually been constructed. This is not the tip of the iceberg, it is a dot on the tip of the iceberg!
It would be an extraordinary and unjust burden to the people who live in BHG to add even one more data center, much less massive campuses like Devlin Tech Park; Gardner property, John Marshall Commons Tech Park (which would add another two data centers to a community already facing 10 data centers zoned at that intersection) and of course the 34 data centers that QTS and Compass are proposing for Gainesville District.
Next week I will hopefully complete a similar graph for all of PWC. Only about 15% of the data centers that have already been zoned for PWC are built or operational. We cannot possibly know the environmental impact of the other 85%, yet more and more data center projects appear to be on the horizon.
PW County officials need to halt data center approvals until the consequences of what has already been approved can be determined. This would probably mean building out at least 50% of what has been zoned before zoning even one more data center campus.
*Correction: Bristow Beat incorrectly labeled the parts of the pies in orange and yellow as "proposed" rather than zoned in a previous version of this article.
NOTE: This is an opinion piece and is solely the opinion of its author. It includes data taken directly from the Prince William County government website. Bristow Beat can verify that it is very close to accurate at the time of publication, if not precisely. The situation remains in flux.
In addition to being the Health and Safety Chair for the HOA Roundtable, Ally Stoeger is a Heritage Hunt resident and an optometrist Stoeger sent her Letter to the Editor of multiple publications as well as the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. Stoeger's business advertises with Bristow Beat, but this is not a sponsored post.