Prince William Co. residents push back against recommendation for another data center

The Prince William County Planning Commission voted - earlier this month to recommend the board of supervisors approve a new information center right on the edge of George Mason University s campus At square feet and feet tall the facility planned for the corner of Prince William Parkway and University Boulevard would be one of the largest information centers in the county Northern Virginia is ranked the world s largest information center arena according to real estate firm JLL s quarterly account on global evidence centers With more than facilities in the area that area of the Commonwealth handles roughly of global internet traffic according to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission All of the details center applications that are envisioned for Prince William County will be over million square feet of records center growth How much of this stuff is enough commented Bill Wright a Gainesville resident who s been independently tracking details center applications in the area Western Prince William County is looking like a science fiction movie Wright mentioned to power the facility the county will have to build a substation and multiple transmission lines in the area as well The proposed site which currently houses a content center less than of the new building s size is across the street from planned George Mason University scholar housing commercial rise and a in recent times reported innovation district The idea of just having this thing across the street from trainee housing it s totally at odds with the county s vision for that area and yet the planning commission goes and rubber stamps it Wright commented It s going to look like a spaghetti factory Power costs and environmental impact Other group concerns include how the facility may impact air and noise garbage as well as vigor use In April Dominion Potency proposed base rate increases of per month in and in for the typical residential Virginia customer Under the proposal Dominion recommended a new rate class for records centers and other customers that use large amounts of capacity Elena Schlossberg is the executive director for the Coalition to Protect Prince William County She reported strength costs aren t the only concern regarding the amount of power the statistics center would use Our grid can t handle these really hot days So what happens is the records centers remove themselves from the grid and they rely on their diesel generators And I m talking about diesel generators the size of tractor-trailers Schlossberg revealed The region in general is reaching diesel generators We are building this st century apparatus that s relying on diesel generators for power on hot days And so then the people who are the closest will smell it breathe it hear it Last month County Supervisor Victor Angry accepted a donation from Chuck Kuhn who has ties to JK Holdings the developer looking to build the facility according to the Prince William Times The donation was for the county s first ever large-scale Juneteenth celebration They do all these little enticements to get particular of the supervisors to do their bidding It s really brazen It s not very well hidden It s right out there in plain sight and nobody seems to care Wright explained Both Wright and Schlossberg reported constituents administrators haven t done enough to keep track of the booming information center industry in Northern Virginia Everybody will be impacted by this kind of unprecedented progress that seems to have no guard rails and no adult keeping track of these cumulative impacts Schlossberg mentioned WTOP has reached out to Planning Commission Chair Juan McPhail who voted in favor of recommending the evidence center s approval for comment Source