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 input 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 evidence centers in the county Northern Virginia is ranked the world s largest figures center arena according to real estate firm JLL s quarterly document on global information 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 facts center applications that are envisioned for Prince William County will be over million square feet of records center improvement 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 revealed 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 at this moment houses a facts center less than of the new building s size is across the street from planned George Mason University aspirant housing commercial advancement and a not long ago declared innovation district The idea of just having this thing across the street from attendee 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 explained It s going to look like a spaghetti factory Potential costs and environmental impact Other area concerns include how the facility may impact air and noise litter as well as strength 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 evidence centers and other customers that use large amounts of potential Elena Schlossberg is the executive director for the Coalition to Protect Prince William County She announced resource costs aren t the only concern regarding the amount of power the input center would use Our grid can t handle these really hot days So what happens is the figures 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 mentioned The region in general is reaching diesel generators We are building this st century equipment 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 specific 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 noted Both Wright and Schlossberg declared citizens functionaries haven t done enough to keep track of the booming evidence center industry in Northern Virginia Everybody will be impacted by this kind of unprecedented advance that seems to have no guard rails and no adult keeping track of these cumulative impacts Schlossberg stated WTOP has reached out to Planning Commission Chair Juan McPhail who voted in favor of recommending the details center s approval for comment Source