Before the land was slated for up to 14 Devlin Road Technology Park data centers, Stanley Martin Homes wanted to build more than 1,800 homes on nearly 900 acres in Bristow in 2014.
Called Stonehaven, the proposed mixed-use development would have houses, retail, and office space. The county school division, as it has with more than 130 other housing projects, weighed in and prepared a report for the school board warning that the new homes would bring more than 1,000 new students to the county public schools.
The county school division used information included in the developer’s site plan and proffer statement — a list of promises to the county made by the developer if the rezoning were to be approved, including proffering a site for a new high school.
According to a quick search of previous schools board meeting agendas, the school division’s opinion on Stonehaven was one of more than 100 development impact statements the schools produced on development projects from all corners of the county — from the Kline property outside Manassas, where, again, Stanley Martin aims to build 240 homes, and the field Rays Regarde at Interstate 95 and Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge in 2019.
The impact statements indicate how many students the school division would expect if the homes were built. Data centers — massive buildings full of computer servers that power the internet — produce few jobs and bring zero children to county schools.
However, Gainesville District School Board Representative Jennifer Wall told the hundreds of people at Chris Yung Elementary School who came to a town hall meeting about the Delvin Road Technology Park that the school division should have offered its opinion on the project. The data centers will be built next to the elementary school and hundreds of homes in the Linton Hall Road corridor.
“The official [Prince William County Public Schools] position on this development is, we won’t take a position, and I’m really mad about that,” said Wall, school board vice-chair.
Wall sent a letter to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors urging it to postpone a rezoning vote on the Devlin Road Technology Park until after February 21, when a new Gainesville District Supervisor is chosen in a Special Election. Peter Candland resigned the position in December after agreeing to sell his home to data center developers.
While the technology park sits in the Brentsville District, Wall says multiple students who live in her Gainesville District attend schools near the proposed data center complex and will be negatively affected.
Brentsville District School Board representative Adele Jackson joined Wall at the microphone during the town hall while Parents yelled, “take a stand for the children.”
“We were going to wait and see how this goes and then take a position,” said Jackson. “But now that I hear what you’re saying, we might reconsider,” Jackson told the crowd.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the Devlin Road Technology Park tonight at 7:30 during its public meeting at 1 County Complex Court in Woodbridge.
Based on the willingness of the majority to approve new data center projects, including the Prince William Digital Gateway, with space for more than 27 million square feet of data centers next to Manassas National Battlefield Park — the project is likely to pass.
