The Prince William County Planning Commission denied a deferred data center plan slated for Hornbaker Road at its Nov. 5 meeting.
The plan was originally brought forth to the Commission at its Sept. 24 meeting, but two tied votes — one for approval and the other for denial — forced the Commission to defer the plan to a later date.
The plan was initially deferred to Oct. 29, but was further deferred at the request of the applicant to Nov. 5. According to the staff report, the applicant needed “more time for the documents to be completed.”
A 40-acre parcel of land along the Prince William Parkway across the Innovation Town Center in the Brentsville District was the subject of this proposal. The parcel is currently zoned for agriculture and planned business, but the applicant wanted it rezoned for a “mix of data center and non-data center uses,” an earlier version of the staff report stated.
Many Commissioners expressed their hesitation for this project because the data center would be outside of the county’s designated Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District. According to staff, it was removed in 2019. Nearby residents opposed the project because of this.
But, others noted the opportunity to bring in small businesses as land prices skyrocket.
“Even if there is land available, everybody’s selling it at data center prices, which is over easily over a $1.5 million an acre, if not more. Small businesses to medium-sized businesses that are in the advanced manufacturing [research and development] space can’t afford that,” Christina Winn, the executive director for the county’s Department of Economic Development, said at the Sept. 24 meeting.
Lee Gleason, a land use attorney representing the applicant, said the applicant heard staff and the Commission’s concerns and attempted to rectify some issues.
“Both staff and this Commission requested that we revise and enhance the look of the building and include more differentiated architectural features to break up the building facade,” Gleason noted. “The applicant took that direction and went back to the drawing board [and] hired a new architecture firm to enhance the building design.”
Gleason said the applicant changed the color scheme of the building, added window and glass features, included vertical window treatments and revised the elevations.
“The applicant has changed the color scheme to align with Innovation Park and increased the windows and glazing materials and other architectural materials,” Gleason said.
Christopher Carroll, the Brentsville Commissioner, said he was thankful for all the changes made by the applicant, but that the project still did not fit the area.
“We’re talking about adding a data center in a parcel that was specifically pulled out from the overlay just a couple of years ago, and I think we should really push for what the county envisioned here,” Carroll said. “I definitely understand Economic Development’s support here, and thank you Director Winn for coming out tonight, but I’m going to really push for what the county had planned when the board pulled this parcel out, and that’s non-data buildings for Innovation Park and the Innovation District.”
Carroll moved for the project’s denial, which was supported in a 4-3 vote. Commissioners Mark Scheufler, Karla Justice and Blake Ross joined Carroll, while Chair Juan McPhail, Vice Chair Qwendolyn Brown and Cynthia Moses-Nedd voted to approve the project. Commissioner Raheel Sheikh was not present at the meeting.
