Residents and grassroots groups held a roughly 40-minute press conference Thursday evening outside the NTT data center complex at 13710 Daves Store Lane in Gainesville to call for a 12-month pause on new data center applications that require a vote by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. Organizers said the pause is needed so the county can update buffers, setbacks, noise rules, lighting standards, and other protections before more projects advance.
Speakers included Rina Stapp of Save Braemar, Carolee Carrington of Wentworth Green, Catherine Kulik of the HOA Roundtable, Patrick Harters, and Dalton Nichols of the Occoquan District. They described impacts from noise and large industrial fans, light trespass and non-dark-sky-compliant fixtures, diesel generators, power demand they said is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of homes for this campus alone, rising electricity bills, and proximity to homes, schools, and the Occoquan Reservoir Protective Area.
They also referenced Dominion Energy’s lawsuit against the county over a gas-insulated substation denial and said the board’s recent end to most by-right data center approvals came with a 90-day grace period during which applications are still moving. Speakers said the local pause would apply only to applications where the board has discretionary authority, not by-right projects, and that it should have a firm start and end date, no pipeline exceptions, and a public hearing with a recorded vote.
They cited tracking of more than 10 million square feet of data center and substation applications since the planning commission meeting that followed the by-right change, with additional millions still in process before the grace period ends December 21, and they said almost no projects had actually used pure by-right status. A petition at pausedatacenters.com supports the 12-month local pause and a statewide moratorium; organizers said it is open to Prince William residents and that they had only begun collecting signatures.
They also said the county’s earlier Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group produced stronger noise recommendations that were weakened after industry input, and that no comprehensive siting plan exists for data centers or the transmission lines and substations that serve them. As of Friday, October 30, there is no indication in public agendas or recent coverage that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors or the Planning Commission has taken up or scheduled this specific 12-month pause petition.
The board has acted on related data center matters: on September 22 it voted 8-0 to end most by-right development countywide under zoning text amendment DPA2026-00006, after a Planning Commission recommendation on September 9, with a 90-day grace period running until December 21. It has also handled individual applications, denied Dominion Energy’s Vint Hill SF6 substation (prompting the utility’s lawsuit), and revisited noise rules.
Chair Deshundra Jefferson has said she prefers the board voting unsuitable projects down case by case rather than supporting a statewide moratorium. Neighboring Loudoun County has advanced a process that could pause its own legislative applications for up to 12 months, and state bills for multi-year moratoriums are queued for the 2027 General Assembly.
Organizers said they want the board to bring a directive at its next meeting.
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Full press release
Citizens announce “It Is Time to PAUSE to PLAN — Because Currently There Is NO PLAN”
Citizens have created a petition that not only includes a Pause on data center development in Prince William County, but also supports a statewide data center moratorium.
Pause Data Centers — Stop Data Center Sprawl in Prince William County
In essence, we ask Prince William County to defer any data center application requiring a vote of the Board of County Supervisors for 12 months. This deferral, or “pause,” would not apply to applications over which the BOCS does not have discretionary authority, including “by-right” applications.
During this pause, we, the undersigned, expect the County to use this time to establish meaningful, enforceable protections for residents. At a minimum, the Design and Construction Standards Manual (DCSM) and other applicable County policies and ordinances governing data center development should be updated to reflect the scale and impacts of today’s industry. These updates should include increased buffers and setbacks from homes, schools, parks, and religious institutions; an updated, data-driven noise ordinance developed with qualified expert recommendations; clearly defined and measurable performance standards; and meaningful enforcement mechanisms that provide accountability when those standards are exceeded.
The scale of the threat of this industrial buildout is finally rising to the surface, after years of grassroots’ warning.
Dominion Energy’s recent lawsuit filed against Prince William County Board of Supervisors, questioning their authority to deny the Vint Hill SF6 Substation, is a game changer. This Press Conference offers a unique perspective on what lies ahead for residents…
This press conference location offers a unique close-up look at ALL the infrastructure required to make this industry function. This NTT complex in Gainesville is building out FOUR 550,000 sq ft buildings on 100 acres with only two completed. These ARE the largest Data Centers in Prince William County, each building is a quarter-mile long (1,320 feet), measures 180 feet wide, and stands 75 feet tall—roughly equivalent to the size of five football fields laid end-to-end. The total peak load power demand is equivalent to approximately 468,000 homes.
For residents, impacted by noise, diesel generators polluting the air, the whine of gas turbines 24/7, eminent domain threats to make way for their massive transmission lines, substations that spider out more private extension cords, and ever-increasing electricity bills, it feels like citizens are frantically putting out an SOS warning there is a five-alarm fire burning, and the fleet of fire trucks has NOT arrived.
One way to suppress a fire is to remove the accelerant.
Enacting a twelve-month pause, while not a magical solution, will provide time to establish a framework to facilitate updated regulations that put people first. Do not forget however, there are still millions of sq ft of data center development that have been approved and not yet built, and more rushing in during the 90-day grace period enacted by the Board of Supervisors when they amended by-right in the data center overlay.
Citizens and Grassroots Organizations from multiple districts will be speaking.
