QTS inquired into developing a data center campus along Pageland Lane, outside of the county’s designated Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, as early as the summer of 2020.
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Author: Letters to the Editor
Following the Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ vote to approve the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the Digital Gateway last November, I urge the Planning Commission and Board of County Supervisors to continue moving forward with efforts to implement the transformative vision of the project.
The Prince William Digital Gateway aligns with the county’s strategic plan. It provides an array of benefits through an increased tax base to fund opportunities for schools, affordable housing, parks, trails, public health, transportation, and other services.
Look at the creative ways they try to exploit your inattention. Did you know that our board of county supervisors has authorized a water study of the Occoquan watershed, a Sustainability Commission Report, development of a revised noise ordinance, and considering enhanced building code standards for data centers?
The results are due back about the same time as they finish pouring cement for the millions of square feet of data centers they already rushed to approve.
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The proposed property tax increase in Stafford County is prohibitively high.
Many of the speakers at the Board of Supervisors’ April 4 Meeting wanted the tax increase “for the children” with the implication that if you don’t support the increase, you want to hurt our children.
Dear Stafford County Board of Supervisors,
If you would be so kind as to restrict your tax increase to no more than the rate of inflation on the rest of Stafford County middle-class taxpayers, I will pay that tax rate and send an extra check to cover the difference between the past tax, and what it would have been at $1.17.
The Prince William County circus is never short on sideshows.
In eastern Prince William, we’re gambling on “The Rose.” In western Prince William, we’ve bet the house on data centers.
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There were audible guffaws upon learning that Chair Ann Wheeler was to be a guest speaker for the Prince William County Green Business Council’s 2023 Spring Conference.
Is their “green” shorthand for greenbacks? We all wondered if she was going to ride in on an opulent bulldozer.
In recent years, residents of Prince William County have likely heard me promote the financial benefits data centers bring to our county. The tax revenue they generate and will continue to contribute for years to come is essential to our ability to boost funding for schools, social services and other county priorities while decreasing the tax burden on county homeowners.
What often goes unheralded, however, are the many ways data centers and their employees contribute to and strengthen our community. In 2022 alone, those contributions have had a tremendous impact.
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As you consider the County’s budget, I request that you repeal the 4% Meals Tax on restaurant food. The following are my reasons.
The tax is unfair and unhealthy. Restaurants prepare fresh food daily; grocery stores sell the same food in frozen, refrigerated, and dehydrated forms. Restaurants like mine start with unadulterated raw ingredients; grocery foods, by necessity, contain chemical preservatives and stabilizers. Cooks who live and pay taxes in the County prepare restaurant food; factory workers in faraway locations manufacture grocery food.
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On September 22, 2022 that Sustainability Commission unanimously passed resolution #22-007 which recommended several “fast-track” measures to put the county on a trajectory to achieve those goals.
Among their recommendations were: “Prohibit the building of new backup power generation using diesel and/or petroleum in favor of less carbon-intensive generation and encourage the conversion of existing diesel and/or petroleum backup systems to less carbon-intensive generation.”