Prince William Board of County Supervisors
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.
Educating Prince William County students and cultivating their interest in STEM and related careers is one important way data centers make our communities better.
In 2019, Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered with Prince William County Schools and the Spark Foundation to open the first-ever Think Big Space at River Oaks Elementary School. The learning space is designed to promote career awareness, engineering design, coding, and gamification.
AWS has also partnered with SPARK and the Children’s Science Center to create sustainable STEM enrichment opportunities for 4th and 5th-grade students across Prince William County, particularly benefiting Title I schools. This pilot project aims to increase students’ enthusiasm, exposure, and competencies in STEM, while also providing STEM resources to targeted schools with no science labs.
Data center company QTS partners with Prince William County Public Schools to provide internships and promote career paths leading to jobs in the data center industry. QTS also sponsors the Prince William Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to graduating high school seniors who have shown a commitment to academic excellence and community involvement.
And as they have done since 2018, AFCOM Potomac Chapter provided paid internships for undergraduate students within the data center community.
Data centers and their employees also support efforts to help those in need in our county. Last fall, AWS employees volunteered for the Northern Virginia Family Services Operation Turkey event to unload and sort food donations to provide food for holiday meals to more than 1,000 Prince William County families. Employees of data center company Iron Mountain volunteered and donated food to thrift and food pantry House of Mercy.
Data center company Digital Realty hosted a charity golf tournament and heart walk that raised $93,552 in donations for the Greater Washington American Heart Association. Iron Mountain donated cash and staff volunteers for both the Freedom Firecracker 5K and the Prince William Turkey Trot with proceeds going to Hero’s Bridge to support elderly veterans.
Finally, the Data Center Coalition (DCC) partnered with the American Red Cross of Loudoun and Prince William Counties to host the #DataCentersSleevesUp blood drive to help address the critical blood shortage of blood across the United States. 12 DCC member data center companies participated in the campaign logging a total of 502 blood donations, enough to save approximately 1,500 lives.
As an industry, data centers have shown their commitment to improving the communities in which their employees live and work. Prince William County and its residents have benefited from data centers’ donations of time, money, and talent in 2022. I’m looking forward to seeing new and continuing contributions from the data center industry to the county, our schools, and our citizens in 2023.
Victor Angry represents the Neabsco District on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors serving his second term.
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.
These comparisons hold true for almost all items on restaurant menus; examples are pork barbecue, macaroni and cheese, pizza, enchiladas, chili, soups, bread, pies, etc.
Yet, your 1% sales tax on grocery food and now a 10% tax on restaurant food equates to your taxing restaurant customers 10 times more for their food. You are penalizing restaurant owners, employees, and landlords in this county while incentivizing residents to consume foods laden with chemical preservatives and stabilizers. This is unfair and unhealthy.
The Meals Tax is bad economics.
It is well established that as prices rise, demand falls. Prior to imposing the Meals Tax, inflation had already pushed restaurant prices on average up 9%. At this level, the fall off in demand was still manageable. When your Meals Tax raised prices by another 4%, you exceeded the breaking point and demand dropped precipitously. In our case, we immediately lost over 20% of our customers. We were forced to respond by reducing our payroll by 33% and obtaining rent relief.
All county restaurants and their employees were hurt, some more than others.
I have heard stated a justification for the tax: “If you can’t afford a 4% tax, then you can’t afford to eat out.” They are right. That is exactly what happened. A dangerously significant number of people stopped going to the sounty’s restaurants.
The Meals Tax is unpopular.
If you had submitted the tax to a referendum as was required in the past, I hypothesize that it would have failed decidedly, just as it had failed in the past. In your defense, you may have been unaware of the consequences when you imposed the tax. You may still have your reasons for maintaining it. If you decide to retain it, you will have ample opportunities to present your arguments to the voters in your upcoming election.
Your opponents, to whom I and other restaurant owners in the emerging coalition have spoken, have already stated their opposition to the tax. The debates will be interesting to watch. In any case, the Meals Tax issue will not be swept away and ignored by voters. I can assure you of that.
I appreciate your consideration and will watch with interest your decision.
Nelson H. Head
Dixie Bones Inc.
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.”
This recommendation proved prescient. Unfortunately, it also proved futile. Chair Ann Wheeler has not seen fit to place it on the BOCS agenda despite multiple inquiries.
Now the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is proposing that more than 100 data centers in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties be given a variance from air pollution controls so they can run their diesel generators any time the electrical transmission system is strained.
Such a strain on the grid is anticipated this summer. This strain does not even account for numerous additional data centers that have been approved but not yet completed. These approvals move forward at breakneck speed despite the obvious inability of our electrical transmission capacity to keep pace.
Diesel generators are extremely loud and their pollutants are linked to cancer, asthma and autoimmune disease.
The Sustainability Commission is doing what they were hired for. The Board of County Supervisors clearly is not.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
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Since this Board of County Supervisors took office in January, 2020, Ann Wheeler has marshaled her fellow Democrats on a determined path to open Prince William County to the data center industry with little due diligence to their impacts on the environment or the residents.
Ask yourself, is this why you chose to live in Prince William County?
- Industrialization to rival northern New Jersey.
- A new cross-county truck route from I-95 to Dulles airport.
- More than twice as much data center capacity as Loudoun County.
- Data center facilities directly adjacent to homes and schools.
- Proliferation of ugly new power lines and towers.
- Increased water pollution risk to the Occoquan Reservoir.
- A 60% tax discount to the world’s largest and most profitable big tech corporations.
- Infrastructure costs resulting in increased property taxes, rents, meal taxes and consumer energy bills.
- The world’s highest concentration of noisy, polluting, industrial diesel generators.
- Degradation of nationally-renowned historic areas, state and national parks and African American heritage sites.
Chair Wheeler would claim that this list does not reflect her vision, but her actions tell a different story in the proliferation and pace of Data Centers approved in the past three years.
Without the introduction of some semblance of sanity, this vision will surely become a long-term economic drain and enduring nightmare for the residents of PWC.
We must stop this march to unchecked industrialization and return to a more balanced and compatible approach to civic planning.
Paula Daly
Gainesville
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While I applaud your latest opinion piece about data centers, there was one aspect of it that I take issue with:
“We hear former Deputy County Executive Rebecca Horner has been sent back to the county planning department after several recent departures we told you about last week. She’s familiar with the planning office — she ran the place until she was promoted to deputy county executive in 2020. She may right the ship and create a plan because she’s one of the few people still around with institutional knowledge.”
I believe it is quite likely that the supervision of Rebecca Horner was at least partly responsible for the staff exodus. She is only back in her compromised “acting” role because so much has been driven out.
The Prince William County Planning Office is obviously in turmoil. Here are some questions that require answers:
- Why did former Planning Director Parag Agrawal resign abruptly after less than a year on the job?
- Why did Deputy County Executive for Community Development Rebecca Horner remain dual-hatted in a compromised role as acting Planning Director for nearly fifteen months when the workload warranted hiring a permanent successor?
- Why was Ms. Horner so averse to transparency in the planning process? Her office declined to reply to a July 5, 2022, letter from an attorney for the Gainesville Citizens for Smart Growth expressing concern over her office’s obstruction of legitimate citizen inquiries and withholding critical information from the public in advance of the September 14 Planning Commission hearing on the Prince William Digital Gateway.
- The American Institute of Certified Planners has a detailed Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, which calls on members to serve the public interest and resist improper influences faithfully. Are we confident the Planning Office has been strictly adhering to those provisions?
And what about her role in pigeon-holing the infamous 31-page letter from QTS and Compass attorneys before the Planning Commission public hearing on the Prince William Digital Gateway website?
That letter was held by her office and first made accessible to the public at 1:22 p.m. on September 15 – eight hours after the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the Prince William Digital Gateway.
This document should have been made available before the public hearing.
Rebecca Horner is not the answer to the Planning Office’s woes. It is far more likely she was a cause of them.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
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Call it a canary in the coal mine. Call it the result of years of residents pleading for their local leaders to hear them. Call it a referendum on data centers.
Whatever you call it, the landslide election of Bob Weir to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors with more than 60% of the vote should serve as a wake-up call to those in power in not only Prince William County but those who see data centers as a cash cow for their respective jurisdictions.
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Data from the Virginia Public Access Project (Elections: Prince William County Prince William County Supervisor – Gainesville (vpap.org) shows Democrat Kerensa Sumers raised $46,583, while Republican Bob Weir raised $20,005.
Sumers largest donors ($1,000 or more) included:
• Donations from Service Employees International Union – Local 512 to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org) (In-kind donation: digital advertisement)
• Donations from ActBlue Virginia to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Coalition for a Brighter PWC to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org) (address is Catharpin, VA)
• Donations from Democratic Party – Prince William County to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Mulhausen, Jeff to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Muslim Outreach and Volunteer Enterprise to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org) (In-kind donation: canvassing support)
• Donations from Sumers, Kerensa to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org) (loans)
• Donations from Stanley Martin Companies Inc to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Nova Building Industry Assn to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Kissler, Timothy L to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org) (In-kind donation: catering)
• Donations from Angry, Victor to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Boddye for Prince William County Board of Supervisors – Ken to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
• Donations from Compton, Bettie to Kerensa Sumers (vpap.org)
Weir’s largest donors ($1,000 or more) included:
• Donations from Lawson for Prince William County Board of Supervisors – Jeanine to Bob B Weir (vpap.org) ($1,000 cash + $1,000 in-kind donation for a campaign fundraiser)
• Donations from Weir, Bobert Burton to Bob B Weir (vpap.org) (loans)
• Donations from Kulick, Kathryn to Bob B Weir (vpap.org)
• Donations from Price, James M to Bob B Weir (vpap.org)
• Donations from Vega for Prince William County Board of Supervisors – Yesli to Bob B Weir (vpap.org)
• Donations from Ward, Elizabeth H to Bob B Weir (vpap.org)
Notable among Sumers’ donors is virtually every homeowner in the Catharpin Valley Estates neighborhood. This was the neighborhood that attempted to join the Prince William Digital Gateway CPA once they believed its passage was inevitable.
It would be interesting to learn who the contributors to “Coalition for a Brighter PWC” (The Virginia Public Access Project (vpap.org)) are. Since it has a Catharpin, VA address, could this be residents of the Sanders Lane area who want to put together a data center assemblage?
Just a guess. Draw your own conclusions.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
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By Ian Lovejoy
If it’s a day that ends in “Y”, then there’s a data center debate going on somewhere in Prince William County.
While much attention has been given to the controversial Digital Gateway, another large data center development is pending, impacting several neighborhoods, schools, and businesses.
Rezoning for The Devlin Technology Park, a 4.25 million square foot data center project, is scheduled for a vote at the Tuesday, February 7 Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting. The original vote was deferred in September, and many thought would be brought back up later this year.
Surprisingly, it became on the BOS agenda much sooner than anticipated.
The merits of the project will be debated, no doubt. With the battle lines being drawn along familiar terrain- those who benefit financially on one side and those who live with the ongoing impacts of the decision on the other. None of this is a particularly new debate in land use- the timing of this vote, however, is quite unusual.
As many are aware, the Gainesville district has no representative- the board is not whole.
With the February 21 special election looming, one cannot help but imagine this vacancy has played some role in the expedited vote for Devlin. With board ranks diminished the number of votes needed to pass a rezoning drops, an additional potential voice of decent goes unheard.
While it’s true this project is wholly contained within the Brentsville district, decisions of this magnitude are left to the whole board for a reason- so that countywide impacts can be discussed and considered. It’s increasingly impossible for the long-term ramifications of large land use decisions to remain contained within arbitrarily drawn political lines.
With the February special election just weeks away, the board has only one honorable choice- defer the Devlin Technology Park vote until after a new Gainesville representative is seated. As a former city councilman, I can attest firsthand that this may not be what the law requires, but is certainly considered best practice.
Taking up the vote now is an unforced error from a board already marred in controversy, and at best, reeks of poor planning, and at worst, gives the impression of a board attempting to expedite a vote to take advantage of a board vacancy.
Defer the vote.
Ian Lovejoy is running for the Virginia House of Delegates District 22 seat in Manassas and Prince William County.
The Democratic Party charter states: “What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people – individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens.
Bound by the U.S. Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people.”
Those principles have been repeatedly violated by the current Chair of the Prince William Board of County supervisors, Ann Wheeler.
Her blatant servitude to business interests has undermined a just society. Wheeler inhibited meaningful citizen participation by hastily scheduling community engagement meetings at the height of the COVID pandemic, refusing to delay them, and then barely acknowledging resident concerns.
Her disregard for due diligence proves she is insufficiently responsive to be worthy of the responsibility. Under Wheeler’s “leadership,” the county failed to conduct even a basic cost analysis of infrastructure and public services required for the Prince William Digital Gateway, nor did they conduct a noise study or assess electrical power needs.
The board also deliberately deferred a water study recommended by the county’s own Watershed Management branch and neighboring Fairfax County. Wheeler’s aversion to transparency for the sake of political expedience demonstrates she can neither openly nor honestly conduct public affairs in a manner worthy of her constituents.
County staff and supervisors repeatedly hid behind non-disclosure agreements to obscure the truth about the land under development or available for data center use and neglected to respond to multiple inquiries from citizens and their attorneys for essential information to inform the public debate.
Ann Wheeler’s tenure has been dominated by contentiousness, divisiveness, and suspicion. Every day she spends in the office further damages the Democratic brand in Prince William County. She needs to be removed.
It is our civic duty to reject public officials who have betrayed our trust and replace them with better candidates that will restore it. With Deshundra Jefferson’s announcement last Wednesday, Prince William voters now have both a fine candidate and an opportunity for redemption.
Vote for Deshundra Jefferson in the Democratic primary on June 20.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
Former Treasurer, Gainesville Magisterial District Democratic Committee
PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].
By Jennifer T. Wall
Prince William County School Board, Gainesville District
Over the past 18 months, I have repeatedly heard the statement to the effect that it is the western end of the county's turn to feel the pains of development. This statement ignores the fact that over the last two decades, the west end of Prince William has in fact experienced explosive growth.
Anyone who knows Prince William County and has lived in this county for the last two decades will agree that many areas in western Prince William have been completely transformed from what they once were.
