Insidenova.com: “Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler on Tuesday walked back her original plans to consider the contentious PW Digital Gateway data center project at the board’s Nov. 21 meeting that falls just days before Thanksgiving.”
“The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is not an appropriate time to hear the Digital Gateway,” Wheeler said during the board’s Sept. 12 meeting.”
Stafford County held a public meeting about data centers on Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
There are multiple server farm campuses slated for the county. The meeting was an opportunity for elected leaders and planning commissioners to discuss the projects and answer questions from residents.
Insidenova.com: “The HOA Roundtable of Northern Virginia on Monday wrote to Prince William County leadership, objecting to their decision to take up two rezoning requests related to the contentious PW Digital Gateway data center project in November.”
Ann Wheeler’s anxiousness to schedule a vote on the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway rezoning before the Planning Office has even completed its review is hardly surprising. She has been in the tank for this project from the outset, and her blatant subservience to corporate masters was largely responsible for her electoral defeat.
Now shift the focus to her accomplices, who have thus far evaded the same level of accountability.
These words encapsulate exactly why the board chamber was FULL of residents for the July 11 vote on Resolution 23-365. Over 1,000 residents – from across the county – wrote to the board in support of that resolution – 908 petitioned via click-to-send email, and more than 100 others sent personal email messages. More than 100 also spoke at the meeting in favor of the resolution.
Mary Ann Ghadban, instigator of the Digital Gateway data center corridor application and Pageland Lane homeowner, wrote and published those statements in multiple local newspapers on the day of the board’s vote. Her group is exactly one that should NOT be given preferential treatment by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors with their votes.
“Companies seek Prince William as a development destination rather than economic development officials luring them in, Winn said. The economic development office simply helps companies become established once they’ve received the green light from elected officials.”
Winn also “said the that election’s results bear no impact on how her office plans to conduct business moving forward.” That aligns with Chair Ann Wheeler’s apparent intent to ignore the electorate and continue her overly solicitous attitude toward the data center industry unfettered. Her fealty to the lords commerce transcends any obligation to those she was elected to represent.
Its rough translation is that having too much pride or confidence will cause one to make mistakes that lead to failure. Excessive pride or confidence is commonly known as arrogance.
That saying should be engraved on the political tombstone of Ann Wheeler.
“The failed resolution introduced by Brentsville Supervisor Jeanine Lawson marked another unsuccessful effort by data center opponents to halt the Digital Gateway development that proposes 27.6 million square feet of data centers on 2,139 acres along Pageland Lane near Gainesville.”
