Planners Recommend Rejection Of Massive Data Center Project In Prince William County
One of the country’s largest and most controversial data center projects is facing an increasingly murky future.
Planning officials in Prince William County, Virginia, have recommended that county supervisors reject the rezoning for the PW Digital Gateway data center corridor, creating uncertainty around the fate of a pair of massive projects that would turn the Northern Virginia county into one of the world’s largest data center hubs.
The recommendation, first reported by the Prince William Times on Friday, cites insufficient information from developers QTS Data Centers and Compass Datacenters as its reason to urge lawmakers to reject the rezoning applications needed for the projects to move forward. Local lawmakers are expected to make a final decision on the PW Digital Gateway in December.
The PW Digital Gateway has faced significant opposition since the development plan was first proposed in 2021. Land use changes approved last year paved the way for the rezoning of 2,139 acres extending from the historic Manassas battlefield in the south to Route 234 on its northern boundary — part of a stretch of agricultural, residential and protected forest known as the Rural Crescent.
The rezoning would allow as much as 27.6M SF of data center buildings within the PW Digital Gateway footprint. That is nearly as much as has been built or is under construction in neighboring Loudoun County, the home of what is known as Data Center Alley and the largest data center market in the world.
Both Compass Datacenters and QTS — Blackstone's fast-growing data center subsidiary — have proposed large campuses within the PW Digital Gateway footprint.
The size of the project has made it deeply unpopular with some residents, who are concerned about the impact of large-scale industrial infrastructure in the predominantly rural area. The development plans have led to protests outside QTS’ regional headquarters and made data center development a fiercely debated topic in local editorial pages and elections.
The recommendation by county planners against the project was welcomed by opponents of the project.
“The results of the planning staff did not happen in a vacuum,” said Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, according to the Prince William Times. “It was also the community giving support to the staff to do the right thing.”
