Judge voids Prince William data centers, requires re-vote

Prince William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly A. Irving has voided a plan to build data centers on privately held land next to Manassas National Battlefield Park and ordered county officials to redo a controversial vote rezoning the land.

In an 18-page ruling Thursday, Judge Irving sided with local homeowners who argued in a January 2024 lawsuit that they did not receive legally required timely notification of the county’s “proposed plans, ordinances or amendments” to build the nation’s largest data center hub.

“The sheer size of this development cannot be overstated, and it gives credit to the unique concerns raised by Plaintiffs in this case,” the judge wrote.

The county is expected to appeal the ruling.

Mac Haddow, president of the Oak Valley Homeowners’ Association, which filed the lawsuit along with 11 individual residents, said the appeal should delay the project for at least two more years.

“I know the contracts with the landowners [who sold their properties for redevelopment] have a provision that the purchase of the land is conditioned on all legal challenges being resolved,” Mr. Haddow said in an email.

“This is a victory for every resident of Prince William County who looks to the government to be transparent and accountable,” he said.

The Washington Times reached out to the county and the two companies building the data centers for comment.

“We are disappointed in the court’s decision and are assessing our options moving forward,” Compass Datacenters said in an email. “We remain committed to building a first class data center campus in Prince William County and will provide further comment as events warrant.”

Virginia Douglas, chief of staff for Board of Supervisors Chair Deshundra Jefferson, an at-large Democrat who opposed the project, said the county cannot comment on pending litigation.

Supervisor Victor S. Angry, a Neabsco Democrat and proponent of the data centers, also declined to comment.

The data center companies and the county board argued in court that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they could not identify the “particularized harm” the project will have on them.

But Judge Irving wrote in her ruling that a legal precedent showed the residents “need only foresee a ‘potential injury not shared by the general public.’”

The lawsuit is one of two filed in January 2024 that have halted QTS Realty Trust and Compass Datacenters from building the Prince William Digital Gateway on 2,139 acres of rural land west of the battlefield, which commemorates the two battles of Bull Run during the Civil War.

Former Democratic state lawmaker Chap Petersen, an attorney representing the American Battlefield Trust and local homeowners in the other lawsuit, said he expects the Virginia Court of Appeals to overturn a circuit court ruling that dismissed his case last year.

“This case may end up lasting as long as the Civil War,” Mr. Petersen said Thursday. “Data Centers should only be sited in industrial areas, not next to schools or residential areas.”

The data centers would occupy 27.6 million square feet of privately owned battlefield sites in a rural strip of the Occoquan Watershed. County officials estimate they would generate $400 million in annual tax revenue.

The Democrat-led Board of Supervisors voted along party lines in November 2022 to redesignate the land for data centers after a contentious, all-night public hearing.

The judge’s order voids a subsequent December 2023 vote to rezone the land.

Critics insisted the data centers would increase their living expenses, damage the environment and disrupt undiscovered historical artifacts.

Developers have pledged to preserve any historical artifacts they uncover.

Two earlier lawsuits filed in November and December of 2022 failed in court.

In the newer lawsuits, area residents and battlefield advocates argue that the Board of Supervisors cut corners to rush the project into development.

Preservationists applauded Thursday’s ruling.

“Today’s ruling is a major milestone in our efforts to protect the Manassas Battlefield, demonstrating the merit of our claims that a lame duck Board of Supervisors acted inappropriately, and with insufficient public notice, in its haste to rezone the Prince William Digital Gateway,” said American Battlefield Trust President David N. Duncan.

“We also want to recognize the determination of the members of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, who had the courage to stand up against this colossal menace to their homes and the historic battlefield,” he added.

Ms. Jefferson has joined Republicans in opposing the gateway since defeating former Prince William County Board of Supervisors chair Ann Wheeler in a 2023 primary election.

She took office in January 2024 after pledging to reverse Ms. Wheeler’s support of the gateway.

As chair, her opposition to the data centers has made more recent votes on the project closer, but fellow Democrats have continued to advance the project.

Northern Virginia has become ground zero in a growing conflict between revenue-hungry public officials and homeowners concerned about property values as generative artificial intelligence has increased the need for data storage hubs.

As of December, The Associated Press reported that more than 300 data centers already lined the hills of the area’s westernmost counties.

Several lawsuits have also been filed to halt more recent Prince William County plans to build data centers in Bristow.

In the Gainesville District, where Republican Supervisor Bob Weir died of cancer last month, Democratic candidate George T. Stewart and Republican candidate Patrick Harders have pledged to continue his opposition to data centers if they win a Nov. 4 special election to fill the seat.

The district includes much of the area affected by the Prince William Digital Gateway.