SPORTS: Greater Manassas advances to Babe Ruth World Series, Unity Reed football. PAGE 9
August 3, 2023 | Vol. 22, No. 31 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
After gas station is OK’d, can rare orchid survive? By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Big changes are likely coming near the Ashland subdivision and Forest Park High School, including a large new gas station, a drive-thru restaurant and eventually a new Prince William County fire station. And that’s raising concerns about one of the area’s tiniest residents: an endangered orchid called the “small whorled pogonia.” The developments are proposed for the southeast quadrant of Spriggs and Dumfries roads, an area that’s now undeveloped and thickly forested. About half of the parcel – the five acres closest to Forest Park High School – is a conservation preserve for the orchid, which is listed on both state and federal endangered species lists. Like its name suggests, the small whorled pogonia is petite, reaching just 10 inches in height. Its flower, surrounded by a whorl of green leaves, spans about three inches. It’s also fairly rare. It was once widely distributed throughout the Northeast but is now found in only about 300 spots in the U.S., mostly in Maine, according to NatureServe, a biodiversity nonprofit. It’s “extirpirated,” or locally extinct, in both Maryland and Washington, D.C., but has been found in 19 counties in Virginia. Most populations, however, have only about 20 plants, according to
COURTESY
The small whorled pogonia is tiny – just 10 inches tall – and relatively rare. The plant was discovered in 1989 in a stand of woods near the future site of Forest Park High School, which opened in 2000.
An artist’s rendering of the new development. Va. 234 is at the top of the rendering, while the orchid preserve is depicted at the top left. Spriggs Road is shown at the bottom right.
the NatureServe website. When the Ashland subdivision and Forest Park High School were being built in 1989, surveyors found a small whorled pogonia population in the stand of woods between the high school site and Va. 234. A five-acre parcel was donated in 2004 to the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust in an effort to protect the orchid population. It has remained mostly undisturbed for nearly 20 years, despite being at the edge of a
2,100-student high school. On July 25, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve two special use permits that will allow the corner to be developed into a drive-thru restaurant and a 16-pump gas station similar in size to a WaWa or Sheetz, although county officials say no end user has yet purchased the property. See ORCHID, page 2
Region’s sluggish solar can’t match surging data center demand By Peter Cary
Piedmont Journalism Foundation
Above: This 225-acre solar farm near Nokesville is one of only two operating utility-scale solar facilities in Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties. PHOTO BY JOHN CALHOUN
Left: The Alameda solar project pitched for the Midland area of Fauquier County envisions sheep grazing under the solar panels like this facility in Mechanicsville, Va. SUBMITTED
Prince William eliminates residential solar fees, page 3
The two latest utility-scale projects proposed for Fauquier County are off to a rough start. Back in April, the planning commission rejected both an 832-acre solar facility proposed near Midland as well as a 466-acre project sited near Bristersburg. Open Roads Renewables, of Austin, Texas, is developing the Midland project, dubbed “Alameda Solar.” Last week, it held an open house to showcase its re-design for the 70-megawatt project, which, if approved on this second try, would produce enough electricity to power about 18,000 homes. Torch Clean Energy, the developer of the Bristersburg-area project, is appealing the denial of its project to the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 10. The two projects illustrate Fauquier County’s rocky record with solar farms. With a comprehensive plan that favors the county’s rural lands and economy – plus residents who don’t want to see solar panels
There’s still time to catch a summer concert, page 6
next door – county officials have so far approved just one solar farm, which Dominion built on its own property at the southern end of the county in 2017. “They’re running into local opposition, and the local opposition is not always rational. So, that could end up being a real stumbling block in Virginia,” said Ivy Main, the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter’s co-chair for renewable energy. She argues that solar is often sited on land that is marginally productive or on land where farmers just can’t make money. “So, we’re not seeing the breadbasket of America being turned into solar farms here,” she said. Meanwhile, Fauquier has six data centers in its approval pipeline, with at least two more on landowners’ wish lists. If most come to fruition, Fauquier could see its power needs jump by 1,000 megawatts or more. (A megawatt is a million watts, roughly enough to power 250 to 400 homes.) See SOLAR, page 2
88 DULLES, VA