Prince William Times 12/07/2023

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STATE SEMIFINAL FOOTBALL: Freedom moves on, Brentsville falls. SPORTS, PAGES 10, 11

December 7, 2023 | Vol. 22, No. 49 | 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.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Decision time for Digital Gateway $1 billion real estate deal is at stake in mega-data-center project nearly triple the size of Arlington cemetery

Nearly triple the size of the Arlington National Cemetery

Driving along Pageland Lane between Lee Highway and Sudley Road, with its acres of rolling meadows and miles of tree line fully in view, one begins to grasp the enormity of the proposed Prince William Digital Gateway. In some directions, the land on which the project would be built stretches as far as the eye can see — three miles from north to south and two miles east to west. That’s nearly triple the size of Arlington National Cemetery and three times bigger than the National Mall — from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.

Buildings as long as three football fields

According to plans submitted by developers QTS Data Systems and Compass Datasystems, the corridor would be

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The Prince William Board of Supervisors will take up its most controversial data center vote yet on Dec. 12, one that could make the county the data center capital of the world. The project, known as the Prince William Digital Gateway, proposes 37 data centers spread among 1,760 acres in western Prince William on land adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park. Because of its location, as well as its enormous size, the project has been controversial since it was first proposed back in early 2021. If approved, the development would put Prince William on track to eclipse the data center development in Loudoun County, resulting in Prince William County having the largest concentration in North America of the huge, windowless buildings that house the computer servers required to operate the internet. Here’s what is known about the Digital Gateway, including its size and scope as well as the money behind the massive development.

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Prince William Digital Gateway

By Shannon Clark Times Staff Writer

Deshundra Jefferson was elected chair of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 7 after campaigning for months against large and controversial data center projects such as the recently ap- Deshundra Jefferson proved Devlin Technology Park and the massive Prince William Digital Gateway, which is slated for a vote next week. But despite her opposition, she said she has so far been unsuccessful in persuading the board’s sitting Democratic majority that allowing data centers too close to homes, schools and especially historic sites isn’t a good thing. “I’m very much against these types of (data center) decisions,” Jefferson said in an interview after the supervisors’ Nov. 28 vote to approve Devlin Technology Park. “It played a lot into my decision to run for board. There’s an irony See JEFFERSON, page 6

In what would be one of the largest new data center developments in the world, the Digital Gateway proposes to transform 1,700 acres of homes and farms next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park into a corridor of 37 data centers. (Locations of buildings and electrical infrastructure are approximate.)

Prince William teachers, school division reach tentative deal

SOURCE: QTS, COMPASS DATACENTERS MASTER CORRIDOR PLAN; MAP BY VINCENT SALES; MAP DATA COURTESY OF OPENSTREETMAP

With such development comes enormous power demands. Exactly how much power will be needed to fuel the Digital Gateway’s 37 buildings is not yet known. QTS and Compass have not provided county planners with an estimate, nor has Dominion Energy. While data centers’ power use varies widely, even the lowest numbers seen at other data centers suggest the Digital Gateway will require 2 to 3 gigawatts (or 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts) of power. That’s

From staff reports The Prince William County School Board has reached tentative agreements with the teachers’ union on a series of negotiated changes that offered some extra pay and improved benefits, but the board balked at the teachers’ pay demands, which began with a proposed 17% pay hike. The school division is moving forward with what it called 6% average pay raise, but union officials said they calculated the average raise closer to 5%. With a Dec. 1 deadline set by the school division now past, negotiators for both sides agreed to set aside the pay raise question and leave any agreement on pay for a future conversation. The development marks the end — for now — of the school division’s first-ever collective bargaining attempt with its more than 11,000 teachers and staff. Jerod Gay, a middle school language arts teacher who is taking a break from the classroom this year to help negotiate the new contract, said agreements on other issues besides pay was the

See GATEWAY, page 3

See TEACHERS, page 6

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filled with 37 buildings each averaging about 150,000 square feet. That’s the equivalent of buildings one football field wide and three football fields long. The footprint of those 37 buildings — not counting adjacent areas paved for parking and generator pads — would be five times the footprint of the Pentagon, which is the world’s largest office building. The developers have asked for up to 22.3 million square feet of data center space. Loudoun County, the current data center capital of the world, has data center inventory of about 27 million square feet.

Chair-elect voices frustration over data center votes

Enough power to feed 500,000 homes

Bristow man collects 5,000 pumpkins to feed farm animals, page 2

Division promises 6% raise; union disputes pay plan

Publisher’s note: Prince William Times will not publish on Thursday, Dec. 28, page 5

88 DULLES, VA


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