Prince William County 위원들이 'Project Industry' 데이터센터 사업안에 대한 의결을 보류했다.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors deferred the "Project Industry" data center application during their September 1 meeting. The proposal calls for two data center buildings and a six-acre electric substation on a property spanning just over 42 acres in the Brentsville District, located within the county's Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, south of Wellington Road and about 200 feet south and southeast of the Wellington Road and Rollins Ford Road intersection.

Industrial Park Court, LLC, the project's applicant, sought a rezoning to accommodate proffer changes that would significantly alter the site's allowable development parameters. Under the new proffer, building height would be permitted up to 85 feet, including rooftop mechanical equipment, while the electric substation could reach a maximum of 110 feet. Currently, the property is restricted to a maximum height of 45 feet with no substation permitted.

"The baseline zoning district is staying the same, but the specifics of what comes with the base zoning are changing through this application," said Tanya Washington, the county's planning director.

The rezoning would introduce a maximum floor area ratio of 0.35 and include several new provisions. These encompass the electric substation—which "may include a switching station"—new access provisions, pedestrian improvements, enhanced landscaping, specific limits on clearing and grading, protection of existing natural areas and the surrounding Resource Protection Area, enhanced protection of the existing Rollins cemetery with additional planting and parking, commitments to sustainability measures, and noise controls backed by sound studies.

The two-part application, comprising a rezoning request and a proffer amendment, was first heard by the county's Planning Commission on May 20. That hearing resulted in a 3-3 tie vote with two commissioners absent, a deadlock that county staff classified as "no action"—and therefore counted as an approval by default. Brentsville Commissioner Chris Carroll had initiated the motion to recommend denial at that meeting.

Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, questioned the supervisors' deferral in a statement to local media. "In this county, it's all about the vote counting for developers," she said. "I guess they thought they had the votes, and clearly they don't. I would like to believe it's because including a substation in a data center application removes critical oversight with the public facilities review process. I would like to believe the significant and extensive resource protection area that runs through that site requires protection and appropriate consideration. I would like to believe the addition of more diesel generators, substations and transmission lines is finally becoming a red line—but I'm not confident those important reasons to deny this application are what drove the deferral."