Residents are being urged to attend a hearing on the Edsall substation in Annandale.
Opponents of Dominion Energy's proposal for a five-acre substation to serve a data center on Edsall Road are hoping for a large turnout at the Fairfax County Planning Commission hearing on Dec. 2.
The Save Bren Mar Coalition, a grassroots group that has fought the data center and the substation for years, organized a canvass on Nov. 7 to inform residents of the nearby Jefferson Green, Edsall Ridge and Bren Mar Park neighborhoods about the upcoming hearing and urge them to attend.
Before volunteers fanned out to knock on doors, the coalition's founder, Tyler Ray, who is also president of the Bren Pointe HOA, told them, "The Planning Commission public hearing on December 2nd will decide the fate of the Edsall data center substation, and potentially the data center itself." In addition to local residents, the event drew volunteers from Reston and Arlington.
About 28,000 residents of Mason District and the City of Alexandria live within a mile of the proposed data center campus at the Plaza 500 site on Edsall Road. The substation would be just 67 feet from homes in the Ridges of Edsall townhouse community.
The data center, to be built by Starwood Capital, is a by-right project, meaning it does not need to go through a hearing process or receive approval from the Board of Supervisors. The State Corporation Commission has already approved a high-voltage transmission line for a future substation.
Starwood cannot move forward with the data center, however, unless a substation is built to support it. The only chance residents have to stop the project is if the Planning Commission rejects a 2232 Public Facilities Review of the proposed substation.
The Planning Commission hearing will be held in the Board Auditorium at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, on Dec. 2. It starts at 7:30 p.m.
To speak at the hearing, residents can sign up online. Testimony may also be submitted by written statement, by phone or as a pre-recorded YouTube video.
The Mason District Land Use Committee will vote on Nov. 30 on whether to recommend approval or denial of the substation. The public is urged to attend that meeting, held at Belvedere Elementary School, 6540 Columbia Pike, at 7:30 p.m.
When the data center was proposed, "Bren Mar was thrown under the bus," Del. Vivian Watts told volunteers before the canvass. "It should never have gone forward; at least it should never have gone forward as a by-right project."
"On the local level, you change things by the numbers of people showing up," Watts said. "Members of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors think they know their district. You've got to show them otherwise, that we understand what's happening and that this is wrong."
The Save Bren Mar Coalition plans to host canvass events on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, and every weekend until Dec. 2. The goal is to pack the room at the Planning Commission hearing.