A new data center has been approved for a 45-acre property outside the Town of Haymarket. But some are concerned the data center will require the construction of new overhead transmission lines to help power it.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved on Tuesday a rezoning and special use permit for the 1 million square foot data center – known as Village Place Technology Park – on a 5-3 vote, with five of the board’s Democratic supervisors voting in favor, and the board’s three Republicans opposed.
The rezoning and special use permit will allow the data center’s construction at the intersection of Catharpin Road and John Marshall Highway east of Haymarket. The property was previously designated as “community employment center” to accommodate more than 200 apartments and condos and up to 650,000 square feet of retail.
It is the first of three data center proposals approved for the immediate area. Another two data centers are being proposed across the street from Village Place Technology Park. They are the 23-acre John Marshall Commons Technology Park and the 103-acre I-66 and Route 29 Technology Park.
A map of the area rezoned for the Village Place Technology Park, which is outlined in yellow. The map shows two other areas slated for data centers nearby. The blue shaded area designates the limits of the county's current data center overlay district.
Neither of the other two projects has been scheduled for a planning commission public hearing at this time.
All three data centers projects are planned outside the county’s “Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District” created in 2016 to allow by-right data center uses in areas with existing electrical infrastructure needed to power them.
There are between 600 and 1,100 acres suitable for data center development remaining in the nearly 10,000-acre overlay district, according to the county’s department of economic development.
Republican supervisors and conservation groups are concerned that Village Place Technology Park and additional data centers in the area will require a new overhead transmission line, potentially setting up another fight with Dominion Energy over where the line would go.
Conservation groups and local and state elected official waged a years-long fight against a Dominion Energy transmission line needed to power an Amazon data center west of Haymarket. Dominion Energy ultimately agreed to build part of the new transmission line underground in 2018. That transmission line is still under construction.
“I'm just really struggling with this project because I can't be assured that this project is not going to trigger the use of another [transmission] line specifically in this area,” said Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville.
The applicant for Village Place Technology Park has agreed not to move forward with the data center if the building “triggers the need for construction of new transmission towers carrying overhead bulk electric transmission lines from west of the property.”
Additionally, Dominion Energy wrote in their communications with county staff that their preference is not to address new electricity load growth for the data center with new electric transmission infrastructure west of Haymarket. Instead, the new data center could connect with the Haymarket transmission line via a new substation, which would be east of the Village Place Technology Park property.
It remains unclear whether a new transmission line will be necessary in the future, or where it would be constructed.
County supervisors have been generally supportive of new data centers to increase the county’s lagging commercial tax base. Data centers generated $64 million in local tax revenues in 2020, according to county documents.
Village Place Technology Park will generate about $111 million in local tax revenues over 10 years following its construction, or about $11 million per year, according to the applicant. Construction is expected to be complete in 2024.
“We know the revenue that will come from data centers. That’s some of what we've been talking about in terms of hoping to permanently reduce the residential tax rate down the road,” said Supervisor Margaret Franklin, D-Woodbridge. “We're going to have to increase the number of commercial [projects] that we bring into the county.”
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June 16, 2021 at 11:15PM
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County supervisors approve a new data center outside Haymarket amid transmission line concerns - Prince William Times
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