HOA Roundtable

  Data Center noise is real, and it will ruin your quality of life. And the quality of your sleep. And the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, up until now, does not give a damn. But the insanity of Data Center Sprawl has to stop -- or all of us will be forced from our homes or just have to live with the constant noise bombarding our homes every second of every minute of every hour of every day of the year. Check out this news report about a Prince William County community whose lives are being disrupted by an Amazon Data Center. CLICK ON THE SHARE BUTTON NEXT TO THE HEADLINE OF THIS BLOG POST TO SHARE IT TO YOUR FACEBOOK OR OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS.

    Data Centers and Environmental Justice in PWC   According to the EPA website on Environmental Justice:   “Fair treatment  means no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies.”   In the span of about a year, the PW Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) has burdened the residents of Gainesville/Bristow/Haymarket with an extremely disproportionate burden of data centers approved close to homes and schools . There are currently about 40 data centers approvals in this area, and if the Devlin Technology Park which passed Planning Commission moves forward, it will be closer to about 50.     In addition, if the BOCS approves the PW Digital Gateway CPA in Fall 2022, it would allow zoning for another 90 data centers and would basically triple the already severe environmental injustice for this community.   The injus...

  Guest post by Bill Wright, a resident of Prince William County Did you hear?  Our Supervisors want to lower your taxes.  And every drug dealer peddling his addictive drugs wants everyone to kick the habit.   The latest fairy tale from Chair Ann Wheeler is that increased revenue from plowing up our heritage for more data centers will result in a lower tax burden for homeowners.  And more money for schools, parks, police and fire protection.     Did you realize that data centers can also help you lose weight?     Data Centers are the miracle cure for everything that ails us.   Before you fall for this deal with the devil, check out what is already happening.     Right now, Prince William has 27 operating data centers and many others under development.  Yet the annual residential real estate tax bill will rise by an average of $233 in 2022, in addition to a new 4% meals tax on struggling local restaurants.   ...

    Pete Candland is already ensnared in a recall effort launched by his constituents because Candland elected to cash in on the Data Center Boom to the tune of $5 to $10 million, and now the problems multiply with a constituent who is claiming his comments on an official Facebook page of the Gainesville Supervisor were suppressed because they were critical of Candland. All are encouraged to make their own judgments -- read the fill article. https://www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/candland-faces-a-federal-lawsuit-alleging-he-blocked-a-constituents-comment-on-facebook/article_c50e9866-092b-11ed-aeef-5b5281564b73.htmlCandland faces a federal lawsuit alleging he blocked a constituent's comment on Facebook  

There is an old adage in politics that you just have to follow the money to find the truth. The money flowing into Prince William County from some of the wealthiest multi-national corporations on the globe is unprecedented, and it has exposed the ugly underbelly of how money corrupts public officials and community leaders. Gainesville District Supervisor Pete Candland, who had previously pledged he would fight "tooth and nail" against the destruction of the Rural Crescent by developers to protect the families who elected him to office, has come under fire from his constituents because he set aside his commitment to them to sign a contract with data center operators for somewhere between $5 to $10 million for his lot. County Chair Ann Wheeler, immediately after getting elected, started making large investments into data centers and companies that supply them to take advantage of the data center boom that she knew was being proposed as a "target industry" by county st...

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is considering the most dramatic change in its land use policy in three decades, and if five members of the Board agree it will jettison the long-standing Rural Crescent policy that protected the rural character of our community and preserved of some of the most pristine land areas in the County. One data center project proposed along Pageland Lane, called the Prince William Digital Gateway, will pave over historically sensitive battlegrounds, likely desecrate graves of soldiers and enslaved African Americans, and forever destroy the view shed of the Manassas National Battlefield Park. On the east side of the County, the industrial corridor roads required for the construction of the dozens of data center projects already approved for construction will create the Outer Beltway for truckers to take the short cut from I-95 up into the Dulles Airport corridor. Gridlocked traffic; 18 wheeler noise; unsafe roads; a prescription for disaster for...