Data Centers in Prince William County

Last Thursday, October 21st, the Prince William County Planning Office held a virtual meeting to share information on data centers. This meeting served as the public outreach portion of expanding data centers in Prince William County. Data centers are on the Board’s adopted "List of Targeted Industries for New, and Expanding Companies.” The Planning Office proposes to finalize the as yet undisclosed policy changes at the beginning of 2022 and have final approval by the Board of Supervisors in spring 2022. As of now, no dates have been set for a public hearing on the  expansion . There were only hints of what policy might be expected.  

Showing some data center in a corner of Ashburn, VA

The virtual meeting was Chaired by Alex Stanley of the Planning Office. BAE Urban Economics Principal Mary Burkholder reported on the Data Center market and financial benefits and Stantec Consultant Jason Beske reported the non-industry concerns and impacts as well as the industry concerns and needs. Currently, there are 20 data centers in Prince William County, but according to Stantec consultants, we are not as attractive a location for data centers as Ashburn, yet. . 

Several new data center proposals are currently in the process and it is unclear if they will be held until a final policy is approved or if these projects will be approved this year and become the de facto data center policy. In July the Prince William Board of County Supervisors initiated an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan for PW Digital Gateway  which is within the Rural Crescent to change the Long Range Land Use from AE, Agricultural or Estate and ER, Environmental Resource to Technology / Flex (T/F) . This amendment would create a technology corridor along Pageland Lane for the development of data centers.  

Digital Gateway plans to use existing transmission and fiber optic infrastructure which are the most important elements for a data center according to BAE. The corridor, which originally included 27 parcels totaling about 800 acres located on both sides of Pageland Lane in areas south of Sudley Road and approximately one mile north of Route 29, was expanded to 2,000 acres as shown in the map below. This was done to consolidate all the proposals or potential data center proposals and evaluate the entire corridor between Sudley Road and Route 29 in order to review in a holistic manner (traffic, land use, and environmental concerns). Parts of this area directly abutts Conway Robinson Memorial State Forest and the Manassas National Battlefield Park,  and the proposed area is entirely within the rural area and the Occoquan Watershed.

The 2,000 acres for Digital Gateway

According to Christina Winn of the Planning Office each data center requires about 30 acres of land (not including any landscaping or setbacks) and only a small amount of land in the current overlay is still available. According to Ms. Winn as of this month there was  only about 90 acres of site ready land still available for sale, but there was more available as recently as May 2021. The breakdown of land in the current data center overlay district as if May 2021 is as follows:

The Data Center Overlay District is highlighted below.

Data centers are a rapidly growing modern industry that is highly profitable to the owners and developers and uses lots of power. Almost half of the growth in the industry is taking place in Northern Virginia.  Highlights from BAE presentation:

Power and access to optical fiber are the most important factors in selecting a site for a data center. However, the increase base load power usage of 323 MW just in the past year could impact the cost and reliability of power to the region especially as we decarbonize. Data centers operate 24/7 and increase the baseload needs for power generation. Building data centers creates many jobs during construction, but only 28 jobs after buildout. While the direct jobs are well paying $180,000 on average (including benefits and company payroll costs) the induced and indirect jobs created will be for an average salary of $43,600 (including the same expenses). There is according to BAE permanent 155 induced and indirect jobs like landscapers, janitors, cashiers, fast food etc.  Like any industry data centers will have a life cycle. During the buildout there is a tremendous amount of employment in construction trades.

Jason Beske of Stantec outlined the concerns of various organizations and the complaints and concerns of data center developers that need to be addressed to increase our data center density and economic reliance. Overall Stantec found that Prince William County is an attractive place for data centers with the low cost of energy. However, Prince William needs to be more flexible and accommodating to the data center developers. Energy cost and availability may be the controlling factor. The county goal of obtaining 100% of electricity from renewable sources by 2035 is not with current technology compatible with and increase in base load demand of that magnitude.