Stafford’s Planning and Zoning Department is examining whether the county can penalize development applicants for missing assigned public hearings after a data center hearing was canceled last week about an hour before it was to start.
A public hearing on the Accokeek Tech Park project, which calls for about 690,000 square feet of data center space on 120 acres, was scheduled for the April 22 county Planning Commission meeting, but the applicant asked for the item to be pulled from the agenda.
The attorney for the project said later that more time was needed on the proposal, but the resulting delay angered data center critics who had planned to attend the meeting and had sent hundreds of emails to commissioners.
Charlie Payne, attorney for the Accokeek Tech Park, said Friday that his client wanted to delay consideration of its project because there was confusion with the staff report. One place on the document called for approval, he said, and another called for denial.
Payne also said there was a change in the county staff member who was handling the project. And he said he was aware that negative comments had been made about the proposal, and he didn’t want to negotiate parts of a deal in a public meeting.
The Accokeek Tech Park, said Payne, has many upsides. It’s appropriately sited near other data centers, just south of the regional jail, and between Interstate 95 to the west and U.S. 1 to the east.
If another business occupied the parcel, it would create more traffic, Payne said, and the county would lose out on millions of dollars in tax revenue that would come from data centers.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “I think it’s a great project.”
Erin Sanzero, president of the data center watchdog group Protect Stafford, didn’t agree. She told commissioners at the April 22 meeting that pulling a project at the last minute was “unconscionable,” and she repeated those comments in an interview Friday.
She said a careful reading of county documents about the project showed that government staff were recommending denial.
“You know, there were four separate applications, and it was clear as day,” Sanzero said.
Some speakers at the April 22 meeting also told commissioners that they made specific plans to attend the public hearing.
One of those was 23-year-old Sarah Balon, who came to the Stafford Government Center from King George County — a 40-minute drive. Such a schedule change “wouldn’t fly in King George,” Balon said.
“I also just want to say that I believe this is why the youth does not get involved,” she said.
Commissioners acknowledged those comments and the email they received at the end of the April 22 meeting.
Commission Chairwoman Kristen Barnes said Stafford’s government can usually abide delays with a proposal, but those usually come with smaller projects.
“This was an enormous application that had an enormous amount of research by the public,” she said. “And I felt the public’s rage, and I agreed with them. I felt it, too.”
Michael Zuraf, Stafford’s planning and zoning director, responded that county staff would “look into” cancellation options for the future.
Other data centers
The Accokeek project, however, wasn’t the only data center on the April 22 agenda.
The commission held a public hearing on the Potomac Creek Campus project, which proposes up to 975,000 square feet of data center space on 99 acres near the already-approved Stafford Technology Campus data center complex.
After the hearing, commissioners voted unanimously to defer discussion of the Potomac Creek work until May 27.
One of the major issues with this project is a cemetery on the property that may have to be relocated if data centers come to the tract, south of Eskimo Hill Road in central Stafford.
“There is a known family cemetery within the project site, which includes four known Caucasian burials as marked by elaborate headstones, belonging to the Seddon family, and indications of 12 or more unmarked burials believed to be the final resting place of individuals enslaved by the Seddon family,” a staff report on the project says.
Commissioners also voted unanimously to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve an electric substation for the Vantage data center project, which is being developed by right. It’s east of the intersection of Centerport Parkway and Mountain View Road.
