Spotsylvania County residents packed the Holbert Building to protest the proposed Crossroads Technology Campus at board of supervisors and planning commission meetings this week.
The crowd was spearheaded by Safeguard Spotsy, a citizens group “advocating for responsible, community-informed, and safe data center development in Spotsylvania County.”
Crossroads Technology is still in the planning and permitting phase, and its developers, RCK Digital Crossroads, LLC, held a community meeting last month that was widely panned by residents who said the logistics were poorly planned and that the project managers provided little valuable information.
During the supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, county resident Lisa Ehmer requested a follow-up meeting with more robust discussion to answer the community’s concerns about various issues, which include power, water, noise, and pollution, among other worries.
Longtime Spotsylvania resident Brian Peyton addressed the supervisors Tuesday and said that his primary concern is how the data center industry will impact future generations.
“What we do now echoes in eternity,” said Peyton, quoting Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the movie “Gladiator” … “What we do will impact our children. I have some deep-seated concerns and questions regarding these data centers, the speed in which they’re popping up. I understand that technology is important and I understand that it helps us thrive and succeed in life, but at the same time, technology is not supposed to replace humankind. Humankind is not supposed to take a backseat to technology. We are not supposed to sacrifice our air quality, noise quality, drinking water.”
Peyton implored the board to do further research on the industry because “we do not know the longstanding ramifications associated with it.”
“More importantly, listen to your constituents,” Peyton said. “They take time to come over here and address this issue; that means it’s very important to them.”
The Crossroads Technology Campus wasn’t on the agenda at the board of supervisors meeting, but it was listed on the planning commission’s agenda as a discussion item.
Spotsylvania Director of Planning and Zoning Kimberly Pomatto noted that county officials spent almost all of 2025 debating data center development, particularly whether they should be by-right in areas zoned Industrial or if all projects must require a Special Use Permit.
The board of supervisors initially voted 4-3 for by-right development in Industrial areas with development standards, but after David Goosman defeated development-friendly incumbent Kevin Marshall to represent the Berkeley District on the board of supervisors in November, one of the first orders of business was to reconsider that decision, and it was reversed in February.
Pomatto noted that the previous development standards are now guidelines for potential developers when they submit an SUP request.
“With the SUP, the county can impose conditions that specifically address the impacts that we identify with this specific project,” Pomatto said. “So, it can be greater than whatever the minimum setbacks are, whatever the minimum landscaping requirements are, whatever the impact is, we can impose a condition to appropriately mitigate that impact.”
Crossroads Technology includes a total of 2.2 million square feet of data center buildings, three substations, and other accessory infrastructure on approximately 633 acres. The project would be located on the north side of Mills Drive (U.S. Route 17) with additional frontage along Lee Hill School Drive and Eagle Drive. The property is west of Benchmark Road, adjacent to the CSX Railroad.
County staff established conditions for the project, should it be approved, including requiring Tier 4 generators, a limit to the hours and duration of generator testing, requiring acoustic mitigation elements, security fencing, outdoor lighting, no use of potable water, no surface or groundwater withdrawal, and developer responsibility to pretreat wastewater.
The county is also requiring that no construction vehicles use Lee Hill Drive, there is a construction mitigation plan, oversized delivery notifications, and that the developers have a public liaison during construction, among other stipulations.
“Some of these conditions are new,” said Charlie Payne, an attorney representing the developers. “We haven’t seen them, so we’re going to evaluate them. We’re working well with all the teams to address concerns and mitigate impacts.”
Still, residents aren’t sold. Ehmer told the planning commission that the Industrial zoning label for the property is outdated considering it was implemented more than 60 years ago, and now there are neighborhoods with thousands of residents, a church and an elementary school nearby.
Ehmer, an employee of Lee Hill Elementary School, said she’s concerned that the school is only 1,600 feet away from the proposed project.
“The troubles would begin with years of construction,” Ehmer said to the planning commission. “I already see the plumes of dust and the caravans of dump trucks created by the construction of the nearby Cosner Tech [Campus]. Our children and staff, especially those with respiratory problems, should not be exposed to these airborne particulates while outside at recess.”
Ehmer expressed fears about the impact construction traffic will have on children waiting for their school buses. She also noted that hundreds of parents traverse the area, as evidenced by the line of hundreds of cars for school drop-off and pickup each day.
“This is just a recipe for disaster,” she said.
