A major Prince William County data center proposal initially pitched in 2022 has resurfaced, with developer JK Land Holdings submitting a renewed plan for up to five data centers and an on-site substation on the 82-acre “Gardner Property,” the former site of Hillwood Camping Park, Rappahannock News reported.

The property sits off U.S. 29, behind the McDonald's and CVS near the intersection with U.S. 55, and just across a rail line from Amazon's existing Village Place Technology Park data center campus, according to Rappahannock News. JK Land Holdings, owned by Northern Virginia businessman and JK Moving Services founder Chuck Kuhn, contracted to buy the land in 2022, and Prince William Times reported that the camping park's roughly 140 trailers and more than 100 long-term residents — many of them local workers — were displaced that year to clear the way for the project.

The latest submission, filed with Prince William County on July 1, calls for up to five data center buildings totaling as much as 1.8 million square feet, plus a proffered substation at the site's northern end, Rappahannock News reported. It is the seventh submission of the application to date, dating back to the original filing on Dec. 27, 2022, according to Rappahannock News. According to Charles Yudd, JK Land Holdings' director of land planning and development, the project doesn't yet have a named end user, and construction of the first buildings would likely track new power availability, an estimated five to seven years out, Rappahannock News and Prince William Times both reported.

Yudd told Rappahannock News the project includes “optimization proffers,” including low water usage, with the site not relying on a public water source aside from restrooms.

Prince William Times reported that the revised plan also trims the height and square footage of the buildings from earlier versions and adds several new commitments: keeping generators and other power equipment away from residential-facing sides, using muted earth-tone architectural treatments on buildings facing Route 29, and preserving mature trees as a buffer toward the neighboring Somerset Crossing community.

Because the Gardner Property sits outside the county's Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District — the area where data centers are allowed by right — the project needs both a special use permit and a comprehensive plan amendment, since it would eliminate existing and planned county roads that currently bisect the property, according to Data Center Dynamics and InsideNoVa.

This isn't the Gardner Property's first trip through the county process. The rezoning application was originally filed in late 2022 and was scheduled for a Board of County Supervisors vote in June 2023, but then-Supervisor Jeanine Lawson asked that the vote be postponed indefinitely so the project's effects could be studied further, Prince William Times reported. It then sat largely dormant for roughly three years before this summer's renewed push.

JK Land Holdings held a community meeting about the current version of the plan on Aug. 13 at the Hampton Inn on Atlas Walk Way. Members of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County and other civic organizations attended, along with Gainesville Supervisor George Stewart and several county planning commissioners, Rappahannock News reported; a number of residents declined to comment at the meeting. Prince William Times additionally reported that neighbors Connie Bates and Cliff Toms, who live in the adjacent Somerset Crossing neighborhood, said they were caught off guard by the plans. Toms told Prince William Times he knew about the rail line behind his home when he moved in but hadn't anticipated data center construction on the wooded land beyond it, and said he didn't realize the area could be developed until a postcard arrived inviting him to the meeting. “I'm very sensitive to sounds. That would be a huge problem for me,” Bates told Prince William Times.

Gainesville District Supervisor George Stewart attended the community meeting and told Prince William Times he opposes the project as currently sited, citing its proximity to homes and a daycare. “Where these buildings are placed matters. We can do better,” Stewart told Prince William Times. “I get the ‘want and the need’ and the desire for the data center construction itself. I get that part, but we can do better when it comes to where they're located.” Brentsville District Supervisor Tom Gordy, whose district contains the property, did not attend the meeting; Prince William Times reported that one of his staffers attended to gather information.

Power delivery remains an open question. Yudd told Prince William Times that Dominion Energy indicated the project could connect to power within six to eight years of rezoning approval, with transmission and distribution lines routed underground from the east. Planning Commissioner Chris Carroll, who represents the Brentsville District, told Prince William Times it isn't yet clear where those lines would run, noting that four nearby Amazon data centers built three years ago still don't appear to have full power. “Obviously, I want to know about the power and where it's coming from. Is it going to require new power lines?” Carroll told Prince William Times. “How is the power getting to the substation? And then, definitely I am concerned about the impact to the neighboring communities and how that is going to be mitigated.”

The proposal will next head to the Prince William County Planning Commission, which will review the application and send a recommendation — for or against — to the Board of County Supervisors, which has final say, according to InsideNoVa and Rappahannock News. The Planning Commission has not yet scheduled a hearing on the project, per Prince William Times.

The Woodbridge Gazette will continue following the Gardner Property proposal as it moves through the county review process.

Thumbnail photo: Alex Korolkoff / Unsplash