Photo: Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
Residents and neighborhood groups gathered outside the NTT data center complex in Gainesville on Thursday, Oct. 29, to ask Prince William County to pause new data center applications for 12 months.
What they are asking for
Organizers want the county to defer any data center application that needs a vote from the Board of County Supervisors for 12 months. The pause would not cover by-right projects, which the board has no discretion to approve or deny.
They say the county should use that time to update its Design and Construction Standards Manual and other policies. Their list includes larger buffers and setbacks from homes, schools, parks and religious institutions, a new noise ordinance based on expert recommendations, clear and measurable performance standards, and enforcement when those standards are broken.
Speakers at the roughly 40-minute event were Rina Stapp of Save Braemar, Carolee Carrington of Wentworth Green, Catherine Kulik of the HOA Roundtable, Patrick Harters and Dalton Nichols of the Occoquan District. They described problems including noise from large fans and gas turbines, light that spills onto neighboring property, diesel generators, rising electricity bills and the distance between data centers and homes, schools and the Occoquan Reservoir Protective Area.
The NTT campus
The event was held at the NTT complex at 13710 Daves Store Lane. According to the organizers, NTT is building four 550,000-square-foot buildings on 100 acres, and two are finished. They say each building is about a quarter-mile long, 180 feet wide and 75 feet tall, and that the campus's peak power demand equals roughly 468,000 homes. These figures come from the organizers' press release, and the Gazette has not independently verified them.
Where things stand with the county
On Sept. 22, the Board of County Supervisors voted 8-0 to end most by-right data center development countywide, under zoning text amendment DPA2026-00006. The vote followed a Planning Commission recommendation on Sept. 9. The change includes a 90-day grace period that runs until Dec. 21.
Organizers say applications have kept moving during that grace period. They cited more than 10 million square feet of data center and substation applications since the Planning Commission meeting, with more still in process, and said almost no projects had used pure by-right status. They also want the pause to have a firm start and end date, no exceptions for applications already in the pipeline, and a public hearing with a recorded vote.
The organizers also point to Dominion Energy's lawsuit against the county over the board's denial of the Vint Hill substation, which the organizers called a game changer. They also said the county's earlier Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group produced stronger noise recommendations that were weakened after industry input, and that no comprehensive siting plan exists for data centers or the transmission lines and substations that serve them.
The petition
A petition at pausedatacenters.com hosts a declaration and petition on the issue. The site describes itself as a citizen-led effort that is not affiliated with any government agency, and says its declaration asks for independent water and environmental studies and public hearings before further approvals. The Gainesville organizers say the petition also supports a statewide moratorium, is open to Prince William County residents, and has only just begun collecting signatures. Their specific request is a 12-month local pause, and they want the Board of County Supervisors to bring a directive on it at its next meeting.
Sources: organizers' press release; Potomac Local News; Prince William County Board of County Supervisors records.
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