Coraggio Consulting
Hanover County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Place: Hanover County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 45m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1581/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5618,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5670,plainText=false)

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-23. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:51] I will now call the May 27th, 2026 Hanover County Board of Supervisors meeting to order. As is customary, we'll open with an invocation led by Mr. Hudson and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Ms. Pritchard. Mr. Hudson. Bow with me if you would. Father in heaven, we bow before you today seeking your wisdom, clarity of mind, and purity of heart.

[00:01:13] We thank you for our home, Hanover County. We thank you for the privilege to serve. May we ever be mindful of the needs of others. Help us to remember daily with grateful hearts those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the world's greatest experiment we call the United States of America.

[00:01:35] We praise you for sending your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Please rise if you are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, With liberty and justice for all.

[00:02:03] Thank you, Mr. Hudson. Ms. Pritchard. Consideration of amendments to the agenda. Mr. Stoneman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I'd like to motion to add a request for administrative approval, roadway use permit and agreement, Jonathan Hudson and Rachel Donilon, in the Chickahominy Magisterial District, as consent on agenda item 8C3.

[00:02:32] Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. The consent agenda has been amended. Next item on the agenda is board member comments. Mr. Hudson.

[00:02:51] Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I may take a moment of personal privilege. As you all may notice, I am here, and tonight or today is my 20th wedding anniversary, and I just want to wish my wife, Mallory, a happy 20th anniversary, and thank you for all you do for us at home, and I love you.

[00:03:11] Thank you. That's all, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Hudson. Our very best to you and your family. Ms. Perchard. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I really hate to try to one-up you, Mr. Hudson, although you know I will. I just had my 45th two weeks ago. Thank you. We're hot on your tail. Not that I'm old or anything.

[00:03:27] Mr. Chair, normally I am not up here explaining my appearance to the audience, but it might appear that I have AirPods in tonight, which I do, but they are functioning tonight as hearing aids. So, no, not listening to the game, just you guys. So, thank you.

[00:03:42] Thank you, Ms. Pritchard. Mr. County administrator. Mr. Chairman, I do need one brief announcement tonight just we have folks that are in here in particular and anyone that might be out in the lobby, we are monitoring the storms that are coming through. Hopefully, we won't be interrupted and everyone will be safe here tonight during our proceedings and on your way home. But we will let you know if anything comes up that's related to the storm. The other thing we do need to be mindful of access. So folks that are on the exit aisle.

[00:04:14] I encourage you to either take a seat and folks, if you don't mind, make some room to let some folks in. We just need to be mindful to make sure that the aisles are open for egress. Do your best if you can assist us with that.

[00:04:30] Appreciate that. Mr. Chairman, that's all I have. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is potential school board appointment for the Mechanicsville Magisterial District. Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, over the past 18 months, in my view, Mr. Ryan Martin has exemplified Team Hanover. I have appreciated his willingness to communicate and listen effectively. As I travel all around Hanover County, even though he only represents one district, I hear over and over again

[00:05:02] about his willingness to simply listen and to understand. Not because we always agree, but because we never part disagreeably. With that, Mr. Chair, I'm pleased to recommend the appointment of Mr. Ryan Martin to serve as the Mechanicsville District Representative on the

[00:05:21] Hanover County School Board. Chair receives that recommendation as a motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Martin is present with us. Would you care to make a statement, sir? Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Mr. Badesky, and I really appreciate the large turnout for my reappointment to the school board. It means a lot to me. I'll be brief as I know you have a busy evening.

[00:06:06] I'm truly honored and humbled to serve another term on the school board. It has been an absolute privilege to serve over the last 18-plus months, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue this work on behalf of students, families, teachers, and our community. During my first term, I've gained an even deeper appreciation for the dedication of our educators, staff, administrators, and fellow board members.

[00:06:30] I believe more than ever that Hanover County does public education very well. Public education is very challenging, but it is one of the most important responsibilities we share as a community. And I remain committed to thoughtful policy, fiscal responsibility, academic success, and ensuring every student can succeed.

[00:06:53] I also, like Mr. Hudson, want to thank my wife, Allie, for her support in this role, my children, and everyone that has supported me and encouraged me in this role. Public service is a team effort, and I am grateful for that support. I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with this board, my colleagues on the school board, Dr. Penny Cuff and her team over the next four years.

[00:07:17] Thank you again for your trust and confidence. It means a great deal to me, and I appreciate the work that you guys do on behalf of Hanover County. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Martin. The next item on the agenda is Citizens' Time.

[00:07:34] Citizens' Time is a time where anyone who wishes to address the board on any matter within the board's authority that is not on the current evening or afternoon's agenda for a public hearing, is welcome to come forward. We do ask that you state your name, that the district that you live or the entity that you represent. And sometimes we have large meetings like this. We have detailed public hearings. We know sometimes folks, there's a little bit of crossover.

[00:07:58] So if you want to speak to the land use cases tonight, there will be a public hearing. So I know for the past couple of months, folks have come and spoken about data centers, 33 proposed projects at Citizens' Time. Tonight's the night where we're going to hear that in a public hearing. So Citizens' Time is not going to be open for that particular case, but if you want to come up and you have something else that you'd like to speak to, we certainly want to hear that. We are going to have Citizens' Time for 15 minutes tonight with speakers having three minutes per speaker.

[00:08:32] You are not required to pre-register, although some folks have, nor are you required to fill out a card but it does help us with follow-up or getting district specific information to the board members so they can follow up and address any concerns that a citizen has. Mr. James Dews from Beaverdam signed up. Mr. Dews did you desire first of all are you here and did you desire to speak at citizens time? No problem. No problem. Did you literally just say that? You are a brave brave man

[00:09:09] Okay, Miss Morgan. I won't speak on data centers. You can speak on a data center And again, we're not trying to be too limiting, but we want to make sure that all the comments for The 33 project are in that portion For for for the purposes of a public hearing but miss Morgan if you're here welcome Please state your name the district that you live or the entity that you represent Hi, I'm Sarah Morgan and I'm in the South Anna district and I just got this wonderful publication in the mail yesterday I'm sure you guys have seen it and on the picture the front there is a county

[00:09:46] County line and the people are driving and they're going into the beautiful county see and then on the next page we're We've got a statement thanking our the citizens for for speaking and then we've got the new sheriff and then we've got ten years of investments with all these little dots all over and You know with public safety parks and rec government airports Capital projects. We've got a new school board member. We've got broadband projects. We've got Really pretty pictures here. There's a woman carrying fruit. There's some cows

[00:10:25] There's a great big field with people having a good time. It looks like a fair and there's a cannon with a beautiful sunset and people walking across a bridge and We've got a statement from the director of tourism and then we've got Accomplishments of the public schools. We've got a picture of this new school There's going to be a new elementary school and that we're honoring a new teach at one of the teachers. That's accomplished a lot There's all these great teachers talking about them all these great successes within the school system, and then we've got

[00:11:04] Community events we've got parks and rec stuff all these lists of all these different community events We've got Ashland center of the universe support downtown Ashland the community efforts more parks and rec stuff more community events First responders training our citizens how to be first responders We've got this great sign that says love new love sign celebrates Hannover history with all this you know pretty pretty sign So we got this great magazine with all this beautiful stuff about Hanover County And there's not one single mention about data centers

[00:11:39] And I think that's pretty profound because I think our county is really great without data centers And so I think you guys Thank you man, you're gonna pause and I'm not gonna pause your time So here's here's what we're gonna have to do appreciate that you've got support in the room I planned on covering this during our public a public hearing time we're gonna ask folks to refrain from any expressions while people are speaking or after they're speaking one it maintains order and decorum so we can get as many people in as possible we also want to make sure everybody's comments are heard

[00:12:18] so certainly you can have your support here I know you didn't call for that but we are gonna ask folks to maintain the the ability for folks to be able to speak so we can hear and withhold from from any applause or any other comments but thank you ma'am go ahead so not much more but we do have a wonderful county as it is now and I want to thank you guys for all making it what it is right now and know that we don't want it to change we want it to stay like this we like this we like this these pretty pictures and what

[00:12:52] it represents and there's no mention of data centers in this whole magazine and I think that's for a reason because it's not anything to brag about this is stuff to brag about this is all good stuff and we want to keep it that way thank you thank you miss morgan anyone else for citizens time yes sir please if you want to speak at citizens time please come on down you're next sir please somebody to give these to y'all we've got it sir i got you all right thank you for being with us i was doing some research sir please state your name in the district that you live

[00:13:31] rusty edwards south anna district thank you sir i've been doing some research on different things but the water i was reading this article just recently that was done in may about the water in hanover county and it seems that what y'all are saying and what the public works is saying is we've got some real issues that we really need to get up to date on and we don't have any long-term plans we've made some temporary fixes that is not what's going to solve our

[00:14:09] problems the problems we got is we're dependent on the city of richmond and i don't know who in here wants to depend on the city of richmond for water they can't even supply themselves a lot of times henrica has made advancement to try to get away from the city of richmond and we're just sitting there waiting and we've got all these new townhouses going up on 301 we've got townhouses going to ashland we've got them going on cedar lane we need to i think we need to get more involved in this water situation i've got a daughter just bought a brand new five hundred

[00:14:47] thousand dollar house in ashland and it's going to be pretty bad when she can't get town water because cedar richmond is out of water or their antiquated system is down again and i would hope that y'all all feel the same way that's i just want you to know that i'm was have concerns about that and with everything coming i think we need to really be looking at that that was that letter was done as of may of this year and if you read it tells you the only backup plan we have is the

[00:15:22] city of richmond and that didn't work real well last year for the people in henrica and hanover when they didn't have water to supply. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edwards. Thank you. Yes, sir. Next speaker, please. One second, sir.

[00:15:46] Sir, if you'll come up, state your name. I'm sorry. My name is David Cook. I live in the South Anna district, I guess. Thank you, Mr. Cook. I'm sure half these people in here have been down Greenwood Road. Right at the bottom is Grassy Swamp Creek, and it used to be a pond there, okay?

[00:16:09] Now, they have come in and put two culvert pipes through there and drained my side of the pond down to nothing. They used to fish over there, so there's no water on my side of the pipe.

[00:16:26] All the water is on the grassy on the other side. And when they put the new culvert pipes in there, they didn't even take the old pipes out. They just left them there as eyesores. These giant 12-foot metal pipes just on the side of the road.

[00:16:46] They didn't even pick them up and move them. So I don't know what's going to happen. If they take more water, there's not going to be any water left. So that's my disgruntled about the water.

[00:17:03] If we're this low on water now, what's going to happen when these data centers come in? Because we're stuck between Winschurch Road and Chickahominy River. There's nowhere else to get water. That's what I got to say.

[00:17:24] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you for being with us. Sorry about my hair. I have a hard hat head. Please state your name, the district that you live. Thank you for being with us. Hey, my name is Catherine Sklarik, S-K-L-A-R-E-K.

[00:17:46] And Sue Dibble is my representative. I think she's a really super representative. People have some issues with her, but I think she does a good job. I just planted 80 tomato plants and 60 pepper plants and squash and cucumbers and cantaloupe and watermelon and onions and turnips and potatoes.

[00:18:20] And yes, we do need the water. I mean, and we're on a well. I'm not going to talk about the data center, even though I do live on Wins Church Road, a quarter of a mile away from the property.

[00:18:36] But I guess what I want to talk about is we have really good citizens. They work their ass off, assets off, to provide for their families.

[00:18:55] A lot of them work two jobs. My husband works a 45, 50-hour work a week. I just picked up a job. I'm going to be doing a 66 hours a week just so that we can pay our mortgage and have a good future.

[00:19:15] Hanover citizens plant tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and they like it rural, they like their land, they like to be able to drive down and look at the trees in the fall and think how beautiful it is and they don't want to see a lot of things in their, around their residential areas that are like non-residential things like office complexes and um wah-wahs and uh things like that

[00:19:55] because um unless they want to go for a slurpee um i just and they're hard working and they're good people and you are probably thinking 30 seconds man we see the same damn people every single time speaking. I know it's in your mind. You might see the same people, but they're good people, so listen to them, because they are good citizens. They are good people, and don't think with your

[00:20:34] wallet. Your final thoughts, ma'am. Yes, sir. I am done. I'll return to being a sweet little old lady. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, ma'am. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I want to make sure we can keep citizens' time open. Yes, ma'am, thank you for being here. Oh, thank you so much.

[00:20:51] My name is Cassandra Ziegler, and I am in the South Anna district. And my statements are about how great Hanover is and this whole 80-20 rule and all of the wonderful things that people are saying about planting tomatoes and all that stuff, because I do the same.

[00:21:10] However, at some point, there has to be an intersection between our rural life and the development and economic development zones that are part of the comprehensive plan. So my comments are not about any particular small area plan, but I would like, if we're going to do the economic development in coordination with the comprehensive plan, that it be more strategic to roll out one at a time these small area plans and have each little community battling it out with the Hanover folks seems to me an energy

[00:21:49] suck but if we were to say we have X number of you know small area plans this is some of the impacts that may be happening in different ones of the plan and have a more organic kind of ecosystem approach to this economic thing that we have going on, perhaps the whole of the economic committee knows everything.

[00:22:13] But we don't know, and we're getting it trickling in. And I think that's not a healthy approach. And it seems like the energy in here is a little stressful because of that approach. But I'm older, not as old as some, but I'm getting older.

[00:22:31] I like the idea of having everything. That means I want to be able to plant tomatoes in my space, but I want accessible things like continuing education and a little walkable green space for me to go to, a little health clinic so that I don't have to go all the way into Richmond or Henrico.

[00:22:51] I am in favor of economic development, and I think that you're doing a great thing in putting these small area plans out there and getting our opinions, but there is probably a slightly more organic way of doing so. And I want to thank you so much for a wonderful place to live, and I hope it continues to be that way for many, many decades to go.

[00:23:14] Bye-bye. Thank you, ma'am. Our final speaker for Citizens' Time. Yes, sir. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, and particularly Mrs. Pritchard, who represents the Ashland Magisterial District.

[00:23:31] wherein I reside. My name is Terry A. Hurlbut, and I reside specifically at 10308 Jamestown Road in Ashland. Is it just me, Mrs. Pritchard? Is it just me, Mr. Chair? Or is this the first time that we have gotten a really serious rain in a long time? When I first moved to my house eight years ago, well, if we could count on rain maybe at least once a week, maybe twice a week,

[00:24:05] no, we're looking to get rain once or twice a month. And when it does come, it's the kind of potentially destructive rain that we're experiencing now, if it hasn't blown over already. And I have a pretty good idea why. I think this county is getting overdeveloped.

[00:24:26] And when you change the development of something from agricultural to commercial or light industry, suddenly water doesn't soak into the ground and it gets taken up by the roots of plants and then it gets transpired from the leaves.

[00:24:46] It runs off and the rains stop coming. I've spoken to people, including my housemate, who comes from Jersey City, New Jersey. When the development comes in, the rainfall declines.

[00:25:06] Well, that concerns me. I have a well for my house. Almost everyone up and down Jamestown Road has a well. Well, we're wondering what we're going to do when the wells run dry.

[00:25:23] So if we continue the development, we're not going to have as much rain as we can. And county water, well, if that particular winter when Richmond tapped our till and then everyone on county water was on water restriction, if that is any indication, that's what we're looking at, even those of us who have thought that we were independent because we had wells.

[00:25:53] You have 30 seconds, sir. Okay. Okay. Well, that is probably the one single practical issue that I would urge you to consult your engineers and your hydrologists about and take that under advisement in deciding whether to grant the volume of 400 acres and so on.

[00:26:18] Thank you for being with us. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you. Okay. We will now close Citizens Town. next item on the agenda is a public hearing department of public works for a secondary road six-year plan or commonly referred to as a sip miss lindsey davis capital project specialist with department of public works is with us no my apologies uh consent agenda all been all members of the board had an opportunity to review the consent agenda as amended does anyone wish to remove anything from the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda a move that we approve motion by vice chair is there a second second we have a motion second by miss pritchard any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries the

[00:26:55] next item on agenda item number seven public hearing from public works on our sip fyi 27 through 32 is miss davis with us thank you miss davis thank you for being with us good evening thank you um mr chairman wait wait ladies and gentlemen we can't have that we can't have it miss davis would you mind moving that mic sure no problem is this a little bit better it's better Yes, okay. Thank you, mr. Chairman board members mr. Badesky and mr. Walter this evening We are here for the public hearing on the update to the secondary six-year plan for FY 27 through 32

[00:27:36] This is to solicit the input for this update and we'll just go right into it this evening The primary purpose of this plan is to allocate limited state funding to projects on the secondary road system those are commonly referred to as route numbers that are 600 and above the update begins in the spring with the development of the draft plan we do provide that update to the transportation committee we did that in march and then we will come to tonight's public hearing and then eventually the adoption of the plan the transportation committee's role

[00:28:15] is just to develop it and move it forward the board's role is of course to select and prioritize the projects, along with allocation of the funding and the assignment of the funding. VDOT's role, this is a joint public hearing with VDOT this evening. VDOT's role is supportive in programming that funding for the state, but also to help us in project development and the delivery of these projects. There are a few stipulations that we need to be mindful of when considering the secondary six-year plan. This is a financially constrained plan in which

[00:28:49] we can only allocate funds for projects that can be completed within that six-year time frame we can't obviously allocate funds for something beyond that it does have to have secondary and primary system construction with a portion of the funding for each project needs to come from the secondary six-year plan not all of the funding though and completed projects remain in the plan through financial closeout, and of course, then the public hearing that we have this evening as well. On this slide is just a detail that summarizes the overall funding for the

[00:29:28] secondary six-year plan. In the bottom right corner, you'll see about $1.638 million is available through this plan for the six-year period, and it consists of two types of funding. The tele-fee funding, which is the larger amount and is in the second column, is a very flexible funding. It totals about $1.617 million for that six years and can be used for regular construction and any type of weather, hard surface or an unpaved portion of roadway.

[00:29:58] The district grant unpaved funding totals just a little over $20,000 and it is limited to a few unpaved roads that do remain in the county. As you can see for fiscal year 2032, there are zero dollars planned. That is the expectation. We will not have any additional roads that would need to be paved for that. This, of course, comes from VDOT's estimated allocation of funds, and they are provided to us every year, which is then included in the development of this. On this slide, the

[00:30:35] primary thing that I wanted you all to focus on this evening is for FY27 outlined in the red box. It summarizes a detailed plan, which you'll see. These are the individual projects that we are recommending to be assigned funding.

[00:30:53] We have Pole Green Road widening project and the Atlee Station Road Phase 2 widening project. You also have unpaved roads, future secondary projects, and countywide traffic calming. The first two are recognized projects already in development and underway within the county.

[00:31:09] I think we're all pretty familiar with that here on the board. The last three, those are reserve funds that are used in various ways. Unpaved roads, future secondary projects, and then county-wide traffic calming measures. As you can see, Atlee Station Road Phase 2 widening does have an assignment of just slightly under $270,000.

[00:31:31] And then the remaining funds for those unpaved roads is going into that reserve fund. The other funds that are listed here under previous and planned, those are for all of the other funding sources that our projects require in order for them to be fully realized and completed.

[00:31:49] So as a stipulation earlier, a portion of the projects do have to have funding from this source, but the remaining, as you can see, our projects are no way most of the time able to be funded simply with just this one source.

[00:32:06] So we do have an allocation of other funds that are totaled in that. The balance to complete, the last column, you can see all the parentheses. It suggests that there are overages for all of these.

[00:32:22] And that is not to say that we are ending a project with extra money by any means. Estimates update and change consistently. This is an opportunity for us as we continue to develop the secondary six-year plan, which done annually to reallocate or reassign funds where it will be needed most and prioritization of the projects for future years so at this time this concludes my remarks for this portion and i would like to again thank you for having us this evening and if you have any questions i'll be more

[00:32:55] than happy to answer are there any questions from miss davis okay thank you ma'am we will now open to public hearing is anyone here who wishes to speak to this matter anyone in favor anyone opposed

[00:33:12] Seeing none we will close the public hearing. Thank you, ma'am. Next item on the agenda is a public hearing. Mr. Chairman. Yes. On the board sheet there was a recommended motion that a resolution be adopted. So I thought Mr. Herzberg had it but I didn't hear anything from him. Do you have it? I haven't. I'm ready to go, Mr. Chairman. All right, Mr. Chair of the Transportation Committee, Mr. Herzberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Transportation Committee reviewed the VDOT Secondary Six-Year Road Plan back in March and we found it unanimously.

[00:33:53] to be in the best interest of hanover citizens including the upgrades to pole green road and at least station road motion to adopt the resolution v dot secondary road six-year plan fiscal year 27 through 2032 second we have a motion and a second any discussion for the record we have a motion second is there any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye

[00:34:30] aye any opposed motion carries next item on the agenda public hearing for ordinance 2605 this is dealing with reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred uh through enforcement of certain crimes commonwealth attorney uh worked diligently on this and brought this to the public safety committee uh it was then discussed um i spoke with chair dibble of the finance committee but with us tonight is miss leah han deputy county attorney miss han thank you for being here ma'am

[00:34:58] Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you just provided an explanation, this is an ordinance that will add a new code to our county code that would allow any time someone is charged or convicted of crimes such as driving while under the influence and they cause damage to something or it requires a significant response.

[00:35:30] by public safety. This is actually going to allow us to recoup some of those costs. So the court would actually be able to order this as restitution. And one of the fantastic things about this is that these funds recovered as restitution will stay local. These are not going to be the way that fines or fees would be or the cost, excuse me, where they are generally split between the locality in the state. And the other difference is restitution is not meant to be punitive. It's meant to reimburse. And so what this does is it acknowledges that when we do have these

[00:36:10] situations where people make bad choices and they cause a lot of damage, and we have our public safety partners that do have to go out there and respond to that, we have our courts that have to hear it, we have our commonwealth's attorney that has to prosecute, this is an acknowledgment that there should be a way for us to get some of those funds back. And this is also enforceable as a civil action, which is certainly something that my office could handle. But after speaking with the Commonwealth's attorney, I do not anticipate that being necessary. She is

[00:36:41] very much in favor and would like to see this go into effect. So as this is a public hearing, As you know, there will be a recommended motion, but certainly after you open it up to any sort of public comment.

[00:36:59] Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Deputy County Attorney, Ms. Hahn? Seeing none, we will open the public hearing. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak in favor of this proposed ordinance? Anyone in opposition? Come on up, sir. Thank you for being with us.

[00:37:21] Yes. Clint Robertson, South Anna District. I just wanted clarification. I'm in favor of it as long as it's only for convictions. And there was a hesitation there. Well, wait. Only for a conviction? Hold on, sir. You can ask this question and we'll get her back up here so she's on public.

[00:37:38] So I just want to make sure that that only happens for convictions, not accusations. But yes, as long as somebody's convicted of the crime, then they should have to pay for whatever damage they did. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else?

[00:37:55] We will close a public hearing. Ms. Hahn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is absolutely correct. Someone would need to be charged and then convicted in order for this to apply. it would certainly not be something that our commonwealth's attorney would seek from someone who had not been adjudicated as liable for the damage.

[00:38:16] Very well. Any further questions? Any discussion? Very well. Thank you, Ms. Hahn. Thank you for being with us. This came to the public safety committee and, you know, I'd spoken to previous commonwealth's attorney. I really want to commend our current commonwealth attorney for bringing this to the board and working so hard to make sure that the citizens understood exactly what this was.

[00:38:39] The Public Safety Committee was in full support. But Ms. Hahn kept saying we get our money back and that we is the people of Hanover. So when law enforcement goes out, things happen, somebody's committed a crime, and there are additional costs, and we can try to restore some of those costs.

[00:38:56] I think it's incumbent upon policymakers to find every avenue to do that, particularly if the perpetrator caused those damages, was convicted, found to be guilty, then the taxpayer money should be restored as much as the law will allow.

[00:39:13] So with that, I will move to approve the adoption of Ordinance 2605 and amend the county code in Section 15-7. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[00:39:29] Motion carries. All right. So we have, obviously most folks I believe are going to be here uh for uh the data center uh discussion and subsequent public hearing uh and vote uh we have one case prior to that so i'm going to ask mr pompey if he'll come up uh and handle that and then uh we'll take some time to explain uh how we're going to handle the others so this is on rez 2025 dash 00030 north lake rv llc mr pompey thank you mr chairman the first planning public hearing for the night is a case in the Ashland District that involves rezoning a split zone

[00:40:07] parcel in North Creek Industrial Park to a single zoning classification. Currently that parcel which again is eight acres on Harley Club Drive is split zone B3 and M2 and there's an existing industrial building and parking outdoor storage area on that particular lot. The applicant is looking to rezone the property as an entirety to M2 with a consistent selection of proffers to ensure that the property is marketable to one user that fits within the zoning requirements.

[00:40:35] So again, this property is on Harley Club Drive. It's designated destination commerce on the comprehensive plan is within our growth area, the suburban service area. And you can see in the map, the northern part of the property is zoned M2, and in the southern portion, they're zoned B3. Again, with that split zoning, it's complicated to apply zoning standards to a particular use. And so the applicant is looking for consistency on the property that they can market to a prospective user, which is not known at this time. This is what the property looks like. Again, it's developed to the buildings on the M2 portion and the parking and storage areas on the B3 portion of the property. And you can see that existing building and storage yard in that industrial area within

[00:41:13] North Lake Industrial Park. The applicant has submitted proffers that would apply to the property its entirety should it be rezoned to M2. There are certain prohibited uses. There are certain requirements related to architecture and screening and mechanical equipment, as well as signage and screen of that outdoor storage area that you saw on the aerial photo there's also a proffer about the height of exterior lighting and a traffic impact analysis must be done if there's any expansion above 5 000 square feet some of these proffers are new and some were updated or a carryover from the existing zoning districts that were in place from the early 2000s the planning

[00:41:49] commission held a public hearing on this request no one from the public spoke and the planning commission ultimately recommended approval with a vote of seven to zero that concludes staff's presentation the applicant's representative is here tonight but they do not have a formal presentation planned they do not they do not very well any questions for mr pompey seeing none thank you mr pompey we will open the public hearing if the applicant does not have a presentation um so you're coming down do you have a presentation or no sir it's not a formal if you're going to speak it's a presentation okay well i'm burning in here on behalf of the applicant happy to answer any questions that you all have and uh we'll uh we'll just stand down and allow

[00:42:28] the public hearing thank you mr injure okay very well public hearing is open is anyone here to speak in favor anyone to speak in opposition seeing them we will close the public hearing uh mr injure you do have a right for rebuttal but you'd be rebutting yourself i'll withdraw or not use that right okay thank you uh this is in miss pritchard's district miss pritchard thank you you mr. chair I've known mr. inch for some time and I know he can rebut himself often in the same conversation first of all I would like to thank you for being here tonight North Lake Park is if not the one of the most highly

[00:43:07] sought industrial areas in Hanover County and in looking at this what was really important is that we keep the level of business in North Lake at what it is so that it stays a desirable place for businesses to locate. I'm not anti-business, but I think business should be where business, or certainly industrial business, should be where industrial business goes and an industrial park is it. And so we've looked at this really carefully to make sure that the right kind of business goes in the right kind of place. I think it speaks to

[00:43:43] that quality that Mr. Inge represents another very large business in the industrial park. And so I know he's being careful about what goes there what does not go there the point of contention was public toilets we did not want port-a-potties stored in public in North Lake and they are not being and I we welcome the business and and I think that between staff and council everything has worked out fine and so I couldn't be happier to say that I move to approve rezoning 2025 - 0 0 0 3 0 with

[00:44:21] proper stated May 13th 2026 we have a motion is there a second second we have a motion in the second by miss Floyd any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you mr. Ange yes sir all right give me ten seconds you're getting ready to walk into the Marchetti Properties. Ten seconds is a metaphor. Okay, thank you. Thank you all for being here.

[00:44:54] Mr. Podeski was briefing me on the weather, and I was sorely upset to see that maybe some weather was coming in, and then I came in here, and I was kind of heartened to see so many people show up, so thank you for that, and I think we have people in the lobby, so that is very heartening, particularly for those who value the public process, and many of you have valued that and been here.

[00:45:18] So tonight is the night that we're actually going to hear the case. I want to lay out a few items on how we're going to hear these. Typically, when we have cases that have multiple rezonings or they have conditional use permits or special exceptions and they're dealing with the same case, we're going to combine all of those cases into one public hearing.

[00:45:37] That way, when the public comes up, they can just speak to the case, and we don't have to navigate comments regarding one case, maybe don't have specificity to another. We want you to be able to speak to the entire case. So we're going to combine all of those, the rezonings, conditional use permit, into one public hearing, so feel free to speak on that.

[00:46:00] Let me start off with public comment time during that. We're going to have two hours. That is not the applicant's time. applicant i'll get into their time in a second i will have two hours and where we'll start that is the opponents will have uh one hour to start with uh and we will allow three non-hanover residents to speak uh as as opponents then the proponents will have one hour three non-hanover residents again if there's any remaining time we're still going to allow uh to go to two hours so if we you know have a number of uh opponents and they finish up in that hour that's great if folks still want

[00:46:39] to speak against it after proponents speak uh we want to make sure that that time is open so we get as many people in uh as possible so that remaining time any residual speaker will be uh able to come up uh and speak we do ask that you you address the board um thank you uh for your signs the board certainly sees those we haven't had any issues so just make sure you're not blocking anybody but certainly uh free to have those signs in the boardroom and uh thank you for um making sure that nobody's uh view is blocked with that so we're going to allow three minutes uh for each

[00:47:15] speaker we want to have as many folks have the opportunity to speak as possible so the vice chair is going to say at two minutes and 30 seconds he's going to let you know that you've got 30 seconds left at two minutes and 50 seconds i'm going to ask for your final thoughts we have so many people who want to engage in this process and we're grateful that you hear we are going to have to have a strict strict adherence to that three minutes because if you go over that you could be taking time from someone else and and we just don't feel that that that's right now if that's not adhered to and we're not able to do that and the board has to recess and then come

[00:47:51] back unfortunately uh that recess will not uh will not positively affect the total time meaning that we're going to schedule that two hours and again that is not for the entire public hearing that is just for citizen comments it's my sincerest desire that we get as many people here in here as possible and that we don't have we don't have any need to recess to the applicant we're going to combine all of your your cases to one so we're going to increase your time to 45 minutes uh figuring that you'll keep some time for for rebuttal but that's certainly up to you

[00:48:28] so at this time we're going to move into that oh I do have one other thing I think is important we're going to try to better some things on the website as far as folks signing up I think the gentleman said earlier that his wife had signed up we get that we get that particularly when cases are combined like this they say which one am I signing up for so we understand that so we have some folks who've signed up multiple times for different cases and that's okay we know we hope you're here and we've got you registered but if you speak once on all of the cases then we wouldn't

[00:49:03] call you back for one of the other cases you do not have to sign up we have pre-registered speakers and we are going to going to go through those first have some cards we ask that you let us get through that but if you're just here and you decided you know this afternoon you want to come up and speak we want to hear what you have to say so if you don't hear your name called or you think that you have to be registered. Please don't leave. You don't have to fill out a card. You didn't have to pre-register. We want to make sure that we get in as many folks as possible.

[00:49:35] So with that, I'm not going to ask Mr. Pompey to come up, and we will hear our planning public hearings as it relates to the next three cases. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you had mentioned, this is a package of zoning requests to allow the development of multiple data centers on approximately 427 acres in the South Anna district along US Route 33 at the Henrico County line. This will be a joint presentation and as you mentioned a joint public hearing. So again the applicant proposes the development of a master plan technology park that would accommodate multiple data centers and supporting uses including three substations. This application was submitted in

[00:50:14] September of 2025 and there were two community meetings, two planning commission public hearings and now we're at the Board of Supervisors meeting, which is about nine months after the application was submitted. The application, again, this is the Planning Commission held two public hearings, and after the second public hearing, recommended approval with a vote of six to one.

[00:50:37] Since the Board of Supervisors received its packet, there were revised proffers that the applicant submitted dated May 21st, and those were posted on the website on Friday. Those proffers are more restrictive than what was in the packet and include several different items, including clarification that the ecological restoration area will remain undeveloped.

[00:50:57] The maximum permitted sound levels were reduced during the nighttime. Generators may only be used as backup power. In the case of emergency, they cannot run in other times. Another proffer was added that on-site energy generation cannot use gas turbines.

[00:51:13] Wells are prohibited, as this particular project would connect to public water and sewer. They added language restricting the use of PFAs, and they added a cash contribution of $6 million for land conservation and parks and recreation, with $4 million of that going towards those efforts west of Interstate 95.

[00:51:30] Before I get into the particulars of the case, I'm going to give some background on data centers and how they relate to our zoning ordinance, subdivision ordinance, comprehensive plan, and land use policy. So our comprehensive plan provides an overview of the desired uses and future of Hanover County, while the zoning ordinance is law.

[00:51:47] In our zoning ordinance, practically large-scale data centers require some sort of zoning approval. These larger-scale facilities require a substation. That particular facility requires a conditional use permit. These buildings tend to be taller than permitted and have fences that are higher than permitted.

[00:52:04] So many of these facility types require a special exception for building height and fence height. And there are a few large undeveloped parcels within the suburban service area where there is available transmission lines with commercial industrial zoning. So applicants are coming forward with zoning requests near these transmission lines to one of our industrial districts, which allow data centers.

[00:52:24] Currently, outside of the town of Ashland, there's only been one development proposal for a large-scale data center that has been approved. That included a rezoning, a conditional use permit, and special exception, and that is located in the Beaverdam District on Hickory Hill Road. While these larger-scale facilities typically require some sort of zoning approval, the smaller-scale facilities are permitted by Wright in many of our commercial and industrial districts.

[00:52:45] And there's at least one operating in the county near the airport off of Sliding Hill Road. And this use has been in the ordinance since 1979, but of course it's evolved over time. So in this case, the applicant is requesting rezoning the M1 as well as those conditional use permits and special exceptions.

[00:53:03] In the comprehensive plan, that document is an advisory document the board and the planning commission use when determining the appropriateness of zoning requests among a variety of different other factors. So one key component of the comprehensive plan is the general land use plan that designates areas where growth may occur and within that growth area where different types of uses may be appropriate.

[00:53:23] The suburban service area is our designated growth area that makes up 22% of the county. And there are certain industrial districts where data centers are specifically identified as appropriate uses and located within that suburban service area. So the three land use designations where data centers are specifically recommended or listed as an appropriate use, depending on the specifics of the property, are employment center, limited industrial, and industrial.

[00:53:47] Again, those are applied within the suburban service area, and those specific designations make up about 4.5% of the total acreage in the county. If you look at where those areas are and where the transmission lines are, about 2% of the county is where large-scale data centers are feasible based upon, again, those land use designations where they're listed as appropriate use, where there's developable land, which means limited improvement value, and there's a transmission line. So you're seeing that in this particular case. The applicant is requesting the rezoning of about 427 acres from A1 agricultural

[00:54:23] to M1 limited industrial district near an existing transmission line. To support the development, they're requesting a conditional use permit to allow up to three substations, and they're requesting a special exception from building height and fencing height to allow those taller structures within the development area. And I'll go into more detail about all of these as we move through the presentation. So again, the property is about 427 acres. It's located on U.S. Route 33 Mountain Road, where it crosses the Chickahominy River. The Chickahominy River is the Henrico County line, and then it stretches northward up to Wins Church Road, and it also has frontage along its eastern

[00:54:58] boundary with Grassy Swamp Creek. Most of the property is wooded. This area has been designated for industrial and commercial development in the Conference of Plan General Land Use Plan since the 1990s. It's currently designated Employment Center, Highway Commercial, and the Natural Conservation Areas along the Chickahominy River and Grassy Swamp Creek. Not only has it been designated on the General Land Use Plan for industrial and commercial development, it's within one of the county's economic development zones. There are 10 economic development zones in the County. Four are able to accommodate greenfield development or new development on undeveloped

[00:55:35] parcels, and this is one of those four. It was designated EDZ in 2012 due to infrastructure investments, which I'll go into in the next slide, and it was also subject to a small area plan. A few years ago, the Board of Supervisors initiated small area plans for all 10 of those economic development zones. Right now, we're working on the third plan, Route 33, which includes this area, was the first small area plan that was completed, and that was finished in August of 2025. As I mentioned, this area was designated in 2012 as an economic development zone, and there has been some investment in public infrastructure, particularly public utilities to date in this

[00:56:14] area. Sewers extended and a wastewater pump station built adjacent to this property in 2013, and then the widening of U.S. Route 33 has been discussed since the 1960s, and in the county's 10-year funding plan. Funding has been allocated to begin engineering the widening of Route 33 from the current four-lane segment adjacent to this property up to Winds Church Road with engineering anticipated in 2027 and completion in FY2032. This is not the first time that the board or rather the Planning Commission has looked at a rezoning request for the subject properties. From 2017 to

[00:56:53] 2019, an application was reviewed for a potential mixed-use development on a portion of these properties. This request is slightly larger in terms of area, but it included similar parcels, including the Marchetti tract. At that time, the Planning Commission had held public hearings. It did not make it to the Board of Supervisors as the applicant withdrew the case, but the final version that was proposed included almost 1,800 residential units, retail and office space, more than 300,000 square feet of it in economic development parcels.

[00:57:22] So again, this parcel has been discussed for development in the past with applicants proposing different rezoning requests. The planning commission reviewed this request and they recommended denial due to the concentration of residential development within the economic development zone. Again, it never made it to the Board of Supervisors per public hearing as it was withdrawn.

[00:57:40] I think one interesting thing of this particular case as it relates to the current case is That case you see on the screen generated about 14,000 trips per day at build-out, and the current zoning case, when it's complete, generates about 1,500 trips per day.

[00:57:55] So there's a difference in terms of the intensity of trip generation between the residential mixed-use project and what is being proposed tonight. The applicant has submitted a conceptual plan. Conceptual plans are not required in the M1 zoning district like they are in some of our other zoning districts.

[00:58:12] that the applicant has proffered, that development will occur in accordance with that conceptual plan, which covers the 427 acres. It shows the primary access points. In this case, once the project's complete, the primary access point will be that blue star on the map from U.S. Route 33, just beyond the Chickahawiny River Bridge when you're coming from Interstate 295.

[00:58:34] There'll be a secondary access on Route 33 as you move into the county closer to the existing self-storage, that secondary entrance will be used for construction and emergency access only. So once the project's complete, it will only be for emergency access. There is an access on Winds Church Road, but that's only for utility service and emergency access. That will not be an entrance point for construction or any other vehicular traffic. So again, that primary access point is from Route 33 per the conceptual plan and profit conditions just beyond the Chickahominy River Bridge. This also shows the internal road networks will be private roads. There will be a

[00:59:12] gatehouse where that red star is on the conceptual plan. The kind of gold mustard color are the building and development areas. Open space areas are also shown. About 40 percent of the site is open space. There are also perimeter buffers and then a trail that's shown in orange which lines with the recommendation of a small area plan that the applicant has proffered to build.

[00:59:34] That plan itself, as well as the proffers, describe where different types of improvements are permitted in correlation with the building area shown on the conceptual plan. The applicant also submitted building elevations. These elevations have not been proffered, meaning that the buildings will not be required to look exactly like those illustrations, but they have proffered and proffered five different design standards that have to be addressed once the buildings are under site plan review.

[01:00:03] the developer would have to submit elevations with the site plan that verify that the buildings and their exteriors adhere to all the proffered elevations related to orientation, materials, colors, architectural details, and the screening of mechanical equipment. The applicant is requesting M1 zoning, which allows data centers. In the M1 zoning district, the maximum building height is 35 feet. The applicant is currently requesting a special exception to allow buildings up to 62 feet in height. That does align with the small area plan. At one point they were asking for building heights up to 85 feet, but right now the max height throughout the project has been reduced

[01:00:39] to 62 feet. The conditional use permit that's associated with this crest is for three substations that are located within two building areas. Two substations will be within building area 2b, which is along the east central boundary, and then one substation will be within building area 3b, which is the building area closest to Winds Church Road.

[01:01:04] So with any zoning case or development proposal on this parcel, there are several different key considerations that relate to long-range planning and other factors in regards to land use. Growth Management Plan, that's part of the comprehensive plan and identifies the parts of the county that are appropriate for growth or intended for growth and where public utilities will be provided.

[01:01:25] In this case, this property is in the suburban service area, which is the 22% of the county designated for growth. public utilities. In the general land use plan it's designated employment center. This particular proposal aligns with many of the recommendations for that employment center land use designation.

[01:01:41] Again it's located in the mountain road gateway economic development zone. It's part of the U.S. Route 33 gateway small area plan and this particular proposal addresses many of the recommendations in that plan and it's also a major gateway to Hanover County where Route 33 enters from the south with any zoning case on this parcel we would consider infrastructure impacts in this case public utilities infrastructure water and sewer availability as well as capacity we'll get into that a little bit later in the presentation as well as transportation impacts so the planning commission the board of supervisors will consider the proposed development and all the mitigation measures proposed to the proper conditions conceptual plan to determine

[01:02:19] whether or not those particular mitigation measures would address the potential impacts adequately. Some of the impacts that citizens and others have identified include visual impacts, traffic, construction activities, noise, air pollution, water usage, electricity usage, and groundwater. So again, the proffers and the conditions associated with the conditional use permit and special exception aim to mitigate those impacts. And part of the discussion tonight is whether or not those conditions would adequately address those impacts. And I'll go through how the applicant has proposed addressing each one of those impacts. So in terms of visual impacts,

[01:02:56] these large-scale data centers do have an industrial appearance because they have a larger footprint, a larger scale. They have supporting infrastructure that is industrial in nature. The applicant has attempted to mitigate these measures through perimeter buffers, setbacks, and architectural standards. So they're pretty significant perimeter buffers and setbacks compared to other development proposals. A 200-foot buffer is proposed along US Route 33 Mountain Road. A 300-foot buffer is proposed along Winds Church Road. A minimum 200-foot buffer is along the southern eastern boundaries adjacent to the Chicomany River and Grassy Swamp Creek. In many

[01:03:34] locations, it extends farther, and the applicants proffered up to 400 feet along certain portions of Grassy Swamp Creek. A 150-foot buffer adjacent to existing residential uses, and then a 50- to 75-foot buffer adjacent to existing commercial industrial uses as well as areas planned for industrial development. And the proffers require that these buffers remain in their natural state and supplemented with additional plantings depending upon the composition of the buffer as exists today. And that aligns with some of the policies for our solar ordinance as well.

[01:04:05] And then there are architectural standards and the proffered conditions to help make the buildings look more attractive and blend in. In terms of transportation, as I mentioned, traffic has been a concern along Route 33 since the 1960s and citizens have expressed concerns with traffic not only at build-out but during the construction process.

[01:04:22] The applicant has submitted a traffic impact analysis and a supplementary analysis that looks not only at traffic at build-out but as well as traffic during the construction phase. These traffic impact analysis were reviewed by VDOT and a third party that the county hired for review.

[01:04:40] Construction traffic is slightly more and anticipated to be slightly more impactful Then the traffic upon build-out, about 1,600 trips per day are anticipated during that construction period, whereas at build-out, it's about 1,500 trips per day. In comparison, Route 33 in this area carries about 8,600 trips per day.

[01:04:57] So the traffic impact analysis looked at both that construction traffic and the build-out traffic. Based on that analysis, the applicant has proffered certain improvements in transportation measures to mitigate the impacts to the roadway. One measure is minimizing access.

[01:05:14] The primary access point, again, will be from Route 33 just north of the Chickahominy River. A secondary access will be on Route 33 farther up, and that will only be for construction traffic. Once construction is complete, it will be for emergency use only. Winds Church Road, the only access will be for emergency and utility service.

[01:05:33] That access is near Grassy Swamp Creek. That cannot be used for construction traffic or typical traffic. So limiting access is one mitigation measure the applicant has proposed. at those interests on Route 33 the TIA recommended right turn lanes or right turn lane will be provided at the primary access which will be the permanent access as well as the secondary access will be used for construction and emergency traffic those improvements have been proffered and again aligned with the recommendations in the TIA because those right lane or right turn lanes are needed during the construction phase the applicant has proffered that they'll be constructed prior to issuance of the first building permit for the first data center building again construction

[01:06:12] traffic was analyzed and that is a concern for this particular proposal. The TIA recommended a median new turn with a left turn lane. The applicant has proffered to construct that and I'll show a picture of how that fits in in a later slide. The applicant has proffered a construction mitigation plan which will be submitted at site plan review in accordance with the different content and elements specified in the proffer. Some of the accommodations include hiring sheriff deputies at the applicant's expense to control traffic during the peak construction hours and And there are restrictions on when construction vehicles can leave and enter the site to help avoid when commuter traffic is using Route 33.

[01:06:49] The applicants proffered to repair any construction damage for the bond required, and the hours of exterior construction are limited. And again, these are in the proffers in line with TIA recommendations. Here's a picture of what those improvements would look like per the proffered conditions. The bottom right is the bridge over the Chickahominy, and then you're moving away from Henrico.

[01:07:10] In the top left, that private driveway's entrance to the existing self-storage facility and some other businesses behind it. But you can see both entrances will have the right turn lane, and then there'll be that median U-turn in the middle to accommodate construction traffic.

[01:07:26] That's heading back to Interstate 295. Interstate 295 is just about a half mile away. So moving from traffic to noise, citizens have expressed concerns regarding noise generated by data centers. the applicant did complete a noise study that looked at how this particular facility would operate under normal conditions, as well as the testing and maintenance of generators.

[01:07:50] That study indicated that the project would be able to meet the current noise ordinance requirements. However, it would be at the maximum levels during generator testing on Route 33 adjacent to the site. To help mitigate noise, the applicant has proffered several different conditions. This is on two different slides, but the first is sound attenuation measures.

[01:08:12] Physical sound attenuation measures must be installed on equipment within 1,200 feet of the project boundary if the equipment is on the roof or the side of the building facing residential uses. Generators must be within a manufacturer-approved sound attenuation enclosure. Noise studies must be completed within 30 days of these facilities being operational to make sure what was installed actually functions properly and meets the noise requirements.

[01:08:36] In addition, the planning director may request an additional study once per year if there's complaints to ensure continuing compliance with the noise-related proffers and the noise ordinance. Generator testing is limited on Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., again, reducing noise because the noise from that generator testing can be impactful.

[01:08:58] And then perimeter landscape buffers and increased building setbacks provide greater distances between data centers and adjacent properties. Again, there are buffers of 200 to 300 feet along much of the perimeter of the property that helps provide some additional sound control. The applicant has proffered different sound levels.

[01:09:17] The daytime max is 57 DBA and 73 DBC. The nighttime max is DBA 50 and DBC 68. Our current noise ordinance only addresses the DBA noise and establishes timeframes as to what daytime and nighttime is referring to, but our current ordinance only refers to that DBA level, whereas the DBC level is not addressed in the ordinance, but that gets to the lower hum noise that some have indicated to hear from data centers. The DBA levels generally align with the ordinance. The nighttime is slightly more restrictive than the ordinance. Per ordinance,

[01:09:55] nighttime max is DBA 52, and the applicants are proffering DBA 50. And again, the DBC levels are not in the ordinance, and the applicants proffered those. Those align with the ordinance requirements in Prince William County, which recently adopted some DVC standards. Air quality citizens have expressed concerns regarding emissions from generators. The applicant has proffered that only tier four or better generators will be used. Tier four generators emit fewer pollutants and other types of generators, and the generators may only be used as a backup power source in the event of an emergency they can't run at other times, again, limiting the amount of emissions from

[01:10:30] generators. Not related to generators, but other elements that could contribute to air quality, the applicant has proffered that debris from land clearing may not be burned on site during construction and other on-site energy generation that includes gas turbines is prohibited.

[01:10:47] Water usage is another concern. There is existing water and sewer infrastructure in this area as I mentioned, Grassy Swamp Creek, and the existing wastewater pump station in Forest Lane was constructed in 2013. And then there's some water lines along Winschurch Road and Mountain Road.

[01:11:03] This particular facility is anticipated to use 600,000 gallons on a typical day In comparison, the Tyson's facility that was connected to public water used 800,000 gallons per day. However, the peak demand is significantly higher. Peak usage plus the required fire flow would necessitate 2 million gallons of water per day for this development.

[01:11:26] If no improvements are made to the Elmont pressure zone, which is the portion of the water system in this area, the proposed development would use 90% of the available water capacity. To mitigate that, the applicant has proffered $15 million for public water infrastructure.

[01:11:42] And these improvements that the funding would support was included in the Water Supply Resilience Feasibility Study that the board heard about in March. So the $15 million would go to design and construction of booster pump stations and storage tanks. With these improvements, again, the applicant would pay the money to the county in certain time frames specified in the ordinance.

[01:12:03] These improvements provide additional maximum day capacity of about 1 million gallons per day, which would free up 30% of the capacity for other users. So without doing anything, the applicant will be using 90% of the available capacity of this project were approved and constructed as proposed.

[01:12:20] With these measures, there is additional capacity in the area. Not only have they proffered that funding will be used to support public water infrastructure, but up to two acres of land will be provided to support these improvements. Citizens have expressed concerns about impacts to groundwater.

[01:12:37] The applicant is within the suburban service area. There are existing public utilities, and they've proffered that they will connect to those public utilities, both public water and sewer. All of the water in the suburban system comes from surface water. So none of the water that Hanover County supplies to this project, if it's approved, would come from wells.

[01:12:54] It's all surface water. Private wells are prohibited. And then if this project is approved and goes through the construction plan process, it would have to include plans to address erosion and sediment control requirements, as well as stormwater management regulations associated with the quantity and quality of stormwater that is running off the site.

[01:13:14] Electricity usage. Data centers tend to use significant amounts of electricity, and they locate near those existing transmission lines, as we discussed, due to their electrical demands. There is an existing transmission line off-site to the east and northeast. The conceptual plan shows the general location of how the power or a new transmission line would be extended from that existing line into the site, serving the three proposed substations.

[01:13:37] Dominion Energy has indicated that power could be available in the fourth quarter of 2029. The applicant has to coordinate with Dominion Energy on providing enough power and infrastructures to meet the electrical needs. To mitigate the visual impacts of that transmission infrastructure, the applicant has a priority for the use of earth tone poles and the placement of transmission lines perpendicular to the buffer.

[01:13:59] But since that existing transmission line is off-site, the new transmission line will have to cross the perimeter buffer at some point. There have been discussions about the historical commission. The historic commission is an advisory body that reviews certain zoning cases.

[01:14:14] They do not review every single zoning case, but ones that meet Category 1 or Category 2 features, either on-site or within 1,350 feet. This particular request does not include Category 1 or 2 sites within on-site or within 1,350 feet of the site.

[01:14:32] And the applicant provided expert research to verify that. The applicant submitted a fiscal impact analysis that estimated the potential tax generation, primarily looking at 2030 through 2044. and they started at 2030 with the tax generation because that's when the electricity would be available and these facilities would start coming online. It's estimated during that time frame the project would generate $901 million in real estate and business personal property tax.

[01:15:00] Year one will be just under $18 million. The maximum indicated in the fiscal impact would be year 14 at $74 million per year. For comparison, the budget last year was about $780 million in for the county. This particular application has evolved over time since it was originally submitted in September of 2025 based on feedback. Some of the major changes which we've discussed throughout this presentation are increased perimeter buffers and setbacks, increasing that buffer along Winds Church Road from 200 to 300 feet, increasing the buffer along Grassy Swamp Creek from a standard 200 feet to a variable width up to 400 feet in some locations, then

[01:15:38] increasing the buffer in other locations as well, reducing the request for a maximum building height from 85 feet to 62 feet, agreeing to construct a hard surface trail and providing funding for maintenance where previously they were just proposing a natural surface trail, screening equipment from all perimeter boundary lines, whereas originally they were only proffering that screening from public roads and adjacent residential uses, mitigating construction traffic through physical improvements, such as the median U-turn, as well as limitations on when vehicles can enter and exit the site with traffic control provided and paid for by the applicant, adding limitations

[01:16:15] regarding maximum DBC and DBA levels, providing sound tenuation measures for equipment within 1,200 feet of any perimeter project boundary line versus the original submittal that had 1,200 feet of any adjacent residential use, and then some additional standards regarding wind generators can be tested and how they are handled from a sound perspective and then addressing water usage through those contributions to the county for public infrastructure improvements and some commitments regarding the types of cooling systems that will be used that generally use less water.

[01:16:47] And then one change that we discussed since the previous Planning Commission meeting when the packet went out was a contribution of $6 million for land preservation and parks and recreation in the county. So in terms of next steps following board action, if the development or if the board of Supervisors denies, the zoning request of the development cannot move forward, and a substantially similar application cannot be considered by the Board of Supervisors for one year.

[01:17:13] If the application is approved, it has to go through a series of review steps with detailed engineering drawings, including construction plan review, site plan review, and building permit review. And these are all administrative reviews that ensure compliance with the proffered conditions.

[01:17:30] And they also have to meet all of the local, state, and federal requirements related to development, including stormwater and erosion and sediment control. We've gone through most of these proffers already, but again, the applicant has submitted 18 proffers, the latest version dated May 21st. It's important to note these proffers are voluntary conditions offered by the applicant.

[01:17:50] These are not county required. These are what the applicant has agreed to abide by, and they run with the land. No matter who owns the land, they must adhere to these proffer conditions unless the landowner comes back to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors for an amendment to the proper conditions. That amendment process is just like a rezoning in terms of the public hearings.

[01:18:10] It must go to the Planning Commission for an advertised public hearing and then the Board of Supervisors for ultimate approval. So again, these 18 conditions, whoever owns the property would have to adhere to those unless they go back through this public process. And they relate to permitted land uses on the property, adherence to that conceptual plan, the perimeter buffers we discussed, the walking trail, design standards for the building and surrounding site, screening and mechanical equipment, signage, having a coordinated plan and monument signs, the design and location of the perimeter fencing, lighting, limits on the height of the lighting, maximum light levels that are more restrictive than the ordinance, and the particular design of those

[01:18:48] lighting fixtures, the transportation proffers we discussed that address permanent improvements as well as mitigation measures during construction, construction road damage, dedication of right-of-way, Noise levels and how noise is addressed for the particular equipment on site, generators, the type that can be used and when they can be used, construction, water and sewer, those infrastructure improvements we discussed, as well as the type of cooling systems that may be used, a gateway entrance feature that's shown in the conceptual plan, how that must be designed, and then the land preservation cash contribution.

[01:19:22] The proffered conditions, those are offered by the applicant with the conditional use permit and special exception. The board may impose any reasonable conditions to address impacts from those specific uses. The substation has some recommended conditions in the staff report that require increased setbacks, screening, and decommissioning of those facilities.

[01:19:46] And then the special exception has some additional standards related to building height and fence height. most of the design requirements for buildings and fencing are in the proffers, but this special exception, if it were approved, imposes some additional standards as well. Since this is three different types of applications, while we held a joint presentation and a joint public hearing, there will need to be three different motions, one for the rezoning, one for the conditional use permit, and one for the special exception. And that concludes staff's presentation. The applicant

[01:20:25] does have a presentation planned as well. Thank you, Mr. Pompey. Any questions for Mr. Pompey, starting this way? Seeing none, starting this way. Mr. Herzberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, sir, for your very detailed presentation. A lot of information. Can you go back to the slide that you showed? Maybe about one-third through the presentation on the water demand. That's the slide. So it says average daily use 600,000 gallons per day. The former Tyson's

[01:21:04] facility was 800,000 gallons per day and then my question is on the next line the peak demand peak usage plus required fire flow does that so peak usage would that be maybe a hot day and then the required fire flow would would that be if there's a significant fire or how what does that mean so the peak demand is referring to that peak usage which would be a hot day where they need more water for cooling. And as part of the impacts to the system, public utilities also wants to be able

[01:21:42] to make sure that there's enough fire flow if on the off chance there's peak water usage at this facility and there's a fire in this pressure zone, there's enough water for both. So considering all the water that's needed for the cooling of the facility plus the minimum requirements needed to ensure enough pressure to combat a fire in the Elmont pressure zone, 2 million gallons per day is needed. Okay, so is it, I'm just trying to make sure I understand correctly, sir. Is it reasonable to say that the peak usage and the required fire flow is kind of a worst-case

[01:22:19] scenario, and this calculation was arrived at based upon a worst-case scenario, and we want to make sure that there's enough water for that? That's correct. It'd be a worst-case scenario. extreme heat plus a severe fire. Okay my next question is you you had a slide I think trying to think roughly where it was but anyway you mentioned that there would be some coordination with deputies on traffic impacts and so my

[01:22:55] question is on that. So is this during construction? Yes sir it's during construction. Okay and so it sounds like deputies would be there to assist with traffic flow, is that right? That's correct. During the peak construction hours, so when most of the workers are coming or going in the morning or afternoon, the applicant would be responsible for hiring deputies to help direct traffic and minimize impacts on the road network. Well, thank you. You just answered my question. I wrote here, who pays for that? The applicant would pay for

[01:23:30] that for the proffers. So they would pay for that. Would deliveries be limited or prohibited during peak hours? There are some limits on when commercial vehicles can enter and exit the site during a.m. and p.m. Peaks. Okay, so there would be certain times, let's just say the peak hour in the morning, peak hour in the evening, where the traffic is normally the highest, it's like that everywhere, that those deliveries would be limited, but these deputies would be there to help with other time frames or during that to make sure? So they're kind of different scenarios. Construction

[01:24:10] vehicles like the large trucks, dump trucks, those sort of thing, those cannot enter, exit the site during certain times. And then the deputies are there for the construction workers who are in like personal vehicles, getting them in and out of the site. Okay. Well, I understand that. I think that's the first time I've ever heard of that in a proper. So it makes more sense to me now. Thank you.

[01:24:34] And then the other question I have is you mentioned the project from 2019 early in your presentation. Yes, sir. The lake project. And I remember I was here in this room right over there when that project was before the planning commission.

[01:24:53] And I remember that that recommendation was for denial. Is that right? That's how I remember it. That's correct. It was for denial. Okay. And one of the concerns there was traffic. There was a lot of residential. There was a lot of economic development, commercial, retail.

[01:25:10] Do you remember roughly how many trips per day that calculation was? That was earlier in the presentation. So the final version then evolved over time.

[01:25:25] It started at a higher number with more intense development. But the final version that I found through our records was 14,000 trips per day roughly for that particular project. Okay, so that one that was denied was 14,000, and this one is anticipated to be 1,400.

[01:25:44] That's correct. Okay. Well, that answers my questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Pompey. Anything further? Mr. Hudson? No. Mr. Vice Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could you go back, I guess it's the transportation slide, and explain a little bit more.

[01:26:04] So, during the construction of this project, they're going to be widening 33 at the same time, right? Is that correct? Because that's supposed to be completed at 2034? There could be some overlap because this has power in 2030 and widening 33, engineering begin in FY27 with completion in FY32.

[01:26:26] So there could be some overlap between construction of this project and construction of that project if they stay on schedule. Okay. And the other question I have is the buildable sites, the proximity to Grassy Creek and the distance between? Conceptual plan for that.

[01:26:53] So, I mean, I can't read that on it. Can you tell it to me? At a minimum, it's 200 feet for the proper conditions. To the building site. The buffer has to be at least 200 feet. In a lot of areas, it's wider. So it's probably hard to see on this map because there's a white dotted line that shows where the 200-foot buffer is.

[01:27:13] In other areas, it's wider where the RPA extends farther into the site. And then in certain locations, the applicant has proffered a variable width buffer. So next to building area 2B, it might be hard to read on there.

[01:27:28] It goes up to 400 feet wide in some locations. Yeah, so 200 feet is the minimum, but in many locations, it extends beyond that for various reasons. And the only other question I have for you is on the water. So if we build the pump station and the storage tank, that will give us additional capacity, but it'll use up 70% of the capacity, correct?

[01:27:59] So it said 30% remaining. So if we don't do anything, it's 10%. That's 90%. And then if we put the pump station in, it gives us an additional 20%. Yes, yes. Okay, thank you.

[01:28:16] Anything further? Very well, thank you, Mr. Pompey. We will now open the public hearing. The applicant will have a total of 45 minutes. Any time remaining from initial presentation can be used for rebuttal.

[01:28:31] That full time of 45 minutes will be allowed either for presentation or rebuttal. Thank you for being with us. Please state your name and the entity that you represent. Good evening, Chair Davis, members of the board. My name is Erin Fosdick, and I'm here representing TRACT.

[01:28:48] I'm pleased to join you tonight to present the Mountain Road Technology Park Project. By way of introductions, I have a number of other folks from my team, from TRACT, here. I will defer to them if there are specific engineering questions. We also have some members of our local project team from Kimley-Horn, who's providing civil and ecological services for us.

[01:29:11] They are the ones that did our TIA and our water modeling. And then we also have our legal counsel with Hirschler. Before we get started, I thought it would be helpful to level set and just talk about data centers in general. Obviously, everyone in the room knows what a data center is.

[01:29:29] That's why we're all here. But I do think it's helpful to remind everyone data centers are physical facilities that house critical infrastructure, this infrastructure that we are relying more and more on every day to support our modern world. Some data centers do support AI, artificial intelligence, and I think we're hearing a lot about that in the news. But most data centers, a lot of data centers support schools, they support banks, hospitals, airports, small businesses, utilities, local governments, and other basic digital services that we all rely on every day.

[01:30:03] They keep us connected to our friends and family and to our community via cell phones, email, the internet, and social media. They provide entertainment and enjoyment, supporting streaming services, enabling travel, providing access to lifelong learning.

[01:30:18] They also provide backbone support for many of the systems that are critical for our safety and security. So things like telehealth, emergency services, navigation, financial services, defense. I suspect almost everyone in this room relies on a data center probably daily.

[01:30:38] So as we get started, I want to talk about this image. Thanks to planning staff for providing such a comprehensive presentation. I'll try not to be too duplicative, but I do want to start with this image. This is a simplified version of our concept plan that really shows the composition of our site. And what's notable here is the over 41% of the site that we're preserving as natural areas. This is in direct response not only to some of the concerns that we heard from the community around visual and environmental impacts, but also the guidance that we had from the county's planning

[01:31:14] framework that you've worked so hard on over the years. So this 41 percent is comprised of natural areas, buffers, RPAs, wetlands, and ecological restoration area that's running through the center of the site. Development areas are those that are kind of in that darker green. Those are just over 28%. These are the areas that are going to support the development, but they won't house data centers themselves. So these might have access facilities, utilities, parking lots, landscaping, stormwater, and then the data center buildings themselves. That is going to be located

[01:31:46] within the building areas, which comprises about 30% of the site. As staff mentioned, this project is consistent with the Envision Hanover Comprehensive Plan, which is one of the main reasons that we looked at this site for this development.

[01:32:04] This project is in alignment with the goals and objectives in the plan and we'll talk a little bit more about that. The property is within the suburban service area and is in a designated economic development zone as you heard from SAF. This property, this collection of properties has been identified for decades as an employment center.

[01:32:23] And as you know, employment centers are intended to accommodate employment generating businesses and limited industrial uses within cohesive master plan developments of at least 20 acres, like the Mountain Road Tech Park project. The comprehensive plan goes on to identify specific uses that are appropriate in employment centers, and data centers are one of the uses that are specifically called out as a use that should locate in an employment center.

[01:32:48] And as we think about implementing the comp plan, Planner Pompey talked about the comp plan is a guiding document, zoning is the regulatory requirement, the way we implement the employment center land use is through zoning. M1 Limited Industrial is an appropriate zoning district for this land use. There are obviously a number of goals within your comprehensive plan that we feel this project is in alignment with, but I want to just highlight two because I think they're the most important, and that is the land use and growth management goal and the economic vitality goal. As we've mentioned a couple times, this property is within the suburban service area.

[01:33:26] That comprises just about 22% of the county's land, and that's the area that you've identified as the place to direct future growth and development to. And I think that's a really important point. By directing growth to that 22% of the county, the other 78% of the county can be reserved for rural areas.

[01:33:46] We've heard loud and clear that keeping Hanover rural is really important, and we think that this project is going to actually help you achieve that goal, and this is consistent with the county's plan. In terms of looking at economic vitality, this project will obviously result in significant capital investment in the county and will generate significant revenue for the county, which we'll talk about here in just a second.

[01:34:10] Projects like this also continue to help attract investment from supporting industries. And so I think you've already started to see that in this county with recent announcements from DPR and Rosaden on expansions in Hanover County. As we've heard from Planner Pompeii, this area has been long targeted for economic development.

[01:34:33] For over 30 years, this property has been looked at as a way to expand the county's commercial tax base to help reduce the tax burden on residents. The county invested in a pump station a number of years ago to spur development, and that investment, unfortunately, has gone unused for years.

[01:34:51] There have been proposals for development like the Lake District that was just shown. Those were ultimately rejected because the impacts were too high and the benefits not enough, as we just heard. I think the county was strategic in pursuing small area plans for their economic development zones.

[01:35:09] This was the first one that you completed, and the board adopted this last year. The plan calls for specific uses, including data centers, and these uses were identified because the county did want to focus on uses that generated less traffic. They were able to be buffered and screened so they could be integrated more seamlessly into the existing environment.

[01:35:30] They could have transitions and they could limit their intensity and focus the intensity of development in the interior of the site, which is what you see with our concept plan. Planner Pompeii went through our concept plan, so I won't spend a ton of time here, but I do want to highlight a few things.

[01:35:50] We monitored the small area plan public process closely, watched the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors hearing and really took a lot of guidance from this plan. And so as you look at our concept plan and as you look at our voluntary proffers, you'll see language that looks almost identical to the small area plan, and that is intentional. We're really trying to implement that plan and carry out the county's vision for this important area of the county. You'll see this through our extensive natural buffers. A large portion of the site, again, over 41 percent is being preserved we have specific vegetation requirements that require natural planning that

[01:36:27] require inventory and supplemental planning we've reduced our building heights to be wholly consistent with the recommendations of the small area plan we are controlling and restricting access on winch church road which we heard was very important to folks in the county we are planning on constructing trails along the chickahominy and grassy swamp creek and we will be establishing a trail maintenance fund to help with ongoing maintenance of those trails. In addition we have a trailhead shown. We have detailed design standards that each building will be subjected to

[01:36:59] and that will be reviewed during subsequent site plan and building permit process. So staff did a tremendous job summarizing the voluntary proffer conditions. I'm not going to spend time covering all of these. I'm happy to answer any detailed questions that you might have after the presentation

[01:37:19] But I do want to cover a few specific items, and this may be a bit redundant, but I think it's important because we spent a lot of time through our community meetings and through our conversations and public hearings with planning commission and staff addressing community concerns and really developing a concept plan and proffers that aim to address this in a meaningful way.

[01:37:43] We also want to acknowledge this is not going to make everyone happy. You know, there are folks that do not want to see this industry in the county, and we acknowledge that. But I hope through this conversation we can demonstrate what we have tried to do through our voluntary proffer statements to address some of these significant concerns.

[01:38:00] So the first area that I'm going to touch on is transportation and construction, and we'll kind of look at these ones together. We do have a traffic impact analysis and a supplement, as Planner Pompei mentioned, that has been reviewed and approved by VDOT. We're proposing a number of permanent improvements to the site.

[01:38:19] Obviously, we're going to have a primary entrance and a secondary entrance along Mountain Road. We will not have any permanent or construction access off Winds Church. We will be constructing turn lanes at both the entrances and that median U-turn on Mountain Road, primarily to accommodate construction traffic leaving the site and going south towards 95.

[01:38:42] Important to note that these improvements will be required prior to the first building permit being issued and so this is one of the first things that we will do if we're successful in getting this project moving forward. Also want to note that any of these permanent improvements and the construction management plan that we're going to talk about on the next slide require approval from the county and vdot and so we'll need to work closely on that before i move on from transportation just want to note um because i think it came up in the question on the lake district plan data center uses do have one of the lowest trip generation

[01:39:17] rates of any land use particularly when compared with residential and so i think that was one of the things that was identified in the small area plan as being important in this corridor shifting to construction we did hear concerns particularly at the planning commission hearings about the impacts of construction traffic and so we have several detailed proffers and you'll see that in the document in front of you a construction management plan is going to be required and this will need to be approved by the county both at the time of our initial grading permit and then with each subsequent building permit that's submitted to the county timing for construction

[01:39:54] will be limited. And as we discussed with staff, commercial truck traffic will be limited during peak hours. The request around coordinating with the sheriff's office at our expense did come from the planning commission. And I think that was really the result of seeing maybe some projects elsewhere in the region that were using flaggers ineffectively. And so we identified using sheriff's deputies as a more impactful way to help mitigate any of those concerns.

[01:40:25] We also have language in there around needing to reduce dirt, dust, and rocks, no burning of materials on site. And then the last thing I'll mention with regard to construction is that we have a proffer where we will identify a public liaison, and that's intended to make sure there's a point of contact at all times from the beginning of the project, and that will run through six months after completion, so after the final certificate of occupancy for the building is issued. In case there are issues, the county will have a point of contact so that those issues can be resolved quickly. Planner Pompey talked a bit about noise, so I'll try not to be too repetitive

[01:41:05] here. We've heard quite a few concerns about noise, and I think obviously being that we're in Virginia, where there have been data centers constructed for some time, there are some bad frankly bad examples data centers that are located directly adjacent to neighborhoods with almost no setbacks and no buffers and I think the noise issue is is front and center in folks mind we have a number of proffers that are in place to help mitigate potential noise impacts certainly we have permitted sound lever levels and planner pompey went through those both the dba which is

[01:41:39] required by the county's code and the DBC, which we've proffered to voluntarily. We did reduce the nighttime noise level and we had some specific concerns from adjacent property owners that we were responding to there. Also want to note that a noise study will be required for each data center building at its ready for service. So once it's up and running, all the mechanical equipment and computer equipment is installed and it's essentially ready to start operating, we will need to conduct a noise study to prove conformance with these permitted sound levels.

[01:42:13] That's a really big deal because at that point we've invested a lot of money and capital into this building. If we can't demonstrate conformance with the permitted sound levels, we will not be able to operate, and so we'll have to install mitigation. We also added that an additional noise study can be required by the planning director annually at our expense if there's any concerns in the future.

[01:42:38] Finally, I'll mention physical sound attenuation is going to be required on our mechanical equipment, and this will also include generators that need to be in a sound enclosure. The noise proffer does have some specific information around generators. I don't have a generator slide here, but I do have some additional information if you'd like to speak more about generators.

[01:42:59] But I will say from a noise perspective, they're in sound enclosures, and there are limits on testing both in terms of the days and times. industry standard, just because we get this question on occasion, is that each generator is tested for 30 minutes per month at 30% of its load. And that's done kind of on a rolling basis.

[01:43:23] So moving on to talk about water and sewer. Obviously, as you know, economic development zones have been identified because they have public utilities available, and this site is no different. We talked a little bit about the pump station that the county invested in to attract investment that has not been used to date, but that will enable us to treat wastewater from this site. So to be clear, any wastewater generated in the data center buildings will be treated by the county's wastewater system. It will not be discharged. We are connecting to the existing water infrastructure on the site. Some of our proffer commitments are that we will not be using

[01:44:02] private wells in any way, shape, or form. This project will not draw groundwater. I know that's been a concern for the community. So just for the avoidance of doubt, there is no well water being used. We've included a proffer requirement that there will be no single pass cooling here. And so what that means is these data centers will be either cooled through an air cooled system or through a recirculating evaporative cooling system. And that is to encourage water efficiency.

[01:44:31] And then we've also added a prohibition on any PFAS additives in water cooling. And that's a recent addition based on some information that we got from the county as planner pompey mentioned we have a pretty substantial set of proffers that deal with the water resiliency project the county has been talking about i know dpu and several consultants presented to the board at your march board meeting and talked about the overall county-wide water resiliency planning that you're engaged in we're really pleased to be able to partner with the county on the route 33 water storage tank project that was identified as a long-term unfunded recommendation. And so what

[01:45:11] our proffer does is dedicate up to two acres for the water storage tank and booster pump. And that is, that's in the location that you see kind of towards the bottom center of this map. And in addition, we will pay for the engineering and design of this water storage tank project and booster pump. And then we will construct the initial tank and booster pump. The question was asked on kind of how much capacity this gives, this project will serve our project. As was mentioned, our peak daily demand could use up to 90% of the available capacity. This will provide available storage and capacity. It will help our project, but it will also help the entire Route

[01:45:50] 33 corridor, providing for future economic development opportunities and also increasing water resilience for businesses and residents in the area. The additional proffer that we weren't able to discuss with Planning Commission, but that we're pleased to submit to the board for consideration, is a $6 million contribution to the county to support land preservation and parks and recreation, or another purpose determined by the board of supervisors. While this area has been designated for many years for economic development and is within the suburban service area, we heard

[01:46:27] loud and clear throughout the planning process that rural preservation is exceptionally important to the county. And so we want to be a partner and support the county in that goal. We know the county also recently adopted the parks and recreation master plan. I think the board adopted that last year. And so that plan prioritizes access, expansion, facility modernization, programming, stewardship, and partnership. And so this is an opportunity to use some of this funding to implement some of the items that are contained in that plan. So shifting a little bit away from proffers. I want to spend some time talking about power. This is something else that we've heard a

[01:47:07] lot about. I know the county works closely with Dominion Energy, and we've been closely working with them as well on this project. As we've mentioned multiple times, our target in-service date for this project is the fourth quarter of 2029. We are in batch zero in Dominion's queue.

[01:47:25] This is really important because if this project doesn't move forward, another user would likely be placed in batch 15 or later and what that means for the county is that it would likely be you know 12 to 15 years before power could be delivered to this site and an economic development project could be realized in this area consistent with the county's goals. You can see the substations that we have planned here in building areas 2b and 3b. There are several conditions that staff identified in the cup that we are are okay with. I also want to mention that we have pretty substantial collateral and cash deposits

[01:48:02] that we are required to pay to Dominion Energy as we continue in this process. And that continues to secure our position in the queue. Those expenses are not paid by the rate payers. Those are paid by us. You are also probably aware that Dominion Energy recently passed a new rate class for large customers like data centers.

[01:48:24] And so this project will take service under this GS5 rate. Most important thing probably for you, the county, and for the folks behind me is that this rate structure requires minimum monthly payments. So even if we don't use the energy, we are required to pay a minimum amount.

[01:48:41] And what that is intended to do is shield residential and small commercial customers from shouldering the burden of infrastructure increases from larger users like data centers. We will continue, obviously, to coordinate with Dominion Energy to deliver this power as we move forward. So I'll close by talking about our tax projections and job creation. You can see here this project is anticipated to generate significant revenue from property tax, and the breakdown here is real property, so the buildings

[01:49:18] and capital investment, and then personal property, the equipment inside the buildings. We also modeled sales tax, and so you'll see that in your packet, but I'm going to focus on property tax because that's the more substantial revenue that you can expect to see. We've modeled 20 years.

[01:49:35] We've obviously, this is a projection, and we've modeled this with our energy date starting in 2029, so the building would start operating in 2030. Should note that once this property is rezoned, it does start paying taxes on industrial land right away.

[01:49:53] So there will be some incremental tax revenue even before the data center is constructed. But the most substantial revenue will start when the project comes online in 2030. You can see a little bit of fluctuation, and that is due to equipment refreshes. And that's a five-year cycle that we've modeled.

[01:50:09] And so in case you're wondering why it kind of goes up and down, that is the reason why. As staff mentioned, we did meet with the Commissioner of Revenue's office, the Assessor's office, and the Department of Finance. They did review our methodology and assumptions and did essentially sign off on that, on the assumptions and methodology.

[01:50:32] The project will provide employment benefits to Hanover County and to the region. We estimate between 300 and 350 direct jobs for a project of this size. You can see that the types of direct jobs that a data center supports vary.

[01:50:48] These are good-paying jobs. Some are technical, some are not technical, but there are a lot of opportunities for Hanover County residents. There will also be, obviously, a lot of construction jobs as this site builds out, and you can see that those are also in a variety of different trades.

[01:51:06] Recent data that we've looked at shows the data center industry in Virginia supports about 40,000 construction jobs, and this is important because this is providing permanent jobs at a variety of sites throughout the state and throughout the region. So this is a great opportunity for residents in Hanover County to work on a site right here in the county. Also important to note that data centers provide a lot of indirect and supporting jobs. Every permanent data center job generates six jobs elsewhere in the economy, and so that's important for other businesses that may be located in the county. This might be, you know, restaurants,

[01:51:42] hotels, gas stations, data center suppliers, so both indirect and direct. I also want to mention that there are increasing opportunities as this industry continues to grow in Hanover County. There are increasing opportunities to support workforce development, co-curricular activities, and investment in workforce development. So as the industry grows, I think what we'll see is more workforce development, job training, certificate programs, really putting the people that are living here and learning here to work here as well. So I'll close my remarks by saying we're We're really proud of the work that we've done on this project.

[01:52:21] We feel like this is the right project in the right location. This project is consistent with the county's strategic plan and the growth and development that you've had planned for this area for a number of years. It's consistent with the Envision Hanover comp plan. It's within the suburban service area and the economic development zone located on Mountain Road.

[01:52:40] It's been identified for several decades for a project just like this. We've taken a lot of feedback from Planning Commission, from staff, and from the community to deliver a project that the county can be proud of. We've outlined all our commitments in the concept plan and the voluntary proffers that you have before you.

[01:52:58] Important to note, these commitments run with the land, they run with the project, and they're non-negotiable. So it will ensure that this project delivers what we've promised to you. We've minimized impacts through buffering and intentional site design. We're making significant improvements to the property, and we'll be doing a lot of work on site.

[01:53:17] This includes removing a dam that's in poor condition and undertaking significant ecological restoration on the center of the site. I want to note that any areas that are reclaimed for ecological restoration will not become part of a building or development area.

[01:53:33] We're providing substantial funding to the county to advance your county-wide water resiliency planning. And this is a currently unfunded project that would likely be decades out without our commitment. We're providing significant funding to support rural preservation and the recently adopted Parks and Recreation Plan.

[01:53:51] And we'll continue to work closely with our partners at Dominion Energy to make sure that we pay our fair share and don't impact residents of Hanover County. going to submit support good paying jobs and will generate significant revenue for the county that can support your schools public safety roadway projects park projects and really other things that the board values so with that i'd be happy to take any questions that you might have thank you ma'am board member questions or inquiries will not count against your time uh starting on this

[01:54:25] side uh any board member questions or inquiries for the applicant mr hudson mr hersberg please Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your presentation, ma'am. You had mentioned a point of contact and that it was a person that would be able to be contacted should questions or things arise. Who would pay that? Who would pay for that person?

[01:54:50] Commissioner Hertzberg, that would be paid by the developer. And one of the concerns I had was, you know, we get these noise studies done and then a year later or something, something else comes up and somebody complains about noise.

[01:55:07] So how would a scenario like that be addressed? That's a good question. So the noise study that we've conducted to date is modeling sound, right? There's no data center buildings on the site today. I think that could be addressed in two ways.

[01:55:23] One, as I mentioned, before any of the data center buildings are in operation, we'll have to do a specific noise study for that building. What that will do is allow us to model the specific mechanical equipment, the specific building configuration everything that's really part of that building so that's one way that we're going to ensure we're meeting those permitted sound levels that we're proffering to in the event that you know something happens and there's extra noise or there's a complaint that complaint can be made to the planning director and then she can instruct us at our expense to do an additional noise study and if for some reason conditions have changed and and we're not in

[01:56:01] compliance with those permitted sound levels we would be required to mitigate that and and get back into compliance so did i hear you say that your group or the developer would pay for the additional noise study if the planning director deemed it was appropriate to have one done that is correct okay um wait sir sir we can't have that from from the audience okay so my next

[01:56:34] question is on the water and you know that's quite a bit of water uh usage and we've seen high water usage there previously. I remember when Tyson said they were leaving. I remember our public utilities director telling me they use about 800,000 gallons a day. But we did hear some data from our deputy planning director, Mr. Pompei, about peak days and peak worst-case scenarios.

[01:57:04] And so how do you think that this plan to mitigate this impact of this pump and water tank, What do you have to say about the potential high water demand and how your group proposes to mitigate that impact?

[01:57:26] We model water demand based on the amount of power that we have on the site. And we take, you know, years of climatological data, look at humidity, temperature to kind of come up with what our not only our average daily use would be, but what those peak demands could be.

[01:57:44] Those are infrequent, right? So if you have a week where it's exceptionally hot and humid, there may be a couple days where you reach that peak demand. The way that we are able to kind of mitigate and smooth that out, if we're building a water storage tank that the county can use, that will be infrastructure that's county-wide.

[01:58:02] There also may be on-site tanks that are buffer tanks for each building where we can store water to help smooth out that water use. I can have our water engineer come up and give you a more specific example if you'd like a little bit more detail on that. I think I would like that. Thank you.

[01:58:22] We have two water engineers, so I'll let them do a coin flip. My name is Wesley Whiteman. I'm a civil engineer. I've done water treatment aspects beforehand. One thing to note is a fire flow event typically takes about half a million gallons of water.

[01:58:43] So if you were to take that off of that 2 million, you're at 1.5 million for that peak day. So understanding that those two are combined stacked on top of each other. So that lessens that event. Again, you're looking at two significant events stacked on top of each other.

[01:59:01] And those peak days, when we evaluate that, again, Ms. Fostick mentioned that we're looking at years of climatological data, 30 years. And that peak day is typically a single day within that time frame that is looked at as the worst case scenario.

[01:59:17] And as an engineer, we have to look at that worst case scenario to make sure that if that does happen, that it does not hamper and hinder the entire system. So if you were to look at that, 30 years, one day hits that, that's 365 times 30.

[01:59:38] That's nearly 10,000 days, talking one day. Does that answer any of your questions? It answers some. Yes, sir. Thank you. The water storage tank, is that connected to the county public water system?

[01:59:55] That's the proposed tank, yes. Okay. So if for some reason the water were to go out, and I mean it happened for a day or two, January last year, does this storage tank help the site, or does it help the site and the area around the site?

[02:00:15] So it is connected to the municipal system, and it helps the entire area. Not just the proposed development, but it helps the entire pressure zone, which is the region that it's connected to. Okay, and what does this pump do, this pump that has been proffered?

[02:00:34] Does it pump the water up into the tank, or what does it do? Correct. Okay, so these big tanks that we've seen, we have one downtown Mechanicsville for years. These pumps pump the water in the tank. Does the water get exchanged and replaced every so often?

[02:00:50] I wish your public utility director was here, but since I've worked in that aspect, is he? Well, he can correct me if I'm wrong. I've worked in the public utility sector as well prior to this. But the constant source of pressure that we have that's never going to change is gravity.

[02:01:08] So what it ends up doing is that's why you see the water towers around all the municipalities, wherever you go. You use the pumps to pump it into the water tower, and as demand goes through the day, the water tower empties. It provides your pressure into the system. As it gets to a certain point, the pumps kick on and fill the tank back up.

[02:01:27] So that happens throughout the day. Mr. Ernstberg, do you wish to hear from Director Longshore? Mr. Chairman, thank you for the offer and the question, but sir, the gentleman's answered my question. Very well. So thank you. That's all I all the questions I have at this time mr. Chairman. Thank you certainly still you have no, okay Miss Pritchard. Thank you. Mr. Chair. I have two questions from very different directions One of your proffers is that you will only use generators for testing purposes and you will not use them

[02:02:04] Or emergency situations you will not use generators in order to run the data centers for any prolonged period of time should you violate that proper what Leeway does the county have in order to enforce it?

[02:02:21] Let's just say for whatever reason you can't get power And you decide to run in order to do that. You need to run generators How do we make you not do that? How do we enforce that proper to be fair? I think I know but I'd like to hear from you. I'll ask our legal counsel to address that question well good evening everybody matt roberts with herschler the most direct way that i would know for the county to enforce you know a proffer i would be similar to you know pretty much any other zoning action and your county attorney can certainly correct me if i'm wrong

[02:03:00] here but the county has enforcement power over the proffers typically through something like a zoning enforcement action a zoning violation which requires correction and so if these things are not corrected within the given period of time in the violation notice that's received you know which can go out fairly immediately on your behalf I would assume we are subject to enforcement action through the courts possible fines penalties and things of that nature so you know the county has existing mechanisms in place I wouldn't assume that new or special enforcement actions would be required in such a case so I believe I understand that our

[02:03:39] enforcement action would would be fines unless we went through the lengthy process of taking you to court um might there be a situation where it is to your benefit to just pay the fine sorry ladies and gentlemen I want to make sure that we have a full public hearing thank you I would not I will again defer to Aaron on particulars for business items but I would not assume that tract would decide to simply pay the fine and I think you know risk it's risk its public

[02:04:13] perception here in Hanover County I would just add we specifically added the proper language that generators would be used as a backup power so source only because that is our intention and so there is not an intention that we will use generators for anything other than an emergency obviously we would test them monthly as is industry standard ladies and gentlemen the folks are given their presentation we've asked that there not be comments from the audience we need to record

[02:04:48] this information this is a business meeting and it is imperative that the board has their questions answered everybody's going to have an opportunity to to share their views within the confines of the parameters we have set for the public hearing but I want to ask again politely it is my sincerest desire that we are able to maintain a business setting so we can hear all information it is important. I don't think the applicants are going to make comments while folks are giving their comments during their time. I'm going to ask you to please refrain from that so we can maintain

[02:05:21] some order for this business meeting. Thank you. Yes, ma'am, please continue. I think that's it. Our intention is to use power from the substations that Dominion will construct on site. That is, you know, the reason that this site is attractive is because it has proximity to power.

[02:05:39] The intention with the generators is that those would be used in an emergency situation. My second question is quite different. Tract is a builder of facilities. Tract is not an end user. What's the vetting process for your end users?

[02:05:55] Sure. Let me give a little bit more of a detailed explanation just for some folks in the audience that may not be as familiar with us. Tract is a master developer of data center campuses. And so this is pretty common in the development industry to have someone that is a master developer.

[02:06:14] probably the most common example, you know, folks that are out and about would see as a shopping center developer, someone would come in and develop a, you know, we'd have a grocery anchor, we'd have some inline pads, and we'd have some pad sites out by the street, there might be a master developer that coordinates all of that, and then leases to a grocery store, you know, a nail salon, a restaurant, and so that's essentially what our business model is. We do have a sister company fleet that is a data center operator and so they could be an end-user are essentially we have a commercial team that looks at all of our projects in our portfolios and puts out you know they they accept offers from

[02:06:54] folks that want to operate in one of our projects and then they select the best offer based on a number of criteria. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Yes ma'am. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you for your presentation. It's been very comprehensive I just have a question trying to get a better handle on the traffic impacts I think we talked about the road widening project that supposedly would be complete around 2034 when do you when do you anticipate and how long do you anticipate construction we're modeling construction you know we

[02:07:32] really we really base everything off of power delivery and so we need to have a building in place to accept power in the fourth quarter of 2029 and so we would anticipate construction starting you know maybe 18 to 24 months before that and then running for probably six to eight years after that. Thank you. Anything further from board members. Ms. Dibble. Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Longshore since you're here could you mosey on down to the podium and give us some of your

[02:08:08] insight as a director of public utilities and tell us a little bit about the fifteen million dollar proffer and what these pumps and storage tank could mean to our entire community not just throughout 33 corridor but I believe this will help all the way up into the Ashland district so please give us a comprehensive on where this came from and how you perceive this is helping our community right that's a great question is devil and just to offer some background of what that project is it would be a ground storage tank in a

[02:08:44] booster pump station right there at the existing interconnection within RICO County right there alone 33 and so going back to our March presentation and the water resilience analysis we completed earlier this year we outlined several recommendations in that analysis so we went with some short-term recommendations and those included improving those interconnections to have the ability to to hook up bypass booster pumps in the event of an emergency.

[02:09:15] And so what we determined throughout that study in coordination with Henrico County is there's about 3 million gallons per day of available capacity in Henrico's system that we could potentially get on an emergency basis only. And so those short-term improvements to improve the interconnection of Route 33 as well as route one were to get any available capacity we could from Henrico County in the event of an emergency and so we started marching forward with those projects we're working on those projects right now we have to have those complete within a year or so we also outlined some midterm

[02:09:54] recommendations so that's two to five years and that's the addition of another storage tank in our system and another interconnection with Henrico but to focus on those short-term improvements and how the proffered booster station and tank would tie in with those is essentially what that would do is put a booster station and tank right there at the interconnections which would negate the need for those short-term improvements so there would be a permanent booster pump station right there at the interconnection what that means is in an emergency situation we could pull a little bit more capacity from henrico county at that interconnection potentially serving customers

[02:10:33] pass the proposed development into other pressure zones and so that's that's more or less how the hydraulic analysis was modeled uh that's how it could beneficially impact the rest of the system and again uh tie into the those short-term improvements outlined in the water resilience study so hopefully that answers your question one more time with regard to what the timing would be as proposed with this proffer with this proffer what we're seeing in the engineering and construction industry right now I would say high level it's a three-year project from

[02:11:10] start to finish that could obviously change depending on the times of materials depending on availability of contractors but right now booster station of that size with the storage tank is around the three-year project so yes my point there was that the funding for the design would be in 2026 so that we could get this project moving much quicker than what we have planned for currently if the funding was available sure it could certainly happen otherwise

[02:11:47] the traditional way of carrying out a project like this is that it would have to make it into the county's capital improvement plan and we'd have to allocate funding that way thank you sir yes ma'am anything further here thank you director okay we will now open up an opportunity for citizens to speak so here's what I've got it so it doesn't cut into anybody's time let me just ask a few questions here mr. Johnson are you gonna speak as a proponent or an

[02:12:25] opponent Dan Johnson from South Anna Dan Johnson proponent or opponent let the record reflect proponent Ellen Briggs miss Briggs against her opponent thank you miss briggs state she's an opponent um mr david cook opponent or proponent all right we'll put

[02:12:58] you in there look forward to your comments rita dowling miss dowling for or against all right look forward to your comments all right and i'm doing this now folks so i make sure we try to get folks in the right category and don't eat into your time uh holbert terry a holbert holbert sir yes sir opposition thank you mr. Hall very well okay so again two hours

[02:13:36] opponents will have the first hour proponents will have the second hour any remaining time any residual time speakers will turn it into open mic at that point three non Hanover residents per side we ask that you address the board not the audience thank you for your signs we see those as long as you're blocking anybody causing a disturbance which you have not so thank you for that at two minutes and 30 seconds the vice chair will give you a uh a 30 second notice uh at two minutes and 50 seconds

[02:14:09] i will ask for your final thoughts again it's important that as many folks get to speak as possible so if folks are going over their time uh in order to to get back to more business decorum If the board has to recess, I just want to be clear that that will not positively affect the total time, meaning the clock will continue.

[02:14:30] At this time, I'm going to go with the folks who have signed up, and we'll go through who we have on the list. First, if you don't hear your name and you're here to speak, just let us get through the list, and then we'll open it up. Time is 8.13. It's 8.14, so we'll say at 9.15.

[02:14:49] We'll start with the opponents, Ms. Ann McGee. mcgee maggie miss mcgee hold on ma'am ma'am ma'am can you ma'am i have that do you would do you wish to speak she could can you speak for yourself you wish to speak we are happy to hear you please come forward state your name the district that you thank you my name is sandra withrow um cold harbor district thank you guys for being here i hope that ann feels much better and I hope that I do her justice she had brought up some

[02:15:26] points to consider that before we rush to embrace a large-scale development like a data center we need to talk about how Virginia actually funds at schools and what happens when a community wealth goes up on paper in Virginia school funding is not based on local tax revenue or state generosity it is driven by a formula called the local composite index or lci that index measures a local's ability to pay for a locality's ability excuse me to pay for its schools using factors like property values income and retail sales when that number rises the consequences are automatic the state assumes the

[02:16:04] community can shoulder more of the burden and it reduces its share of school funding As our local wealth increases, our portion of the state support shrinks, and the responsibility does shift back onto Hanover. This is where we have to be careful with the promises made around major developments.

[02:16:25] Data centers and similar projects are presented as straightforward wins. More tax revenue, more investment, more opportunity, but what is not always discussed is how they interact with that LCI system itself. when you significantly increase taxable infrastructure, you don't just increase revenue, you increase that LCI. So the question to ask is how much revenue will we gain? I'm sorry, the question to ask is not, I apologize, I'm not doing good for her, is not how much revenue will we gain, but how much state support will we lose as a result? And what's the net effect on our

[02:17:03] schools? If we are not doing that full calculation, then we are not seeing the whole picture. Growth should strengthen a community, not restructure obligations in ways that leave our schools carrying more weight without a clear understanding of the trade-offs.

[02:17:19] Before we commit to large-scale development, we owe it to ourselves and especially to our students to fully understand the LCI system, to model the real net impact, and to make decisions based on complete information, not partial promises. Thank you again for hearing.

[02:17:36] I do hope that you will say, nope, like my little turtle. Thank you. Very well. James Dews, Rusty Edwards, Jane Kirshner, Bob Nelson, and Melinda Rosario, if you want to line up. If you can't stand, somebody can save your place in line, but we want to get as many folks in as possible.

[02:17:58] Please come forward, state your name, the district that you live. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for the opportunity. James Dews, Beaver Dam District. I just wanted to start with, too often politicians in America today put their own careers or financial interests first. leaving communities and citizens a distant second.

[02:18:16] I just want to say I feel fortunate that here in Hanover County, that is not the case. If our Board of Supervisors, you, approves this monstrosity tonight, the track delegation is going to celebrate. I believe in my heart, you, our Board of Supervisors, should be celebrated as well.

[02:18:39] These data centers are a historical event for Hanover County. You, the Data Center 7, are making them possible. Every new data center project must have a sign proudly listing each of your names.

[02:18:55] Everyone needs to know the names of the seven supervisors responsible for every data center project in Hanover County. You seven need to be immortalized. No one should forget your names. On our board of supervisors, we have Danielle, data center, Floyd.

[02:19:17] When the traffic noise and anxiety of the data center being built near you becomes too much, just call Danielle. She's a realtor. Not only can she list your home, but she can help you buy a new one. Sir, I need you to speak to the project specifically. I get your tone, but I need you to speak to the land use case. If you can get to that, we'd appreciate that. Thank you. Well, it is my time and I am a citizen. It is, but it's for land use case, sir. So if you can get to that, you can craft it the way you want. I get your tone and have no problem with that. Gotcha. I just

[02:19:49] need to hear about the case. All right. Well, I'll continue on anyway. We have Ryan, Data Center Hudson. When you or one of your family members becomes emotionally, mentally, or physically ill from one of these data centers, you might be treated by him at VCU Medical Center. We have Faye, Data Center Pritchard. She's a professor and director of writing at the Honors College at VCU.

[02:20:27] Sir, can you speak to the case? I certainly can. All right, thank you. You can take one of her courses and learn how to write a letter to your board of supervisors and be ignored. We have Michael, data center Herzberg, owner of the cool team.

[02:20:46] When you have no air conditioning in the summer because of all the power going to the data centers, you can call him. You have 30 seconds, sir. Thank you. I'll close with, if you're feeling like you made a huge mistake approving the first data centers, It's not too late to follow your comprehensive plan and vote no on this one.

[02:21:11] Your final thoughts, sir. Be proud of your record. Prove your commitment to faith, family, and community. And follow God's plan and the golden rule. Thank you, sir. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We need to get to next week. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, if we have this again, the board's going to have to recess.

[02:21:31] We've asked this numerous times. We do not want folks to be put behind because we can't conduct the meeting. Thank you, sir. Yeah, Rusty Edwards, South Anna. Faye, I want to thank you for admitting that industrial buildings need to be built in industrial parks, not in the middle of houses and farms and et cetera.

[02:21:52] But I have about three questions I want to ask. Susan, Sue, you said that you and Larry, when we talked, that around that one power station on Wins Church, they were going to build maybe a brick wall or a block wall to hide it.

[02:22:11] Are they going to build a 40-foot, 30- or 40-foot tall? I rode over to the data centers off Technology Boulevard, and those things, some of them are 100 feet high. I don't think we can build a wall that tall to hide that power station.

[02:22:28] I might be wrong, and I was hoping they could answer when they come back is how high that wall would be. So that's a couple of the questions. And I want to thank you for putting a 400-foot buffer between the swamp And the buildings, because the frogs and the turtles would greatly appreciate that, but the people you put in a power station within 150 to 200 feet of their house, that's not very nice.

[02:22:53] I think you need to reconsider maybe moving that closer to the swamp instead of putting it right on people's houses. A power station is not anything beautiful to look at the rest of your life. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please.

[02:23:09] Thank you for being with us. Yes, I'm sorry. I'm back again. My name is David Cook. i believe i'm in uh mr mr cook i'm looking for jane kirchner and bob nelson and then i'm sorry melinda rossian clint robertson pamela clifton ashley covington caitlin mayors and cheryl uh mather mather mather okay thank you mrs garrison thank you jane kirchner south and a district yes ma'am first of all thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight i moved here

[02:23:46] six months ago from Loudoun County, Virginia, where I lived for over 26 years and served two four-year terms on the County Planning Commission. I was on the commission that developed and revised the comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance. I reviewed and considered hundreds of land use applications, including data center proposals and the impacts of this type of industrial land use.

[02:24:11] I personally saw and experienced data centers take over and become a problem in Loudoun County. I didn't get that from the internet. I lived there. I experienced it. I was in the room when a lot of these discussions happened. And I'm calling on you to ensure that it doesn't happen here in Hanover.

[02:24:30] Tonight, that means voting no and denying the Mountain Road 33 proposal. I can assure you the proffers, conditions, and promises in this proposal will fail to protect our county citizens' lands and waters from a multitude of problems that have been raised about this project, including protecting a safe and flowing water supply, preventing any level of pervasive 24-7 industrial noise, and stopping the destruction of the natural resources in and around the Chickahominy River and Grassy Swamp Creek that are the beautiful rural gateway we have now to our county. I can

[02:25:06] assure you on top of that, there will be problems from this development that you can't even imagine or envision tonight. That's happened in Loudoun. Once a project is approved, there's no going back and fixing. Residents have to live with harmful and unanticipated outcomes while county officials like you twist and turn with limited or no authority or power to change things. And county efforts to remedy are paid for with our tax dollars. I also know that data center developers can come back requesting to expand and develop every square foot of their site. So the 40%

[02:25:40] undeveloped area on this site that you've been promised tonight isn't guaranteed or quite frankly, likely the county can designate certain areas for data centers thinking you'll contain that industrial growth but developers quite often come forward with plans to gain approvals for areas deemed off limits and wide open rural areas will be needed from mega transmission lines to power these projects no district will be spared i really value and moved here for the rural character and beauty of hanover county you have 30 seconds man that is promised in our comprehensive plan and small area plan our healthy air quality the integrity of my well the quiet and

[02:26:18] the community have gotten to know so a no vote tonight is a vote for Hanover County and its citizens but a yes vote will put us squarely on the irreversible path your reversible path to lose our rural county again I ask you to deny this proposal thank you very much thank you yes sir it's the second good evening my name is Bob Nelson I reside in the Ashland district for years the

[02:26:57] The county has advanced TRAC's interest in Envision Hanover and the Small Area Plan. Approval of these applications gives TRAC a monopoly position for at least 3,300 megawatts of data centers in unincorporated Hanover County.

[02:27:14] That's 100%. There are many ways to exercise monopoly power. In the future, TRAC calls Economic Development to discuss a deal for a data center customer who has other options. Economic development specializes in tax reductions, incentives, and subsidies.

[02:27:32] A deal is made. Market power is exercised. Or track calls planning to discuss campus expansion. Here's the map. Mr. Kilduff, I believe, has delivered these. There's 240 acres in three adjacent areas.

[02:27:50] Another 600 megawatts for data centers. The 775-foot buffer disappears. Shrinking the SSA ensures 2 million gallons of water for TRAC. Planning data center expansion starts tonight for TRAC on these parcels in this area.

[02:28:12] Overall, gifts from Hanover County, maximum market power for TRAC, all for a company which can't be trusted. Tax revenue projections in both its projects have been deceitful from day one.

[02:28:28] In fact, Hickory Hill data center revenues are a lie today. Add fatally flawed traffic studies, self-serving contradictory assumptions, undisclosed building sizes and dishonesty on hat and dominion service.

[02:28:46] On these issues, TRAC has given no response to what I've given you and I hope you've read. The do not trust list for TRAC is long. Now, for $6 million, TRAC is buying monopoly status and destroying the Route 33 gateway.

[02:29:10] The county is on a highway to hell with this company. The 900 megawatts is half of the North Anna nuclear plant. There can be no forgiveness for a vote to increase TRAC's data center market power by at least 900 megawatts.

[02:29:33] None. It's time to make a U-turn on the highway to hell. Deny these applications. Thank you. Thank you. Those handouts as well, Mr. Nelson, do you want to turn those in? I gave them due. I've got this, sir. That's it.

[02:29:49] Okay. The show is the expansionary. It's all there. Thank you, Bob. You're welcome. Mr. Rosario. Good evening, members of the board. Good evening. I'm Mindy Ruggiero from the Chickahominy District. I've already sent a longer written comment outlining the issues I found in this proposal.

[02:30:07] Tonight, I want to focus on the highlights. The Planning Commission recommended approval, but this board still has the responsibility to ask whether Hanover has enough information, standards, and infrastructure protection before approving a project of this scale. I am not here to argue against business or growth.

[02:30:25] I am asking for the right order. Standards first, approval second. Water alone should justify delay. The project could demand 2 million gallons per day at peak and use roughly 90% of the existing Elmont pressure zone water capacity. That leaves very little room for homes, fire protection, drought, emergencies, future businesses, or future growth.

[02:30:47] The longer-term solution also depends on major infrastructure and possibly additional agreement with Henrico. That should be resolved before approval, not after. Electricity is also unresolved. The public has not received a clear confirmation that the grid has enough capacity.

[02:31:06] But that is not a reason to approve it. If anything, it proves the concern. The capacity is not comfortably there to support residents and a project of this size without major upgrades. There are also basic questions about what is truly prohibited after rezoning.

[02:31:23] Could the project later add on-site power generation like in Loudoun? Are all surface water withdrawals, river water withdrawals prohibited or only some? Is discharge to on-site surface waters allowed? If the project is using public water and wastewater, why does it need to be beside the river and sensitive waterways?

[02:31:42] is another concern. The proposed limits include both A-weighted and C-weighted decibels with a significant spread between them. That matters because C-weighted decibels capture more low frequency hum and rumble the kind neighbors may notice most at night. There are also liability and end-of-life concerns. Several owners are LLCs. Where is the parent company guarantee, bond, escrow, or decommissioning plan if the project changes, fails, or leaves behind major infrastructure?

[02:32:11] Finally, the plan allows roads, access points, utilities, substations, stormwater facilities, and buildable areas to shift later through administrative review. Once rezoning is approved, the county may not have enough enforceable tools left if problems arise.

[02:32:28] That is the risk. Hanover is being asked to rely on project-specific proffers instead of a clear enforceable ordinance.

[02:32:37] For these reasons I ask the board to delay approval and adopt a data center ordinance first with enforceable standards for water power noise generators surface water traffic decommissioning finally final thoughts man financial assurance and infrastructure costs a pause is not anti growth a pause is responsible government. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right, Mr. Rosario. Um, let's see. Mr. Mathry, uh, William Withrow, Addison Johnson, Amy Cheely, Holly Manke, Jennifer Corpus, Wanda Edwards, and P. Britton, last name Britton. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

[02:33:16] Hi, everyone. My name is Caitlin Mayers, and I'm in the South Anna District, and I'm speaking today as a resident whose property is adjacent to this proposed data center, as one of the two working members of my household that works in big tech, and as a member of this community strongly opposed to this data center. When my teams are looking to hire new members, we use behavioral-style interviews to ask candidates about how they've handled situations in the past, as past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. And I'm inviting everyone here to do the same as we consider what our future might look like with this data center in place. What do the people operating data centers do when they need more power? In Memphis, a data center cannot pull

[02:33:55] enough power from the grid, so they use illegal polluting generators to power that facility. What do the people operating data centers do when they need more water? In Fayetteville, Georgia, They choose to illegally use 30 million gallons of water through unmetered connections, which was only noticed when residents had no water pressure in their homes.

[02:34:14] How many jobs are created in data centers? Reality, they create very few permanent jobs. Most jobs created are construction jobs, which can last less than a year, often less than three. Only one permanent job is created for every $1.95 million spent on data center tax subsidies.

[02:34:30] How do the data center operators pay for the increased electricity consumption? by getting governments to pass on the costs to residents. Despite having the maximum Dominion allows for solar panel capacity, my personal power bill has already doubled since last year.

[02:34:46] Most folks in this room have probably experienced similar increases in their bills as well. So I ask you, what does their past behavior tell us about their future behavior? They will pollute our environment with noise, emissions, and waste. They will take all of the water and power they can.

[02:35:02] They will create fewer jobs and generate significantly less revenue than promised. And they will ignore any authority that tries to keep them in check. What will we be able to do when this happens to us? What will you be able to do? If they can't be held to account right now, what makes us think our situation would be any different?

[02:35:22] As adjacent property owners, my husband and I are extremely concerned about the negative impacts of this proposed data center to our immediate environment and our property values. We're strongly considering moving if this data center is approved. These companies are not good neighbors. They repeatedly demonstrate that they do not care about anything other than maximum profit, and they will stop at nothing to continue extracting our resources to do so.

[02:35:46] You have 30 seconds. I understand the county's drive for revenue. I want this too. But there are other ways we can achieve this. Saying no to this data center does not mean saying no to more revenue. It is saying no to revenue that comes at the expense of Hanover County residents. our health, our environment, our infrastructure, our investments in our property, and our quality of life. It is choosing a different future that preserves those things and preserves the power that we all have right now to control and shape that future. Please vote no. Thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Did we get Clint Robertson or Pamela Clifton? Thank you, sir. Mr. Robertson.

[02:36:25] Yes, Clint Robertson, South Anna District. The residents of Hanover County have come to this building time and time again over the months to tell you we don't want data centers in Hanover County. I heard that one supervisor said that people were bringing Facebook facts to these meetings. The funny thing about facts is no matter where you get them, if they are accurate, they are still facts. Here's a fact. Virginia is experiencing a severe jowl, yet this developer wants to build a facility that will use a minimum of 600,000 gallons of water a day. People all across the

[02:37:00] Commonwealth are being told to conserve water but you want to give our resources to the industry that will use the water of 2,000 homes every single day. That's just the minimum. You want facts but you're not getting any from the developer. You're getting estimations and assumptions because the fact is they don't know who the end user is going to be or what they will consume. The fact is that this data center could use 2 million gallons of water a day. How are you okay with that?

[02:37:29] Here's a disturbing fact. While the people of Hanover County were being told that they could have input and develop the comprehensive plan and the small area plan hand in hand with county officials, non-disclosure agreements were being signed with this developer behind the scenes.

[02:37:47] Who told county employees that they could sign NDAs with this developer or anyone else? You can sign an NDA with your employer, but you people all work for us. That fact stinks. How can any process be trusted when this kind of activity goes on. This kind of incident is what people have been bringing to courtrooms all over this country to reverse approvals that circumvented due process. Nothing circumvents due process more than working behind the scenes with a developer before any public notice has been announced. Maybe you didn't realize how destructive these

[02:38:27] data centers are back then, but the evidence is out now. The final thing I'll say is I am a person of faith. I don't know if any of you are, but this proposal is immoral. This data center offers nothing to the community but some promised tax dollars and a whole lot of loss. Loss of environment, a huge loss of resources, loss of health and well-being to all the people that live within a two-mile radius of this facility, and those are proven facts. Say a little prayer before you vote,

[02:39:04] And if you're honest with yourself, your heart will tell you this is wrong. Don't bow to the altar of money, but stand up and protect the people you are elected to represent and protect from this kind of thing.

[02:39:19] Ms. Clifton? Good evening. Pamela Clifton, South Anna District, Overhill Drive, a neighborhood that has been there for 75 years that will be directly impacted by this project. I have obtained 20 signatures from 20 households for a total of 55 people on my street alone that will be affected by the implementation of this data center.

[02:39:42] Board of Supervisors is an elected group of individuals that oversees the day-to-day operations of county government while providing transparency and maintaining citizen participation, which is an integral part of the board's role. The key word out of that is transparency, for which I feel, as others do, that you have not been transparent through this process.

[02:39:59] You did not notify everyone on my street of this data center proposal. only the first two homes on the left and right as you enter my street. Why is that? Definitely not transparency. But some of the most disturbing things I have found definitely show that you have not been transparent with your constituents. In 2019, with our tax money, you commissioned a study to site data centers in Hanover County to the tune of $350,000. In 2022, TRAC came to the county and was working with you on this plan before the comprehensive land use plan adoption and long before the small area plan. We would not know because our county officials, as stated, signed

[02:40:35] NDA agreements with TRACT so that the citizens of Hanover would not know about this. Then the comprehensive land use plan was completed and the small area plan was created. The small area plan was created based on what TRACT's applications and pre-application meetings plans desired. TRACT has always wanted to put a mega data center here. We, the citizens, did not know this when we went to meetings in January and February of 25. We did not know this when we took the 33 small area plant survey, but you as our elected officials and the county knew, but chose to abide by your NDA rather than be transparent with your constituents. Emails between Mr. Linwood and Tract to discuss

[02:41:11] political will. Emails from Tract to William Graham to discuss other incentives and assurances. Tract emails with the county to discuss the 33 Mountain Road Gateway. These emails dating back to 2022 where is the transparency email from dominion energy to hanover county 312 of 25 where dominion energy acknowledges that the 33 small area plan does not support data centers meeting 9 13 24 dominion transmission supplemented supplemental customer load request one year before the adoption of the 33 small area plan and track's formal application track pays dominion energy

[02:41:47] seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this load request meeting on 10 8 of 25 dominion transmission supplemental customer load solution 2025 where dominion energy 30 seconds a solution for track 33 mountain road by making the right decision tonight and voting against this atrocity to our community you will prevent further legal action on the part of your constituents against our government for not being transparent through this entire process hanover citizens will not sit idly by while you ruin our community thank you thank you ma'am ms covington actually covington

[02:42:22] um what sorry uh cold harbor uh good evening tonight you have a choice a vote to deny mountain road is a vote to save hanover a vote to deny is a vote to protect our health in memphis xai installed 27 unpermitted gas turbines and is now seeking 41 more proving that proffers mean nothing A Harvard-led study found that these turbines could cause 30 to 44 million in annual health damages.

[02:42:53] A vote tonight to deny is a vote to save our aquifer from being stolen. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a data center dug 40 unpermitted wells. The proffers said there would be no wells, but they drilled anyway, pumping 1.7 million gallons of water.

[02:43:12] A vote tonight to deny is a vote to save our night sky. In Crowell, Texas, a town of 800 people, a hyperscale data center has brought permanent daylight. One resident posted a photo from over three miles away. The sky glows white, the stars are gone.

[02:43:30] A vote to deny is a vote to save the power for our homes. In Lake Tahoe, 49,000 residents just learned their utility is redirecting electricity to data centers instead of people. And here is what getting it right looks like.

[02:43:46] In Meade County, Kentucky, a developer wanted to rezone 130 acres of farmland. The residents packed the meeting. The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend denial. The fiscal court agreed that same night that this was not light industry.

[02:44:02] This is what courage looks like. This is what leadership looks like. Hold on a second, ma'am. Mr. Wallmeyer, please, sir. Please pause my time. Go ahead, ma'am. So tonight, you have a choice. One of your commissioners said, the data centers are coming.

[02:44:19] The data centers are coming. Not as a promise, not as a prediction, as a warning. That's how you need to see those words. You need to see those words the same way the colonists heard them from Paul Revere when he said, the British are coming.

[02:44:36] The British are coming. This is a warning to Hanover, a warning that our way of life is being threatened. Our water, our land, our sky, our power, our health. And you have the power to answer that warning. You have the power to say, not here, be the heroes of Hanover.

[02:44:57] You have 30 seconds, ma'am. Vote no on Mountain Road tonight. Please remember, this is God's green earth, not God's data center. So vote no. We need you tonight.

[02:45:13] Thank you. Ms. Mathry, Mr. Withrow, Addison Johnson, Amy Cheely, Holly Mankey, Jennifer Corpus, Wanda Edwards, and a P. Britton. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Hi, my name is Cheryl Mathry. I'm from the South Anna District.

[02:45:29] I live right off Windchurch, about a quarter of a mile from the sign that says 206. I'm sure that you've all heard that India will be short of water as of 2030. Well, I want you to know that in 2006, my daughter attended UVA and took a class on environmental studies.

[02:45:49] Her professor stated that the next big war is not going to be over land. It's not going to be over oil. It's going to be over what? Water. And this is what is happening. Our data centers are wanting to consume our water. We need to stand up and say no.

[02:46:07] We need you to be part of the grassroots movement to say no to these data centers until they can actually fix their water usage so that they use less. it's sort of like gasoline. Back in the 70s, cars were getting 10 to 12 miles to the gallon and all of a sudden they said, and the government said, no, I'm sorry, you can't do that. You have to get at least 20 to 25. Well, guess what happened? We're up to now battery hybrid cars. We're up to, you know, cars that go 300, 400 miles on a battery. You need to lead

[02:46:44] us and keep us safe. If you decide to vote for this, you have now committed to everyone in that area, including the three elementary schools and the 36,000 people that live over in Henrico County to more health problems, possible cancer, light pollution, noise pollution.

[02:47:05] You say that everything here is supposed to be in the noise ordinance. Well, you take one set of generators, you take another set of generators, and you take another set of generators. Is this still within that noise allowance, I'm going to be affected. And I don't want that. I don't want that for my grandchildren who attend Echo Lake either. You need to be for your people, for your constituents, and I can't talk very well. And just for you to know, our state legislature has passed

[02:47:38] bills determining where it would be good places to put data centers. Our governor is set to sign them maybe we need to wait to see what she has signed and i don't know if you've done any research on this but you might want to it has to do with environment 30 seconds okay environmental pollution it has to do with forestry and it has to do with uh what i always do this to you guys i'm so sorry but anyway the last word is is that the local unions align with the data center companies to

[02:48:15] push these things through please don't let them push you around and don't let the data centers thank you i appreciate it and no vote please thank you mr withra yeah welcome thank you uh good evening chairman and members of the board uh my name is mike withra i'm a 25-year resident of the cold harbor district in hanover county and i appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to you all today when i spoke to you previously i admitted that i was not an expert on data centers But after doing a little more research, I've realized that this proposal relies on some creative labeling.

[02:48:48] The applicant is asking that you rezone this land to M1, light industrial. That would be normal zoning for a warehouse or maybe a small office park. But a hyperscale complex like the one being proposed is fundamentally different from even a traditional data center. Traditional data centers, the ones we have used for years for email and cloud storage, run on about 5 to 10 kilowatts per rack, can generally be air-cooled and a relatively low impact to neighbors.

[02:49:13] However, this proposal is for a 900-megawatt hyperscale campus built for AI training and machine learning. This isn't just another business. It's an entire city's worth of power and water crammed into 430 acres. To put this into perspective, this facility will consume as much electricity as 180,000 homes and on peak days will demand up to 2 million gallons of water for its cooling systems.

[02:49:37] In a county where we already have water restrictions and where our own comprehensive plan says our groundwater is already restricted and not viable for our long-term needs, how can we possibly call that light industrial? Even the state's own experts at the JLARC have called this out. Their reports say that regulatory laws have not kept up with the scale of these projects and recommend that hyperscale centers of this size should be reclassified as M2, general industrial.

[02:50:02] By approving this as M1, you are allowing a heavy industrial utility to operate under light rules which strips away the protections and buffers our community deserves. We are also being told to trust the proffers from TRACT, which is a land acquisition company. They get the approvals, then they sell the land to an unknown operator.

[02:50:19] You are essentially writing a blank check to a mystery company you haven't even met. We have seen the risk of this build-now, fix-later approach in Oregon, where Amazon recently paid $20.5 million to settle groundwater contamination suit. They paid the fine, the data centers are still running, but the pollution remains.

[02:50:37] For a trillion-dollar company, a fine is the cost of doing business. For us, it is our drinking water. I am asking you to look past this creative labeling. Follow the state's guidance that says this does not fit in one zoning. Listen to your own planning documents about our limited water.

[02:50:53] Please represent the residents who live here. And since I still have a couple of seconds left, I do want to call out earlier. Somebody mentioned that one day a year maybe we would hit the peak water usage. How many days a year are we going to hit 95% of that or 90% of that or even 85% of that?

[02:51:10] That's still a lot of water. So we see 600,000, and this one magical day, it's not going to go from 600,000 to 1.5 million. There's going to be a lot in between that's a lot more than 600,000. Thank you very much. Addison Johnson is Addison.

[02:51:30] Check, check one, two. Hi, I'm Addison Johnson out of the Elmont slash Ashland District. I got it. I'm very much not cool with AI and data centers, but specifically this 427-acre one, as it's two miles away from my organic practicing farm in the same line of woods.

[02:51:52] We use the Hanover's municipal water supply for drinking water and bathing, which its infrastructure got installed in 2012. And my garden and greenhouse use the H2O from our well. However, it looks like this data center could affect both sources.

[02:52:08] I'm pretty much lived here my entire life and graduated from PH, but also Jay Sarge's horticulture program where I conducted water testing on creeks and streams for the state of Virginia. So I have a basic understanding of how water tables and aquifers work. The proposed mountain road technology park is estimated to use 6,000 gallons of water a day, but also 2 million anytime July through August to be maintained.

[02:52:32] So whether it be from a local freshwater source such as our rivers of the Chickahominy, North Anna, South Anna, and Pamunkey, or indirectly from them, being through the public utilities water system, because water has to come from somewhere. This center would stress out those sources, and then in reaction, they're going to try and pull the deficit from other water sources, and so on and so forth, because water has to come from somewhere.

[02:52:57] So let me remind you that viable water is essential to life, not just to human life, but soil, plant, and animal too. In the last 10 years, I've seen black bears, turkeys, bald eagles, a ton of squirrels, deer, and fox in these woods, which have been negatively impacted from newer nearby developments, this large-scale center would further afflict their ecological health of this area. I haven't even hit the impact of the air pollution side of the center, but let's just say it's beneficial to breathe clean air and look at stars without too much artificial illumination. So to our board of supervisors, what does

[02:53:31] water resiliency mean to you? Hold on, let me get where I was. Virginia, as 2025, has been named the world's digital capital, having over 665 data centers, most being in North Virginia. So I ask you to please pick the people over profits and personal gain because your peers on the planning commission voted for the approval of this six to one on April 16th despite citizens disapproval. So I'm going to say to everybody, stay safe, power to the people.

[02:54:00] We are the people. Don't forget that. And be good to your neighbors and be good to your community. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Ms. Chealy. Mr. Johnson, do you want your tomato, sir? I'm on to Ms. Cheely.

[02:54:19] I'm on to Ms. Cheely. Don't cause us to recess. If Ms. Pritchard wants your tomatoes, she's certainly welcome to have it. We'll deliver it. Ms. Pritchard always wants tomatoes. Ms. Cheely, let's stay on. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnson, don't cause us to recess. Amy Mendelsohn, Cheely, South Anna District. Thank you, Ms. Cheely. Sorry, I got sidetracked.

[02:54:38] Public trust is at an all-time low here in Hanover County, and here's why. Four years ago, the county entered into a non-disclosure agreement with a company called Hyperland, which became Trac. Over a year ago, TRAC's data center plans and information were sent to the company that Hanover paid to consult on the small area plan for 33.

[02:54:57] This ensured that the small area plan was created for TRAC and TRAC alone. That's why their plan aligned so well with the plan, as Ms. Fosdick just admitted. Ms. Fosdick also mentioned Employment Center has been in the comp plan for decades. You all know that's not true. the employment center land use term was actually just created in 2023, and it was defined by staff to the south end of residents at meetings at Berea Baptist and the Montpelier Center as, quote, neighborhood employment center where people could walk to work. That's why it has walking paths.

[02:55:29] Data centers do not belong in or near neighborhoods. Looking at the comp plan, you'll notice a lot of yellow, which is housing, surrounding the blue, which are these employment centers. Data centers do not belong in employment centers, because they're not. Additionally, TRAC likes to say that they're going to preserve 41% of land, when in fact, most of it is in the wetlands and RPAs and RMAs. They cannot build in it. Data centers are ever-changing, unproven, and dangerous chemical storage facilities, fuel storage sites, and thermal hotspots that will negatively impact Hanover County citizens. If, and that's a huge if, we were to receive an average of $45 million a year from

[02:56:07] this project as the developer has promised, if we divided it by our population, that would equate to approximately a dollar a day for each citizen. How would that really work for everyone in South Anna when the neighborhoods surrounding this technology center will live with air temperatures three to 15 degrees higher than those who might live three miles or more away? I'm sorry, this just cannot be mitigated. You cannot change the heat dome that's going to come out of a data center.

[02:56:33] This will cost locals more per day to cool their homes. Additionally, how about the folks from montpelier and beaver dam and rockville who will have to drive the long way home for 10 years due to construction traffic and as much as you guys tried to avoid winds church road we all know they're going to get off and on 295 and go all the way through winds church to get around that construction that will cost them much more than a dollar per day in gas overall the money and jobs that you all are considering do not exist nor will they benefit hanover county citizens 30 seconds man again the reality is this is not an employment center here's your golden opportunity to show the county that you're listening to restore public trust, to trust that citizens know what's right

[02:57:12] for them, to trust that we have very knowledgeable and intelligent residents who are not just spouting Facebook facts. They're putting in hundreds of volunteer hours and engaging professionals to help with research. What do you want Hanover County to be known for? Tomatoes in history or data centers? Your final thoughts, ma'am. With my apologies to Mr. Patrick Henry, I assume he would prefer the former and he would say the latter is tantamount to death. Thank you, ma'am. Show the citizens that Hanover is not for sale. Please vote no for this project. Next speaker, please.

[02:57:38] Keep the clock running. Mr. Stoneman. I'm sorry ma'am. I'm sorry. We've just got to keep going. I apologize for your time Friends of Hanover I'm going to provide you with reasons for denial of all the applications direct from page six of the route six of the route 33 gateway small area plan this analysis states key challenges Weakness and threats to this gateway area are flood risk along the eastern and southern edges of the site Challenging environmental conditions for development.

[02:58:12] Risk of development that is visually incompatible with surrounding residential areas. Historic and archaeological sites may constrain or delay development. Potential for contamination of nearby rivers and water bodies from industrial pollutants. Lack of centralized wastewater collection treatment.

[02:58:29] Steep slopes in the selected portions of the site. While current zoning does not permit buildings more than 35 feet in A1 or M1, Approval of a special exception may allow for taller buildings that conflict with the rural context. Proximity to residential uses that may not align with industrial activity.

[02:58:48] Let's add traffic to this list as well. The widening of 33 is expected to be completed in physical year 2032 now, according to the Capital Improvement Plan. This means road widening and construction traffic will be happening at the same time in this area and will force traffic onto Winschurch Road as a cut-through.

[02:59:08] I'm not sure if you remember the first time I spoke in front of you in December of 2025. I stand by that speech and the facts that I stated. Hanover had just recently earned that quad-triple-A bond rating that is the highest possible. That is because of you, our supervisors, who have shown strong financial management, diverse revenue sources, and economic growth without any operating mega-hyperscale data centers.

[02:59:36] Let me repeat, you earned this without any operating data centers in Hanover. You've shown that we do not need them to succeed in Hanover. The bond rating is an elite achievement. It shows that Hanover is stable without any data centers and can continue to prosper without any data centers.

[02:59:54] If we allow one industry, one developer, to provide more than 25% of our revenue to the county, we could open ourselves up to revenue issues in the future. reasons for denial from the route 33 small gateway area plan you have 30 seconds ma'am and compel you to deny the rezoning conditional use permit and special exceptions requests for the mountain road technology part thank you thank you i'm going to ask uh let's see uh miss briggs rita dowling

[03:00:29] rusty edwards and terry holbert come on up and uh be ready thank you yes ma'am thank you for being with us. Thank you. Jennifer Corpus, Chickahominy, Friends of Hanover. First of all, if they violate the proffers and then they are fined, they aren't going to shut down the data center because you can't turn it off or they'll lose the data and there will be service interruptions and fines don't matter to a billion dollar company. Also, I'm wondering how many peak days are anticipated in an average year and what about in a historically hot and dry year? Two days ago,

[03:01:04] the Pope released his first encyclical that talks about safeguarding humanity in the face of AI. He warned against a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger data sets driven by what he called the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance. That race has now arrived in Hanover in the form of zoning requests, tax incentives, and permitting applications.

[03:01:29] He wrote that new technologies open up a horizon extending in directions that are imaginable but not yet fully predictable. This complicates the assessment of their potential impact and the long-term effects they may have on both the dignity of individuals and the common good.

[03:01:45] That is a call for slowing down. That is a call for the kind of careful stewardship that this board was elected to provide. He also wrote that these developers have resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass that of most governments. They are well represented here tonight, but the families whose water and power will be strained, the community whose character will be transformed, they are represented by you. The Pope calls for responsible planning, the assessment of human and social impact, the inclusion of the most vulnerable, the promotion of digital literacy, and guiding

[03:02:24] research and industry toward justice and peace. This is the language of good governance, and it is exactly what this board has the authority and obligation to require. And if you hold the belief grounded in scripture that governing authority is not just granted by the electorate but given by God, then you understand that this power carries with it a weight that no election alone can give you and no election alone can remove. You will answer to your constituents next November, but the

[03:02:57] Stewardship of human dignity the care for the vulnerable and the protection of your community all of these answer to something much higher Please vote now. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Miss Edwards Wanda Edwards South Anna district Before I read a letter that I wrote to all the Board of Supervisors yesterday. I want to just make one comment Mr Herzberg talked about The heat and how much no one defined extreme heat. Is it 90 degrees?

[03:03:33] And then add to it 10 or 15 degrees you get from the heat off of the data center. No one defined that there were too many hypothetical words speculative information Don't know who the ultimate occupant is going to be so that's all speculation And you know, how can we make promises on water that we don't own?

[03:03:53] Because things change, but no one defined extreme heat. Is it 90 degrees? Is it 100? Is it 75 degrees? I don't know, but anyway, I would like to know what the definition of extreme heat is. Anyway, I wrote this letter.

[03:04:09] I wrote a separate letter to Sue Dibble because it had more information on it, but in case you haven't had time to read it, I want to read it to you. I want you to deny the Mountain Road Data Center application. I want you to vote no to data center takeovers of Hanover County.

[03:04:27] Based on the environmental hazards that come with data centers, we need none. Three data centers have already been approved that will pay taxes to Hanover County. Hickory Hill, the data center on Route 1 behind Miner's Fence, which didn't need public comment because it was already zoned, snuck that one in.

[03:04:46] You can see it from the roadway if you haven't seen it. And then there's Iron Horse Data Center at I-95 and Route 54. I went to the Ashland meeting last week and the developer said at the meeting that they would build the Iron Horse Data Center on the property located in the town of Ashland, whether or not Hanover County approves that part of the project that would be located in the county.

[03:05:11] These data centers located in the town of Ashland will pay taxes to Hanover County and the town of Ashland, just like the residents do. So there's no discounted taxes from the town or the county if they're located in the town of Ashland. So Hanover County will get their taxes from three, and my supervisor told me we only needed two.

[03:05:32] Hanover County and the town of Ashland are being targeted for numerous other data center projects. There's one that might be adjoining Ashland Park, which is a neighborhood. There's one that might be adjoining property to Colville Nursery. You have 30 seconds. Okay, let me keep going then.

[03:05:49] Why is the county so desperate for money? Do we fail to have long-term capital improvement plans so that we're not needing to do everything in a five-year window? Does our most recent budget approved include money from pie-in-the-sky projects? We're not Loudon County, and we don't need to be a rich little county with a high rate of residential residents from the environmental hazards.

[03:06:09] You were voted into office to work for the citizens of Hanover County, not the data centers. Don't sell out the residents of Hanover County. Thank you, Ms. Edwards. Thank you, Ms. Edwards. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for your time. My name is Ellen Briggs.

[03:06:25] As elected officials, I feel you have a moral obligation to stand with the people who have voted you in. You must stop the expansion of these data centers until we have a framework to adequately address their harm that they pose to society.

[03:06:45] We must choose humanity over profit. The people in this room are asking you, they're lining up to speak out against these data centers. Where are the people that are speaking for them? They're the people who want to build these data centers.

[03:07:02] They seem to have plenty of money to throw around at every little thing that you bring up. Their answer is, we'll give you more money, we'll give you more money. But where are they going to get more water when we run out of water? Because I'm sorry, we are, as a country, overusing our resources.

[03:07:22] We already do that. And now this business has popped up that exponentially uses our resources. And we're asking you to please protect us. This thing does not fit in a residential community.

[03:07:40] We're asking you to please stand with us. We have elected you to protect us from these things. They want you to allow it, but we're asking you not to allow it. And I am going to ask you, please, do the moral thing.

[03:07:58] And in your heart, you know that it is not what the Hanover residents want. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I'm Rita Dowling from Mechanicsville. And I want to ditto everything everybody said.

[03:08:16] They've done such a good job. And I'm going to make just a couple of comments based on the presentation that I saw. Red flags. I'm an old person. There's some red flags that come up.

[03:08:33] You know, it's like one of them is the fox guarding the chickens. There was a question about the person that will be paid to monitor. And you said, well, they'll pay for it. Well, yeah, no corruption possible there.

[03:08:50] so yeah they would pay for it no we would need to pay for somebody to do that monitoring because you know that's just the way things work in the world especially lately uh the other red flag um they said on one of the i don't know if you caught that but on one of the the the presentation things that they put up there, was that if you don't vote on this tonight, that you will be off

[03:09:27] your line number, you're number one in line with Dominion Energy. And if you don't say yes to this tonight, this is going to put you off. And I don't know about you, but I've lived a long time, And that's one of the things that when you are, you know, you go into one of those things that they try to get you to buy something.

[03:09:54] You've got to do it now. If you don't do it now, if you don't do it today, you're not going to be able to get this. And that's what I saw on that screen that you saw there. So I would like for you to pause for all the reasons that everybody else said.

[03:10:14] They were very good reasons. And those two red flags, just anyway, I just wanted to point those out. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dallin. Mr. Edwards, Rusty Edwards, Mr. Edwards with us.

[03:10:31] Okay, got you. Thank you. No, I got you. You've spoken. Thank you, Mr. Edwards. And then Mr. Knapp, Jason Knapp, want to come on up? Okay. Mr. Herbert. Chief, sir. Go ahead. No, no, you're good. Mr. Herbert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly.

[03:10:48] Once again, my name is Terry A. Herbert. I reside in the Ashland District. And by the way, Supervisor Pritchard, I live next to the Colesville Nursery. It practically borders the forested area of my property. And by the way, speaking of forests, I drive up to King's Dominion regularly, and I pass a tract of Route 1, and I swear it looks as though somebody

[03:11:19] took to it with a gigantic weed whacker. But all that, my fellow witnesses have already addressed that more than adequately. I'm going to address a technological development that is going to make this entire discussion pointless, because it is going to point out that earthbound data centers are already obsolete. The space exploration company, which, by the way, I recently bought the XAI company, is already developing a class of satellite, a very large one, with all the

[03:11:58] computing power that a data center might want. They're planning to build a data center in low Earth orbit. Not only would it have all the power it needed, all the cooling it needed, and would not have to bother the neighbors and not give them any worse of a black eye than they already got in Memphis, Tennessee, which someone mentioned, but also a data center in space is going to respond faster. It is going to work better for every end user concerned. So why are we talking about

[03:12:33] building a white elephant here in what is a farming community. Ladies and gentlemen, I predict if you build that, you're not going to see 45 million dollars in 20 years. You'll be lucky to see 45 cents in five. Don't go down that road, ladies and gentlemen. Vote no now, and you won't have to worry about missing out because you'll miss out on a white elephant the same as my family

[03:13:09] missed out on eight track tapes by the way huh there i i think i'll close with that uh that interesting metaphor which i see is caught on thank you mr chairman thank you sir um and uh mr knapp is that you sir yes sir okay um if you go to 915 you'll be the last speaker then we're to go to proponents and then we'll come back and obviously uh follow those rules so floor is yours yes sir thank you for having me uh mr chair and members of the board i am not a resident i am a

[03:13:44] resident of northumberland uh i'm a retired navy commander i've lived all over the world i have lived in places where we see climate change and we see the difficulties of breathing most most notably was baghdad where we see diesel gen sets used regularly but i'm here because i am also a candidate for Congress in the Virginia First District. And this is an area that I care about, just like my own home. And I'm concerned with what we're doing with data centers. Mostly, I'm concerned about how data centers affect our people. So we listened and we heard that data

[03:14:19] centers, and this one in particular, it tries to be as close as it can to the transmission lines. That is because that is monetarily the best decision. They are required to pay 85 percent of the cost of new transmission. So the closer you get, the less you pay. But what they are also required to spend is only 60% of the future generation costs. 40% of future generation costs are borne by the ratepayers. And so what I would suggest, or I would like to ask, will they include in their proffer that no Hanover County resident will ever in the future see a dollar raised because of the build of this facility? Will they guarantee that Hanover

[03:14:59] residents never pay more money for this data center, just simply in their rate charges. If they can do that, then that's a great thing. If they can't, then you should ask why. Additionally, I'm a little upset that they are continuing to use diesel generation sets. Google, Microsoft, two of the largest names in hyperscaling, they have gone to battery energy storage. I am a former battery energy storage executive. I've worked in energy storage. I've worked in solar. They are also not including rooftop solar for their own needs. Why is that? Obviously, it comes with costs, but it comes with benefits. It comes with the benefits of not having to deal with additional

[03:15:39] rates, not having to deal with the exhaust of diesel gensets, which are some of the most polluting forms of energy that we have, when there are access to battery storage systems, fuel cell systems, on-site solar. So again, the question I think that you should ask, And I would like to hear their responses why it can't just be about the dollars. They have to care more about the residents I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir This time I move that the Board of Supervisors extend the board meeting to 11:00 p.m. Unless further needed by a subsequent motion But the motion on the floor is to extend the Board of Supervisors meeting until 11:00 p.m. Is there a second second?

[03:16:17] I have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed motion carries? Okay For those who may be in opposition, if you're still here, keep in mind if we don't have proponents, take the whole hour.

[03:16:34] We're going to come back up, so don't leave if you feel like you want to speak. Proponents. I'm going to start with, read the list, Peter Rawls, Eric Lambert, Neil Kelly, Jacob Gee, we didn't get a last name on that, from South Anna, William Tomkick, and then David Cook and Dan Johnson.

[03:16:58] All right 10:17 will be the total time. Yes, sir. Good evening. My name is Peter Rawls and I live in the coal harbor district I've worked in engineering and construction for over 30 years including past five years Building data centers in central, Virginia. I'm here tonight to support the proposed land use change for the track mountain road project I understand the projects like this raise valid concerns about land use noise and large long-term impacts Those concerns matter, and they deserve thoughtful consideration.

[03:17:34] But based on my professional experience, I believe this project represents a real, meaningful, and safe opportunity for our community. There's a saying, you don't punish the son for the sins of the father. The data centers I worked on are not the same ones that make headlines.

[03:17:51] I encourage both the board and our citizens to look beyond headlines and social media posts. A bold headline will never tell the full story or reflect the full context. Do your own research. Trust but verify. Facilities that I'm involved with are designed with community impact and county needs in mind.

[03:18:11] Noise mitigation, buffering, and advanced cooling systems are now standard practice. With proper conditions and oversight, these projects can operate far more quietly, cleanly, and efficiently than many assume. In many cases, sound levels at property lines are comparable to everyday ambient noise, which may surprise those unfamiliar with modern designs.

[03:18:31] from an economic standpoint data centers data centers offer meaningful and reliable benefits that generate significant tax revenue while placing relatively low demand on public services they don't add students to schools create minimal traffic and require limited county resources that means more funding for schools public safety and infrastructure without those benefits being offset by additional strain I believe this is the kind of project that will provide lasting lasting value while helping meet our economic development and suburban service area goals. Goals that have

[03:19:10] already been reviewed by our citizens and approved by county leaders. This project allows us to grow in a strategic way while preserving resources and maintaining a responsible balance between development and community needs. I don't envy your position tonight and I'm not asking you to consider anything new. The decisions and path forward for our county's future have already been Developed vetted and approved your role tonight is to reinforce that direction and follow through on the established plan. You have 30 seconds I respectfully request that you approve this land use case. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please

[03:19:45] Good evening members of the board. My name is Eric Lambert and I am a resident of Mechanicville I am also the assistant business manager for the international brotherhood of electric workers local union 666 We represent over 2300 electricians in the central, Virginia area many of which call hand of a home I'm here tonight to speak in favor for the Mountain Road Technology Park.

[03:20:09] I've heard concerns raised about the grid costs associated with data centers and I believe those concerns are fair, but I would ask you to consider this: those grid costs will still exist regardless where these projects are built. The real question is whether Hanover County will benefit from them.

[03:20:26] My wife is a public school teacher here in Hanover County for almost 20 years, and my two children attend Hanover County Public Schools. Like many families, we care deeply about the future of our schools and our community. I know firsthand that our county would greatly benefit from the tax revenue from this project.

[03:20:44] In reality, the reality is that the average family does not pay enough in local taxes to fully cost educating their children, and most families are already stretched thin between raising grocery prices, gas prices, housing costs, and everyday expenses.

[03:21:00] People simply cannot afford higher taxes. like this will help bridge that gap. The Mountain Road Technology Park will generate substantial tax revenue for Hanover County, revenue that can support our schools and infrastructure without placing additional financial pressure on local families. Because this project is being built here in Hanover, Hanover also has the ability to negotiate terms directly to benefit our community through proffers with developers not the taxpayer is funding for much of the required water infrastructure and tonight I learned about a six million dollars for conservation. I

[03:21:37] think that's great. We need that for the county. With these projects come more than just jobs at data centers. They also support have support jobs as well. We have seen growth in Hanover already. Rosen Electric, the largest employee-owned electrical contractor in the country, has decided to move into one of our many warehouses where we are they are expected to hire 250 full-time employees. These are good jobs and good opportunities for Hanover residents to have these jobs. At the end of the day, these projects are going somewhere. The question before you tonight is whether Hanover

[03:22:15] County will be in a position to benefit from these jobs, infrastructure investment, and tax revenue they create. I appreciate your time and consideration and encourage you to support this project. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Lambert. Neil Kelly, Jacob G., William Tomat, come on for it. Thank you for being here. Hi, I'm Jake. I'm from South Anna, I think. I'm not here to convince you that you should build this project. So could you state your last name for the record please? Gooch. I'm not here to convince you that you should build this project. Maybe you shouldn't. I'm just here to talk about what sort of future that we want and to express maybe a different view of things. People try to

[03:22:51] justify building data centers because it'll bring jobs or bring taxes but I think these are lousy reasons. I think we should build the data centers not because of what it will do for you but because it's the right thing to do. Data center is a bad word. A data center is really something from 10 or 15 years ago, sort of the warehouse of computers, storing your files, photos, Netflix shows, YouTube videos, but these buildings aren't just storing data anymore.

[03:23:18] Every age has a basic material. The industrial age had steel and oil. Our age has computation. In the last few years, we've made a profound breakthrough. We learned how to teach computers to think. AI is a technology with extraordinary promise. For the first time, computers are becoming collaborators in thinking, educating, discovering, and building.

[03:23:39] It's this intelligence that will power the next age, and these buildings are where it happens. These are no longer just data centers. These are factories of intelligence, and this intelligence is real. I use it in my work to do more than I could before. I use it in art to imagine new ideas.

[03:23:55] I have friends and family who use it in their small business, and that's something I think people are missing, that this is not just a technology for giant companies. This is a tool that can give ordinary people more capability. Historically, intelligence has been scarce. It takes me months to get an appointment to see a doctor.

[03:24:10] cost tens of thousands of dollars to get an education most entrepreneurs simply can't don't have the funds to hire their first employee our access to these resources was limited by who you know where you lived and what you could afford but ai begins to change that the deepest promise of this technology is not that it writes emails faster or something like that it's that it helps us discover new things medicines and breakthroughs in science i think about a cure for my cousin's huntington's disease i think about improving the quality of my mom's life as she ages think about small business owners being empowered. The point of technology at its best is not to trap us behind more screens. It's to give us more life, more time with our loved ones, more time in nature,

[03:24:50] and more time to create. That's the future I'm looking forward to. We have a question. Can you build things in America? We can't build factories. We can't build chemical plants. We can't build nuclear. Will we build the factories of intelligence? You have 30 seconds, sir. If the United States refuses to build infrastructure of this age, other nations will. China will. Nations that don't have civic meetings or protests, nations that have the power incentives to manipulate your social media feed.

[03:25:19] We're already dependent on China for our manufacturing and medicine. Do we really want to be dependent on them for our intelligence, too? I think I'll end it there. Final thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Kooch. Next speaker. Mr. Tomic, not here. Okay, we'll move in. David Cook, Dan Johnson, either one.

[03:25:42] Good evening. Dan Johnson. Mr. Johnson, I would say, if you want to speak in support, you can go ahead. It's now anybody. I've called the name, so anybody else, feel free to line up. If there's nobody, we'll go back to proponents. But if you want to speak in favor, go ahead and line up if you're able.

[03:25:58] Thank you so much. Mr. Johnson, thank you for being with us. Dan Johnson, Southano District. I wanted to express how pleased I was when I heard that the Planning Commission approved the application requesting to build a data center along Route 33 near Henrico County Line.

[03:26:17] This area has been designated as a site for industrial and commercial development. The venue which will be generated from this facility is desperately needed. The reason I say this is that in the next six to eight years, the county will be spending an additional $250, possibly $400 million for the building of new schools as well as the renovation of others.

[03:26:48] I was totally shocked to learn, due to budget restraints, the renovation of the replacement of a school that is currently 77 years old is not even in the 20-year school renovation plan.

[03:27:11] Ladies and gentlemen, the board, the safety and well-being of this county is your responsibility. Our zoning and planning department has done an outstanding study of this project.

[03:27:28] Our planning commission would not have approved this project if it had not been for the in-depth study of Mrs. Hunter and Mr. Pompei. Mr. Berdesky, I want to say Hanover is most fortunate for you bringing these two on board.

[03:27:52] I've worked with Mrs. Susan Dibble for years, and I know of no one more dedicated in upholding the comprehensive plan which has passed many years ago.

[03:28:09] The number of proposals that she has said no to, which would have jeopardized the safety and well-being to the citizens of Hanover County, is staggering. I can assure you that she has studied every dotted I and cross T in this proposal.

[03:28:30] Vote yes for this data center, which will assist in providing desperately needed revenue that will fully fund the service and facilities that the citizens of Hanover County need now and in the future. Thank you.

[03:28:46] We're still on proponents. We're still on proponents. My name is Ed Keeper. I live in the Mechanicsville District. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of having this project done.

[03:29:03] I am a member of the Hanover Economic. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Keefer speaking. Thank you, sir. The Economic Authority. The EDA supports the rezoning request, conditional use permit, and special exception request for the mountain road technology project.

[03:29:26] The properties associated with the Mountain Road Technology Park are entirely within the suburban service area, which is the county's designated growth area. The core properties associated with this project are designated employment center on the county's general land use map.

[03:29:51] Area's designated employment centers are intended to accommodate employment, generating business, and limited industrial uses within Cohesive. Master Plan Developments, which is the project's accomplishment.

[03:30:09] The project with the Small Area Plan, which was adapted in August of 2025. The small area plan, which was a plan that included extensive public engagement and feedback, specifically designates these properties as potential industrial users and lists data centers of one of the recommended uses for this area.

[03:30:38] The project is located within the Mountain Road Gateway Economic Development Zone, which is intended as an emerging employment hub. The focus of Emerging Employment Hub is to accommodate new economic development opportunities and to construct and or upgrade infrastructure to make these areas attractive for new businesses, investments, and targeted industries.

[03:31:09] Targeted industries within the specific economic development zone include data centers as an acceptable industrial sector. This project aligns with the recommendation uses within our suburban service area, U.S. Route 33 Gateway Small Area Plan and General Land Use Plan, and the Mountain Road Gateway Economic Development Zone.

[03:31:40] And this project supports job growth with the alignment of cost of living in Hanover County. The Economic Development Authority backs this 100%. i have been a resident for 35 years sir i love paying over thank you so hopefully you will vote thank you sir next speaker please thank you ma'am all right my name is crystal doyle and i live right along hunting park boulevard there at the end there's about 2 000 homeowners there so probably about 10 000 people and then you go a little farther north um i am speaking in in support um

[03:32:18] where do you live ma'am i am a henrico uh right on the border what's your neighborhood i just didn't here where you live what magisterial district do you live in are you and you're in henrico i'm in henrico okay thank you yeah um i'm in henrico there's about probably 2 000 homes down there and about oh i'd guess another thousand a little farther north so at least 10 000 people along hunting park boulevard and so i just am here like in support of the presentation and the board because it really helped me understand how i have zero representation as a henrico resident

[03:32:57] in. So no representation, no voice in this matter. We didn't know it was coming. So that in terms of like the data center coming has been really interesting and helpful. I also work in mental health. And from an economic development perspective, I'm super stoked because I was thinking about like expanding my private practice and I really see a lot of growth and opportunity here. So I'm here in support of that economic growth and development because I see like burgeoning mental health challenges associated with this. Ma'am, we're running a meeting. If you want to speak against it,

[03:33:34] you could. From an economic development point of view, I think you all have a great point. Do you support a data center or not, ma'am? Seriously, this is a business meeting and this board has been completely accommodating to folks so they can have their voices heard. It's not a game. Are you for it or against it? And if you're for it, that's fine. You can speak to it. If you're against it, then you can speak against it. But don't come up in any other pretense than what it is.

[03:33:59] People are standing in line wanting to speak. Yeah, and I wasn't sure if there would be an opportunity to speak because there's been very little opportunity for representation in an email sent to the board. Ma'am, if you're opposed to it, I'm going to ask for the next proponent to come up and you're willing to stay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

[03:34:15] Ma'am, ma'am, please. Sorry about that, sir. Please come forward. State your name in the district that you live. Yes, sir. Members of the board, my name is Patrick Brighamon. I'm actually a Richmond City resident, so not a resident here at Hanover. But I'm speaking on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 666.

[03:34:33] I'm the business development manager. So like Eric was saying earlier, we have over 2,500 members in Central Virginia, over 300 here in Hanover County. And I wanted to provide a little bit of a perspective to the jobs. I know people throw out a lot of the numbers around jobs created, and there's a lot of conversation on the temporary nature of construction jobs.

[03:34:54] So I want to talk a little bit about the timeline that TRAC was talking about so far. If this job, let's say, I know based on their timeline, starts next year, two years from now, that means right now there are juniors in the Hanover County high school system that I know they're pressuring kids earlier and earlier every year, it feels like, to make a decision, college, career, all this stuff, what they're supposed to be doing for the rest of their entire lives.

[03:35:18] These juniors are getting pressured what they're supposed to be doing. And those kids, when they graduate college, if they apply to the union apprenticeship, could be on this job. That could be their first job right out of high school, supporting them as soon as they want to start working for themselves. And this is the kind of job that doesn't require student loans. God, I wish I knew about this before I took my student loans.

[03:35:39] And can absolutely support them as a pathway to a career that puts them right in the middle class. Here in Virginia, I know definitely as a Richmond resident, but I know this spans the entire Commonwealth. It is getting more and more expensive to buy a home, even rent a home, live anywhere near here. And for folks here in Hanover, for those kids in the high school, if they want the ability to purchase and own a home near their family, to live in this area and continue to afford that, this is an incredible pathway for those folks. They can get on the job right away and start learning with their tools. They get a day in the classroom. The rest of the day they're learning on the job from folks who have decades of experience doing this. And at four

[03:36:19] years, so just a little bit over halfway through the project, they'll top out, graduate that apprenticeship to a $40 an hour position with fully paid for health care, with two retirements at minimum. This is an incredible pathway to a career that can keep them here in Hanover.

[03:36:37] And who knows, by that time they top out, there's still years left of this project. There's plenty of time to build up a down payment and buy the house down the street from their parents. This is an incredible opportunity for kids, and describing this kind of position as temporary

[03:36:51] Is a little bit minimizing to these folks who have that four year learning 30 seconds pathway to the middle class and then years afterwards to keep working on this job afterwards they'll have the tools and the skills necessary to wire up a hospital wire up a firehouse any kind of business in this area they can make a career out of that and that's the kind of folks i want to speak here for so thank you so much and i urge you to support the project appreciate y'all thank you next speaker please good evening my name is simon strong i'm in the beaverdam districts i've been in the beaverdam district for 56

[03:37:24] years. I live on 70 acres of a 200-acre beef cattle farm I grew up on. That was a 1,200-acre farm my family settled in the late 1800s. So I've been in Beaverdam for a long, long time. So this means a lot to me. So I sat here and listened to all the passion in this room tonight. It's a lot of passion in this room. But I look at this piece of land. What farmer would pay $10,000 for that piece of land and pay taxes on it? I get the privilege to go next door by next Thursday and write a big check for 70 acres of land so who would pay ten thousand dollars and clear that

[03:37:59] piece of land so a company like track has came in and looked at this piece of land and has tried to develop it the best way they could so we can shoot it down today and that's fine but it's part of hanover county's plan so six months from now eight months from now it's amazon it's the same turning lanes we shoot that down now here comes walmart here comes wegmans it's the same turning lanes We can go ahead and do it, and we can suffer through the construction, which is going to be a pain, or we can have the same problem we have on Ashcake Road once it's built as a Wegmans or a Walmart, and you have them tractor trailers coming in and out every day.

[03:38:37] So I encourage you to consider this data center. It's the best thing for this county. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board. My name is Mike Flagg. I'm a lifelong resident of the Beaver Dam District. We've lived in Beaverdam District for four generations now.

[03:38:58] And if the East Ashland slash Iron Horse data center comes forward, our family will have one of the closest residential properties to that data center. So we have looked at these things. And to me, it's a lot about the alternatives.

[03:39:14] If you look at the alternatives of the prior development, which was turned down, it's a lot like Knuckles Road in the afternoon. it comes with a lot of impacts traffic all the other ancillary things we have a small amount of developable commercial industrial property in the county it's set aside through the comprehensive plan unless that gets expanded for some reason and there's no appetite for that but a project like this comes along it fills that void with really a minimal impact in traffic a lot of

[03:39:49] revenue. We've got over $200 million in debt service right now in the capital plan. In the last two and a half years, I'll just scan in the capital improvements budget. There's a lot of new projects in there. Elmont School, we've got probably $300 million worth of schools in Mechanicsville that got to be built around the 10-year mark. So revenue challenges are not going away. These projects hold the potential to feed that with minimal impact. I really appreciate Mr. Stoneman's article on energy in his newsletter probably three or four newsletters ago where it

[03:40:29] really talked about the issues related to energy and the cost of energy and it's complex. These centers will certainly add to it. I think that's a very fair read for people that are interested in what's impacting us but I just want to come forward support three electricians in the family So these guys work every day with their hands and put things like this together and support those jobs.

[03:40:54] I appreciate what you do and the spirit that you come to the table, and thanks for your service. Anybody else to speak in favor? Anyone in favor? Okay, anyone else who wishes to speak either for or against, just come on and line on up at your pleasure.

[03:41:15] Yes, ma'am, please state your name, the district that you live. Yes, good evening. My name is Lucille O'Neal. I live in the South Anna District. I've been there for a long time, moved originally to the Beaver Dam District. And I just wanted to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to share all we have learned in the research that we've been doing on the short and long-term effects of these data centers.

[03:41:37] I understand the difficult job you all face in trying to create the county that we all want to see. I would like to respectfully ask at this point that you not approve the data center with so many unknowns that could permanently negatively affect the character of the county and the health and well-being of the residents nearby. Your comprehensive plan talks about the 33 gateway into the county. That gateway vision describes shops, businesses, things that attract tourists to the county, things like parks and historical sites and restaurants and hotels. Nothing about the gateway speaks of a massive data warehouse. A massive warehouse could blight the county as the

[03:42:17] first thing that people see when they ride on that 33 corridor. This will not attract other thriving businesses to this area. It will actually drive them away. It will only bring more heavy industry because no regular business will want to be anywhere near. I have tried to summarize a list of the concerns that your constituents have related to you, all the knowns and unknowns about the data center project. I've made it concise and bullet pointed, and I will not read it here. I've handed it out to you all. I will highlight the fact that as our elected representatives, your first and foremost duty is to the citizens of Hanover County, not to any big corporation coming to the county.

[03:42:55] Your obligation is to us and to approve or even consider approving something that over 80% of your constituents are against is outrageous. It's mind-boggling to think that you could possibly pass this through. There are so many unknowns and so many potential delirious effects on both people within a mile radius and throughout the entire county hickory hills was already approved it is already behind schedule and we do not know the revenue it will provide the pollution the water and the energy consumption when it comes to full fruition i believe when that one was approved one

[03:43:31] of you all said in quotes one and done well that was the one i'm hoping you all hold to that right now at least to the point where this one is done and operational and you can honestly evaluate the effects on the community i believe that you are smart people with the county's best interest in mind and i hope the promises of the almighty dollar will not sway you away and leave a blight on our county i feel your legacy will be one of destroying the county not helping it to thrive you have a choice now please choose to show us all that you love this county as we do and you take seriously your commitment to represent the constituents who voted you in office your final

[03:44:11] Thank you, and may you sleep well tonight knowing that you made the right decision. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Good evening. Rhonda Hammond, Beaverdam District. When we know better, we do better. And today, we know too much to let this project move forward.

[03:44:29] A recent study by the Piedmont Environmental Council looked at the Vantage Data Center in Loudoun County. They found that the emissions from its 51 diesel generators and eight natural gas turbines could lead to six and a half premature deaths a year and nearly $100 million in health-related damages annually.

[03:44:47] Over 30 years, that number jumps to nearly 200 premature deaths and $3 billion in health care costs. The study warns that scientific evidence links exposure to PM2.5 with a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including asthma, heart attacks, stroke, and premature death.

[03:45:05] Children, asthmatics, and seniors are at the highest risk. This led me to look at Trax Mountain Road Project. When asked how many generators tracked plans to bring to Hanover, the applicant refused to commit to a number saying it would be provided during the site plan review, but a good estimate would be 300 generators.

[03:45:25] If 51 generators in Loudoun County can cause serious health impacts, what will 300 generators do to the air quality of Hanover County? Loudoun County wasn't aware of these health impacts when they approved their data centers. They thought that they had protections in place.

[03:45:43] They didn't know, but we do. And when we know better, we do better. The applicant claims that the generators will only run during rare emergencies and brief testing, but that is false. On May 17, 2026, PJM filed an emergency request under the Federal Power Act.

[03:46:03] They asked the Department of Energy for an order allowing utilities to disconnect data centers from the grid and force them onto their backup generators. Why? because of just three 90-degree days in mid-May. To mitigate a Level 3 energy emergency alert, NERC's highest, most severe alert level, data centers across PJM's 13-state territory were asked to fire up their backup diesel engines and run them for three days.

[03:46:29] If three hot days in May threatened to collapse the grid, how many 90-degree days do you think Virginia will have in July and August, and how many of those days will their diesel generators run? In NERC's 2025 long-term reliability assessment, they stated that PJM region is at high risk of energy shortfalls over the next five years and faces significant reliability challenges.

[03:46:54] How frequent will PJM shortfalls become with the amount of data center projects in the pipeline, and how often will these generators be asked to run? TRAC will tell you they will operate well below state emission limits, but science disagrees. A study by Caltech and UC Riverside explicitly noted that there is absolutely no safe exposure level when it comes to fine particulate matter Compliance with the government standard does not mean the air is safe Loudoun County didn't have this data when they made their choices. We do Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Hi. Good evening

[03:47:32] My name is Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs. I'm in the South Anna district now like mr Knapp I'm also running for Congress here in the 1st District but the reason I'm here tonight is because my house is actually up there on that map and I'd like to take a moment we've talked a lot about numbers and data and tell you how me and my family came to owning that house my husband I spent our adult lives in the military I was a tank commander he was a ranger and we saved up we used our VA loan and we bought our forever home right there to raise our family right now we have four kids under five because we're also foster parents we built that home to open it to the community place that would be safe for every kid who needed a safe place to call home. We

[03:48:11] will have to put our house on that market. We will have to move out of that home after spending our career serving our community, serving our country, and leave so that we can ensure we have a safe home to raise our children in. You have the opportunity here. You begged to be in this position. You asked people to elect you and you have the power to say no. This responsibility was not thrust upon you. It was something you asked for. You have the opportunity to be brave, to stand up and to listen to the people in your county instead of selling out to big developers.

[03:48:41] And don't you dare say, you prayed up here when we started this meeting. You prayed and thank God for our county. You thank God for earth. And I guarantee you, Jesus would be outside right now flipping tables. And I hope you do the same. I urge you to vote now. Next speaker, please.

[03:49:00] Hey, guys. Yes, ma'am. Please state your name. I'm not usually quite so mild. My name is Catherine. before you, I know. My name, my district. Catherine Sklerik, S-K-L-A-R-E-K. Only one in Hanover County, sweetie. Susan Dibble is a representative. I like her. I think she's a wonderful lady.

[03:49:31] I'm going to tell you a story. My husband and I get up at five o'clock in the morning. We fix our lunch boxes. We walk the dog because Scrappy-Doo, my dog, walks better when mommy and daddy walks with him. Otherwise, he wants to stay outside. I have to be at work at six.

[03:50:02] He has to be at work at seven. We go to work. We both work in factories or plants. He works in the cement industry, concrete, pipe. I work, I've gotten 18 factories in the last 10 years, primarily contract labor, temp labor. I am a very unusual female. I'm turning 60 and I like men's work.

[03:50:34] I work primarily with men. Both of us wear PPE, protective equipment, personal protective equipment, steel-toed boots, hard hats. We also wear gloves. We wear earplugs. Why do we wear earplugs? Because industry is loud. It's going to hurt your hearing, so we wear earplugs all day

[03:51:10] long. We work in intense heat or intense cold. It is no in-between. We don't have air conditioning or heat. He gets off at four. I'm going to fast forward. He gets off at four. I get off at 530.

[03:51:28] We take off our PPE, protective gear, equipment, and we go home. You have 30 seconds, ma'am. Yes, sir. And we take our boots off and we put, and we're like, oh, this is heaven. We have birds, birds in our backyard. I have 10,000 plants in my backyard. I just planted 80 tomatoes and 60 peppers we don't want to have to wear earplugs or have the hum when we go home and sit in our backyard after working 10 and 9 and 11 hour days thank you ma'am thank you so much please

[03:52:07] vote no yes ma'am next speaker please thank you yes ma'am thank you for being with us yeah good evening my name is Christine Couturier and I live in the South Anna district my husband and I have 20 acres. I have horses and I rely on a lot of water. Horses drink a lot of water. This is a pretty big equestrian community. Are we thinking about that? Nobody has addressed it. People with horses need water. I'm going to be, I'm going to have a real problem if something happens to my

[03:52:42] well and I don't have water to water my horses. We also back up to Stoney Run, okay? We see deer, beaver. We have possums, raccoons. We see it all back there, okay, because our house directly overlooks Stoney Run. I can't imagine what this thing could possibly do to the water, but my main concern is the PFAS, the chemicals, that nobody's really talking about. So just pulling from a couple of articles, I'm just going to read what I have here. Environmental advocates say the data centers increase PFAS pollution directly and indirectly. The chemicals are needed in the center's operations,

[03:53:21] such as its cooling equipment, which almost certainly leads to some on-site pollution. Meanwhile, PFAS used in the equipment housed in the centers must be disposed of, which is difficult because the chemicals cannot be fully destroyed. Meanwhile, a large quantity of PFAS are used to produce the semiconductors housed in data centers which will increase pollution around supporting manufacturing plants.

[03:53:45] The revelations come as the U.S. seeks an edge over China as the industry leader in AI, and there has been little political interest in reigning in the center's pollution. The U.S. and China are racing to see who can destroy the environment the most quickly.

[03:54:00] I do believe, however, somebody else addressed China. They're putting theirs out in the ocean, I mean, from what I'm reading. I don't know why we can't do something like that here or in the space, as somebody else has suggested. I don't know why we have to destroy the environment, put these PFAS chemicals into the water supply, forever chemicals.

[03:54:19] That's really problematic. And there's now lawsuits ongoing concerning these chemicals, something that also has to be considered because, you know, people are going to sue. I'm going to test my water before and after if this thing comes in. I'm going to be wanting to know what this is doing to the water. So just to let you know, you know, that's a major concern, these chemicals. So thank you for your time and I hope you all make the right decision. Thank you.

[03:54:45] thank you ma'am next speaker please travis wilson south anna district um i'm here to speak tonight on behalf of the wilson family we own roughly 220 acres along much of the grassy creek boundary that is proposed for this project area my family has owned this land for nearly 200 years and we care deeply about protecting the long-term value and future use of this property tonight i want to focus on one issue for you for your consideration continuous 24-hour data center noise and how it is being measured, because traditional fixed decibel limits do not adequately protect quiet

[03:55:24] rural communities. A rural area should not be evaluated the same way as a busy urban corridor, and fixed limits also fail to account for the existing sound environments before construction. That is why many experts in jurisdictions are shifting towards ambient noise methodologies using L90 metric, which measures the existing background sound environment then limits how much additional noise a project can add above the baseline.

[03:55:53] Human hearing is highly sensitive to increases in sound. A 3 dBA increase is noticeable. A 10 dBA increase is perceived as roughly twice as loud. On May 14, 2026, nighttime sound readings on our property along Grassy Swamp Creek were measured at approximately 36 dBA.

[03:56:15] As mentioned in the presentation tonight, under the project proposed, nighttime sound could legally reach 50 dBA or an increase of 14 dBA, and daytime sound could reach 57 dBA or an increase of 21 dBA, representing a perceived increase in noise roughly three to four times over the current rural environment according to acoustic charts included in your packet tonight.

[03:56:39] Studies are increasingly documenting the health and quality of life impacts associated with the 24/7 noise exposure from data centers. Modern mitigation technologies already exist, including advanced generator enclosures, enhanced silencers, acoustic barriers, and low noise equipment packages.

[03:56:55] The question is not whether the solution exists, it's whether stronger standards are required. My family respectfully asks the board to consider a modern ambient noise methodology rather than a one-size-fits-all fixed-limit approach so the county can still realize the economic benefits of this development while still protecting health, welfare, property value, and quality of life.

[03:57:17] Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm a Henrico resident and I've been to a few of these meetings with the Planning Commission.

[03:57:32] This is my first opportunity to speak. So I live, my name is John Sharp. My family is building a house right on the edge of the map there, about 600 yards from the building 2B, I think it is there. So some folks in the group here pointed out that it's going to use 900 megawatts of power, which is half the power generation of Lake Anna, and that power goes somewhere.

[03:58:02] So it's used to do our TikToks and all that fun stuff, converts it into heat energy, and that heat is going to dissipate. to our neighborhood and i mean we're we're southeast when typically goes that way so on a calm hot day that's going to create that heat island we're going to have 100 100 days turns into 116 degree day of kind of miserable humidity right with the the noise as well um so this it's i don't

[03:58:37] think it's light industrial i hope consider uh it's something other than that um i'm an it engineer i don't speak for a living but uh i don't i do sorry i do see the need in data centers uh obviously i i use them for work uh but they they belong in industrial areas like in rico and many other counties with them again i appreciate your time thank you thank you sir ma'am hold on one

[03:59:14] second i've got hannover residence behind you which i'm going to allow to speak first and then if there's time left i'll allow you to speak there will be but ma'am you came up here under false pretenses the first time I have Hanover residents if there's enough time I'll allow it but I'm not gonna have miss Meyers and those who live in Hanover have their time eaten up that way yes sir good evening my name is Russ Miller I'm a South Anna district resident I'm also a transplant from Texas and I think everybody's kind of covered all the details all the the water and the energy maybe not the energy as much as they should because I think the power lines associated with the amount of power they're gonna have to develop in order

[03:59:53] to operate both of these systems is going to be pretty significant, and it worries me. But I wanted to talk a little bit about what happened in Texas in Corpus Christi. I think it's relevant, and I think it's something to consider, because when they developed their petrochemical business in Corpus, which is relatively new compared to Houston, a group of really sharply dressed, competent professionals such as these came to that community and said, hey, if you do this, we're going to give you that.

[04:00:25] And the numbers were actually much bigger there. They had like $26 billion. And they came in and they built their petrochemical plants and they built their facilities for processing. And it's just unbelievable to think about.

[04:00:40] I'm not sure you can really grasp the idea that it can go so bad. Because you've got such incredibly smart, talented people telling you, hey, this is going to work. And Loudoun County is doing it. But Corpus Christi has 8% of a whole aquifer left of water.

[04:00:58] 9% in the other aquifer left of water. They're going to run out of water. The whole city is going to run out of water. And they thought for sure there's no way this is going to happen. You know, and I just feel like as unlikely as it seems, this isn't proven technology.

[04:01:15] We don't know what's going to happen. We haven't done this before. Does that mean you don't do it? No. But it means you be cautious when you do it. And I'm concerned that there's not enough information and we're moving too quickly and that the risks are real in ways that are hard to really grasp.

[04:01:35] it'd be so catastrophic but they are real and they should be considered I wish you'd vote no on this issue and I wanted to thank you mr. chairman for your patience with the community tonight I thought you've done a very admirable job managing a difficult situation thank you next speaker please hi I'm Jane Myers I'm in the Henry district my family and I have lived in the Henry district for 28 years and I do oppose this project and I encourage you to vote no I work in the world of land conservation but I assure you that my comments about natural resource concerns are mine and unrelated to my work. I have a master's degree

[04:02:14] in forest ecology and I've worked in the natural resource field for over 20 years. I have many worries about this project and here are just a few. My first concern, another woman just mentioned this and I was glad she did but I'm going to underscore it. Did you know that on May 17th during the extremely hot temperatures we had we experienced the Department of Energy issued the federal powers act requiring all data centers among other hyperscale customers with backup generators in virginia to run on generator power due to the high energy demand due to the extremely

[04:02:49] hot weather we were experiencing in may stating an emergency we had a heat emergency in may imagine the air quality degradation if all the generators required to power this data center and all the other ones proposed and existing in our state and locality had to run 24 hours a day for all of the heat emergencies that are likely, very likely. They said they will only use generators and emergencies.

[04:03:20] Well, that's not looking so good for us right now. Another concern, the Chickahominy River is an amazing resource for this county. It's a resource for recreation, for wildlife, for natural processes like water recharge areas, for the clean water we all enjoy. For now, it is highly unlikely that the impacts of the proximity to this river of this hyperscale heavy industrial data center will not be negatively felt in this pristine resource. As an example, a conservative calculation of a one-inch rainfall event on 129 acres, what they say the project build area will be, of impervious surface

[04:03:58] generates 3,500,000 gallons of stormwater runoff. I don't know what you do with that. I'm sure they have a plan for it, but that's just a number I think that should be thought about. Think of the force of the rainfall over the holiday weekend we just had. That rainfall event made worse for flooding because we were entering a drought. We were in a drought, and water infiltration into soil was impeded by dry conditions. Why? Why would we assume that weather conditions are going to

[04:04:29] improve? The localities have started improving conservation plans for solar projects. Why aren't we creating an ordinance for data centers. There's a whole lot more thought that needs to go into this process, and I highly encourage you to do that before you vote.

[04:04:50] Your final thoughts, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker, please. Thank you for being with us. Hi, my name is Donna Walker. I live in the Attlee area, and I do not have anything prepared, so please bear with me. I tried to listen very carefully to everything that was stated this evening. I'm a very visual person, and so in the absence of the presentation, I'm not going to be able to regurgitate too many details.

[04:05:16] But a few things did stand out to me. The concern for the proffers and the management of any of the requirements not being met, it doesn't sound like you have the infrastructure for that.

[04:05:32] If you write these people a ticket, they're going to pay it and keep on rocking because there's no reason for them not to. They don't know who the end user is. That's pretty scary. You don't know what kind of reputation they have. You don't know whether they will meet all the requirements.

[04:05:48] And all you're going to do is issue them a fine. And meanwhile, the residents will pay the toll. It seems to me that M1 is not the right designation based on the type of structure and the end use that would occur. So, I mean, the equation is not right.

[04:06:07] I understand that we need, you know, having the extra water facility would be wonderful for the county, having $6 million donated to use for parks. That sounds great, too. All the money is very enticing. But I don't think at this moment in time, you have the guardrails in place, you have the infrastructure in place, you don't have a way to mitigate if there is an enforcement issue that occurs.

[04:06:33] and I think the residents have spoken much more loudly than the proponents about how they feel about this project. And at this moment in time, it should not move forward. I hope you will really listen to all of the data that's been presented and make an informed decision. It's not that a data center wouldn't be good at some point in some place, but it seems to me that in the current state, you got a lot of missing pieces. And I think, you know, you can't go back. As soon as you sell them, you know, this land is taken over and this facility is built. As people mentioned,

[04:07:12] some of the green space could be absorbed and you can't ever get it back. Once we start the pollution, you can't reverse it. Why aren't they using some green energy solutions? Why are they using, you know, diesel generators? I mean, there are so many opportunities that they did not take advantage of to make the environmental impact as low as possible. And it's all about money because that would cost them more and they don't want to spend more. But we're going to pay the price in the long run if you vote yes at this moment in time. You're not ready. You don't have

[04:07:45] the infrastructure. You don't have the policing. It shouldn't be M1. Please say no. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. I am Brandy Banton from the South Anna District. And so many people have brought up so many relevant points and I'm going to try to be quick. I just want to say it's interesting to me the continuation of reframing the optics on this particular project from TRAC. We have gone from this just being about revenue. Hanover needs this revenue. We must have

[04:08:20] this revenue. Now it has turned into they're going to build a whole new water system to provide the 2 million gallons of water they're going to need per day because they would use 90% of what's available to local residents, but they're doing us a favor by building that because they're also going to utilize it for the 2 million gallons of water that they would need on apparently only one day per year, which I think we know that that's ridiculous. So I'm going on to say that we continue down this path. Every time we bring up relevant concerns, it's like they come back, they throw

[04:08:57] money. It's just keep throwing money, keep giving proffers, keep throwing money. When will we look at this and say, at the very least, defer it, at least pause and do some more vetting. Our group, Friends of Hanover, have spent thousands of dollars to FOIA the county. We have researched endlessly, trying to find answers to questions, trying to figure out how all of this came to be.

[04:09:24] And there are, at the end of the day, way more questions than there are answers. It does not end. I just really encourage the county to please pause. Think about this, at the very least, think about this a little longer before you make a decision that will really change this county.

[04:09:43] This doesn't stop here. You guys won't be here forever. If you look at any other area around a short pump, for example, it didn't just happen overnight. What's the story of short pump? it was a pump with a short handle. That's where people went to get water as they were traveling through this endless amount of land. It's not anywhere near that today. It looks nothing like that. And it didn't just happen one decision or all at once. It happened one decision at a time, building upon building. So all I'm asking, or and I think all we're asking is at the very least,

[04:10:20] pause. Keep asking questions. Keep vetting this before you make a decision of this magnitude. Have a good evening. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, friends. Rob, Mayor Man, Will Hoyt, Chickahominy District.

[04:10:39] Coming in late at night, everything's been said. One thing that stuck out from the presentation from me is they're saying this is going to be a closed-loop system. Well, if it's going to be a closed-loop cooling system, and maybe they can rebut it and explain it, but if it's going to be a closed-loop system, why do they need all that water?

[04:10:59] We don't have the water. They're talking about a water tower. That water tower has to be filled. Yes, the line would be pressurized, but the water that originally has to come from somewhere, where is that 600,000 to 2 million gallons of water going to come from?

[04:11:17] We just don't have the infrastructure for that. And this isn't just a Hanover problem. I mean, these data centers, they're a problem for the whole country. You read the news, you watch the news online, and everybody's talking about it. That's their biggest concern is water.

[04:11:32] And you all know me, and there's a little bit of ag land in there, cows, corn, and maters, not development that could change this county forever. And finally, because I don't want to take up so much of time, when we all meet the good Lord on that day, are we going to come in front of him as good stewards of the water and land he created, or are we going to sell out for the money?

[04:11:58] Thank you. Next speaker, please. We have four minutes left, just as a reminder. No problem. I'll be quick. Sure. I'm Nikki Mack, Beaverdam resident and district. As I listened to everyone, I agreed with just about everything. And the one thing I didn't hear about is actually the economic impact on the citizens.

[04:12:18] So citizens that live around this data center, their property values have, what, tripled over the last couple of years through assessments. You've been collecting taxes year upon year, more and more. When those folks, after this is built, if it's approved, What will the property values look like when someone wants to sell that house that is right next door to a data center?

[04:12:41] Every realtor in Northern Virginia is answering this question, and it is no one. No one wants to live next to this. Are you gonna reassess those property values? The economic impact for those people is huge. You might be looking at economic impact for here, for this county, but those people, water, light pollution, economic impact from their investment, They're probably a lifelong investment on their homes.

[04:13:08] What are you going to do about that one if you approve this? Thank you. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I know you didn't appreciate the way in which I tried to do it before. I am so thankful to be going after her because I cannot stress how terrifying.

[04:13:27] And can you state your name? Crystal Doyle. I live in Henrico County right off Hunton Park Boulevard along with about 10,000 people along the southern border of this area. Our homes look like like a little fuzz on there. I wish you could see what the homes look like. I wish they were in color. This is not light industrial. This is massive giant scale compared to the homes. This is terrifying and when I say we have no voice, we have no voice the zoning commission one of the guys sitting over here said where have you all been

[04:14:05] this whole time where was your voice we had no flipping idea this was going on we were the third family to move into our neighborhood we've lived there 19 years we moved my mom from texas like this is terrifying not because data centers are big and scary because we have the data on that they're not facebook facts it's because the presentation was so punched full of holes maybe this creates six jobs for every, I don't know, thousand square feet or whatever it said. Yeah, the jobs, I do work in mental health. It's going to create mental health jobs. It's going to create primary care jobs. It's going to create internal medicine jobs. And guess what? We don't have

[04:14:44] those providers. What are we going to do? There's no proffers for mental health providers. I'll take the money if you're offering it. Ma'am, please address the board. There are so many holes here. There's a buffer that's the size of a football field, 300 feet, 100 yards, a football field.

[04:15:02] That's not big. That's really small. And that's the big buffer. Like we're playing games with numbers that sound reasonable and nothing about this is reasonable. Okay. We're building pump stations. Where is the water coming from? Nobody has offered answers about where this water is coming from and the sustainability over the next 40 years and the property values. Oh my God. I don't even want to think about that. That's terrifying. So I'll end just please for the love of all things holy, whether Hanover or Henrico, but all the people in this area affected by this.

[04:15:40] Please vote no. This is not rational. It's not reasonable. It's not economically sustainable, and the presentation has so many gaps and holes that it just makes no sense at all. It's terrifying for a good reason, and we all know this. Thank you. Thank you.

[04:15:58] Ladies and gentlemen, the public hearing is now closed. The board is going to take a recess. I remind board members we are in a board meeting no public business this case or any other public businesses to be discussed More to take a recess and we'll reconvene back in this room shortly. We are in recess

[04:16:14] This board is back in session. I move that the Board of Supervisors extend the meeting to

[04:28:01] 12 a.m. unless further needed by Additional motion, but at this time move that the Board of Supervisors extend the current board meeting to 12 a.m Is there a second second we have a motion to second in discussion all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Board is back in session. What will happen now is the applicant will have their remaining time for rebuttal. Any addresses by board members will not account against your time. And then at that point I'll explain the rest of the procedures. But now we're in rebuttal time. Mr. Vice Chair, how much time do they have left for rebuttal?

[04:28:38] 18 minutes 41 seconds again if board members have questions we'll monitor that time I'll ask board members to hold those questions until after the rebuttal period should they have any for the advocate? Yes, ma'am. Time is yours. Thank You chair Davis and Board of Supervisors I appreciate the opportunity to provide some additional comments. I also want to again thank staff for their significant preparation and detailed presentation and also thank the community for participating in the planning process This is a complex land use application, a complex project, and we are at the rezoning phase of this project.

[04:29:16] This is the time when we determine if a use is appropriate. A lot of the speakers did talk about unknowns and not having enough information, but this is actually exactly where we should be in the development process. Once this use is approved, there are still significant details to address through site planning, infrastructure agreements, building permits, inspections, as staff indicated in their presentation.

[04:29:41] Also want to point out, proffers are in place to ensure the outcomes that we've committed to will be, they're required. You know, there's not a way for us to come back and pull the rug out from the county. If we want to do something different, we'd have to go back through a public process.

[04:29:58] Also want to reiterate that this project, like all development projects, will be required to meet all local state and federal laws that includes all you know air quality water quality other environmental and development laws we've worked diligently over the past several months to address community concerns again the only thing we aren't able to address with our plan or our proffers is the opposition to the data center industry and we recognize that that is strong in the county and frankly throughout the nation as I mentioned when I first started my remarks data centers support all of us they support us at school they support us at work

[04:30:37] they support us at home they actually helped many people in this room connect to their neighbors so they are something that all of us are using we recognize that there are concerns from the community and we've tried really hard to address that we stand by this project as the planning commission noted during their remarks and as many speakers and and i noted today the county only has a few targeted areas for economic development. The uses on these properties must meet the county's economic development goals and generate enough benefits for the county so that they can benefit residents, and more importantly, so that the remaining 78 percent of Hanover County can be

[04:31:15] kept rural. We think that based on the Envision Hanover Comprehensive Plan and the Route 33 Small Area Plan that was adopted by the board just last year, this project represents the right balance between economic development, the economic development objectives of the county and the rural preservation goals of the county. We also acknowledge that there are significant concerns.

[04:31:39] And so we have spent a lot of time going through our proffers and our plans. And we have made a lot of changes in response to those concerns. And I think that's a good thing. I think everyone on staff would agree that that's how the process is intended to work. Again, this project is consistent with what the planning county has been planning for several years. This is the right project in the right location. We're planning to preserve over 41 percent of the site as natural areas. We're giving the county 15 million dollars to support water resiliency projects. We will not

[04:32:14] use groundwater or well water. We have confirmed with the county early on that adequate water and sewer capacity exists to serve this project. There is appropriate infrastructure in place for this project. We are going to partner with the county to provide funding to preserve rural areas of Hanover County and also to implement parks and recreation projects as deemed appropriate by the board. We have substantial noise proffers that will address many of the concerns of the neighbors.

[04:32:46] I would also submit that through our extensive buffers and setbacks that will also help to mitigate noise concerns. We have proffered that all of our generators will be in sound enclosures and all mechanical equipment will be screened, so that will further reduce noise. We will be using Tier 4 generators or better, and we have restricted the timing of those generators.

[04:33:06] In terms of power, we're working closely with Dominion Energy, and as we've talked about throughout our presentation tonight, we will be under the GS5 rate class, which will help shield rate payers. So with that, I'm happy to answer any additional questions, but just want to close by saying we're really proud of the work that we've done with uh with staff and and with the county this is a really complex project it's taken many months for us to get to this point and that is typical with a complex development this project is going to continue to support hanover county into the future by providing funding for schools for parks for roadways for public safety and for all of the

[04:33:43] other things that are important to the county with that i would respectfully request that you Approve our rezoning conditional use permit and special exception. Thank you, ma'am Are these a conclusion of your comments? Yes, sir. Okay, rebuttal period is in it. Are there any questions for the applicant?

[04:33:59] I'll start to the left here. No questions. Any questions? I very well, ladies and gentlemen, I will now turn this over to the district representative What will happen is there'll be a proposed motion and this is the time in the process for board members to speak It's essentially the the moment you've been waiting for but it is consistent I want to start by saying I commend board members.

[04:34:25] I know it's been very difficult. Some of the things that some information has come out, some has not been accurate. And I know board members have tried to address that where they could. I know some has been accurate. We've had great conversations. Board members are going to address that. But this is now their time. There's a prohibition for board members to go out and say, this is how I'm going to vote on a case prior to having this open public hearing.

[04:34:49] and so uh i'm going to ask that you be mindful many of y'all have taken your time you've taken your efforts and if anybody's got their phone on thank you so uh but but board members this is their time uh now that they have have heard all the information to to speak on the case and i know it's been frustrating for some to say well why does this happen the reason it happens is because this is the process if a board member was to come out and say i support it or i don't support it prior to this then the process means nothing. It means absolutely nothing. So I'm going to ask that

[04:35:25] if motions are made, comments are made, will we maintain the same amount of decorum as we move through the finalization of this process and ultimately find ourselves with a vote before the public. With that, hearing nothing else, if there are no questions, Ms. Dibble, this is in your district, ma'am. Yes, sir. One final thought. We will have to have three separate votes. I know I said earlier so we're going to take the the rezoning first and this is yours ma'am okay thank you mr. chairman I just want to take an opportunity to thank the citizens that have participated in this process those that have opposed and

[04:36:03] those that support this project and I think that it is it's because of your input that this project has essentially grown and gotten better for those of you that have taken the time to meet with myself, meet with Mr. Ladbetter, meet with our county staff, meet with other board members, and to really talk about this case and talk about, well, how could we make this better? And we went over, Mr. Pompey went over a whole list of things. And he talked

[04:36:38] about how the project has evolved over time. And it evolved over time because we listen to you and we've reacted to you. I'm saying we, as the applicant track, has reacted to you.

[04:36:56] I also want to say that this is, it's a land use case. That's it. It's nothing more than a land use case. And personally, I treat every land use case the same. And I will take the time to fully vet this. I will tell you that as your representative in the South Anna district, I have been to, a data center. Went out to Meta, out in eastern Henrico. Didn't just drive around, although it was a very nice drive into the complex. We actually went inside the gate, got permission

[04:37:35] to come inside, and into the buildings. And inside the buildings, it was quiet as mouse. simply was. It was. It was quiet outside. So I'm not just reading things and assuming things. I'm actually boots on the ground type of person visiting these data centers. I went up to Loudoun County. This project that we're proposing looks nothing like anything in Loudoun County. And I don't want to take a horrible amount of time, but I do want to hit on some points. The most important

[04:38:14] point for me in vetting any project is does this project and is it in confluence with the comprehensive plan and is it in agreement with the small area plan and the answer is yes this absolutely is in keeping with the comprehensive plan it has been a economic development zone for umpteen years that is the purpose of this area between the county line and winds church Road. It has been there for a long time. It's also, it's not a tomato farm. It's not a corn farm.

[04:38:54] It's not a cow farm. It's a completely mature piece of property. So we're not bulldozing over a farm to put a data center. That's just not what we're doing. We have had this property selected specifically for this data center. We have mature trees. We know that the trees are much taller than the buildings that are proposed. The original building height was 80-some feet. That's too tall.

[04:39:23] We brought it back down to the 62 that is in according to the small area plan. The small area plan, we had 100 people at the first meeting. These are South Anna people at this first meeting.

[04:39:40] I was there. Some of you were there, and I appreciate you being there. So you were familiar with the conversations. It was very interactive. And then we had a rough draft, and then we had another meeting. Had 85 people, South Anna people there, saying what their vision is. And the vision was quite clear. We don't want trucks. We don't want warehouses. And we're very concerned with protecting the viewshed as we enter Route 33, because we are rural. And I don't know any other

[04:40:13] development that is going to agree and be able financially to proffer a 200 foot mature wood buffer along 33. So I can tell you sitting in this chair tonight that as long as you drive down 33 and you come in and you are on your way to my home, it's going to be woods that you see. The buildings are earth toned. You got to look really hard if you really want to find them. So again, these are all what the community said they wanted in this small area plan the

[04:40:52] property is going to retain or not there's 41% that's not going to be developed what development would be able to do that nothing shopping center every tree comes down subdivision every tree comes down that's not the case here these These buildings are going to be set in the woods.

[04:41:15] As you get away from 33 and you move towards Mr. Wilson's property, there's actually an elevation change. So the buildings are going to be down even further. Those are just the realities of the project. The buffers are significant. However, this may come as no surprise to anybody.

[04:41:36] I do have a couple revisions that I might like to make. I think that we need a minimum of a 75-foot buffer along the western edge where the existing commercial developments are. It says the buffers will be between 50 to 75 feet.

[04:41:55] I want to hold it at 75. 50 is too small. So I would ask for that. And I did also want to maybe verify that the fencing is black vinyl or not. Okay. Is that in the proffer?

[04:42:11] if it's not, could we add that? One of the things from talking to the neighbors in the vicinity where they were concerned that in the construction of this project that we might be burning logs, which happens a lot when you have a large-scale development like this. So we put that in the proffers. I'm worried about my well. Well, me too. I'm on a well. No wells. No wells will be on this project. Zero. Nada. Not for any reason whatsoever. And so we keep talking about the

[04:42:48] water, and it's kind of perplexing to me because we always design to the worst case. That's always what we do. That's the way I think. That is what I challenged. I think you'll notice that when TRAC rolled out the project, they were saying there would be an average of 600,000 gallons a day.

[04:43:08] And that's great, but worst-case scenario is what we want to plan for, and we have. And so they will take up 90% on a hot, hot day, 90% of that water. So they've proffered $15 million to build the booster pump and build that tower.

[04:43:27] And that doesn't just help this project. It doesn't just help the future development along the 33 corridor. It helps the pressure and the flow all the way up into Ashland, where we need it. We just finished replacing those water lines in the road and we're not even using them because we just don't have the flow and the pressure.

[04:43:47] This will do a world of good for so many of our residents. Another thing we haven't even talked about really is that they've got a linear park along the Chickahominy River and up Grassy Swamp. They're going to pay to put in trails.

[04:44:03] This is another thing that we had on the comprehensive plan. People want parks. People want walking trails. And that's exactly what we're going to create is a linear park all along the Chickahominy and Grassy Swamp.

[04:44:19] And they're even going to build a parking lot. So that's incorporated into the plan. Let's see. We talked about water, sound, generators. We're worried about them. Okay, fine. Well, now, number one, they're tier four, which is the least offensive as far as polluted.

[04:44:40] And they're all in sound attenuating containers. Again, this is your questions and tracks mitigating it. And that's what we do in this process. And we continue to work and work and work.

[04:44:57] I think the proffers changed a lot, and I get that. And the proffers are going to change tonight. Because I want it to be the best that it possibly can. I think that we have addressed the sound levels. And they've agreed.

[04:45:12] We also found out that in looking at other jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth, that our sound ordinance was already much lower than a significant other number of jurisdictions. And we looked at the DBC and the DBA and have some sound strategies that we believe is good, and looked at other ordinances.

[04:45:36] So we've addressed sound. Transportation. I think Mr. Herzberg asked the question, you know, how many cars per day was the late project? 14,000 vehicle trips per day. How many trips per day on a data center?

[04:45:52] That, again, was one of the things that we talked about in the small area plan. And our community said, well, great, that's awesome, 1,400 trips per day. That's it, after construction. And we talk about traffic.

[04:46:08] We're going to require, and it's in the proffer, that they build these right turn lanes prior to any construction on site. So the road improvements on 33 are going to be built prior to any construction beginning on site. And I will point out, too, that in differing from the Hunting Hawk proposal, which was a two-lane little country road, this is already in the vicinity. It's a four-lane divided roadway.

[04:46:37] And so the road construction for the extension of 33 is actually going to be west of this project. They have proffered that they're going to have someone on site to mitigate the construction traffic, physically a person on site helping direct and get this traffic in and out.

[04:46:59] I also want to point out there is no NDA on this project, none, zero, nada. And we are not giving them any incentives other than the standard M&T tax, which this board is studying at this time.

[04:47:20] So it's not like we're extending utilities. Utilities are always there. They're asking the county for nothing. So there is no NDA. and the way that NDAs work that it might be that during the I guess the economic when the economic development reaches out to people they might have NDAs but as soon as they submit an application the NDA is null and void on our end and everything then becomes public information and that's the way that we function here in Hanover County.

[04:47:58] So no NDAs, nothing as far as extra incentives for these folks. I'm going to stop there. I think that the proponents have spoken quite well. I felt that TRAC has done a great job in their presentation.

[04:48:19] And I would like to make a motion. I'll make one more statement. So, I do believe that as the project is proposed tonight with months of revisions, and I always say that I do like our process.

[04:48:37] You can make fun of me saying that, but I believe in this process. I do believe that it weeds out bad projects, and the process makes good projects better. This project is much better than when we first began.

[04:48:54] Were we going to be able to get to a point to approve it? That's why we're here tonight. So I believe that as proposed and revised tonight, that the Mountain Road Technology Park project will be our first step in the implementation of the vision for the Route 33 corridor.

[04:49:12] Thick Track has worked extensively with the county and our regional stakeholders to deliver a project proposal that addresses constituent concerns, is consistent with the county's visions and goals, and is consistent with both the comprehensive plan and the Route 33 small area plan.

[04:49:34] thoughtful design and detailed proffers throughout the review process have yielded a significantly better and stronger case that I'm now able to support and with that being said would you like a motion or not yes ma'am I would but please whatever your motion is make sure that it clearly incorporates and encompasses any of the changes we want to make sure those changes are there yes let me make sure here miss Hunter can you point me in the direction

[04:50:10] of where would be best to make these changes in the current proffers that we have right so you had mentioned three three different items the buffer which is 75 feet and the applicant would need to agree to any of the changes because it is a proper um we need the applicant to come forward yeah it would be in the conceptual plan let's get miss hunter if you don't mind ma'am let's just state the changes and then we'll get the applicant uh that portion through so uh you heard miss dibbles changes would you state those

[04:50:48] for the record ma'am there were three changes one was for the western edge the buffer to be 75 feet um and the other two was to have black vinyl fencing which is currently addressed in the proffers and then also to prohibit construction burning which is also in the proffers so there's only that one one change which would be the buffer and that would need to be changed on the conceptual plan and in the proffer thank you madam director is that agreeable to the applicant yes sir changing the buffer and the building setback to 75 feet would be acceptable to us one one

[04:51:27] more clarification in the hold on mr. Pompey mr. Pompey hold on one second hold on i gotta everything's gonna be on the mic um go ahead miss devil please in the proffers with regard to the preservation and the park proffer does it say in the proffer as approved by the board of supervisors so that the decision-making body with regard to how to spend the money and i do want to point out that in this proffer it's a six million dollar proffer with

[04:52:01] regard to preservation and park lands and we will dedicate a minimum of four million dollars to Western Hanover and to maximum of two million dollars to Eastern Hanover so we always say that the West can get anything well we're getting the upper crust tonight we're taking the heavy load so leave it but ladies and gentlemen please um I don't know that that can be I don't know if that's part of it isn't the problem right but that's already there it's already so that's not a change what I'm trying to do is make sure that we're

[04:52:39] clear we need to go to the changes first and the first change was instead of a maximum to 75 feet it will it will eliminate the 50 and be 75 feet is the African agreeable to that yes sir we are mr. chair just for the record we have Susan Smith from our office who is one of the signatories based on the power of attorney and so for the record I would like to have her say that that would be acceptable sure right now I just need a verbal statement I'm Susan Smith with

[04:53:15] Herschler and I agree to the changes on behalf of the owners okay very well so we've covered 75 feet the others are in the proffers all other cons all other concerns that were raised already in the proffers and is dressed in the revised proffers submit it thank you madam director mr. chair just respectfully in terms of the set the setbacks and the buffers in that area are roughly coterminous and so I believe we might have to change the setback the building setback from 50 to 75 in that area as well if I'm not mistaken are those co-terminus they are then now then let's go ahead and get that on the record

[04:53:51] would you agree a change of setback as well yes sir ma'am would you I can't take a wave I thank you we agree thank you ma'am okay okay ma'am with that being said I move approval of rezoning 2025 - 0 0 0 3 0 North Lake RV LLC and the board receives that as a motion to approve with those changes ladies and

[04:54:26] gentlemen ladies and gentlemen board receive that is most to approve with the changes however mr. I'm going to ask you to withdraw that motion withdraw your motion if you would because you stated the wrong number ma'am hold on mr. Hudson oh would you please withdraw that motion ma'am slate yeah we already did that I would like to withdraw that motion and move to the correct category very well that motion has been withdrawn miss Dibble will you restart sorry

[04:54:55] Yeah, rezoning 20-25-0023, Marchetti Properties 3 et al., I motion to approve that case. The chair receives that as a motion to approve REZ 2025-00023, Marchetti Properties, with changes.

[04:55:15] Is that correct? With the revisions, yes, sir. With the changes, otherwise noted as revisions, synonymous language. Is there a second? I'll second that. There's a motion and a second. Is there any discussion, starting with Mr. Hudson? Mr. Hudson. No questions, Mr. Chair.

[04:55:32] Mr. Herzberg, any comments? Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. Please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have any prepared statement, but I do have some notes here. I'd like to make some comments. The priorities of my job on this board are, number one, to meet, number two is the budget, and number three is land use.

[04:55:54] I see this application as a land use decision. This is a rezoning case, and my job is to make a judgment on the rezoning of this parcel from A to M1. The first test, in my mind, is the county comprehensive plan.

[04:56:14] And I've heard and I've read, some say it meets the comp plan, some say it doesn't meet the comp plan. I believe that it does, and I'm going to make the points as to why. This parcel was in the suburban services area.

[04:56:31] That's a fact. The suburban services area makes up 22% of the county. The remaining 78% is designated rural agriculture. So it is not possible for data centers to take over this county when we have 78% designated as rural agriculture.

[04:56:57] These are facts. You can review the maps. They've been available for years. When I started on the board in 2020, I inherited this suburban services area, and I voted twice to not increase the suburban services area.

[04:57:13] Well, why not? To address the concerns that I don't want to see the 78% decrease. This area has been designated as an economic development zone for many years.

[04:57:29] Again, when I started on the board in 2020, I inherited that. It's been that way the whole time I've been on the board. Why is economic development important? It is important. It's important because it provides revenue to help keep the tax burdens and the tax rate down on our citizens to fund things like public education. And I say that first because it is a $300 million or so budget item in this year's budget. $300 million. The

[04:58:06] average cost to educate a student in Hanover County is at least $7,000. And most people are paying less than $5,000 on their real estate tax. Some households have two, three, four kids. I know one that has five. And, you know, a single mom with five kids can't afford to put five kids on the school bus on her own. And so our businesses, our commercial, our retail, and our economic development provides necessary funding to fund our public education. It also assists in funding

[04:58:46] our public safety and I've said many times right here every year I say it it's consistent you can go back and watch videos number one priority here in my opinion is public safety that begins with a 911 call center we don't see them very much but they're very important and I've said it many times when people call 911 and there's a burglar going through the window or somebody's having a hard time or there's a structure fire nobody cares what the tax rate is what do they want. They want the fire truck, they want the deputy, they want the ambulance and

[04:59:25] they want a good functioning 911 call center. This year and this year's budget we're moving forward with a new public safety building to increase public safety. I don't think we can replace the fire stations fast enough and I want to make sure that we have the best fire stations that we can for our firefighters. You know when I started on the board the firefighters did not have a second set of turnout gear. That means if they went out on a call to fight a fire and they had soot on their gear and they got another call they didn't have anything clean to

[05:00:03] change into but we fixed that i heard from the fire chief and some people in the fire community we have too much dependency on cross-staffing people who are cross-staffed cross-trained to do two jobs and that would mean that if they were two calls at one time that were significant we would be short-handed on staff and we work to fix that i not fix it we work to make it better two years ago we added funding for 18 additional firefighters nine in the west

[05:00:39] and nine in the east I do believe that this fits the definition of the small area plan I'm not an expert on the small area plan I'm not an expert on the route 33 I can tell you I've been going to Overhill Lake and cobblestone since 1987 I know where this is and I've been through here many times but I do believe that Supervisor Dibble and Commissioner Ledbetter did put a lot of time in this plan and I've read the reports and I accept the recommendations that it does

[05:01:17] meet the small area plan and all these recommendations are important so at this point you know I've got these checklists and all these things that I've mentioned so far check in my opinion and a lot of these things are facts the 22% of the SSA, the economic development. These are facts. Employment center, I've read people say it meets an employment center. It does not meet the employment center. Well, how do I decide? Well, you go to the comprehensive plan, you look up the definition of an employment center,

[05:01:50] and the fourth use clearly says data center. That's a fact. I know people can disagree. You can disagree if you like, but it is a fact. It's in there. That is the guide that we go by. So it meets that definition. There are significant impacts, traffic. Most construction has traffic.

[05:02:16] We had 19 houses added to the end of the street that I lived on a few years ago. That was rezoned before I was on the board. Sometimes we have to deal with impacts of construction, improvements, whether it's a road improvement. I remember when 360, the bridges were rebuilt over the Chickahominy River for three years. We had lane closures on 360 construction zone. But I do believe they'd have benefited the citizens to rebuild those bridges. I will say that I do think the applicant has worked to address the impacts of traffic and

[05:02:54] construction. Offering to pay, I would say that's probably off-duties deputies, I don't think it matters, but offering to pay the deputies is helpful. They've worked to reduce deliveries during the drop-off times and the construction of the turning lane. These are all things that we expect developers to do to reduce impacts, and they're significant, significant reduction in impacts. The water is a big impact. It's the

[05:03:32] biggest concern I've had, and some residents have made some very good points. I've been very concerned about water, and I'll go back to last year in January when I was elected as chairman. right over there actually we were in a different building that night I take that back but the night I was elected as chair I outlined three board initiatives number one was to be sure that fire station 17 was opened on time and at budget number two was to continue to expand high-speed

[05:04:11] broadband internet across the county to uncertain areas and also to increase competition and choice And both of those board initiatives occurred last year. And the other one was to work on the water supply.

[05:04:31] A week earlier, we had the water crisis. It was about a week earlier. And I live in an area connected to the public water in the east. And for about 24 hours, my water was reduced. For 24 hours, we had no water.

[05:04:47] So I went through that. And at that time, the biggest issue was not data centers. I don't even think a year, January last year, I even heard anything about data centers. What I heard was water supply, water supply, the county needs to build its own water treatment.

[05:05:06] I heard that. And so that's why I included that in a board initiative last year, was that we would work on that issue. The board directed the county administrator to hire a third-party independent group to prepare a report and a summary of what happened and what can we do, what steps can we take to help reduce the possibility of that happening again and that Mr. Longshore was here, public utilities director, mentioned it tonight. We received that presentation right here.

[05:05:39] In addition, last year our board had our first ever meeting with the Henrico County Board of Supervisors hosted by Henrico and the topic was water, public water. And we had some minor differences there, but we agreed on a good 95 percent, and that is that we would work together to strengthen our public water supply. They said in Henrico, we said in Hanover, that we would work together on that. In addition, I went down to the Patrick Henry building and met with Governor

[05:06:13] Youngkin. Our county administrator also went, met with the city mayor, the president of city council. we met with the managers in Henrico and Chesterfield, and we met with the chairs of their board, boards, plural. And the purpose of the meeting was to collaborate and work together on strengthening the public water supply. That was the big issue the early part of last year that we were hearing from our citizens. And why am I mentioning that now is because that this water

[05:06:48] is important it is a significant impact and is there a plan to address the impact well when somebody says they're willing to pay 15 million dollars to improve the water system so nobody's going to drop 15 million out of the sky for us are they they're not okay so one of one of the things in our plan ladies and gentlemen this is the board's time one of the things i want you to hour hold on mr hersberg i want everybody to be able to stay in the room i clearly asked for board

[05:07:26] members to be given the opportunity to make comments please allow board members to make comments ma'am okay mr hersberg one of the things in the water report we received was recommendations on ways to improve and strengthen the public water supply now i'm a board member so i listened to that presentation and i considered the information carefully and i processed it there was some very basic simple things that I believe we've already enacted. And then there were things like what has been mentioned here tonight: water storage tanks and

[05:08:03] expensive pumps. They cost a lot of money. The other option is $580 million to build a water treatment plant. 580 million to build a water treatment. For the people who say Hanover needs its own water treatment plant, 580 million. Where's it going to go? Where's it going to go? So no matter where it goes there will be people that come out and say we don't want it here. We don't want the noise. We don't want the lights. We don't want the traffic. We don't want the impact. So that's problem number one. Problem number two is where does $580 million come from? I'll tell you how

[05:08:40] I process that after I heard that number in that report. Oh, well, we'll probably have to go up on the water bills. It can't go up on taxes because a lot of people don't have public water. They have private wells. So if we were going to build a $580 million water plant, we'd probably have to go up on the water bills. And you know what would happen? The Board of Supervisors is trying to pad their pockets by going up on the water bills. That's what would happen. I know that's what. There would

[05:09:14] be complaints, just like we're hearing now, about electric bills going up. I've heard the complaints. My electric bill is going up $20. I checked mine. Mr. Stoneman saw mine. My electric bill last month was $78. I know I have a small house. It's just me and Jameson. We're frugal on electricity.

[05:09:38] But I think in a lot of ways we get a really good deal from Dominion. We get a really good deal on the public water supply. So I say a lot of this to make the point that I do believe that this water pump and this water tank reduces the impacts.

[05:09:55] And I do believe it strengthens the public water supply. Some people can disagree with me. That's fine. That's my opinion. That's what it does. And I think it brings an improvement to the public water system that somebody else is paying for. And that's a good thing.

[05:10:13] I'd also like to mention for six years on the board, I have heard repeatedly hundreds of times how what is the county going to do to expand high speed Internet across the county? I have been door to door. I have held meetings. I have worked to get private easements.

[05:10:34] I have met with all points broadband no less than 50 times. I've been to Williamsburg, I've been to Tappahannock, trying to get our congressmen to help, meeting with the governor of Northam's Broadband Advisory Council to try to get this work done.

[05:10:51] And not one single time did I hear, I don't want a data center. The truth is, we're all using it. We all are. We are using data centers when we text. Our text messages are stored.

[05:11:09] Why are you shaking your head? You know data centers are connected to the Internet. that. And so we're using it for emails. We're using it for medical reports. We use it for online banking. The heart monitors on the 10th floor of the Gateway Building at MCV Hospital, they're connected to a telemetry room. All those monitors that help take care of the people. We are driving up the demand. That's the fact. We all are. We're using Facebook. You know where the MEDA data

[05:11:46] center is? Supervisor Dibble mentioned it. It's over there in Eastern Henrico. Every time we go on Facebook. Our pictures, our videos, our comments, our posts, all of that stuff is being stored on the internet at data centers. So we are all driving this up. And that is just how I see it. That concludes my comments, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, I would like to make one other thing. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to have to do this one last time.

[05:12:18] I don't know how many times I can ask. I want to make sure that board members have an opportunity to be heard the citizens have had an opportunity to be heard this is what the process looks like you may hear things that you don't like you may hear things that you agree with but this is the process and we must move forward you deserve for the process to work through and local government is laborious it is laborious it is hard work and this is what it looks like so please be respectful as we move forward through the rest of this meeting thank you mr. thank you mr chairman i did

[05:12:57] have a couple other thoughts that I almost forgot and then I remembered. There is significant revenue here. I don't believe that I am voting on a budget item tonight. I am not voting on tax revenue tonight. As I said earlier, this is a land use decision. But I am a person who has to consider the budget every year. And I do believe that there is significant revenue to be gained from this project that will benefit our citizens. And I mentioned the fire stations earlier. Some of these new schools that are going up. Our school partners tell us that these new schools are being

[05:13:35] built with safety in mind for our students. Another thing is paying benefits. Paying benefits for our teachers, for the people who help keep the schools bright and clean, for the bus drivers, for the people who prepare meals. It is sad to me that I know that I have two firefighters who live in the Cold Harbor District and they go to the city to work for the Richmond City Fire Department. And I've asked them both, why do you do that? Pay in benefits. And so we are behind the city because

[05:14:12] their tax rate is up here and ours is here. Plus they have a meals tax. We are behind Henrico County because their tax rate is here and ours is here. And they have a meals tax. And yes, they have lowered theirs, but it's still higher than ours. And for years, it's been way up over here. So they've got all this more money than we do. And they're able to pay more for teachers, 9-1-1 call center people, and I would like to see our pay and benefits increase in this county for our citizens.

[05:14:51] I would like to see another legal aid in the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. I'd like to see good prosecutors in the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. Well, why do I care about that? To help keep our community safe. I want reliable, dependable police cars with plenty of good, well-trained deputies.

[05:15:12] It is painful when I hear that in the past we've lost law enforcement to Chesterfield because their pay and benefits are higher. That is not easy for me to accept. We've lost teachers to Henrica because their pay and benefits are higher at times and at places.

[05:15:35] So we have a lot of people that we employ in this county. We have workers who work at Pamunkey Regional Jail. They're important for public safety. And so all of these things matter and this is a way to help fund these Priorities whether you use them or not and I've heard so many people say we need to do something about parks and rats We need more parks. I agree with that. I serve on parks and recs But the issue has always been you know, where's all that money come from?

[05:16:02] Well fortunately, they're making it they've made a proffer to help with that and I think that's a good thing because that proffer is tied to rural conservation and parks and recs and And my final comment is this is a type of development that when it's built out, it will provide enough revenue where we can finally take a look at reducing the personal property tax rate.

[05:16:28] How many times have I heard through the years, oh, we want our personal property tax cut, or this group of people shouldn't pay personal property tax at all? How many times have I heard that? At least 100, but it's always, you know, where's the money going to come?

[05:16:44] Well, this is a way for where the money can come from. And I think that's a good thing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Ms. Dibble, anything further? Ms. Pritchard. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[05:17:00] I'll try to be slightly briefer. I do want to start with, I'm not sure that these are in order of importance, but one of the things I keep coming back to is the concern over energy production.

[05:17:18] And I'm going to read some of this because I have some very specific concerns about energy production. but most of us know that Dominion Virginia Power is about to be bought by NextEra Energy. And NextEra Energy's rapid expansion to power massive AI-driven data centers, including its massive proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy to controlled Virginia's data center alley, faces major concerns.

[05:17:50] These revolve around ratepayer cost hikes, power grid reliability, Increased fossil fuel reliance and corporate financing risks. It is my job to think about those things on behalf of the citizens. Those things include the possibility of brownouts for our citizens.

[05:18:09] That's not unheard of. They include the overuse of generators, which certainly we have a proffer against. But if the company doesn't meet that proffer, we can in fact fine them until we take them to court.

[05:18:26] I do want to thank some citizens who've really helped me. And I'll start with Pete Rawls, that even though he and I see this a little bit differently, he has provided me with some perspective I didn't have before. And one of those things is about the 50,000 customers in Lake Tahoe who've been notified that in a year they will no longer have the ability to use the current power company that they use.

[05:18:50] Now, I don't believe that they will lose their power. But what I do believe is that they will face significant difficulty in replacing the power they currently have and a significant price hike in doing that. These are all big risks that we're taking on behalf of our citizens.

[05:19:10] I, too, am concerned about the water closed system. To me, it seems is a pretty significant advance in data center systems, but I don't think it's a fully proven system yet.

[05:19:28] Number three, I want to say that if every citizen in Hanover County told me to do something that I truly believed was wrong, I like to think I would follow my conscience and do what I truly thought was right. But the reality is, I don't think this many citizens coming forward to say, this is really something we don't want is something I have the ability to ignore because I work for you.

[05:19:55] I think I am concerned about any county having too much of their budget percentage invested in one pot. When eventually data centers become obsolete, and they will because everything does, counties like Fairfax and Loudoun who have fully one-third of their budgets and data are going to be left struggling.

[05:20:20] I know that in Cromwell, Texas, there's been some real problems with dark sky. That is not debatable. And I've had some other issues in my district where dark sky has been an issue, and this has been significantly more there.

[05:20:37] And I'm going to say, I'm going to end with this. Mr. Davis always says, well, I'll end on this, but I'll end on this. I don't think Mindy Ruggiero and I have ever agreed about absolutely anything until tonight, and that is we don't have a policy for data. It took this county years to develop a policy for solar, something I believe in wholeheartedly, but we have a solid policy when we consider data, I mean when we consider solar, and here we are moving into something that is arguably much larger for this county, and we have no policy

[05:21:16] whatsoever so with that those are my concerns those are where I stand and I hope they are clear and grateful to the folks who have offered me support miss Floyd thank you so much so I've heard from many citizens on both sides for and against data centers I can understand the reasons on both sides I can appreciate what the tax revenue could do for this county for the citizens of this County. Mr. Herzberg was not wrong about that at all. I would also love to get a booster pump paid

[05:21:52] for and started for our water resiliency plan. Those are very important things, but I also have concerns about this project in regards to water and specifically to the buffer on how close some of these buildings are to residential homes. I want to thank Ms. Dibble for all of her hard work on this project. She really does put her heart into it. It's so commendable, and it's definitely something to look up to. She puts a lot of work into it that you don't even see. And I want to

[05:22:29] thank everyone for coming out tonight and being a part of the process. And I would like to echo Ms. Pritchard's comments about data center policies, something I think our county should look at. And that's all I have for my comments. Thank you. Mr. Vice Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[05:22:47] You know, I'd like to start out by thanking the track group. You've really done a great presentation. And I just think that you've taken some hits. You know, citizens have kind of ridiculed some of your past experience there with the Hickory Hill, which I don't think is anything of your fault.

[05:23:10] But, you know, I want to point out that how corporate citizenry is extremely valuable to the citizens of Hanover County. And the TRAC Data Group, they helped out in the area of robotics last year, had a robotics team at Patrick Henry that needed funding to go to a competition.

[05:23:31] And the TRAC Data Group, they stepped up to the plate and they got them the funding that they needed to do that. They also participate in the STEM program. And so they have shown that they intend to be a good corporate partner, a corporate citizen here in Hanover County.

[05:23:51] And I think it's important to note. But I also think they've been extremely responsive in hearing the concerns of the citizens and doing their best to mitigate those issues. And I just want to commend them for that.

[05:24:08] I also want to thank Sue. I know that you can't understate the work that she's done on this project to try to make it the best that it can possibly be. And so I just want to say that I recognize that, and I know that it's no small task to do.

[05:24:26] And she's worked tirelessly on this project and put forth a tremendous amount of effort. With that being said, you know, I do have concerns about the project. One is it's definitely an economic development zone, and it's definitely had a small area plan.

[05:24:47] But what I don't think has been brought up is it's also a gateway as well. So a concern for me would be, you know, what does this say as you drive, you know, because I drove that road for 25 years back and forth to work, and it's about 15 miles, and you kind of bisects through beautiful South Anna District until it arrives at God's country.

[05:25:09] And so some call it Beaver Dam, and I call it home. But, you know, it's a gateway, and so I wonder what the message it will send if we do approve you know an industrial type use and will that signal to developers um what kind of development will we get behind that i'm not sure you know i'm not an urban planner i'm just you know uh the supervisor beaverdam district doing my best to represent citizens um that i serve there and so i need to ask these questions they are concerns um i do think the water concern is a valid issue here

[05:25:48] in Hanover County uh and I think Mr. Herzberg did an absolutely fabulous job outlining you know what this project would mean for that and uh and what the biggest concern you know back when when we had the water the water crisis uh if you live in Beaver Dam that was like nothing I mean we lose power for a week you're out of water lights everything so to be without water we're like tough it up dude but but nevertheless um it is a valid concern and we do need to reduce our dependency on Richmond and other localities. So we, that is a great, great part of this project

[05:26:24] that I commend them for helping out with. However, I don't know if it goes far enough to meet the needs. I know this, that like say on that hottest day or that peak demand, we really only got 30%, you know, 30% more capacity if I'm doing my math right. And so that that doesn't necessarily take that concern away for me um and then we do have issues with with the power concern i i get that but you know i've spent 20 years with power company um and i know that they will get there uh they will they will meet that need um but in the meantime you know we don't

[05:27:01] really have any assurances on what that's going to look like um so i do have concerns about the project. I do think it's a great project, but I just don't know that in that part, I'm not settled with an industrial type application on that parcel, but I don't know what else would go there. I too swam at Overhill Lake since the 70s, and it's not much changed there. I mean, Kitchen 33 is about the newest thing we've got in that corridor, so I have no idea if anything would come to that area.

[05:27:35] I just, you know, like I say, so I do have concerns. I do think that we have, you know, we've got one data center. It's going to be a massive one. And then we've got another one that we don't know what's going to happen with Iron Horse. You know, the developer has promised to build on Ashland's side.

[05:27:52] And so that case will come forward. And so I don't know if I really totally can appreciate the accumulative impacts on Hanover County with that going on. So I do have some concerns, but I'm listening to the citizens.

[05:28:08] I'm listening to my fellow board members and the comments they're making. And it's quite a difficult case for some of us, you know, to listen to all the benefits and how Hanover County is going to really benefit from a project like this.

[05:28:25] And then also, too, from the citizens and from my own personal concerns. So with that, I'll end my comments. And pass it to you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I mentioned earlier that local government is laborious, and it is, and I think that's by design, and I'm grateful for it.

[05:28:43] As many of you know, in local government, we try not to react, but we're required to respond. Generally, reacting is not a good thing. Responding is a good thing. And people in this community have seen that for quite some time.

[05:29:00] A number of years ago, I received a phone call from a former county administrator 18 minutes prior to the state making an announcement that they were going to place an ABC warehouse in Hanover County, which took that property completely out of tax revenue. 18 minutes prior, the deal had been cut, and we had to respond to that.

[05:29:20] And the best we could do there, when we had some opportunities to look at matters that came before the board, was to get some road improvements. But the deal had been cut. Wegmans. Wegmans was a high-profile case. Many people don't know. That deal was cut through at the time. It was Governor's Opportunity Fund. It later became the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund, but the governor at the time went to Rochester, signed the deal. That was not a rezoning.

[05:29:46] That was just proffer amendments trying to make a project that was coming better, and we were able to thread the needle and do that. And I'll say this about the process. There's a lot of labor involved. I think the applicant deserves a process. I think the citizens deserve a process. I know how comforting it would be for folks to go to a board member and they say, I know we haven't had the public hearing yet, but I'm against this. Or I know we haven't had the public hearing yet, but I'm for this. I know that would be comforting, but just think

[05:30:23] about this. If that's the process that you have, you have no process. And all it takes is somebody else to come in and outweigh your numbers and then do processes out the door. They say, well, I just took a poll. You say, yeah, but I want it for this process. Do you know how many things have happened when policymakers get into just figuring out where the majority is on an issue and not give the minority their rights? Rights are not subject to the majority. And everybody has a right to a

[05:31:00] process. And I know it can be labor intensive. So I do want to commend the citizens who put in a lot of time, those who've taken their time to meet, those who've taken their time to email, to call, to text. It means a lot. I know people have extremely busy lives. I also want to thank board members for their willingness to speak tonight and bear the burdens of things that were flying around out there that you couldn't address at that time. I know it's difficult, and it's even more difficult because politicians love to talk, and when they're prohibited from talking, they

[05:31:36] become frustrated. But I can assure you the process of us convening and making decisions in the public is the best process. And this is the only level of government where this happens. If you go to D.C., they caucus. If you go downtown, they caucus. You go to a committee meeting, and a number of my board members have been with me and I've been with them at committee meetings, massive legislation that would have huge impacts to the citizenry in Hanover. You get one minute to speak and that's it and that's it and so I'm grateful for this process even though I know it's

[05:32:14] 11 30 at night the applicant deserves it and you deserve it we've talked about revenue I want to address that briefly good revenue doesn't make a bad project good and bad revenue doesn't make a good project bad in this case I had a board member ask me do you ever account for revenue in a land use case and the answer is no unless we're doing an economic development case and and that's what we're really to decide is what type of incentives might be offered, or if the state has come in and said they're going to do something and we're required to work with them, then that comes in.

[05:32:49] But in this case, looking at revenue projections, I can extrapolate impact to some degree, meaning that if I know what the revenue projections are, and I know what kind of equipment's in there and those types of things, and I can go back and say, okay, well, this would be maybe the power usage.

[05:33:08] This would be the impact, because I know what I'm going to charge them, which means I know the equipment, so on and so forth. Some of those came in a little bit later, and the Commission of Revenue had some different numbers, which was concerning to me. I don't think anything nefarious was going on, and we told TRAC, you don't have to produce that information.

[05:33:26] But if you don't produce it, then we can't verify that your numbers are correct. So in this case, the dollar is not necessarily what's important, but it gets us to what is the impact. And on many cases before the board, this board and previous boards, while you may not know project-specific impacts, you do have a general idea.

[05:33:48] If it's a housing development, if it's commercial development, say retail, you kind of know what the impact might be. In this case, I think it's going to be a little bit harder to figure that out. I think because TRAC is in a speculative business, and that is not a disparagement, by the way, but what are the impacts it build out?

[05:34:06] And so you could potentially be approving something now with the best information that you believe that you have at the time, which is how most cases go, but find that if you don't know what the end user is, and by the way, the name of the end user is irrelevant to a land use case.

[05:34:25] It doesn't matter. We rezone a piece of property and somebody uses it for that use. It doesn't matter the name of the builder. It doesn't matter the name of the tenant, but it's what is the use and what is the impact? And so let's talk a little bit about water, and I know the hour is getting late, but this needs to be addressed.

[05:34:45] So the water bolstering is needed to address actual impacts, meaning site-specific. It's there because the site's going there. I don't know that the math on the gallons per day are actually going to meet the bolstering that is projected in some of the other areas.

[05:35:09] It may, but it may not. Having a very low tolerance of potential 90% is concerning. This is one gentleman mentioned tonight, and these are things that I've thought about. Well, what if it's not at 90%? What if it's only at 50%? You have one project using 50%, far below the 90%, but that's a substantial reduction in resources because of the project.

[05:35:34] So during this time, I want to commend Tract. They came in, they said, you know, tell me the issue and I'll fix it. However, in some other industries, folks come in and they say, these are our projects and these are the potential impacts, and here's how we would mitigate those.

[05:35:50] And in this case, we were continuing to add the proffers, which I think are a good thing, and they are obviously voluntary. But what was happening was, I think we on the county side were saying, well, this may be an impact. Tracks said, yeah, maybe it would be.

[05:36:06] So we'd like to address it this way. In a general sense, that's normal. However, a number of industries come in and they say, we know these are known impacts and here's our mitigation plan prior to. So I say this respectfully, not knowing the impact of the end user means that you could be placed in a position where you approve a project as a general rezoning or conditional use permit or special exception and then find that what you rezone for holds, but the impacts are not necessarily what you planned on at the time, and I think that becomes an issue.

[05:36:46] During a one-on-one meeting, someone talked to me about the state tax incentives for data centers. We have nothing to do with that. Does that drive data centers to Virginia? It very well may. I suspect it does, and maybe I have my own frustrations.

[05:37:02] It doesn't play a part in this land use case. It's what comes out here at the board for specific G-PIN or G-PINs in Hanover County. So while I appreciate those conversations, I can't really wade into them as it relates to this case because it just doesn't have bearing the state tax incentives and those types of matters.

[05:37:25] So I'm very appreciative for the applicant. I'm appreciative for the folks that showed up. I'm very appreciative to the board and to the staff. And that's my last comment. Ladies and gentlemen, the people who work here in Hanover County, they work for you. We serve a joint constituency, and they're dedicated.

[05:37:45] Many of them are highly, highly marketable. I don't know that there's many folks in our planning office. Mr. Badesky is not going to like when I say this. Many folks in our planning office that couldn't walk out tomorrow morning and find a job somewhere else. It's because they're that marketable. I mean, that's just the case.

[05:38:01] Some of the things that have been said and done were more than unfair. and and we're not truthful and and that that's not how we conduct business our economic development director uh one of the most honest people i've ever met he does what he's asked to do uh which is consistent with many other cases but he serves a joint constituency so while the board has a different role it's not a senior subordinate relationship we are the ultimate policy makers in this county many of these folks much of the information that you got through your foyer request

[05:38:41] through your meetings those who are organizing those producing information for you came from the people here who were working very very hard and they are to be commended um and i understand why it happened i know it's it's easy to kind of throw those disparagements out and say well let me attack from all fronts and they remained extremely focused especially you andrew and some of those things shouldn't have happened to you they shouldn't have and you deserve better and we appreciate your service we appreciate your service that said we've got to get back to how the process works and that's what we're here to do and so we have a motion and we have a second

[05:39:20] i will now call for the question all those in favor on raz 2025 dash 00023 marchetti properties with additional changes and updates all in favor indicate by saying aye aye all opposed no madam secretary pull the board vice chair and the chair will go last miss pritchard no miss floyd

[05:39:46] no miss dibble aye mr hersburg aye mr hudson aye mr stoneman no mr davis no the next item on the agenda is conditional use permit 2025-00016 valco hanover county four miss dibble ladies and gentlemen we're still in business meeting uh thank you mr chairman i move approval of cup 2025-00016 valco

[05:40:25] Hannover County for LLC at all. We have a motion for approval. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? No. Madam Secretary, poll the board. Ms. Pritchard? No. Ms. Floyd? No. Ms. Dibble? Aye. Mr. Herzberg? Aye.

[05:40:50] Mr. Hudson? Aye. Mr. Stoneman? No. Mr. Davis? No. Next item on the agenda, SE 2025-0023 valco hannover for miss dibble this is in your district yes sir thank you mr chair move approval of sc20-25-00023 valco hannover county for llc et al we have a motion is there a second second we have a motion to second any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye

[05:41:22] aye any opposed no secretary please hold the board miss pritchard no miss floyd no miss dibble

[05:41:33] Aye. Mr. Herzberg? Aye. Mr. Hudson? Aye. Mr. Stoneman? No. Mr. Davis? No. Publish the vote. Mr. Chairman? I'm going to publish the vote, sir. After you finish, I have a comment. Certainly. REZ 2025-0023 was not approved. CUP 2025-0016 was not approved. SE 2025-00023 was not approved.

[05:42:07] Mr. Walter, yes, sir. As you just announced the motions, you will note that they were motions to approve that failed So the matter is still actually before the board. There are two motions that are in order one is to deny and the others to defer But I would recommend that the book that someone make a motion to take final action this evening before you adjourn I understand miss double these defer to your district. Would you like to make it any additional?

[05:42:35] Very well. Are there any board members who wish to make a motion on RAZ 2025-00023? I make a motion to deny rezoning 2025-00023. Is there a second? Second.

[05:42:51] Second. Very well. Ms. Floyd. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Madam Secretary, please vote. Ms. Pritchard. Aye. Ms. Floyd. Aye. Ms. Dibble.

[05:43:08] No. Mr. Herzberg. No. Mr. Hudson. no mr stoneman all right mr davis all right motion to deny prevails cup 2025-00016 valco hanover county four miss dibble do you wish to make a motion yes sir is there a motion to be made yes sir i make a motion to deny cup 2025-00016 is there a second second we have a motion in the second any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed no madam

[05:43:44] secretary people board miss pritchard aye miss floyd aye miss dibble no mr hersburg no mr hudson no mr stoneman aye i'm sorry mr stoneman said aye okay thank you and mr davis aye se 2025-00023 valco hannover 4 llc miss dibble do you wish to make a motion no sir is there a motion to be made

[05:44:18] yes sir i make a motion to deny se 2025-00023 we have a motion is there a second second we have a motion a second any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed no madam secretary please part of the board miss pritchard aye miss floyd i had a seat miss dibble no mr hersburg no mr hudson no mr stoneman aye and mr davis aye cup 2025-0016 se 2025-0023

[05:44:57] uh motion to deny uh prevail next item or any gender announcements any announcements from board members none very well mr county administrator mr county attorney time is 11 44 this meeting is adjourned

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