Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 15m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3797
Official Board of County Supervisors page (Prince William County): https://www.pwcva.gov/department/board-county-supervisors

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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:04] take a seat we're going to get started shortly all right everyone it is two o'clock i am now

[00:00:44] calling this meeting to order let us begin with a moment of silence thank you all rise if you are able for the pledge of allegiance the united states of america republic for which it stands

[00:01:15] one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we are now moving on to agenda item number three and that's approval of the minutes can i get a motion so move madam chair second it's been properly moved and seconded in a discussion all right let's go ahead and take our

[00:01:39] vote unanimous all right thank you we're now moving on to agenda item number four and that's proclamation accommodations may i have a motion to move uh 4a through 4f forward so move madam chair second it's been properly moved and seconded in a discussion all right let's take our votes

[00:02:10] supervisor godey aye thank you vote unanimous all right thank you i would like those associated

[00:02:21] with proclamation 4a to meet me down at the podium all right and 4a is to proclaim march 2026 developmental disability awareness month developmental disability awareness month

[00:02:59] provides an opportunity for all to recognize the tremendous value and potential of people with developmental disabilities and to recommit and dedicate ourselves to the empowerment integration employment and inclusion of each one of those these residents this year's theme we're here now then then now always reminds us that people with developmental disabilities have always been and will continue to be integral members of our communities their presence contributions and voices shape our shared past present and future and prince william county is determined to empowering and supporting people with developmental disabilities to achieve

[00:03:38] self-determined lifestyles through community-based living arrangements employment and other individualized support services. Therefore, today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of March 2026 as Developmental Disability Awareness Month and affirms its continued commitment to the empowerment and full inclusion of these individuals in all aspects of community life. Would you like to offer a few remarks?

[00:04:03] Hello, Chair Jefferson and other members of the Board of County Supervisors, and Mr. Shorter, we thank you so much for this opportunity to share a little bit about the people that we support. For the families and the individuals that we serve, who are residents of the community, they help in volunteering, they're important family members, they are workers.

[00:04:27] They live in their own places. They sometimes live with families all throughout their life with support. We want to thank you all as members of our board for funding and supporting services to these valued citizens and recognizing that the need continues to grow as our community grows.

[00:04:45] The population that we serve at CS goes from zero through lifelong in our early intervention programs that they serve children zero to three who are at risk of developmental delay. For support coordination, the DD division, we serve people throughout their lifespan.

[00:05:01] So we want to thank you for the funding of services, for our staffing, and recognizing as you deliberate on budget things that you remember us and the people that we support. Thank you. Thank you. And everyone with proclamation for B, Women's History Month, come down.

[00:05:46] All right. I will hold that one if we do not have anyone here for that. 4C, American Red Cross Month. We are striking out. 4C, American Red Cross Month. Then 4D, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

[00:06:11] All right. We have 4E, Youth Art Month. I know we have people for 4F. I'm going to go ahead and skip to 4F. F and that's Women Veterans Week. All right for F and that is to proclaim March 15th through 21st 2026 is Women Veterans Week. Throughout the history of Prince William County and our nation

[00:06:48] women have served in and alongside the United States Armed Forces to secure and preserve the freedom and liberty for all Americans and our allies. The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to more than 110,000 women veterans. The largest percentage of women veterans per population size of any state. And thousands more women currently serving in the United States are in forces, National Guard, and reserves. Women veterans are the fastest growing segment of veteran population, with many of them calling Prince William County their home. Therefore, today, the Prince William

[00:07:22] Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the week of March 15th to March 21st, 2026 is Women's Veteran Week. I have to say, I have a lot of female veterans in my family, and it is amazing that the work that women have done enduring all sorts of discrimination to serve and to serve our nation honorably. So I want to name that. Would either one of you or both of you like to make remarks? Thank you, Chair Jefferson, and also thank you to the board. Shirley Dominick, I'm

[00:07:58] the president and CEO of Willing Warriors, and if you have a chance to get out to the retreat itself there in Haymarket, Virginia, you will see what the community have done. Definitely women, But the community at large have taken on this project and have made it haven for our warriors and family.

[00:08:19] Over 3,000 warriors and family we have served since we opened up the retreat back in 2015. And so it could not have been done without you all. I would say this, too. I'm not the only woman that deserve to be up here.

[00:08:35] There are so many that have served, and I had the privilege to serve. So I thank you all. Thank you all for being a part, and thank you all for caring for our warriors and their families. Thank you. And thank you, Chair Jefferson, and thank you, Board of Supervisors.

[00:08:56] And this is so timely. We're actually hosting two women's groups here in the month of March at the Warrior Retreat. So two groups of female veterans will be coming to the Warrior Retreat to get much-needed PTS and moral injury counseling, and we couldn't be thrilled. Each of those groups is maxing out the retreat, almost 30 veterans apiece for each of those groups.

[00:09:15] So what we're doing, what you're doing, and helping us do is so important and so needed, and we just thank you for your support.

[00:09:54] All right, we are now going to move on to Agenda Item 5A, and that's the Consent Agenda.

[00:10:23] Before I ask for a motion, does anyone have anything that they would like to pull off? Yes. Supervisor Bailey, is it something that you plan to vote against or highlight? To highlight me. Well, then we will...

[00:10:38] No, no, no, I have a question. You have a question. Okay. What item is that? Items 5G, H, and L. 5G, H, and L. H, and L.

[00:10:55] All right. Anyone else? All right. I would like to get a motion from 5A through 5G, 5I, and 5K.

[00:11:12] So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? I don't see any, so let's go ahead and vote on those items. Vote unanimous.

[00:11:31] All right. Supervisor Bailey, 5I. 5G. I'm sorry, 5I. Or did you... I said 5G, H, and L. 5G, H. I apologize. We're going to have to do that because I had 5J.

[00:11:48] No, G. G. 5H, 5G, and 5J. I apologize. We're going to have to do that again because I called the wrong numbers. Can I confirm, Madam Chair, please? Yes. 5G, H, and L. Okay. So I apologize.

[00:12:03] We're going to have to do that vote again. I would like to get a motion for 5A through 5F, 5I, Through 5K. So move, Madam Chair. Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Let's take our vote. Thank you.

[00:12:31] Unanimous. All right, thank you. Supervisor Bailey, 5G. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this question is for CSB. Is Lisa, oh, there you are.

[00:12:46] There you are. Real quick, before we vote on this. How are you? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Just wanted to ask, with this budget item here, the appropriation of this budget item, Is this in reference to our youth programming of any source with the Crisis Receiving Center?

[00:13:05] The $90,000 for the automatic dispensing machines, yes, will be assisting the Connections Crisis Receiving Center youth and adults. But it would not have any impact on us waiting for a de-mask at all, right? Absolutely not.

[00:13:21] Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. With that, Madam Chair, I'd like to move forward. Item 5G. Second. So we moved and properly seconded. Any further discussion on this item? All right, seeing none, let's go ahead and take our votes. Vote unanimous.

[00:13:43] All right, thank you. 5-H. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This is someone here from the Historic Preservation Foundation. That can help me, please. Thank you so much. Oh, hi, Mayor Porter.

[00:14:00] Thank you so much. Bill, thank you. And I'll make it quick. Just wanted to ask for item 5-H, will any of these funds be allocated to the Bates Town exhibit? Yes, part of those funds are part of the Williams Ordinary Restoration and Exhibitization Project.

[00:14:20] Okay, and just following up on that question in reference to the visit that myself and Congressman Vindman had last week in reference to the Bates Town exhibit. And so what's the date are we looking to start on the project?

[00:14:36] So it is currently in design right now. We are hoping to have an installation in May with a grand opening on Juneteenth of this year. Okay, just wanted to be on point with you. Thank you, Madam Chair. With that, I'd like to move this item forward, 5H, please. Is there a second? Second. All right, let's go ahead.

[00:14:52] Is there any further discussion? All right, let's go ahead and take our vote. Okay. Next item is... Sorry, I'm sorry, vote unanimous.

[00:15:08] All right, hold on. And then the next one we are going to go to is 5L. Thank you, Madam Chair. With this item, item 5L, just wanted to, just for sake of transparency, can we clarify whether or not this will impact any interactions with ICE or immigration enforcement activities?

[00:15:32] No, ma'am. Okay. With that, Madam Chair, I'd like to move forward item 5L. Second. All right. Is there any further discussion on this? Let's go ahead and take our votes. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:15:47] Vote unanimous. All right. Thank you so very much. We are now going to go on to public comment time. I see a lot of faces. Some of them are new. I'm going to call people up in groups of five. You will go to the back podium.

[00:16:04] You have three minutes, and you will see a timer up there. First person is Elena. And we also, even though I say your name, please say your name in the magisterial district where you reside. Hold on, Elena. She's one of our, like, frequent flyers, so let me call everyone up. Elena Schlossberg, Charles Seltman, Lisa McFerrin-Polgar, Patrice Summers and Melinda Jackseen.

[00:16:39] My name is Elena Schlossberg. I'm in the Gainesville District. Before you start my time, can I have Elmo on? And I do just make sure people adjust the microphone so that we can hear you. Can you hear me? I like the hint.

[00:16:55] Yes, I can. Now I can hear you. Okay. So once again, my name is Elena Schlossberg, and I'm a resident in the Gainesville District, and I just wanted to start my comments out by saying, first of all, happy Purim. I will not be here this evening because I'll be celebrating. So I'm here to speak to the Hornbaker application.

[00:17:40] That is the sound of gas turbines at the Vantage Data Center campus that run 24-7. Southern wind, if it was a southern wind today, all that would be blowing right over this, our houses.

[00:18:15] This board is not making decisions in a silo. The cumulative impacts of the data center industry is happening to everybody in this room, whether it is their increasing electricity bills, whether it is the transmission lines that are running through their communities, whether it is the substations, whether it is the gas turbines that are coming or the diesel generators.

[00:18:44] I want to make it very clear. What you see happening in Virginia is an unsustainable load demand that every application you all approve is contributing to.

[00:19:01] I want to make that very clear. Every data center application you approve in the overlay and ones that are outside of the overlay, you are creating a burden on all of us. Let me make this very clear. You can read it with me.

[00:19:18] 70,000 megawatts of large load Dominion power requests are currently advancing through the company's queue. This level of requested load has nearly tripled the Dominion zone from last January. Moreover, the volume of requests continues to grow, with a company receiving on average approximately 10 new large load requests per month.

[00:19:41] That's 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts. Let me make it clear. 1,000 megawatts is one nuclear reactor. Vote no on Hornbaker. Enough is enough. Next speaker, please.

[00:19:59] I should be on, if you ask, Andrea, can you, okay, she's got it. Can you turn the Elmo on for me?

[00:20:22] My name is Charles Seltman. I've lived here in Prince William County for 45 years, and I live in the Gainesville District. I have here pictures. Look familiar? This is of the Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany.

[00:20:42] Is this what you want in our future? This is your legacy. I hope you are proud of it. Next speaker, please.

[00:20:58] Hi, my name is Lisa McFerrin-Polgar. I'm in the Potomac District, and I'm also here to urge you to vote against the Hornbaker Road data center. The Planning Commission has recommended not to build on that land.

[00:21:17] It is wooded. People that live across the street from the proposed data center would be able to go up to their balconies or sit outside at night and listen to the hum of the processors or the coolers up on top.

[00:21:41] The property is mostly wooded. It's outside of the data center opportunity zone overlay district and was designated by county officials a few years ago for non-data center development. Please stop building these places next to people's homes.

[00:21:59] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Patrice Summers, and I am a county employee of 26 years, starting my first couple years with the Office of Housing and Community Development, and now the Finance Department, Tax Administration Division, Business Tax Compliance, and a longtime resident.

[00:22:26] What I would like, what I like about Prince William is how diverse we are and continue to learn and grow and to make quality of life better and inclusive for citizens and county employees. Today I am here speaking on why collective bargaining is important for general employees.

[00:22:46] Prince William County general employees are essential to this county. Prince William, we keep our county and community running and thriving. Unlike police and fire and rescue who wear the same uniform, we the general wear many different uniforms and provide critical services to the residents of this county and provide quality services.

[00:23:11] The employees of this county pour our hearts into our jobs. We career plan and develop our crafts and our various expertise and various agencies so we can serve. General employees have worked tirelessly for years to have a voice on how, what, and when policies are created and implemented in our workplace.

[00:23:36] Rather than continuing with never-ending complaints, we deserve a voice at the table to help make meaningful improvements to our workplace and culture. That is why filing, that is why we are asking for the 12-month card expiration or sunset clause to be removed.

[00:23:55] It will help expedite our filing for a union without having to continually renew cards of those who have already signed an authorization card. Though all general county employees could not make it to the board chamber today, we are excited about the opportunity to make a difference.

[00:24:17] We appreciate your willingness to consider collective bargaining. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. First off, thank you for your time and your service.

[00:24:33] My name is Melinda Vicaciene. I live in the Coles District and I work for Prince William County. General County employees would like to join other Prince William County employees in having a say in improving our work-life balance. We are a very diverse group of employees. Employees across departments have shown a desire to work together for the benefit of all employees.

[00:25:03] General County employees have learned that there are common concerns across the county. We want collective bargaining so that these concerns may be addressed and have our input on ways to help improve them.

[00:25:22] As a collective bargaining unit, we could help to establish actionable processes to help employees across the county to be heard. Collective bargaining is important for our employees. they want represented representation at the table so that they have someone who knows their needs and their wants to make their work a safer and healthier environment thank you for consideration

[00:25:53] and support for all county employees thank you so very much i'm now going to turn it over to supervisor victory angry for remote public comment time thank you madam chair uh let's let's let's have started good afternoon vice chair on the board we have one speaker online our speaker is rachel ellis good afternoon rachel ellis gainesville district i want to speak on the elimination of

[00:26:27] the data center overlay district at first glance it sounds like a good idea until you remember that several members of this board have yet to vote no on a data center application regardless of whether it's in the overlay or not and then you recognize that the elimination of the overlay would then open up all of Prince William County for data centers. I am asking you to consider keeping the overlay but eliminating by right data centers and require that all data centers have to submit for a special use permit. This would allow for public input and scrutiny from the board. I actually believe that what we really need is a moratorium on data centers because we have yet to see the

[00:27:05] unintended consequences of all that has already been approved. But keeping the overlay and requiring all data centers to submit for a special use permit can mitigate the damage. An example of the consequences of Byright data centers is at the intersection of Wellington and Limestone Road in Gainesville. Plans have been submitted to build a Byright data center here, which is directly across from the Wentworth Green community. Residential homes. This is not currently an empty lot of land. This property houses other businesses. There are more businesses in this corridor that are also planning on selling to data centers. Businesses that employ both white

[00:27:42] collar and blue collar workers. The impacts of data centers will be multiplied in this area. Construction impacts noise, the use of diesel generators, and transmission lines. Last month, I joined hundreds of other Virginia residents for Lobby Day in Richmond to push for data center reform. There was one interaction that stands out to me, and it was on the elevator of the General Assembly building. I was with Mike Tidwell, the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and we were returning from a meeting with a state senator. A man in the elevator seller stickers that read data center reform now. He asked, so data centers, are you for or against

[00:28:19] them? Mr. Tidwell responded that we are not against data centers, but we are for putting up guardrails to protect Virginia residents. The man replied, we want to bring in data centers to the Winchester area, but we're going to learn from the mistakes of Loudoun and Prince William County. To which I responded, I am from Prince William County and we still have not learned from our mistakes. I'm asking this board to please learn from your mistakes. Learn from the J-Lock study, which cited prince william county multiple times please think of the communities and schools that are sitting along the data center overlay district imagine living in the wentworth green neighborhood to find out that the swim kids directly across the street will now become a data center no public

[00:28:58] hearing no input all prince william county's county residents deserve better please consider keeping the overlay but eliminating by right data centers and require that all data centers have to submit for a special use permit thank you thank you ma'am if i share we have no other speakers okay thanks a lot all right thank you so very much i think that we're going to go check to see if we have any more speakers and i don't think so all right so we are going to roll over into agenda item number seven and that is the public hearing for um and that includes consolidated

[00:29:37] land use so i would like to open the public hearings for 7a 7b do we have anyone all right we do not have any in-person speakers for 7a or cmb do we have anyone virtually so we got one

[00:29:59] virtual hello ah okay all right you said seven hotel seven a okay yeah right i'm not speaking to anything okay i thought so i have it on the list all right thanks thanks all right so we do not have anyone for 7a or 7b so i'd like to go ahead and close the public hearings for 7a and

[00:30:31] 7b before i move forward does anyone have any questions looking around i don't see any so i'd like to entertain a motion for 7a and 7b so moved second it's been properly moved and seconded any discussion all right oh i do have the key was working supervisor boating congratulations supervisor stewart thank you all right that's interesting all right that's short and quick

[00:31:00] all right anything else i'd like to if not let's go ahead and take our vote vote unanimous all right thank you so very much we are now going to go on to agenda item number a and that is county executive time mr shorter the floor is yours all right thank you very much uh madam chair good afternoon board members a few things there were no directives issued at our last board meeting there was one directive closed the directive was to compile a clear complete list or breakdown of

[00:31:38] all county funds services and resources that support Prince William County public schools and other public education programs and that was sent to the board last week as part of item 8a I I want to invite Director Washington forward to give an update on where we are with the directors related to the elimination of the data center overlay.

[00:31:59] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Tanya Washington, Director of the Planning Office. I'm here to provide an update on staff's work to respond to Directive 25-32 and Directive 25-40, both focused on exploring the elimination of the data center opportunity zone overlay district.

[00:32:21] So that was issued back in October. Since then, we have been working very diligently with a consultant team. This is a consultant team that was already working with the county to respond to earlier directives to update the development standards in the zoning ordinance and the DCSM.

[00:32:42] And so given this directive, we went back and updated their scope so that they could assist us in doing the analysis to respond to this directive. So we have been working with them since the beginning of this year very actively to do quite a range of land use mapping and data analysis to look at the potential impacts of eliminating the data center overlay district.

[00:33:06] This involves looking at a lot of mapping analysis to look at long-range land use designations, current zoning, looking at where there are currently approved data center applications, applications that have already, that are completed, as well as consideration of other factors that we will use to help us to develop recommendations for a new regulatory framework.

[00:33:33] If the board decides to eliminate the overlay district, what would come next, essentially? And so we are looking at and including considerations such as avoiding proximity to residences, to schools, parks, and historic sites.

[00:33:50] We are also looking at or taking into consideration impacts on other types of industrial uses that are competing for land with data centers, and so how can we keep that in mind? The other piece that we're also taking into consideration is that within the overlay district, the potential for vested rights, as well as the potential for non-conforming uses if the overlay district were to be eliminated because the by-right use would go away.

[00:34:19] And so we have, again, been working very hard to develop some options, some different scenarios that would basically be different options for a pathway forward for, again, a new regulatory framework. And I call it that because it's not necessarily you eliminate the overlay district, put in place another overlay district.

[00:34:38] That is a tool, but it's really more, there's a lot of questions that have to be answered even if you eliminate the overlay district. What do you do with the sites that are within the overlay district that may potentially have vested rights or could potentially become a non-conforming use?

[00:34:55] The other piece is also where would data centers then be allowed in the county, whether it's due to a special use permit, rezoning, what have you. Currently there are multiple options both within the overlay district. There are certain types of zones including office Where data centers are allowed by right under certain development parameters within overlay district outside of the overlay district?

[00:35:19] There are some different zone zoning districts that they could go in So we're really looking at all of that so that this could be a more holistic response and so our game plan is to bring these That mapping analysis as well as different options for us of scenarios to the board in May For a work session to share with you the work that we've completed and just show the various options of Again what the next regulatory framework could be for data center development so that we can get Board guidance on that the overlay district was established through a zoning text amendment

[00:35:58] And so to eliminate it would require another zoning text amendment, as well as to make any other changes with regards to where data center development could go and what the mechanism for that would be. And so we see this work session in May as the first step to share, again, not only our analysis, but there are multiple paths that the county could take to see which ones the board would like to move forward with.

[00:36:23] and then to fold that into a zoning tax amendment that would not only eliminate the overlay district, but then put in place, again, whatever the next framework would be. So I'm happy to answer any questions at this time. I was on, then I was off. Supervisor Gordy Bailey-Body.

[00:36:43] Thank you, Madam Chair. So in your mind, what is the timing that we're looking at here? Well, based off of our current game plan, we are looking to bring to the board that work session in May. And then with that guidance, then the next step would be we would have to come back to the board to request an initiation of the zoning tax amendment.

[00:37:05] So that's something that could definitely take place over the summer before you go on August recess. And then with that, then we could do the work and then get it back to the PC and to the board before the end of this year. So that's just a rough time frame.

[00:37:23] Bailey. Okay, no, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Zerazabody, Bailey. thank myself thank you um thank you director washington for the update on this um can you also talk about i know it's a separate um endeavor but it was an early originally initiated all at the same time back in 2021 um can you talk about the what's going to go on with the impacts analysis

[00:37:56] that your office is doing and and that work around design standards ccsm and all that so that work still needs to be completed our consultants have been working with the planning office various county departments to work on that - and there are some draft development standards that have again been going through varying amounts of review but that work kind of went on pause so that we can focus on this directive to get this completed but we still need to complete that update to update the development standards and so we would we would definitely want to continue that work and potentially if we continued out our

[00:38:35] sort of current approach we could most likely wrap that up into one bit you know within the zoning tax amendment because a lot of work has already been underway it's a matter of going back in and finalizing you know what standards we want to propose to the board understood thank you okay thank you so much thank you so much Tanya for your update on the overlay we really appreciate the hard work at this point I'd like to make a motion that the board per section C, subsection 5A3 of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors

[00:39:13] Rules of Procedure, that the board weigh the provisions of subsection 5A1 and 2 and subsection F2A and hold a vote to initiate the approval of the termination of the data center opportunity zone overlay district.

[00:39:33] Second. And just as a point of clarity. Go ahead, Supervisor. And this is based on what was just handed out at the dais? Okay. All right, Supervisor. Looks like people are being cleared.

[00:39:49] Supervisor Gordy. Madam Chair, I've handed out to my colleagues a resolution to initiate a zoning text amendment to the data center opportunity zone overlay district and related sections to amend the data center use as permitted by right and by special use permit. I've now been involved in this process since November of 2021, And we've been talking about this since before I was on the planning commission.

[00:40:17] And I appreciate all the work planning has done. But here's the reality we face. And one of our public speakers just pointed this out. Our businesses are being harassed on a daily basis to sell to data.

[00:40:35] Those that are in the data center overlay are just there. And we're talking about companies that hire hundreds of people, hundreds of our county residents. And as, again, has been pointed out, we lost Merrifield, a very cherished landscape retailer, because of their existence within the data center overlay, the constant harassment from data centers related to their property,

[00:41:06] and then further, because they were M1 property in the overlay, the valuations on their property and the taxes associated with it. The data center overlay is undermining our business community.

[00:41:24] It's working against our economic diversity, and it's incentivizing data centers to displace our current existing businesses. And if you look within the data center overlay, What is left, and I've said this now for two years, don't look at the overlay as a solid color on a map.

[00:41:43] You need to look at it as a translucent and look what is currently there. We are trading economic activity for economic activity. There's not a lot of greenfield development left. And so if we do not bring an end to the data center overlay and end by right development at the same time, More and more of our businesses in the Brentsville district, in the Gainesville district particularly, are going to continue to be under this pressure.

[00:42:12] And this includes Jiffy Lube, a major economic engine for this county. And so that's why I don't think we can wait any longer. We need to take action. And so I've worked with county attorney's office on this draft, and the intent is very simply this.

[00:42:33] It will not eliminate the data center overlay. It will maintain it on properties that already have data centers on them so that they will not fall into a non-conforming use. It will offer a window of time, and we need to set that date, whereby those who've already purchased their property are in the process of filing their plans with development services under the buy-write scenario, since they've already purchased the property, can go ahead and proceed.

[00:43:07] But once we get to the end of that date, that window closes. And then at that point, the end by right development of data centers in Prince William County will come to an end. It will further restrict where data centers can go and require SUPs in every zoning district within the county.

[00:43:28] In M2. In M2. And then other than that, thank you, Madam Chair, if I can just continue my time so I can explain what we're doing here. Point of order, Tom, I'm sorry to interrupt. Madam Chair, there was a motion made and there was a second.

[00:43:43] We are in discussion, but the motion was to waive the rules, correct? It's related to this, to move this? Okay. But I just want to be clear, Supervisor Bailey read something.

[00:43:58] Supervisor Gordy has, it's my understanding, vetted this through the county attorney's office with the county executive. It is several pages. Is this the same exact thing that Supervisor Bailey initiated her motion on? Yes, it is.

[00:44:14] So discussion is warranted. I just want to be clear. thank you tom thank you madam chair all right and so i just i'm being very generous with time and that's not something i'm trying to get into the habit of doing so you have your second allotment of time mr gordy um so you are now at three times but because this is an interest of an issue of great public interest i will go ahead and suspend the rules for a continued debate go ahead mr gordy thank you madam chair i was pretty much come tune in but basically what we're doing is eliminating

[00:44:47] by right development of data centers in the county, everything would need, the SUPs would be required in M2. And one thing that I would have to get a clarification on, because this is a zoning text amendment, and I appreciate what my colleague, Supervisor Bailey, has done, but because this is a zoning text amendment, is it required to go to the Planning Commission before voting on by the board?

[00:45:19] Yes, as we discussed, yes, this would be just in terms of process. My first time seeing this in writing, so we would need to go, yes, to the planning commission and then come back to the board. What the board could certainly do today by way of waiving rules is waiving your own rules for the board.

[00:45:38] So the board's rules of procedure, it does not waive the requirement associated with going back to the planning commission. So from a process standpoint, we initiate today, request that the Planning Commission address this before we return in May after the budget deliberations so that we can vote on this in early May for a public hearing before the board.

[00:46:04] I want to turn it to Director Washington in terms of timing with the Planning Commission. We can confirm, but to be honest, I think to have this go to the Planning Commission and come back to the board by early May would be a challenge. Because there's usually at least five to eight week interval between PC and the board and about a monthly time to get items on a PC calendar.

[00:46:27] We could definitely get this back to the board before you go on summer recess. I think that's definitely doable since this would take care of the initiation. But I don't think we could come back to the board by May. I think we can confirm the specific dates, but we can definitely get this back to the board before you go on summer recess.

[00:46:49] Okay. Thank you for that. Madam Chair, I'll leave it for discussion now for my colleagues, but that's all I have for now. Thank you. Supervisor Bode. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Supervisor Gordy, for this and your work on this. And thank you to Supervisor Bailey for waiving the rules. And I will just go on record and just ditto a lot of what was just said by Supervisor Gordy. As someone who has tried to, as going far back as 2021, for us to amend and get at the edges of the data center opportunity overlay zone that was in these areas that are affecting residents, who are affecting businesses, affecting

[00:47:27] schools, affecting community-facing retail and all these other things that are for people and just frankly not seen a lot of movement on that. No offense or disrespect to the current planning director or any of the planning staff that's currently working on this, but it's been five years essentially since I issued my initial directive on looking at the overlay um so from where i'm sitting especially with that piece we are long overdue to actually have action and madam chair i appreciate what you've done in the over the past couple years us moving forward like getting making that that that balloon smaller

[00:48:03] um but we're at a point now where as super as a gordy said we have still are still having by right data centers go up um near places where they shouldn't and so then what we're having to piggyback off what he said applications come in where hey it's not if there's a day center it's how big and how close it is to people because it's by right so we're entering that bargain like hey we're going to build it anyway here are some meager protections to get at things but there's no way coming on anyway so even if you guys deny it it's going to come in regardless so that's one one piece the second piece um is that then there's still this perception that there's an area of the

[00:48:41] county where they can come in and there's no public hearing as was said by one of the speakers there's no uh transparency on on what's being done in terms of site planning and all these other things so suddenly out of nowhere people start seeing updates are being built that no one knows went through a public process at all because it didn't it just went through the administrative process got approved for site planning and everything else and then people are looking us saying why are you guys approving this data center when some cases they're by right and we didn't get to see it at all we also know that there's a couple of operators out there because

[00:49:16] they've seen us back away from uh from approving every single data center proposal even in the overlay have not just gone by right so this can continue to happen until we do something about the overlay being by right and you know i was hesitant in previous iterations of going through just getting rid of it because there really wasn't a vision or a plan to do anything about what that post overlay world looks like, but I think Supervisor Gordy's proposal here strikes that balance. There's certainty for the folks that, which was part of my directive, that are currently already have vested rights in their property. You know, they have gone through the

[00:49:56] process. They're getting site plans done, what have you. They've bought land, but it says that after a certain event horizon period, that door closes. No more buy right in Prince William County for data centers. And I think it also says, hey, we're going to create a framework, and that goes along with what Director Washington and her folks are planning on, what does that zoning district look like for that M2 that looks at impacts, looks at magnitude, looks at how it's going to affect people, so we have a real framework in place on how to address data center development in this county. So for all those reasons, I will be, of course, supporting this. This is long overdue.

[00:50:32] I appreciate all the work that planning departments continue to do, but we're way overdue for having at least an initiation on this process. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey and then Angry. I think we're doing the thing, Vega and Bailey, together. But thank you.

[00:50:48] Yeah, Blava. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak. And to Supervisor Gordy, thank you so much for your resolution. I can't prolong anything that has been said already, but we're at a point now where we have to make some good final decisions as we go forward.

[00:51:06] This opens the door, I believe, for diversification and what we put on land and so this is something we've been talking about for about a year and so i think it's an opportunity for us to do so angry then stewart thank you madam chair look i don't have a problem with this i just want to see it go its course so i don't know what we're voting on here but i'd like to see it go through the planning commission i'd like to see it come back and then we vote on that so happy thanks for this process we've been waiting for it uh i just want to see it go through the process all right to answer any questions that

[00:51:43] we may be missing on unintended consequences i don't want to see those don't want us to get sued on anything so i want to make sure it runs its course to make sure everything here is is up to par because i haven't read it any so i gotta do that thing myself as well so supervisor stewart uh thank you very much uh supervisor gordy for your leadership on this uh we still need to talk Talk about what types of businesses can be rezoned M2 via the CPA process.

[00:52:16] But this is definitely, this is the right move in the right direction. We need to eliminate bi-right when it comes to anything data center related, period. All right, Supervisor Bailey, did you have something else?

[00:52:32] I did, I did. I just wanted to thank you for waving the rules of procedure. I appreciate that. All right, I always, I feel like, I always have to be different. I really do appreciate this, and Supervisor Gordy, you have been consistent.

[00:52:50] I remember our first year when you and the late Supervisor Bob Weir moved this, and even then I had questions and concerns, you know, after talking to planning. Was there a better way? I think my question that I'm asking is what would really change?

[00:53:07] A lot of the land in the overlay is spoken for. Not everything, but a lot of the land in the overlay is spoken for, and we really don't have a lot of by right data center development Because a lot of people do come to us, they could build by right, but they want additional things.

[00:53:22] They want additional height, additional floor area ratio. They want something else. So a lot of them do come into a public process. I will probably abstain on this one. I'm going to abstain because I think there's still questions that haven't been answered. And again, what does this really solve?

[00:53:41] We have been allowing data centers outside of the overlay. We have. This was a tool to guide data center development in a county that previous boards have ignored. For me, I have a real concern about data center development within this county, and I'm not going to play a shell game on it.

[00:54:02] I have a real concern about data center development. I have voted for more data centers than I have voted against. However, the data centers I have voted against, I have held firm on because I have concerns about where they are sited.

[00:54:20] And I have voted against data centers even within the overlay district. I do worry about some of the businesses that are still left and that still have a good amount of land within the overlay. I don't want to see these businesses be turned over to data.

[00:54:36] I have a lot of concerns, a lot of questions that haven't been answered. Again, Supervisor Gordy, you have been consistent on this issue, but not everyone has. And that does give me some pause. If we're going to talk about sustainability, if we're going to talk about diversifying, If we're going to have all these conversations, then they must be reflected in our votes.

[00:54:56] If we're going to vote for every data center project that comes before us and maybe just vote against one or two every once in a while, that's not really going to change anything. So I'm going to abstain on this one because I do think we could have had further discussions. But I'm just wondering what people are really trying to solve with this.

[00:55:18] Because again, we're not stopping data center development. We have more applications coming. They're going to be outside of the overlay. for me this takes away the whole overlay conversation as a barrier to said development so i will go ahead and be abstaining with that i don't see anyone else so let's go ahead and take our vote we're going to wait hold on um the question was and i heard the county attorney are we going to waive and do this and the answer i believe is yes you want to waive and do this

[00:55:53] yes is there any concern from the county attorney madam chair members of the board i didn't know if you were going to do a two-step process because the motion was to waive the rules and then i I thought that there would be a separate motion then to initiate this resolution. We can do this because there was some confusion. So the first motion, again, is to waive the rules.

[00:56:11] So let's go ahead and vote on that. Is Chair Jefferson abstaining from this? I'd like the motion for the actual ZTA.

[00:56:30] Supervisor Gordy. Make a motion to approve or to initiate. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Any further discussion? Madam Chair. Supervisor Angry. For clarification. So what we are proving is that it's going to end up back in the planning commission.

[00:56:47] They're going to run the route, and then it comes back. Director Washington. Okay. My understanding of this resolution is to initiate the zoning tax amendment that was read aloud by Supervisor Gordy. And so the next official step would be a public hearing before the planning commission, followed by a board public hearing.

[00:57:07] And per your discussion about this initially is that the earliest you believe we can get that back would be before recess. So this is not an expedited process. Well, it is expedited in the sense that it sounds like Supervisor Gordy has done most of the work on writing the Zony text amendment.

[00:57:25] And so that does save time. It sounds like there still may be one issue that needs to be resolved. And so we did a quick look at the upcoming public hearings. And once we get the language of the zoning text amendment resolved, whatever remaining issues need to be dealt with, we think it's doable to get it to the Planning Commission by April, May.

[00:57:48] And if we do that, then we could potentially get it to the board in June. Okay, that's all I wanted to hear. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we've been playing some musical chairs in the queue. I'm going to go to Gordy, then Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. This has been a team effort.

[00:58:06] And my staff has worked with many staff members, particularly I have to give a lot of credit to Jacob and Supervisor Bailey's office. He's been a fantastic person working with us, and it has been a big team effort.

[00:58:24] But I also thank our county attorneys for helping us make sure that we cross the T's and dot the I's appropriately as we work through this. The one thing we will have to determine at some point is that period of time whereby it ends.

[00:58:44] But as we work through this process, we can get that defined, whether that's a 60-day, a 90-day, or a date certain from 60 or 90 days upon adoption or to a date certain. But I appreciate everyone's patience and working with us on this.

[00:59:05] And so we look forward to having this back in the summertime. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Ditto, Supervisor Gordy. I appreciate your Jacob as well. I think the mind thrust between the two Jacobs has been very robust, and we appreciate their hard work in this.

[00:59:28] And I appreciate your hard work and kind of keeping us on, as Madam Chair said, keeping us on course, if you will, and Tanya for your flexibility. I understand this is a heavy lift, a quick lift, but we appreciate always your flexibility, not just with this.

[00:59:46] And just want to clarify again, by April, May, you said, what did you say? To the Planning Commission. Okay, that's what I was, okay, to the Planning by April. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you very much.

[01:00:02] So we have had our discussion. Let's go ahead and take our vote. Motion passes. Chair Jefferson abstaining from vote. All right.

[01:00:17] Thank you so very much. Mr. County Executive, do you got anything else for us? Yes, a few more items, Madam Chair. Thank you. Just wanted to remind the board that we sent information to the board last week related to implementation of the noise ordinance.

[01:00:33] We also provided a link to the recording of the virtual meeting that Dave and the OMB team had on Saturday, February 21st, with the community to talk through our FY27 budget proposal. In terms of the Community Partners Program, I wanted to just take a moment to share that the County's Community Partners Program's application process is now open and will close on April 24th.

[01:01:00] The Office of Management and Budget is hosting a virtual workshop this Thursday. For those who are interested in learning more about the online, the new online application process and scoring rubric. You could find information about the application and the application process on the OMB website. Wanted to also give a big kudos and shout out to our Department of Economic Development and Tourism, who has officially been re-accredited as an accredited economic development organization by the International Economic Development Council.

[01:01:36] This is a significant accomplishment as there are only, well, fewer than 100 economic development organizations globally holding this accreditation. So a big congratulations to Christina and the entire economic development and tourism team.

[01:01:53] As discussed this morning, Madam Chair and board members, I want to pull up a slide that represents the discussion that was had during our finance and budget committee meeting just to again codify the discussion all right perfect so in an effort to make sure that we have during a board

[01:02:24] meeting the board's consent without a formal vote but consent to move forward with advertising these are the tax rates that we discussed during the finance and budget committee meeting this morning. Now, this is the first year we're doing it this way as we didn't have a finance and budget committee last year. So because we discussed it, you all discussed it as a committee during the morning meeting, we wanted to make sure that we addressed it also during the formal board meeting. So if there are no changes, this is what is proposed. I will bring

[01:03:03] special attention to the computer and peripheral and general classification rates. Those have been moved from 415 to 450, and we had a discussion about that during the committee meeting. All the other rates listed were, are listed as, all of the other rates presented are those that were presented during the proposed budget. Any discussion? So for a recap and for people who are not here. This was discussed in our Finance and Budget Committee meeting at 10 o'clock.

[01:03:38] It began at 10 o'clock. While we do not or are not able to give take a vote, we were able to give some functional direction. The majority of the board agreed to these rates but I just want to give people an opportunity at this meeting to be on the record. So quickly, I'm just going to do a quick roll call. Supervisor Bailey, are you comfortable? Comfortable.

[01:04:01] Stuart? Yes. That was painful. It was. i just felt the pain okay bodie yes all right got a thumbs up let the record reflect the thumbs up from angry vega gordy yes all right i say thumbs up again just to say this for folks at home it has been my policy while i've been on this board to advertise at the highest rate possible that does not mean that we are going to hit the rates on everything but that is always something to give

[01:04:39] us more budget flexibility thank you you have directional approval to advertise those rates all right thank you very much madam chair that is all for me um supervisor vega has a question yeah just um wanted an update on my request to live stream our board meetings on facebook yes actually we've discussed it with the communications team uh we haven't gotten a memo out yet but i will try to get a memo out before we are together again thank you sure all

[01:05:11] All right, thank you. And I have a question I'm actually going to ask, even though this is county executive time, because, and I should have asked this when we're getting the update, but, you know, one of our speakers had mentioned something about doing a moratorium, and that comes up every so often. And so the county attorney, if you can just quickly address that for the record, for public record.

[01:05:28] Madam Chair, members of the board, a question does come up from time to time about the board implementing a moratorium on land use applications. The General Assembly has not given the board the authority to implement any type of moratorium. Property owners have the right to petition the board on a land use application and a statutory right to be heard within one year.

[01:05:50] The board can take its time and take the full year, but it cannot impose a moratorium until or unless the General Assembly gives you that authority. All right. Thank you so very much for that clarifying point. I don't see anyone. Do you have anything else, Mr. Shorter?

[01:06:06] all right and then with that keep that light on madam county attorney the we're on agenda item number nine the floor is yours thank you madam chair and members of the board this afternoon in closed session we will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to discussions concerning an economic development item regarding the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the county along with the related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for economic development matters where competition or bargaining is involved where if made public initially

[01:06:42] the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected all where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body and we will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to discussions concerning an economic development item regarding expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the county, along with a related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for the economic development matter where competition or bargaining is involved, where if made public initially, the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected,

[01:07:22] along with the discussion or consideration of the disposition of publicly held real property, all where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body these items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711a 3 5 and 6 of the virginia code so authorized second man that's

[01:07:46] fancy so authorized all right let's go ahead and take our vote vote unanimous all right we're going to move on to agenda item number 10 mr shorter madam chair this is a item 10a is a cpa inviting director washington i think is going to give the introduction and turn it over to eric good

[01:08:23] afternoon again Tanya Washington director of the planning office we are here today to request the board's initiation of CPA 2026 0002 prologue 66 logistical part comprehensive plan amendment Eric Griffiths from our county-wide planning division is here to lead us through the presentation and we'll be happy to answer any questions good afternoon chair Jefferson board members I'm Eric Griffith with the planning office, here to present before you a CPA initiation for Prologis Logistical Park.

[01:09:04] This is a request to change the long-range land use of approximately 23 acres that is currently planned mixed-use MU3 to industrial I3. And as far as the location is concerned, this is a location within the Gainesville Magisterial District at the intersection of Catharpan Road and the John Marshall Highway.

[01:09:30] You have Interstate 66 to the north, and it's not terribly far from the Route 29 and Interstate 66 exit. Planning Office is going to recommend initiating this CPA to bring forward the comprehensive plan for the proposed redevelopment of parcel for a warehouse and distribution center.

[01:09:57] When we look at the zoning here, first thing to note, as far as overlay districts, we're in the airport safety overlay district. The site itself has sort of combined industrial M2 and general business B1 zoning.

[01:10:18] There is a companion rezoning that has been submitted that will change the zoning of this entire site to M2. and that, as far as the general area, you can see here there is public schools, two public schools to the north, and fire and rescue station number four is also in that area, and that rezoning will allow us through the proffers to mitigate impacts to those areas and any of the surrounding sites as well.

[01:10:57] When we talk about land use for this, this is currently planned mixed use, And mixed use is generally a combination of residential and commercial development in a pedestrian setting with mass transit. That's not really what you have here anymore.

[01:11:14] If you look around the surrounding sites, you see a lot of industrial planned land, office mixed use. So changing this to industrial as well will sort of fit in with that greater context, including the fact that you have I-66, a major artery, right to the north, which will also, you know, the location also fits for that as well because, you know, we're talking about a distribution center that will need access to that artery.

[01:11:46] As far as demographics are concerned, certainly a lot more GFA for non-residential development.

[01:12:02] What will that bring? It brings a lot more jobs to this potential for jobs. So certainly that's the strength of this proposal here. We're going to lose housing, certainly, but what we get in return is jobs.

[01:12:18] So the planning office certainly supports this for the economics that this brings, certainly supports the increase in the county's commercial industrial tax base, brings jobs to the area.

[01:12:36] It also brings a targeted industry that's needed because, you know, a lot of these opportunities are being crowded out, industrial opportunities are being crowded out by data centers. And certainly the location fits in terms of the context of it being surrounded by other industrial plan areas.

[01:12:59] And I should note that the requester is, just as a correction here, it has filed a companion rezoning. And that sort of does allow us to proffer out certain usage. I know one of the questions you're probably going to have is data centers on that list.

[01:13:17] It is. So that is one of the uses that is proffered out. So with that, I'll turn it back to you for any questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or anything? I don't see any questions.

[01:13:33] No questions. No questions. All right. If there are no questions, I'd like to go ahead and ask for a motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Any discussion? All right.

[01:13:49] Supervisor Bode. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Griffiths, for the presentation. Thank you to staff working on this. I just really wanted to briefly highlight and uplift what you just said, right, because I don't think there's a way to overstate that. Data centers will be prohibited from the companion land use case that's going to be going with this.

[01:14:07] And I just want to remind folks in the audience and who may be listening to this that there was one point where this could have been the John Marshall Tech Park data center project. And when that was going through the process, it was going through, and then it was going to come to the board.

[01:14:27] But a number of us had said that we had concerns about it, and then the applicant sort of backed off. So I just wanted to highlight that for folks, that with the initiatives of the CPA, and should we adopt the CPA and the concurrent land use case, we will have effectively killed the John Marshall Tech Park.

[01:14:50] So I think that needs to be said because that history is not well known now. And a lot of folks really tune in on what we vote down in public hearings and what have you. But there are also plenty of other projects that don't see approval through other ways.

[01:15:07] And I think this is an example of that where there are other projects that have been on the cusp of coming to this board. And because enough folks expressed concerns or there was other things that happened that allowed us to go in a different direction, those data center projects did not happen.

[01:15:26] And the last thing I'll say about that is it just also reminds me of the conversation we had around Bristow campus a number of months ago where, you know, we want to be able to provide room to have other opportunities. And this is a perfect example of that. The applicant who held the land at one point turned away from the data center project that could have gone here or could have gone to Bristow, and now we have an opportunity to do something else.

[01:15:48] So I just want to highlight that for folks, because not everyone may know the history about the John Marshall Tech Park, and again, this will effectively kill it when we adopt it. All right, Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Brody, for those comments. And it shows a level, again, of diversification in our market.

[01:16:07] And so to Supervisor Stewart, kudos to you for thinking that through. But not only that, it brings jobs to our community. When I looked at that scale when we were going through the board packet, 1,400 jobs, that's impactful for our county.

[01:16:23] It really is. And just marrying to our strategic plan, people want to live, work, and play here. And so I think that that gives us a goal of making sure that we are taking care of our residents and giving them an opportunity not only to work here, but to enjoy something in that area even more so.

[01:16:42] So congratulations, Supervisor of the Gainesville District. All right. I don't see anyone else. No one else? All right. Let's go ahead and take our vote. Vote unanimous.

[01:17:03] All right. Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. So we are on to items 11A and 11B. This is consistent with our budget schedule and our budget work sessions.

[01:17:21] We are wanting to provide the board and the community an update on, for item 11A, solid waste management fees, and then for item 11B, stormwater management fees. We touched on both during the proposed budget slides, but wanted to give a deeper understanding and wanted to have our director, Katab Shmout, to get us started.

[01:17:46] Thank you, Chris. Madam Chair, members of the Board, good afternoon. Kitab Shamut, your Director of Public Works. So today, I'm happy to be in front of you to talk about Public Works fee requests for FY27 relating to solid waste.

[01:18:06] The purpose of the presentation is really to provide an overview of Public Works responsibilities with a focus on landfill infrastructure, explain the regulatory and infrastructure driver, require significant capital investments, and present the FY27 proposed fee adjustment that supports the infrastructure that will sustain the level of service required for the residents of Prince William County.

[01:18:37] So the solid waste program responsibilities is basically to operate and maintain the county major facilities, the sanitary sewer, I mean the sanitary landfill, and the compost facilities, and all the infrastructures within those.

[01:18:53] We have a lot of gas systems. have a lot of ponds, a lot of roads that needs to be taken care of. And construct and maintain the landfill liners or cells and liners as well as making sure that the caps are in place to meet the regulations which protects both the groundwater and the surface water from entering those cells once they are filled up and completed. And deliver phase four. Phase four is the second phase of the landfill. The landfill is a 1,000 acre property. We are right now operating out of phase three which is south of Powell's Creek. North of Powell's Creek is the phase four, which is about 500 acres,

[01:19:29] and hopefully we can get into that to start filling those cells sometimes in early 2030s. And of course, ensure compliance with state and federal environmental regulations, including Virginia DEQ regulations. Regulatory mandates and environmental protection.

[01:19:50] Anything we do with the landfill, whether it's design, construction, operation, requires regulation by state and federal requirements and environmental guidelines. Virginia DEQ regulation requires the installation of cells and liners and caps at the end, and the supporting infrastructure to protect the groundwater and surface water. Infrastructure is very important. They're just a major part of that landfill, whether it's gas extraction, whether it's water, surface water, underground water, as well as all the roadways that lead into the landfill. And phase four

[01:20:26] construction, you know, again, we are to the last, to the cell from last right now, filling that section three. So we have another maybe five, six years into the existing phase three of the landfill. And at that time, we need to have those infrastructure in place to be able to cross the creek and be able to start that process on phase four. These requirements are mandatory and must be met within defined regulatory schedule. Next slide basically shows a graph, and that graph is our fund balance. And to maintain that fund balance in the positive, we'd like to be within

[01:21:04] $5 to $8 million minimum in that fund balance because we have a lot of projects from now to the next 20 years. We have a total of about $342 million worth of capital projects from cells to caps to the phase four infrastructure, roads and buildings within that landfill that needs to be deconstructed. And with that, we need some debt financing, and the landfill will support its own debt financing. We'll be able to pay for that within the life of the landfill, well within the life of the landfill, as well as we definitely need to adjust or proposing to adjust the solid

[01:21:40] waste fee from 75 to 84 this year without really any increase to tipping for FY27. Now comes FY29, We'll have to evaluate both and see what is really needed to move this forward and stay in the positive as we are developing the landfill and moving forward with projects.

[01:22:00] Next is really the picture that shows phase three. And the blue line in the middle is really the creek area. Phase four would be north of the creek. And those two colors above is really the buffer between us and the development behind us.

[01:22:15] So it's about a thousand linear foot of buffer. And phase three is the cell before last, and that's when we have to move into phase four. This slide, basically, I put this together just to give you a context, basically.

[01:22:33] The waste collection fee is really not a published number. This is, from the best of my research online and others, I came up with this. But the good thing is the ranges between Fairfax Loudoun and Prince William are very similar between those two numbers. And really that depends on the type of service requested by a resident.

[01:22:52] What's included? Is it a one-time? Is it a two-time a week? Does it have yard waste? Does it have bulk? All of that really impacts that range. It may go a little higher, it may go a little lower. Now, what is published and what is set is really the tipping fee.

[01:23:08] The tipping fee in Fairfax County, for example, is $90 a ton. This is what a hauler will pay when they come into the landfill to dump their loads in the landfill. Tipping fee in Loudoun County is $76. In Prince William, it's $40. And those numbers really have impact on the total service fee to a hauler because typically that structure of the fee includes labor, includes equipment, includes fuel, as well as how much I'm going to pay when I tip.

[01:23:37] So those are the ingredients that really goes into the hauler's price. And the solid waste fee is really not part of that ingredient. So our request to increase that solid fee has no impact whatsoever on that. However, these are private commercial haulers.

[01:23:54] They control their prices. They control their services. We have no control of it, but we know that we're not impacting that from just looking at the structure. And this last slide before last really just shows you what it is right now in FY26, The fees for a single family townhouse mobile home and non-residential property, as well as you can see at the bottom line is really our tipping fee, and that is staying the same for FY27.

[01:24:29] That pretty much wraps up my presentation on solid waste. Any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer. All right. I don't see anyone jumping in the queue. All right, Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:24:45] I feel loathe that I'm almost dominating things, but I just have a couple questions. Thank you, Shemuth. Thank you, Mr. Shemuth, for the presentation. Just a couple questions. One, as you sort of and your team have evaluated these potential fee increases over time, again, knowing that in FY29 you're looking to evaluate both tipping and the solid waste fee, can you talk a little bit about the philosophy around having, you know, basically these leapfrog years where we may have one year we don't raise fees at all, then the next year we may raise one, then 29 where we may raise both versus smaller increases over time?

[01:25:24] I'm with you 100%. I like those smaller increases and a set increases over the years. However, this has been the tradition in the past where we evaluate as the need becomes more, you know, required, and we start looking at those things.

[01:25:41] But I guess David, you know, but really, I mean, we want to get to a level and we want to get to a point where we we are really more of a kind of standard increase over the years. But that that is really, you know, the option that, you know, our consultant looked at and evaluated and presented to us.

[01:26:01] And we feel that that option keeps us because it's very important that our fund balance stays in the positive. Right. You know, currently, you know, without that adjustment, we may dip into the negative and it becomes an issue. Yeah, I appreciate that, because what I will say is, you know, when we have these conversations around affordability and so the mixing of all the fees and the taxes every year, you know, every family manages their budget differently.

[01:26:24] and obviously we know that again especially when it pertains to tipping fee that gets passed through from the haulers of the HOAs and what have you but conversations around hey my solid waste fee went up two dollars every year versus like to the point two or three years then it jumps ten dollars or fifteen dollars in one year like there's there I think there's a conversation to be had there and again especially with tipping fee when we didn't have one at all then we suddenly had one and there was a sticker shock there um so i think that that having a more gradual on-ramp to your point especially as pertains to the tipping fee would help us in the long run just frankly for my one-eighth of this board because especially with the tipping fee you could have a more i think

[01:27:04] nuanced conversation with the haulers so people aren't suddenly you know hoas aren't suddenly absorbing a bunch of costs they didn't realize they're going to have and what have you so that that's one my second question um as we look at the next phases of the landfill um is there sort of a set and i don't know how to ask this exactly but is there a set closing date for that phase one portion of the landfill you mean the phase that we're currently working in yes what we call phase three right um again it depends on the amount of trash that we're taking in a matter of you know

[01:27:38] waste that comes to the landfill, looking at how the land, the trends is, is trends downward. So we're not taking as much. At least that's what I'm hearing from, from, from the Opal folks and others. But, but yeah, that depends on, we think a landfill cell is between three to five years. Okay. The life of a cell, of course, it depends on the size of the cell. Is it the first cell, which it really controls the entire area? Or is it a cell tying into an existing situation, in which it has a smaller kind of a footprint.

[01:28:11] So that depends on the cell. About three to five years for the cell that we're in, and the cell that we're cutting from the material right now to fill the cell that we're in also has another three to five years. But we don't want to wait until we're into that last cell to initiate the cell after that, because a lot of that material comes from the next cell.

[01:28:29] You know, we have to fill in with dirt as we go in with the layers, and that is where we get the material from. Appreciate that. My last question, it goes into a comment, is the previous, because you said we're currently in phase three, is that what you said? Yes. The phrase is one and two, so those are completely done, they're sealed, they're all done.

[01:28:48] Have we done any analysis on if those would be stable enough to support solar? Again, the landfill regulation extends years after the landfill is fully completed and ready, and that's, I think, 25 to 30 years.

[01:29:06] I cannot remember exactly the number, but within that range. Within that range, we're still, settlements are happening. The composition of that material is happening. So you pretty much want to wait for that to pass first before you start putting structures on those things. No, understood, and I appreciate that.

[01:29:22] The last thing I'll say, I know I have only 30 seconds left, is that last year, and they're going to cut the ribbon this year, Fairfax is actually putting a five-megawatt solar project on their closed landfill up the way. And so as we continue to talk about ways to try to keep the landfill financially solvent, entering in some kind of land lease where whoever we get the solar and solar to put in there gives us payments back for the land that we give to them for the solar project is another idea that I just wanted to put forth.

[01:29:51] Thank you. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question. So this year we moved to opening the landfill for residents, particularly on weekends.

[01:30:07] So what is the impact that that has had on your fund balance and operations? So far, again, the opening is happening in such a beautiful weather recently, right? So we're not getting the customer yet that we anticipate.

[01:30:24] Hopefully, like in the spring, summertime, we'll see more. I think about 500, I think, trips coming in. We have not really analyzed to see really if that's just redistributed, the numbers, Or this is, you know, it's too early really to analyze any of that, at least for the period that we're in right now.

[01:30:42] Okay, all right. But that's a great question. That's something we'll be looking at definitely. Okay, very good. Thank you. It's all happening. And the Sunday is free, by the way, in terms of money. It's open to the public. We don't have a lot of commercial haulers coming in on Sunday. But you're still paying your folks, and I'm assuming it's overtime.

[01:31:07] It's not overtime. So you've got folks that are able to fill the hours? There's definitely some of that. There's definitely some of that. Okay. But, again, we reduce the hours as well, so we, you know, during the week, yeah. All right. Thank you. Dave, was there something to add on that?

[01:31:23] Sorry, we had a lot of overlap in the past, where now that overlap kind of minimized significantly with the schedule being reduced to 7 to 4. Okay. Where we had a lot of, yeah. All right. Excellent. Good afternoon.

[01:31:39] I would just add, from a financial perspective, the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund is structurally balanced. The only use of fund balance is for one-time capital. I'll also add, if I can, that in terms of the schedule changes that needed to occur in order for the seven-day or Sunday opening to occur, I'm happy to sort of send – Katab and the team have done a really good job kind of updating on the changes in the shift schedule.

[01:32:08] I'm happy to send that back out to the board as a reminder of the things that they had to do to make sure that we ran regular time and not over time on the days that we were open. All right. Thank you. I don't see any other questions, so I know there is more.

[01:32:29] Okay. Public Works, stormwater management fee request for FY27.

[01:32:50] Again, the purpose of the presentation is to provide an overview of our stormwater management responsibilities and activities and talk about regulatory requirements that drive capital investment and discuss fee adjustment that will be needed to make sure that that capital investment is being completed. So water management program, fee revenue support the following program areas.

[01:33:21] So yes, the MS4 at the bottom is an important piece of our funding, but we do a lot of other things. We do stream restorations and water quality. We do flood mitigation and resiliency, although on a smaller scale for the time being, we are looking at going to a larger projects and hopefully in the future and more grant fundings. Once the flood mitigation plan is prepared by emergency management and approved by DCR and available to us sometimes in 2027, 28, and we are able to submit projects for funding and a bigger type of projects and more complex projects

[01:33:59] as well. And infrastructure maintenance upgrades. We have a lot of facilities that we maintain as we take in stormwater management as residential is being constructed and ponds come in our way. We have to maintain and make sure that they are well kept and they are functioning as designed.

[01:34:15] And the regulatory compliance, as I mentioned, MS4 and the TMDL, really a big piece of that funding. And those are projects and those are reductions that we are required to achieve in order to maintain our MS4 permit. This next slide basically just shows how our program aligns with the county strategic plan.

[01:34:40] I'm not going to go line by line on this one, but I want to note the alignment with the environmental protection, water quality, as well as flood mitigation. And if you look at the key performance indicator measure, a very important key performance indicator is the reduction of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from our waters as they travel into open bodies of water.

[01:35:03] This next slide shows the graph of progression of the storm fee back in 1994 when it was first adopted by the board. It was at $18, and in 2016 it was approved at $53, and right now we're requesting it to be adjusted to $67.28.

[01:35:26] It's important that we adjust that because MS4 permits requires certain projects and certain funding that needs that additional funds to be able to make that happen by mid-28. Originally, that permit is supposed to be completed end of 29, and now we're advancing that by a year and a half.

[01:35:46] So that cash flow is very important to get this job done. And technically speaking, really, if you look at the $18 and just apply 4% increases over the years, we're almost at that same number. Now, meantime, over those years, the program itself has increased tremendously, and also construction costs for the past five or six years have increased more than 20-25% throughout. This slide just provides a regional context. As you see, Prince William County

[01:36:19] compared with localities both in Virginia and in Maryland, and you see where our fee is much smaller than a lot of the other localities. And this is a COG plan that was prepared back in FY23.

[01:36:35] They prepare it every three years. They're just produced at 26. We're currently in review of that before it's published. But if you look at the note on the right-hand side, our proposed fee at 6728, that's with the proposal for FY27, per single family equivalent is 26% lower than the average of the jurisdictions around us. Not everybody in COG, but Fairfax, City of Fairfax, Arlington, City of Alexandria. Put those together, we are 26% below them, and we are 42% lower than

[01:37:10] the lowest one in the area. Why do we need to adjust the FY27 storm fee? FY25 stormwater infrastructure maintenance by itself is about $1.6 million. We really like to do more. I guess said, we're managing and overseeing over 1,000 stormwater management. And currently, our pace is to dredge five every year. We'd like that pace to move up. We'd like to really increase that maintenance because as our ponds getting aging and getting more in need of maintenance, we need to

[01:37:48] really expand. We need to advance that. So that's very important. Like I said, the FY28 MS4 TMDL requirement to meet mid-year requires about $23.9 million. That money really would get us there. And in addition that we are really overseeing a lot of projects that's really not on the list, sometimes emergency projects, Briarmont was one of them that we recently embarked on where we had a failure in culverts and access was kind of taken away from several homes and we had to step

[01:38:22] in very quickly. And as long as I've been with the county over 30 years, I've never been able to finish a job from design to construction in two months. That project was completed in two months, and we were able to provide and maintain access to those homes in a record time. Those are the pollutants in the water that we're trying to reduce with our TNDL permit, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediments. We're doing great on the sediment and the phosphorus. The nitrogen still needs some work, even though it looks like it's still low, 52%. Goal-wise, we should be at 41%, so we're doing

[01:39:02] really much better than the goal. However, we need to meet the 100% in the next two years, and that requires the completion of 15 projects to be able to do that. Those projects include eight water quality retrofits, two outfall restorations, and five stream restorations, including upper and middle dewey and several other streams that we have to improve that gives us the 12,637 nitrogen reductions that will get us to 100%. Now, the more you try to get nitrogen, you're going to

[01:39:42] increase the percentage on sediments and phosphorus. So although we've met those, those will increase because they're just not an isolated project just for nitrogen. All three products will be reduced as we are improving the water. The cost of these projects, about $31 million.

[01:40:01] CIP, we need $22,279,000 to be able to complete these projects with a goal of getting about $8.8 million from SLAAF funding, state funds. We have a good track record of getting that.

[01:40:17] In the past, since 2014, we were able to get 21 SLAAF projects at $18.5 million. So we're hoping to get that $8.8 million and be able to complete those projects. If we don't, then we have other ways of meeting that by getting credits from UASA and others.

[01:40:35] But we'd really like to improve the water. We'd really like to complete projects as we move forward. Final slide shows the rates in FY26 for single-family equivalent, 53.83, townhouse, apartment, and condo at $40.38.

[01:40:54] for developed and non-residential it's calculated based on how the previous area is and about 5383 and that would move up to 6728 and that will provide us an additional I believe two million dollars then of added funds to the program and that would be a key for us to be able to manage and maintain our MS4 and TMDL requirements. With that, that wraps up my presentation. Any questions? More than happy to answer. And if I can't answer, one of my team will answer. Well, thank you so very much for

[01:41:32] another thorough presentation. I was going to say I don't see any speakers. I don't know. All right, I don't see any speakers. It doesn't look like we have any questions. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Uh-oh, uh-oh. You didn't push the button. Uh-oh. I'm trying to... I have on my microphone. Mr. Stewart. Thank you very much for this presentation. I had a question about slide nine and the decrease. You stated that decreasing the nitrogen actually increases the phosphorus and

[01:42:11] sediment. Decreases. Decreases. Go to the slide before that. Slide before that. Yeah. So we are at 137 percent. Right now we have achieved that much. Right. So we've achieved beyond the goal. The goal is 100% we're at 137 and we're at 146 for the sediment now somebody will say well why are you continuously continuing to do projects when you've already achieved that because there's not one project that's just going to give you what one ingredients you have to do more projects in order to achieve the nitrogen you have to do a project but that doing that project will also reduce the sediment it will also reduce the phosphorus got it and that's why you see those percentages

[01:42:49] they're all interconnected. They're just not an isolated project. I just wanted to make sure I heard that correctly because I thought I heard it the other way around. Okay, but thank you. Thank you very much. All right, my apologies. I will have IT look at my monitor between meetings.

[01:43:06] So anyone else? Please raise your hand, turn on the light. All right. It doesn't make any sense. I can't see it anyway. So all right, we don't have anyone else. So thank you very much for another informative presentation. We are going to move into agenda item number 12, and that is Supervisor's time.

[01:43:26] Before we go around the dais, I would like to get a motion for 12A through 12E. So move, Madam Chair. Second. Any discussion? All right, let's go ahead and take our vote. Vote unanimous.

[01:43:51] All right, everyone be ready because I'm going to call on folks randomly because, you know, I want to give people a chance to be first. Mr. Stewart, you're going to be first today. I knew that yesterday. No, you didn't. Yes, I did. Oh, um, all right. So I don't really have a lot. I just, I wanted to share that, uh, you know, last night's, uh, state of the County was, uh, was fantastic. It was, um, it was good to be there.

[01:44:20] Um, it was good to see a lot of people from the County that, that showed up, especially, uh, staff, but it was also good to see just, um, uh, you know, the residents come out to, to, to see this as well you know uh despite the uh beautiful uh uh pacific northwest weather we had so but um yeah another job very well done madam chair i just wanted to uh uh congratulate you on on that as well thank you all right supervisor gordy um also want to give you big kudos for the event last

[01:44:58] night uh appreciate everyone who came out i know the weather uh probably kept some folks away but but had great discussions with folks and appreciate everyone who participated. The only other thing I have is we had a meeting this past week of the Steering Committee for the Innovation District.

[01:45:20] We're going to be launching that in April, and so look forward to mark your calendars for around April 21st as we get ready to officially launch the Innovation District and celebrate the pathway forward on growing this opportunity for economic development, supporting George Mason University, and partnerships between government, education, and the private sector.

[01:45:52] So I look forward to more on that. But other than that, Madam Chair, I've caused enough trouble for one day, so I won't give it back. Thank you. Supervisor Angry. You know, I'm trying.

[01:46:08] I told you. I warned you. Okay, you know what? I'll move you. Bailey. I'm ready, Madam Chair. I don't know what Vic's doing. I want to congratulate you as well on a wonderful state of the county last night.

[01:46:25] And, you know, when I looked at your presentation, I saw, I know I'm taking up on time, but I saw how the Potomac District was portrayed in your presentation. I appreciate that. So that means we're growing. And that was for my Potomac residents that are sitting out there. So thank you so much for your presentation.

[01:46:41] On the 18th of February, I want to thank Seth and Eduardo and staff for a remarkable presentation for Piles Creek Crossing. And then on the 19th, Prince William County Black History Month program was impeccable, excellent, talented, outstanding as usual.

[01:46:59] And then on the 20th of February, I want to thank Dr. Zarelda Urban, the CEO for her LLC, Married to Your Purpose Conference, and for bestowing the Game Changers Icon Award upon me.

[01:47:15] It was an excellent, excellent evening. And then on the 21st, I participated and was honored to be one of the guest speakers at the 2026 National Association of Counties. and had an opportunity to talk about our very own crisis receiving center to all of the counties in the nation.

[01:47:37] So that was very important as they are growing and supporting mental health. I want to thank Dar El Noor for the invitation to participate in their Iftar dinner. It was an exciting evening for a community to come together. And then on the 26th, I had the honor of attending the annual Commonwealth Coffee that Senators Warner, Kane, and Congresswoman McClellan always put forth for us for Black History Month.

[01:48:03] The Hampton University Choir was phenomenal, phenomenal. To our business awards, thanks to the staff for attending the Chamber 2026 Business Awards dinner. I was not able to go there because I was at the Hilton Performing Arts dinner for their gala, but I heard it was an outstanding night.

[01:48:24] And then on the 27th, I held a first-time buyer workshop in my community. There were 20 attendees, and thank you for Dr. Carolyn Vine-Sappler for allowing me to partner with you to talk about the Link Banks program.

[01:48:41] And this is Jean Jeffries, I think that's her last name, and the grants that can be provided for those first-time home-owned buyers. On the 28th, Women, the annual Woodbridge Lions Appreciation Breakfast, great food, too much pancakes, but it was fun, it was fun.

[01:49:02] And then on the 1st, congratulations to Ebenezer Baptist Church, Pastor Charles A. Lundy and his congregation for their 143rd church anniversary at Ebenezer Baptist Church. And then later on that evening, I had the opportunity of supporting Dr. Alfred Jones at Mount Zion Baptist Church for his deed burning.

[01:49:22] They paid off their church. That's a big thing for the community. And I said on the second, Madam Chair, congratulations again. Upcoming events on the 4th, the Piles Creek Crossing 2026 stakeholder project update will be presented.

[01:49:39] And then I'm going to be one of a series of education messaging projects. We'll be having the Green Policy and Environmental Stewardship Town Hall on the 6th, which is Friday, I know, Friday.

[01:49:56] Come spend your Friday with me for that. And then I want to say to all of the wonderful women, your leadership is embraced, and we're thankful for you. Happy Women's History Month. That's all I got. Thanks, Madam Chair. All right.

[01:50:12] I'm going to go over to Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Happy Read Across America Week. That started yesterday in a world that is being quite literally dominated by artificial intelligence. I think now more than ever, we have to stress the importance of reading.

[01:50:29] Read Across America is obviously important for many reasons, but most importantly, because it champions the irreplaceable human act of reading, which fosters critical thinking, empathy, and the foundational literacy, which we see being hijacked, if you will, by AI.

[01:50:47] So I look forward to being at a few of our elementary schools in the Coles District where I will be partaking and reading across America. Moving right along, on March 28th, we want to announce our annual Easter Egg Hunt. This year, the Coles District Easter Egg Hunt will take place at Fairmont Park.

[01:51:06] There is more information on our district website. And we did create an Eventbrite link this year just because we want to be sure that we manage expectations and it seems like every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger, so certainly want to thank our community partners and the community in general for making this event a very special one in our district.

[01:51:26] Lastly, I would like to just say thank you to Eric Olson and the team over at the Office of Elections for all of the work that they do. We have a special election coming up. I believe that the constitutional amendment is also going to be up on the ballot, and there are a lot of questions that folks have.

[01:51:45] They've reached out to our offices, but I always reassure them that when it comes to election integrity and just doing the right thing, Prince William County leads. As we all know, Eric has opened up the Office of Elections for the general public, for anybody that wants to come and see how they run our elections here in Prince William County.

[01:52:01] And I always think that those folks that are for transparency and accountability should always be acknowledged publicly. That is all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right, you ready, Supervisor Angry? Sure, let's go for it.

[01:52:16] Well, first of all, I think vacations are important, and my comms person is on vacation, and we didn't coordinate putting this together. So I just went through and whipped it out. Hope you're enjoying yourself. Vacations are important again.

[01:52:32] So I want to thank the Congressman Vemin. We did a roundtable discussion with black-owned small businesses at the Down Home Comfort Cafe. It was a few weeks ago, so I don't have the date there. All right. On the 21st, Dara Noor had their dinner.

[01:52:48] I wasn't able to make that dinner. I was at our NACO conference for that weekend, so I'm sure it went well. Just want to congratulate them on that. 24th, we had our State of the Parks. I want to congratulate Seth and Lavaz on a successful year of parks. We had a well-attended crowd, a lot of information put out, and that was a great event.

[01:53:08] I also want to send our condolences to Dr. Barbara Latif. He lost his mother very, I guess, suddenly. and so we had an event in his home, and so it was kind of fast-moving. But I just want to send out our condolences from the board to him and his family on the passing of his mother.

[01:53:26] The 26th, the Chamber of Commerce, had their awards dinner, was very well attended. Congratulations to all the award winners, and everyone had a great evening. 28th, we had the coldest night of the year, Streetlight Ministries, does a great program with that.

[01:53:42] This is their second annual held at Move Church. Thank you, Move Church, for hosting every year. Funds were raised. I don't know the exact dollar, but they almost met their goal, I understand. Also, on the 2nd, we had our state of the county, so I want to congratulate the chair again on a great program for our state of the county as we reimagined Prince William.

[01:54:06] All right. And so coming up, the 5th, we have our Homeless Navigation Center East Groundbreaking, which is going to be at 2 p.m. The address is a little bit, so it's on the website. It's on the county site. The information is put out. If you want to know and attend, please email my office, email the chair's office, email anyone's office, and you can get that information to be there.

[01:54:27] Also, on the 5th, we have our Human Trafficking Symposium, which is at 10 a.m. at the Frollozzo building. So just want to put that out there. And I think I pretty much covered everything, so thank you, Madam Chair. All right, so this goes, you know, I'm sorry. when i skip the order i can almost miss people so supervisor bode thank you madam i just thought you were saving the best for last as you've said in the past so well that technically would be me because i'm going last today you always go last though so uh thank you everyone just wanted to highlight you know i'm not going to go through all the events everyone else has said other than kudos to madam chair for uh the state of the county sorry i couldn't be there uh the snowstorm

[01:55:06] did change some my my child care situation so i had to stay home and manage the kids um i got some music going on over here anyway um also state of the parks you know we continue to talk about how our park system continues to develop and expand and how that's another major amenity that folks come out and and live work and play in prince william county so wanted to highlight that um also wanted to give a huge shout out uh last wednesday we had our first annual and our first ever uh next gen pwc event at ikea um wanted to definitely appreciate the county exec and the

[01:55:43] county team that came out we had parks there we had libraries there with some other folks there we had omni ride there and it's very rare they can get uh two dozen teenagers an early 20 year old to come to ikea on a wednesday night to spend time talking about community and civic issues but that's exactly what we had on wednesday night um they were very engaged um they some of the parents that were still there like in the ikea cafeteria kept peeking their heads over looking to see what was going on but we had a really really good discussion um and it will hopefully be the first of many have already gotten a lot of good feedback from not only the parents themselves but some of

[01:56:22] the young people that were there um you know as i said at the outset of this when i talked about a couple weeks ago and i said at the event far too often uh that cohort of folks are left out of these conversations um so being able to open a space up to have so many young people so we had a couple of people even from Fairfax that showed up to talk about it. So it was a really great event. So again, wanted to thank the county exec and his team for being part of it. And we're going to have a lot more of those kinds of events to come. So stay tuned on that. On a more somber note, this past Saturday, I went to the celebration of life for Dan Boone, who is the son, sorry,

[01:57:01] the father of Charlie Boone and the husband of Wendy Boone. For folks that don't remember, Charlie Boone died by suicide a number of years ago. We are currently, hopefully, working on a park, skate park and bike park in his honor. But unfortunately, Wendy lost her husband, Dan Boone, about a month or so ago.

[01:57:18] So I was able to go to the celebration of life, prayers and thoughts with their family. And finally, I do have a directive that I'm going to read. Give me one second. There it is. All right.

[01:57:34] Madam Chair, without objection, I would like to direct the county executive to work with the county staff to prepare for the board's consideration, resolution, and accompanying recommendations to initiate small area plans for Potomac Mills and Tackett's Mill areas to guide the strategic revitalization and redevelopment of these key areas in the Occoquan District and Prince William County.

[01:57:54] These plans should provide a comprehensive vision addressing land use, zoning, infrastructure, mobility, redevelopment, sustainability, and economic development opportunities within the Potomac Mills and Tackett Mill areas, respectively. Additionally, as part of these small area plans, staff should explore incorporating the new financial incentives and other tools to unlock redevelopment potential being developed by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism. Staff should also consider market studies to be initiated by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism as part of the small area planning process for both areas. The county attorney's office is also directed to review the information recommendations for any legal issues when the evaluation and work

[01:58:33] is complete the county executive should report back to the board with recommendations for the resolutions during a board meeting or by memorandum as appropriate thank you madam chair all right thank you everyone i really want to thank everyone who attended the state of the county forum last night and to really thank our county communications team nikki brown you know shane sears all of you did amazing work, as you have always, in making this event come alive. And thank you to my colleagues who are able to attend, those who are there with us in spirit, and really to the

[01:59:08] community for coming out. And I want everyone to mark their calendar for Monday, April 16th, as I'm going to be hosting a virtual town hall that night. And more details will be forthcoming, but I'd love to hear from folks. I'd like to give a notice of intent for Jessica Gadet-Reed to DCSM slash Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee.

[01:59:30] I also have Tarazia Martin-St. Clair for PRTC. Her resume is on file, but if you need anything else, I can certainly get it to you. And I have a directive regarding collective bargaining. Without objection, I would like to direct the county executive to work with staff to examine a possible amendment or amendments to the county's collective bargaining ordinance for the board's consideration to delete the following language in section 10 titled certification and de-certification of exclusive bargaining representative which states no authorization card or employee signature may be accepted as

[02:00:06] evidence as evidence of a desire to certify or decertify a labor organization if it was signed more than 12 months prior to the date on which the request is submitted to the lra and the county director and the county's director of human resources staff is directed to provide the board with an analysis of the impacts and recommendations regarding such an amendment to this section of the Collective Bargaining Ordinance.

[02:00:31] The county executive is further directed to work with staff to include possible amendments to the Collective Bargaining Ordinance based on legislation enacted during the 2026 General Assembly Session and any amendments necessary to ensure compliance with the state code.

[02:00:49] The county attorney's office is directed to review the information and recommendations for any legal issues when the evaluation and work is complete the county executive should report back to the board with the analysis and recommended revisions during a board meeting or by more memorandum as appropriate upon receipt of this information the board will provide direction if any regarding the proposed ordinance amendments and authorize the advertisements of the required public hearing for board consideration to adopt the amendments supervisor vega thank you madam chair i'm not quite sure if i'm objecting just yet if i can get this question answered is this

[02:01:26] um actually a requirement in um what was uh i guess has it is this required by law or is this a policy choice this is a policy choice that the previous board has made i'm sorry mr shorter yes so the the way that the ordinance is currently written an ordinance that the board has approved it requires uh the signatures uh it is a choice that the board makes and so what what we would be doing is going back to analyze impacts coming back to the board and any subsequent ordinance

[02:02:02] change would be completely up to the board and not um not inconsistent with virginia code i don't know if michelle just want to be very clear that the state code does not require this this is something that prince william county board of supervisors is going to decide to implement the policy change yes currently at this time there are some bills working their way through the general assembly at this time and we're not sure what they're going to ultimately be uh pass or not um but currently right now as mr shorter said the board made a policy decision to implement it this way and the board can make a policy decision to change the requirements i understand

[02:02:41] that um in regards to other groups is this the way that we want to do this in terms of issuing directives without really knowing what Richmond is going to do one way or the other? Does this open the door for others to come at any given time to ask for policy changes? And the question is for the county executive. I just want to make sure that we're not opening the door for this to become a reoccurring thing. I'm not sure if I understand the question. So for example, this is

[02:03:15] not a requirement of the law, right? It is a policy decision. I understand that there are negotiations that are made during a certain time frame period. We make agreements and parties agree to it. Are we opening the door for this to become a reoccurring thing where these types of asks are being made of us on the regular or not? Let me say that the board went through a pretty extensive process to get to the ordinance that is currently in place. We would typically open the CBAs every

[02:03:50] four years or two years in the case of this year where we open for wage reopener. I don't know if what is happening in Richmond should stop us from making local decisions until those decisions are made. Then we can certainly go back and then provide the board with both the operational and obviously the legal recommendations based on what happens. So I'm almost sure that does not answer your your question though not really but I appreciate the effort yeah so if I may wait I'm sorry mr. County attorney madam chair members of the board if I may I

[02:04:29] think and supervisor Vega please correct me if I'm wrong where I think you're coming from currently the board's collective bargaining ordinance says for a bargaining unit to be certified they have to have these cards signed and after 12 months. Only once that bargaining unit is certified do we then go into negotiations with them. So at any time until the enabling legislation from the Commonwealth changes, the board can look to amend their ordinance after a required public hearing first. Thank you. And we have no idea what

[02:05:07] the timing is in Richmond in regards to these bills that are making their way. If I may, I believe they've been amended and they're continuing to go through and they may go to conference committee. It looks like those jurisdictions that currently have a collective bargaining ordinance may be able to keep it until 2028 when the new state ordinance and all the requirements will then be implemented.

[02:05:33] So that's assuming there's two different bills going forward, two different substitutes being passed, and then whatever the governor does. Thank you. Madam Chair, I guess my question to you is on the timing piece of this. Why not wait the two weeks that are left of the session in order to see what happens before making a decision on this?

[02:05:53] Because I don't think what's going on in Richmond is going to have an impact on what we're doing here today. And what's going on in Richmond, from what I understand, is they're opening up collective bargaining for more jurisdictions. We already have it. The question is, can we make the ordinance more flexible?

[02:06:10] so that's why i'm going ahead and doing this directive i respect wanting to wait again for what's going on in richmond but i don't feel that it has any impact on what we're doing here understood um and and and i i get um the point that you just made i have concerns um however i know that it is a directive where you're going to come back to the board yes um based on everything that she read i will be um highlighting my concerns and i hope that when county staff comes back um i'm i'm i'm getting a little frustrated with presentations being made but without county

[02:06:45] staff or rather the county executive um making an actual recommendation as to whether or not something is a good idea or if it's not i think that it's important um we heard it earlier today um if staff recommends we go in this direction if not what are the pros what are the cons i want um to see staff be a little more direct if you will um when it comes to recommending something or not because oftentimes I'm very important things get missed and so when staff does come back I want to see the pros I want to see the cons because it also helps us in making a good decision a good policy decision madam

[02:07:20] chair so I want to object to it but I have concerns that I hope are highlighted and addressed when staff comes back to us and I obviously will be highlighting them myself so thank you and that is fair but I do think staff usually gives us an opinion on you know their professional opinion and it is up to the board to set the policy based on what it is we're seeing out in our community so madam chair very rarely they do other than land use and i think that if we do it when it comes to land use it should be across the board well i certainly respect your opinion um we can agree to disagree but i would

[02:07:56] say so with that there are no objections that means we do have i did have my life so i don't I apologize to everyone. Yeah, you're not showing up on me, but during closed session, IT will come up. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you very much. That's okay.

[02:08:11] That's okay. So I just wanted to say that I am in support of this. I think we've worked very hard in making sure that we have a crisp, clean ordinance for collective bargaining with our lawyers, with our HR, with the unions.

[02:08:28] We've worked very hard to make sure that it's clear and transparent. I agree with Madam Chair that what we're about to approve now or direct county exec to do, the impact from the GA doesn't have any impact on us.

[02:08:46] I think it's a very good thing in that I've talked to other counties that have collective bargaining, and this is nothing different than their ordinances. So I think it's safe to say that we are going in a transparent direction.

[02:09:02] Certainly respect, Supervisor Baker, your questions. No, I'm sorry. We're just figuring out the thing here. Keep going. No, thank you. Respect, Supervisor Baker, your questions, because it is new territory for us, and we have to make sure.

[02:09:18] But I think, just comparatively speaking with the other counties, that we are in good standing and how Madam Chair has just led us to this point. And so I appreciate the directive to make sure that we're landing safely, and I will be supporting this. Supervisor Ingrid.

[02:09:34] Thank you, Madam Chair. This is our last group. So as we started this whole journey between fire and police, I was waiting on our general employees to come in and step in. To that piece of language, I think the question is relevant to make sure that the other two organizations that we just did this for, does not open it in a Pandora's box on how to, and I don't even understand the signature piece and what that means. Just want to make sure that the language is the same across the board with

[02:10:08] all, and I don't know if it has to be that way for all three. So language, go ahead, I'm sorry, I'll let you chime in. Madam Chair, members of the board, the language will be applicable to all the bargaining units that this board has identified. As you said, the other two units have already moved forward. However, if the General Assembly passes something, and currently right now your ordinance will go and stay in effect until 2028 but after that you will need to get rid of your ordinance and go with the state's ordinance which will open it up for more than three could open it up for that so it all depends upon what the general assembly does true

[02:10:46] because that was my second point to what's happening in the general assembly because i think we all need to be very cautiously aware that all this work that we've done with all of our groups and all the money we've invested the money we've invested will just be money we invested but we will start start of a fresh in 2028 we're doing all of these again with all three groups which is a very much concern and there's some language in there that is a real big concern that we really should be concerned about now i think princeton county alden county other counties have been good stewards and been fair to figure out this and this is why i was waiting on our third

[02:11:23] group to get in there but i do have concerns that if the state just do a sweeping rule you know there are other localities i'll just speak for them right now that can't do what we just did but also the fact that we will have to do this all again and i think that's very concerning when we've just solved this and i've been waiting on our final group to come in so we can now have a holistic approach so i just i just if you know folks in richmond i think it's worth talking about what potentially can be coming next because I think we've solved our issue here in Prince William County so just want to put that piece out there all right I am sorry again anyone else all right

[02:12:00] so we are thank you very much we are going to go into closed session everyone gets 10 minutes

[02:12:08] including me 10 minutes I'll hold us to it thank you all right everyone we're back from closed

[02:15:46] session can I 13a can I get a motion to certify so move second it's been properly moved and second let's take our votes i'm not popping i'm a yes all right thank you we are in recess until our

[02:16:05] seven o'clock meeting welcome back it is seven o'clock we are going to resume our meeting we are

[02:17:41] going to start so we have a few things on um our evening agenda i was going to separate out 14 a 14 b and and then do 14 b and 14 c separately but i'm going to go ahead i don't know who's here for what do we have a lot of people signed up for okay so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to I'll open up the public hearing for 14a separately so if we can get the people who have signed up for

[02:18:14] 14a I'm sorry what oh yeah I'm sorry you're right I'm I need a little more coffee on my system I'm sorry so 14a if you guys can come on up good evening chair Jefferson and members of the board my name is jonelle cameron with walsh collucci lubili and walsh here tonight on behalf of the

[02:18:52] applicant lee realty seeking a special use permit to allow for a motor vehicle fuel station an association with the buy right convenience store and restaurant with a sign modification the property is located at the intersection of sudley road here and fairmont fairmont avenue here it's a little less than two acres in size the property is currently zoned b1 commercial and PMR plan mixed residential with the commercial land bay.

[02:19:25] The B1 portion of the property has been zoned that way since at least 1968, and the PMR portion of the property was zoned in 2014 with the Heritage Crossing rezoning. It is designated mixed use for in the comprehensive plan.

[02:19:41] This slide shows the existing building. It is a vacant funeral store, I'm sorry, a vacant funeral home that was on the property. It had three access points on Sudley Road and then two access points on Fortress.

[02:20:01] This slide is a contextual exhibit showing how the gas station and convenience store fits in with the surrounding area. And this slide zooms in and is illustrative of the special use permit plan.

[02:20:17] The applicant is proposing a 5,600 square foot convenience store and quick service food store and restaurant. And it will have six double-sided pumps. The applicant is proposing extensive landscaping above and beyond what is required by the zoning ordinance.

[02:20:33] The applicant is proposing 20% tree cover, which is double that of the 10% requirement, and 43% of open space, which is almost three times the 15% requirement. The applicant is proposing a 20-foot landscape strip along Sudley Road in this area here, a 10-foot landscape strip along Fairmont Avenue in this area here, and then a variable width buffer along Blairmore ranging from 30 feet to 80 feet, and a 10-foot landscape strip along Fortress in this area here.

[02:21:08] There were a lot of discussions regarding access to the site. Based on feedback from VDOT, they would not allow direct access on Sudley Road and required that the three access points be removed. Therefore, there is a single access point from Blairmore here and a single access point from Fortress Drive in this area here.

[02:21:32] When meeting with the nearby residents, they expressed strong concerns as it relates to cut-through traffic through their neighborhood. The applicant offered mitigation measures, which are now conditioned to help mitigate these concerns. These mitigation measures included limiting the access on Blairmore to right-in, left-out only, and channelizing that access point to accommodate those movements, and limiting the access on Fortress to right and left in and right out only.

[02:22:00] They proffered, I'm sorry, conditioned raised crosswalks on Blairmore, speed bumps on Fortress, and then also conditioned subject to Heritage Crossing HOA, VDOT, and Prince William County DOT approval that they would install up to two barrier arms on the Heritage Crossing property.

[02:22:21] If approval could not be obtained, the applicant is conditioned to look at other mitigation measures. And then just to point those out to you, here is the right-in, left-out only. Here is the right-out, right-in, left-in access point.

[02:22:43] These are the proposed raised crosswalks. This is the proposed speed bump. And then these are the locations for those two barrier arms. In the next couple of slides, I'll review with you the architecture.

[02:22:59] This is the exterior building materials. They include brick and block metal panels, cement and batten side, stamped concrete, decorative wood beams, and aluminum cladding longboards. These are the side elevations. This slide shows the gas canopy.

[02:23:16] The applicant is seeking the sign modification to allow for three gas canopy signs instead of two. This slide shows the monument sign. It is conditioned that the monument materials will match the building as well as landscaping around the base of the sign.

[02:23:32] this slide shows the trash enclosure which is a gated steel frame composite panel longboard and steel post and we thought it would be helpful when we were meeting with the community for them to be able to see a visual of what the gas station would look like so we provided line of sight renderings of what it would look like at full maturity of the trees so what you're seeing here is at a 10-year growth canopy and this is the view from Fairmont in Blairmore if you're looking here this is the

[02:24:05] view from Blairmore and Fortress if you're looking at this area here. This is the view from Sudley Road and Fortress from this area here. And then this is the view from Sudley Road and Fairmont from this area here. One of the weaknesses in the staff report we thought would be helpful to explain and it pertains to the buffer that is adjacent to Blairmore. The original approved rezoning for the PMR so that commercial land bay in this area here provided an approved 30-foot buffer. The DCSM

[02:24:43] does not require a buffer adjacent to commercial, so commercial adjacent to commercial does not require a buffer. So the only buffer that was ever planned in between the commercial and heritage crossing was that 30-foot buffer that was proffered as part of the heritage crossing buffer.

[02:25:02] Nonetheless, the applicant did do a variable width buffer that ranges from 30 feet to 80 feet along Blairmore. This slide shows the extensive community outreach that was held with the community. The applicant met with HOA board members several times and then also held community meetings, the latest ones being in 2025.

[02:25:26] The applicant held a virtual community meeting, and the community asked that the applicant hold a meeting in person. So the applicant also held a meeting in person with the residents. Letters were sent out to all of the residents within the HOA. And based on the community feedback, there were a lot of changes that were made throughout this project.

[02:25:48] And so we thought it would be helpful. The first submission was in 2018. And so from 2018 to the final submission, the applicant relocated the underground storage tank so they would be furthest away from the residential.

[02:26:04] They also relocated the actual gas canopies a little bit further away. They also added substantial landscaping, so more landscaping on Blairmore. They, as I mentioned previously, changed the entrance points so that it's right in only, left out only.

[02:26:26] And then the access here is right in, left in, right out only. and essentially to help discourage users from using Blairmore Drive. And then the applicant also proffered to all of the transportation mitigation measures that I mentioned earlier.

[02:26:43] And then this slide is the illustrative SUP again, and I can answer any questions that you all may have. All right. Does anyone have any questions for the applicant? All right. I don't see anyone in queue, so I'll go ahead and let the county present.

[02:27:04] Good evening, Chair Jefferson, board members.

[02:27:22] name is Alex Venegas from the planning office, and I'm the second case planner on this. Scott Meyer was the original. I took it over as we were moving this application forward. So for this request, we have a request for a special use permit to allow motor vehicle fuel station with a quick service food store, restaurant, and associated signage modification on approximately 1.92 acres. The location of this property, as explained earlier, is right off of Sudley Road

[02:27:58] near the intersection of Fairmont Avenue and Fortrosse Road. The applicant is requesting to do six double-sided fuel stations for a total of 12 fuel positions in addition to the food store and restaurant. The proposed main building is approximately 4,900 square feet. Staff is recommended in approval. As mentioned earlier, this property is split. It's B1 with PMR.

[02:28:32] In the long-range land use, the designation is mixed-use 4. It is in the Sudley Road corridor, redevelopment corridor. And this is the layout for the special use permit. Janelle went through this. I think what's important is they were limited ingress and egress to two locations.

[02:29:04] The first one is a write-in at this location and only a left out so that people aren't Going down Blair more the second entrance is off of Suddenly Road, which the applicant is putting a taper here And then this one is a write-out only and then you can come in either way on Fortress Drive This is a landscaping plan The applicant did enhance the landscaping to address some of the concerns from the community

[02:29:42] And staff is supportive of this we do have to look at the zoning ordinance though and look at the Requirements of the DCSM and and I think Janelle explained their position on the the landscaping Associated with this project one of the things that I think the applicant did a great job and and to the credit of Supervisor Vega's office, she had mentioned that, you know, Loudoun County and Fairfax County have

[02:30:17] these nicer convenience stores, and Director Washington and myself, we went up and looked at one, and it's just beautiful the way it is, and we'd like to see more quality design like this in Prince William County. So we appreciate the help in navigating the applicant towards providing us that, uh, quality material. Um, these are the signage, uh, modifications that they're requesting on the canopy. Uh, and this is a monument sign that the applicant, uh, had just went over and

[02:30:53] staff is recommending, uh, approval for, uh, special use permit, uh, 2019 dash 0023 Fairmont fuel, formerly known as sheets because it was supposed to be a sheets before. Uh, so, um, you this this application has changed over the time period and as proposed the SUP addresses all the impacts I know that the applicant has worked with the community I've had conversations with mr. white I believe he's here this evening yeah he expressed some concerns and we've worked with the applicant to

[02:31:33] address most of those concerns through the conditions and staff has recommended approval and we'll gladly take any questions from the board um does anyone have questions i know supervisor vega was going to hold hers but does anyone else have any questions all right then now i can go back i was jumping ahead of myself but now i can i'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for item 14a i have a list of people for those of you who have not been here before i'm going to call you up you're going to go to the back podium you have up to five minutes

[02:32:12] to speak um unless you um you have up to five minutes to speak unless you are approved for an approved um hoa or non-profit organization and then sorry wait hold on yeah three three three minutes i'm tired it's been a long day three minutes five minutes if you are um yeah i had too much good food for dinner not enough caffeine three minutes to speak if you are approved hoa or non-profit then you have up to five minutes you're going to start by stating your name and the magisterial district in which you reside you don't have to give your address if you want to give your

[02:32:49] address maybe i'll show for dinner i don't know um but i'm going to start with ryan white jacqueline may perhaps jack elias natur imad natur and emil natur and if you can all stand at the back you will see the timer up there just waiting for everyone to all right sir you may begin

[02:33:24] thank you my name is ryan white i'm from the coals district and thanks for having us tonight it's been a long time coming if you look at the past interaction with the hoa and h and community members. I think anything prior to 2025 was a very different tone. And the tone that we've had with the applicant now has been much more back and forth. We've pushed back quite a bit, dealt with multiple groups. No one wants to live in a gas station or next to a gas station. I certainly don't. I don't think anybody here wants to. Certainly go to gas stations. But living next to it, maybe not so much. But they've been more engaged and understanding. And the number one

[02:34:04] question that we've had is how do we protect our kids if you look at the diagrams the traffic dumps right onto the crag and lane which is full of kids and they play in the street because they don't really have any other options and the number one concern is 24 7 commercial traffic going straight on the residential street with kids on it number one way to get rid of that gates and we've had some issues with our hoa board and hoa members the owners and understanding what is wanted by the community. Nobody on the HOA board has young children, so that may be part of it.

[02:34:41] I do. I don't want my kid playing in the street, but I certainly don't want her risking running out in front of a car that's leaving from picking up gas. So no more concern safety, and the only way to really mitigate that is the gates. Currently, there's a four-month opt-in window after completion, and I'm requesting that they increase that to one year.

[02:35:01] That gives us time as a community to vote in new people on the HOA board that can address these issues with the community. There's two spots open this year for a three-person board, unless they want to act before then. Also, I would like to see engagement with the community still.

[02:35:23] This is kind of like the leverage point now, right? And we've been dealing with this since 2019. After this is approved, I'm assuming it's going to be approved. After this is approved, we have no leverage on what we're looking for, and we don't have the kind of financial backing to fight it. So I would love to seek engagement with the applicant to figure out what kind of gates can go in that can't be driven around, that are strong, tough gates that won't be broken down in a year or six months to keep people safe, because that's the number one concern.

[02:35:55] Speed bumps aren't going to do it. Raised crosswalks aren't going to do it. The only thing that's going to do it is a physical barrier, And the only physical barrier that we can deal with in this neighborhood outside of closing off those streets, which I think would be a fire hazard probably, is gates.

[02:36:11] So that's the two things, continued engagement with the community, not necessarily the board, but the community as a whole, and gates with a one-year opt-in after the end of the construction. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Madam Chair, Board of Supervisors.

[02:36:32] My name is Dr. Jacqueline May, and I live in Heritage Crossing right next to where this fuel station will be proposed. I'm not a planner or an expert, but I am a homeowner and a neighbor. This decision will affect my family directly.

[02:36:49] Proposing a 24-hour gas station with 12 pumps, approximately 5,600 square feet convenience store immediately next door to my home, that's not a good option for me as a homeowner. It means lights all night, delivery trucks, engines idling, and constant cars coming, going at every time throughout my neighborhood and in my backyard.

[02:37:20] With this increased traffic at all hours, more turning movements near the neighborhood entrance, greater safety concerns for our children who walk, bike, and wait for school buses nearby. Even with traffic measures, the intensity of 24-hour operation brings a risk that simply cannot be landscaped away.

[02:37:41] For many of us, our home is our largest financial investment. Property values are affected by location and surrounding uses. Being directly adjacent to a 24-hour round-the-clock fuel station changes how buyers perceive our neighborhood.

[02:37:58] That affects not just comfort, but equity and long-term investment in financial security for my family. My neighbors and I chose Heritage Crossing because it's a residential community. We expect development on Sutley Road, but we did not expect it to be right in my backyard and around the clock fuel station directly in our neighborhood.

[02:38:24] I'm not anti-development. We understand this property can be used for commercial purposes. We simply are asking that there is something compatible to what the people nearby would really want there, and it's not a gas station because we got several that have been built there in that area.

[02:38:43] So when you cast your vote, please remember the families that are beyond that property line who will live there with the consequences every single day. And I respectfully ask you to deny this permit and protect my neighborhood.

[02:38:59] Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Elias Natour. I live in the Coles District. What is wrong with this? Get rid of that old building.

[02:39:15] Put a brand new building. I'm all for it. Look at the building. It's terrible. That gas station is unbelievable. That's what this county needs, a new building right there on that ground. Okay, thank you. Next speaker, please.

[02:39:34] Good evening. Thank you for having us. My name is Ahmad Natour. I am totally for this gas station. I actually have a visit gas station just like it. It's not a high-volume traffic.

[02:39:50] It's a much nicer building. And I think when you buy a house, you kind of look at the community and see what's around it. You know, something's going to be developed there, whether if it's a gas station or not. Children playing in the street should not play in the street.

[02:40:07] You buy a house with a development where they have a park, a pool, and that's where the children should be. So I am totally for it. Sometimes, you know, things get built that we don't like, but it's what it is. The developers should have planned something different prior to this.

[02:40:29] And the people that bought in knew what they were going to get. It's an empty building. It's going to eventually be developed to something, you know, and this is what it is. So I am totally for it. The building is old. It needs to be demolished. It's revenue for the county, and it's a much nicer building.

[02:40:47] Thank you. All right, before I call the next speaker, I'm going to have a couple other folks also join the queue. I have Pamela Crouch, Richard Crouch, and Mary Ramirez. So if you guys can go and stand.

[02:41:03] And so again, that's Mary Ramirez, Pamela Crouch, Richard Crouch. All right, sir, thank you for your patience.

[02:41:28] You may now begin. Good evening. My name is Emil, and I do support the development of the Fairmont fuel station. I believe that having that more upscale fuel station is beneficial to this county.

[02:41:46] Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, everyone. I'm a resident of Heritage Crossing. Personally, I don't oppose with gas station. The only concern I have is that it is directly next to our homes.

[02:42:08] And it's basically only like a 30 feet or 40 feet wide road that separates us. And another thing is that the development is accessing our residential road. I don't know, as the residents, what happened with our three-person HOA board having a settlement with the applicant.

[02:42:32] And it's not totally transparent to us what was happened. It was asked during the planning commission, but they will not divulge what happened in their meeting. So as residents, we want transparency as well. And if you see that Blairmore, the width of it, having all the traffic coming out and in of the gas station and from the community, it will be congested.

[02:43:00] We already shared during the planning public hearing that there were accidents happened in that intersection. And even like a few weeks, few days ago, there's like, you know, in that intersection, especially during the snow days.

[02:43:16] but the we are waiting for like the traffic or transportation data report and miss janelle also listed all the consultation from the residents but they did not tell you what happened during the consultation what are our concerns we asked for like environmental impact to the community the transportation or the traffic flows that affects and the safety to our families until now

[02:43:47] we haven't received those data. And as part of the county staff report, the minimum like buffer requirement should be 250 feet, but it was mentioned it's only 30 to 80 feet. And I don't know why the county staff agreed to lower it to 30 feet. So if it's 250 feet, it should be 100 feet buffer. And now they're accessing the residential road. So I hope that you consider all these concerns and maybe need

[02:44:25] further study or check. Maybe visit the actual location for you to also see the condition. Thank you. Before you go, just state your name for the record, please. My name is Mary Ramirez. Thank you.

[02:44:40] All right. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Pamela Crouch. Please adjust the microphone. You're a little hard to hear. Thank you. Down. Just move it closer to you. Oh, speak closer.

[02:44:56] Yeah. Well, I have a loud voice, so I wasn't sure. I am for this dash in coming. I travel Sudley Road all of the time.

[02:45:11] Yes, it's congested with traffic. All of Prince William is congested with traffic. We have more and more and more businesses and families coming into the area all the time. there is a light at Fairmont. There is three lanes now. I believe there's also a turning lane coming off of Sudley Road onto Fairmont. As far as the housing development behind this proposed building, this building's been there a lot longer than the subdivision that's behind it.

[02:45:46] It originally was a gas station way back in my younger day, and it has been other businesses since then, and currently it is a closed, defunct funeral home that is boarded up and doesn't present the area very nicely at all. From the pictures and from seeing the dash in in person, that is a wonderful piece of business to go on that corridor. Sudley Road is not the nicest built-up area. This

[02:46:23] would improve it immensely and as far as children and being in the road and things like that personally children shouldn't play in the road they have a backyard or they can go to a park so um i mean i watched my children and i'm sure you watch your children we all want children to be safe we want everyone to be safe but we also need businesses to come into this county that are going to make it much nicer to come to it's it's you have businesses going across the street

[02:47:01] they're all up and down the corridor there I think personally this would be a big improvement for Prince William County and so I am definitely for it thank you and if you could just state your magisterial district or where you generally reside I'm sorry your magisterial district if you could state that for the record or where you generally reside I'm just in the Manassas all All right. I'm a traveler up and down Sudley Road. I don't know how else to put that.

[02:47:27] All right. I mean, I used to be over on Princeville Road, but I'm not there right now. All right, sir. Okay, thank you. Now, I'm expecting you to know exactly what to do since I, you know, state your name, where you generally reside. Richard Crouch. I approved the project. It's going to be a good point for the county because you get a better...

[02:47:52] If you can also adjust your microphone so we can hear you. i approved the project that's all thank you and you generally reside in the same area as your wife all right we are now going to move on to virtual our virtual public hearings supervisor angry do we have anyone yes well we should have a a few do we have anyone online no okay all right thanks

[02:48:26] all right for 14a before i close the public hearing did we have anyone else who wanted to sign up and speak or anyone else want to speak. Okay, Ms. Ellis, if you can go to the back, state your name, where you generally reside. Rachel Ellis, Gainesville District. I'm going to make this short and sweet. I don't live in this area, so I'm asking you to please listen to the homeowners. They do. They're the ones that are going to be impacted by this. Please listen to

[02:49:01] the homeowners. Thank you. Next speaker. I'm Kenneth Nixon, Coles District, and I live in that community. I appreciate the comments for those who don't live in that community. If you ever visit the community if kids are outside on their bikes walking through the neighborhood playing with their friends the last thing as parents we want is traffic flowing through not knowing the character or the community and an accident happens you have to recognize yes a community is built there

[02:49:37] but at a but suddenly road we have three surrounding gas stations they're building a a car wash across the street but nasa's park traffic from 28 flows through there so now when you add a gas station on top of the community with access into the community we're not talking about the roads we're talking about the roads in the actual community that creates a serious risk that parents and homeowners in my community are asking to be mitigated that's what this is about

[02:50:13] not denying it mitigating the risk to the residents in the community thank you ma'am you may speak clearly state your name and where you reside my name is erica michael move it move it um you need to really lean into that mic okay my name is erica michael lean in no it might be hard to see but my mic is literally right at my mouth that's what i need from you hello yes thank you okay my name is

[02:50:49] Sirka Michael. I'm a resident, and please, please, please listen to the residents who is paying the bill, paying the mortgage, paying the HOA. I don't understand why outsiders decided for the community.

[02:51:08] This is unfair. Security, health-wise, everything is affected to the residents, not passing by. You don't like that area? Please pass by another area. Thank you very much.

[02:51:24] Thank you. Our clerk of the court is actually going to give you the sign-up sheet because I wasn't able to catch your name so if you can just write it on there so that we have it for our record all right thank you very much i'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing for 14a and i'm going to invite the applicant to come back up and to address the concerns that we've heard there's anything you would like to respond to miss cameron yes and i will try to answer them in the order that i heard them but a lot of it pertains to the use so this property has always

[02:51:58] been designed and developed even when heritage crossing was um rezoned to be a commercial area and the applicant we've heard a lot about gas stations but this is not just a gas station the convenience really is more of a neighborhood service use that provides grocery options as well as made to order food like a restaurant um and so we just wanted to hit on that the applicant heard the concerns regarding traffic and really did take those concerns seriously so look to mitigate those measures and add speed humps that don't exist today and traffic calming measures

[02:52:36] access was always anticipated to this site to be from blairmore drive with the original rezoning application and so the applicant did do that as well as the condition for the barrier arms um for lighting i just wanted to address that the county is part of their site plan process you have to do a photometric plan so essentially what that means is you have to show that your lighting will not spill off off of the site the applicant has a condition that the lighting will be downward facing um which and the applicant also has a condition that they would do a courtesy

[02:53:10] review with the heritage crossing hoa to review lighting um the canopy i heard um just questions regarding distance so just wanted to hit that i know supervisor vega um during your questions you often want to know just distance from the structures to the nearest home so the canopy is the closest structure is 215 feet away um canopy to the closest resident and then i think i hit all of the comments but if you have any or if i missed any i'll be happy to answer those

[02:53:44] questions all right thank you supervisor vega you're in a queue thank you madam chair uh first off uh good evening everyone uh thank you to the folks um that live in this neighborhood for coming out ryan it's been a long time coming i'm talking about years in the making um and i also certainly want to thank the applicant uh for all of their diligence and the time that they've spent in my office. One of the things that I take great pride in from our office is how thorough and how much attention to detail we pay to any land use application that comes into the district.

[02:54:23] I want to reassure everyone who came out, some of your faces are new to me as I have not engaged with you throughout this entire process, but just want to reassure that my first ask is always go to the community, see what the concerns are, and address those concerns. I then myself go out to the community and I engage the community to ensure that those concerns have been addressed. I can in good faith say that this applicant has done just that. I did, Ryan, per your email, speak to the applicant and asked if it would be possible to extend the four-month to the one-year to allow

[02:55:00] for further review. And I believe that we have consensus on that, Ms. Jonel? Yes. Okay. And so that will be done. I think that the history surrounding this project is important. The issue that we have with the access to now this business that's coming to the county was set by the developer of your community. That's where this all started. And so I understand the anger and the frustration, but it had nothing to do with the county. It had nothing to do with you with the homeowners but it had everything to do with the developer and that decision was made and it's a decision that my office nor the county can undo so here we are presented with a proposal and my

[02:55:39] job is to make that proposal better to ensure that I address safety concerns um you know access concerns and how I make it better and we've done just that um and I want to thank Joe Fontanella who at the time was um the planning commissioner in the Coles district now we have Miss Carla Justice who has done a phenomenal job also engaging the applicant and ensuring that we've mitigated all concerns. VDOT, Alex, if you could please come up and explain to us a little bit more in detail why VDOT said that access to the gas station off of Sudley was not warranted.

[02:56:15] Supervisor Vega, I have George Phillips from the Transportation Department. Even better. Come on up, George. So he can give you the specific details. For the record, George Phillips with Prince William County DOT. Supervisor Vega, good question. VDOT on roads like Sudley, arterial roads, the idea is to keep through traffic flowing, and the idea is to minimize individual access points, which create interference.

[02:56:47] Thank you. Pretty clear and direct. And continuing down memory lane, there's also been a lot of issues in regards to the relationship between the HOA board and members of the community. I've done my very best to go out and listen to the community while also engaging the HOA board but it is not my job to try to sort that relationship out or to fix it and I want the general public that is here that lives in the community to know that we've engaged members of the community we've also engaged the HOA board but whatever the dynamics

[02:57:23] of their relationship are are beyond my control and I've done my very best to sort of play mediator um but like i said uh it's it's it's a challenging relationship and i and i'm thankful to the applicant for agreeing to that extension because if the board does change it gives uh the incoming members an opportunity to go back to the applicant and figure out what all we're going to do um in regards to addressing uh safety concerns for the children that that do play um in the streets and they have every right to ride their bikes in the street and to skateboard and to skate um while also

[02:57:59] feeling safe and their parents feeling that their children are safe. I also want to highlight that every section of this application does check out with our comprehensive plan, action strategies, goals, and policies. I also want to talk a little bit about the revitalizing conversations that we have had with Supervisor Gordy, Supervisor Stewart, and if you drive by this area and by this property, The reality is that there's no other way to put it.

[02:58:27] It's just ugly. There's trash everywhere. We've had issues where we've had to work with the police department because we've had people breaking into this building, living in there, doing illegal acts. And it's been an eyesore, among other things. And so the fact that we have an applicant who has been willing to work with our office, we've been a bit demanding, and we've asked for a lot, and we understand that.

[02:58:50] But I am thankful that the applicant has listened and has complied. I did myself also drive to Loudoun County because I wanted to see the product, and I fell in love with it. And I said, I want that in Prince William County. And it is my understanding that should this pass tonight, it will be the first dash-in in Prince William County.

[02:59:08] And so I believe that it's going to be a great addition to our county. And with that, Madam Chair, I would like to move special use permit 2019-00023 Fairmont Fuel Station forward for approval. Second.

[02:59:23] All right. It's been properly moved, seconded. I think Bodie came before Gordie. I mean, I'm sorry, Bailey came before. All right. Bailey came before Gordie. So discussion. I see Supervisor Bodie in the queue. Thank you, Madam Chair. And one, I want to thank the community members who came out. I know that when you have a property like this that sits vacant for a long time, you're used to not very much activity going on there. And suddenly, like you all said, suddenly you're going to have the traffic that comes through that's related to a gas station that's very well counted. And I appreciate you folks that came out. Talk about your children,

[03:00:00] right? We can't always control where our children are going to come out in the street playing on bikes, playing with toys, doing, you know, little ATVs, all those kinds of things. But I think that Surazor Vega, with your leadership on this and with this developer, with this applicant, have come up with a pretty good solution with the gates right um the raised crosswalks the other mitigations and i heard some folks say it tonight mitigations right we we will never have a situation where you know we have a new use like this where it's currently vacant where you're you have 120 mitigation but we do have a good set of mitigations that have been been put together here

[03:00:38] but that's well so that's well taken two um i think this needs to be highlighted again the county has to work with VDOT on these projects. If VDOT says, hey, we cannot have more cut-ins or, you know, keep the cut-ins that already exist on Sudley Road, there's nothing really the county can do about that because Sudley is a state-maintained road. So that's part of the negotiation we always have to do. And frankly, for folks that are concerned about accidents, you know, having too many cut-ins to some of these properties would cause more accidents because you could suddenly have a more chaotic movement but again we'll take in there the last thing i'll say is i always

[03:01:18] appreciate it when we have new businesses coming into the county things that we have not seen before um because again that sets the tone that shows that you know this applicant is willing to come in and revitalize and redevelop a property in a redevelopment corridor right so that sets a good tone for them um it sounds to me like there is a request from the community to engage even after this. That's not uncommon.

[03:01:46] I know that Suarez or Vega will help shepherd that kind of dialogue through. So for that, I will be supporting this project. But again, congratulations to Suarez or Vega on working on this. All right. Is there anyone else? Supervisor Stewart? So I want to thank the developer or the person that wants to build here for extending the four months out to a year. As a former member of an HOA myself, I know how rapidly things

[03:02:18] can change once a new HOA starts their agenda in a community, so to speak. So kudos for that. And look, I think this is beautiful.

[03:02:35] I'd like to see more architecturally forward developments like this come forward in a space that really needs to be revitalized. Yeah, because the funeral home that was there is ugly.

[03:02:57] Okay, so anyway, that's it. Thank you very much. All right, is there anyone else? I can certainly understand the concern for children. It's easy to say they shouldn't play in the roads, but yes, they might be skateboarding.

[03:03:13] They might be riding their bikes. We want to make sure that we maintain a safe and secure community. It sounds like the barrier arms, the barriers will help mitigate things. And I'm proud that, you know, thank you for working out the extension. I think that gives the community ample time to have a new board in place and to continue these conversations.

[03:03:34] I will be supporting this because of the mitigation efforts. And with that, since there's no one else looking to speak, we'll just go ahead and call for the vote. It's not working, so I'll be a verbal yes.

[03:03:58] Vote unanimous. All right, thank you so very much, and thank you to everyone who came out today. We are going to move on. I will give people a little bit of time to exit, and I'll give the applicant for 4B and 4C time to come up.

[03:04:16] For everyone staying for that, we are going to, the rezoning, the SUP, they're going to present at one time, and I will do the public hearing for both of them at the same time.

[03:04:36] Andre, we have a few people. Just wanted to note while we're in transition, we have a few people whose screen are not working.

[03:05:12] All right. We're going to move on to 14B and 14C. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Mark Looney with the law firm of Cooley on behalf of the applicant. I'm pleased to present this project to you all tonight because, as you will see, I think it represents a unique opportunity for Prince William County in an effort to try to solve one of the largest vexing problems that I think the community has from an economic development standpoint, which is how do you incent the market to create new industrial space to backfill the industrial space that over time

[03:05:52] has been lost due to development of data centers specifically, but in a way that has priced out existing businesses in the county. And so as we talk about this, I want you to think about that in the context of this application. Specifically, we think that this is a benchmark opportunity for the county in three different ways. One is the opportunity to recognize the contributions of long-term residents and business owners in the county who really help create what is your signature economic development project in an innovation park. Secondly, to provide space for

[03:06:30] existing Prince William County businesses to stay in the county even as further industrial development and redevelopment occurs and displaces them and ultimately prices them out of the marketplace. And thirdly, it's establishing a higher baseline for future projects that come through the county.

[03:06:50] And when I talk about that, I mean in terms of architecture, sustainability, community partnerships with George Mason University and others, as well as because there's a data center component to this, no new transmission lines are required in order to serve this development for reasons that I'll get into in a second.

[03:07:13] Just to give you a little bit of context, because we understand that over time, things in the immediate memory is what dominates a lot of the conversation. But if we think about Innovation Park, the vision for what is now Innovation Park really started in the late 1970s when the Libby family purchased 150 acres of land.

[03:07:38] In 1982, they were joined by the Odin family, the Feldman family, the founding members of the Odin, Feldman, and Piddleman law firm, along with the Rinker family and 30-some-odd other investors who bought a stake in the Libby family's holdings.

[03:07:55] Over the next 50 years, or 40 years, they have sought to implement the vision that they set out in the early 1980s for what Innovation Park is today. They donated, along with other landowners, land for what is now George Mason University's Prince William campus, and a real jewel for the county's economic development activities.

[03:08:16] The creation of George Mason University spurred the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia Department of Transportation to construct the Prince William Parkway in order to provide access to the George Mason University campus. They then set out, working in concert with the county, to create the idea for what is now the Town Center for Innovation Park.

[03:08:38] Remember that back before the Town Center was initiated, this was the industrial park for Prince William County. You or your predecessors intentionally brought residential into an industrial park in order to create the vibrant mixed-use community that Stanley Martin is trying to implement today.

[03:08:57] The residents were intentionally brought in to add life to an industrial park. The industrial park has always been there. The parcel that we are left with, as we'll talk about tonight, from those original holdings, is approximately 40 acres in size.

[03:09:14] It was bifurcated from the rest of the holdings and the town center with the creation of the Prince William Parkway. And with the approval of this application, you're essentially closing the book on a 50-year chapter of Prince William County's history. So let's talk about the specifics of what the family and the owners call the toothpick parcel. I mentioned that it was bifurcated or created through the construction and widening of Prince William Parkway. It's long and skinny. There's no access to the parkway directly. It only has access to Hornbaker Road and limited access to

[03:09:51] Wellington Road. There are existing Novec distribution lines that crisscross the property today. To the west is heavy industrial uses. To the south is county-owned property. And there are approved and under construction data centers and substations directly across the street from Hornbaker, directly across Hornbaker Road from the site. The current zoning on the property is A1.

[03:10:17] The comp plan designation as of the last comp plan update is for I-3 with an emphasis on data center and other industrial uses. It's within the T-Od overlay district, and it's within the small area plan of Innovation Park.

[03:10:32] What you see on the screen in pink are transmission lines that the State Corporation Commission, at the end of 2025, approved for Dominion to construct to connect the Pegasus substation, which was approved with the TA Realty Data Center project across the street a number of years ago, to be served and linked with other substations to the north and to the south of this site.

[03:11:01] Those transmission lines are coming to this site. That substation is already under construction today. And there is, regardless of whether this application is approved, those transmission lines are going to be constructed and that substation is going to be energized.

[03:11:20] So what are the unicorn elements of this project? I call them unicorn because they are things that are either new or relatively untested in Prince William County. First and foremost, as I talked about earlier, this is an opportunity to provide an economic solution for a problem that is challenging the county, the loss of existing industrial land.

[03:11:44] We've all seen the prices that companies are paying to acquire industrially zoned land for data center uses. What we're not seeing is the fact that that is driving a very low vacancy rate in existing industrial product within the county.

[03:12:02] Along the I-95 corridor, as of middle of 2025, your occupancy rates or your vacancy rates for industrial properties was below 2%. The countywide average on any given month can be between 2.5% and 5% vacancy.

[03:12:19] That essentially means every building is full. And unless you are providing new industrial space, every time an existing business is displaced out of an industrial building, they have nowhere to go in the county. They can't afford to buy new product because they can't compete with the pricing that is in the marketplace for those uses.

[03:12:40] So you need to be creative at how you backfill that existing industrial space. What this project is doing, as I'll talk about in a second, is it's providing an industrial building with a data center building to pay for it. So we're creating the opportunity to build a 300,000 square foot industrial building by subsidizing its construction with a data center component.

[03:13:01] As I mentioned earlier, there are existing transmission lines and existing substations that are going to service this site. There's 100 megawatts of power available at that substation. We'll run distribution lines directly under Hornbaker Road in order to serve this site.

[03:13:17] No new transmission lines to serve it. We're building a partnership with George Mason University to accomplish some of the things that Innovation Park has wanted to do but has not yet done, including committing to be a charter member of what I'll call a business improvement district for Innovation Park. We also have talked with the university and with Supervisor Gordy's office about establishing a data center, center of excellence at the George Mason campus. You have all of these facilities in your county. You can be leading the conversation on how to build them better when they come into your community by utilizing the opportunities at George Mason.

[03:13:56] As I'll show you in a second, you're going to have first-class design, probably what I think is the best data center building design that the county has seen to date. We have firm commitments to sustainability measures, including closed-loop cooling systems and the use of Tier 4 equivalent generators on site, which effectively means that 90% of the emissions of nitrous oxide and other pollutants are reduced or eliminated from the site.

[03:14:26] In order to do that, however, we need to rezone the property. We need to go from A1 to M2. We have two special use permits that accompany the rezoning, one for the industrial building component, the second for the data center use. We're not asking for modifications for FAR or height.

[03:14:46] The data center building would be 75 feet, excuse me, 80 feet inclusive of mechanical equipment. The industrial building would be 75 feet. We have a proffer in for noise standards, but obviously would ultimately be governed by the new noise ordinance that the board has adopted.

[03:15:06] We also have a couple of modifications that go along with it, specifically the landscape requirements along Prince William Parkway, where the odd shape of the parcel, given where and how the parkway was designed and its relationship to Hornbaker, the property is squeezed at a couple of locations, so we need the ability to put drive aisles and parking within the setback from Prince William Parkway. These are the elevations for the data center building. You'll notice a lot more glass, a lot more vertical elements to the project. One

[03:15:40] thing to note, two things to note, one is the architects took their inspiration from other buildings and other uses within an innovation park, including two silos, including the the Performing Arts Center. We're trying to speak the language of Innovation Park.

[03:15:58] As part of that, we also have to go to the Architectural Review Board of Innovation Park. So even though we've committed what I think is one of the best-looking data center buildings that you've seen to date, there's still an obligation to go back to the ARB and to seek their input on the final design. So just to summarize, this project is different from the ones you normally see. It's really starting with the premise that it's an opportunity to create new industrial space to provide locations for a location for existing Prince William County businesses who are otherwise going to be displaced to have a new place to call home within the county

[03:16:38] versus having to go outside of the county. The quote that you see on the screen is from a letter that you all received from a company called Mobile Centrics last week. The applicant in this case has been in deep conversations with MobileCentrics, who is an existing county business, employs about 250 people now, would like to have a facility to be able to accommodate 300 existing jobs, plus a chance for more growth into the future.

[03:17:08] I've been in this business long enough to know that we're not counting our chickens before they hatch in terms of specific deals with them. They are very interested in this site. The applicant is very interested in the opportunity to accommodate them, but this application needs to be approved in order to do that.

[03:17:25] And so with that, Madam Chair, I will stop and answer any questions that you all have. Does anyone have any questions for the applicant? I don't. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know if I'm popping up on that thing.

[03:17:40] So I still have any issues, but thank you, Madam Chair, for that. Thank you for the presentation. A couple questions. You mentioned sustainability. Can you talk a little bit about those measures specifically and some of the things that we had discussed when you met with my office? Sure. So there are, I believe it's somewhere on the order of 15 to 20 different sustainability measures that are listed in the proffers now.

[03:18:05] We have a commitment to do at least eight of those. We sent some proffer changes to staff that I think got routed to you all late last week that include more definition around a couple of those, including the Type 4 generators and the closed-loop cooling system.

[03:18:25] So those are firm commitments as opposed to part of the list of things that are to be implemented. So, in other words, Supervisor Bode, we picked two of the more challenging elements of the sustainability measures that were on the list before, pulled them out, and have now made firm commitments.

[03:18:45] we still have an obligation to go do eight additional sustainability measures as part of the project once we've done that. And to go along with that, thank you for that. In addition, I know that when you met with my office, we had a discussion about district energy or district heating, knowing that there are very few opportunities to actually have buildings developed with a data center concurrently.

[03:19:07] I know that George Mason is also very interested in district heating. So can you talk a little bit about that piece as well? So we've looked into it a little bit. To our knowledge, it's not been done in Virginia as yet. It's not to say that it's not coming, but we've had a lot of conversations, or I've had a lot of conversations with folks who are looking at it.

[03:19:29] It is in the list of things that we have a chance to do, and we can follow up on it later. But it's, at least from my perspective, a bit untested at this point, but a lot of interest in doing it. Appreciate that. And my last question, Madam Chair, is if you can talk a little bit about the sourcing of the energy that will be feeding this site, the energy mix, fossil fuels versus renewables, and what have you.

[03:19:53] So let me go back just to get to the screen where the transmission lines are. So the ultimate end user in this is a company called Yonder.

[03:20:09] And Yonder is a European-based data center company that really tries to take its European experience and apply it to its U.S. facilities. This is the first Yonder project in Prince William County.

[03:20:25] They have one in Loudoun County today. They are very focused as a company on sustainability and renewable energy and other sorts of things. They're the ones who ultimately will sign the ESA with NOVAC at this location.

[03:20:42] But they as a company are very forward thinking in terms of how their renewable energy standards are and what they'll be applying. And I'm sure that they will be right there with NOVAC and with Dominion trying to increase that as much as possible.

[03:20:59] That's frankly how we were able to do the additional cooling and generator commitments they had is because of Yonder, and I think the conversation is only starting with them. Appreciate it. And actually, one more, Madam, I'm sure. Sorry. And can you then talk about the PUEs? Because I know that one of the proffered conditions you added is a PUE commitment.

[03:21:18] So can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, let me pull it up so that I have it and don't misquote it. Sorry, bear with me while I find the page.

[03:21:52] So under, I think it's 19P, we have an obligation, or one of the options that we have is to provide a PUE at less than 1.5. I think Yonder at its other facilities has done less than that. Right. But that's the minimum standard that we have.

[03:22:10] Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mark, for your presentation. I wanted to, I've got three questions for you. when you speak of Yonder, they're European, but they're also in Germany.

[03:22:26] I think also that's kind of, they're experts in Germany. I'm saying that to say, yeah, just the compatibility and what they're trying to bring to the states. But the other thing, too, I wanted to ask, on one of your slides you mentioned about you're adhering to the noise structure that we have.

[03:22:47] Could you expand on that a little bit, please, for me? Yes, ma'am. So we have, as you can imagine, this application has been in the works for a while, and we had included in our original draft proffers noise standards that matched those of other applications that have been approved over the years in the county in terms of the decibel levels and the monitoring that needs to happen with it and mitigation requirements in the

[03:23:19] event of a violation. But now that the board has adopted the new noise ordinance requirements, they will effectively supersede the proffer commitments that are part of the application because it's outside of the zoning ordinance. It's part of the county code. And so therefore, it's going to be applicable, notwithstanding what the proffers are. We left the proffers in because we wanted to demonstrate that we knew that this was an issue, but ultimately we're going to be governed by the more strict standards of the noise ordinance as it's been adopted.

[03:23:56] Which is something that's what we're trying to achieve. Correct. So we appreciate that. The other thing that I wanted to ask on the other slide going forward about the business that was coming in as a part of this project.

[03:24:14] I think it's towards the end. Keep going, keep going. I guess not, but anyway, it'll be a duality, so it's not just a data center, it's encompassing another business, so speak to me a little bit about that in terms of, because one of the things we are looking for with the data center business, that it's not only that, that we have a diversification in what we're doing. Yes, ma'am, so on the screen is a reduced version of the site

[03:24:49] plan. Just to set the context, Hornbaker Road is to the bottom. The parkway is to the top with the town center directly across the parkway. To the left is Wellington Road. To the right is a county-owned parcel off the screen here. There are two buildings proposed as part of the project.

[03:25:11] Each final square footage hasn't been determined, but somewhere in the 300,000 square foot range, The industrial building probably will be in that range. It's on the right-hand side of the screen, so the industrial building, and we've proffered that that building can only be an industrial building.

[03:25:29] It can't be converted to other uses in the future without an amendment to the zoning. But the industrial building would be on the right-hand side. You'll see parking to the left of the building, and then the data center building would be on the left-hand side of the screen, directly across from the Pegasus substation.

[03:25:47] Ultimately, the way this will get developed is that they will operate independently of the other for security and other operational requirements. There will be a traffic light at the entrance, a shared entrance, because we only get effectively one curb cut off of Hornbaker Road in this location.

[03:26:08] And so the entrance to the site would be shared between the two uses, but they would be separated physically from one another. other than I'll call it stormwater management and other things that are elements of a shared development. It remains to be seen whether the developer of the site ultimately retains control of the industrial building or sells it to an end user, but the expectation is that the buildings

[03:26:39] would be built either at the same time or sequentially so that we're providing space to um the the industrial user to go in as quickly as possible thank you thank you madam chair supervisor stewart so this is outside the overlay and you know i i hear you saying things like

[03:27:14] innovative design and the design language of innovation park but you know there there are other entities in the community that have a design language of their own that don't include data centers right so you know it kind of looks like this i hope you can see my artwork in the back

[03:27:41] i i don't know why this would even be asked for like like as as like even a conversation um this was spoken about when when it came to my office about this about doing this and quite frankly um i'm upset that it this is this is still kind of going forward but anyway i just i just wanted to

[03:28:17] say that that's that that's that's all i've got to answer your question as to as to why it's coming forward um let me go back two slides the reason that it's coming forward is that the county's comprehensive plan designates it for i3 which is industrial uses inclusive of the industrial building and data centers so we're taking the guidance from the county's adopted comprehensive plan saying what its vision is for this area. Now, having said that, we also recognize

[03:28:56] the sensitivity of this location in particular within Innovation Park. We have worked very closely with Christina Wynn and the Economic Development Office on a lot of the details of this project, including the architecture of the building, including she's the one who's connected us with mobile centrics and with other existing Prince William businesses who are looking for a place to move into, but can't afford to purchase land to be able to do that because of the demand

[03:29:32] for industrial space. And I know Christine is here and probably could speak to this more eloquently than I could. But the reason that we're here is twofold. One, it's what the county's comprehensive of planning visions, and two, we actually think it's providing a service to other Prince William County businesses to be able to provide them a place to grow jobs. And so that's the real reason that we're here. And I'll let you all want to invite Christina up to say something. I'm sure she'd offer her opinion. When we get to staff time, we can have, if anyone has questions for

[03:30:08] Christina Wynn. If you're finished, I have Supervisor Bailey. I just have one quick question. How many jobs will this bring to the county? So do you mean in total for the two buildings together?

[03:30:32] So MobileCentrics, as I said earlier, has, assuming they are the ones that we can accommodate in the building, I think they have somewhere in the order of 250 to 300 jobs today, they would be relocating those employees to the site with the hope and expectation that they would grow.

[03:30:50] Now, when I talk about this being an industrial building, not all employers who would go into this building are necessarily conducting industrial-type activities. Just as an example, my understanding of MobileCentrics' business is that they provide cell phone parts to cell phone companies. So if a part is broken on your phone, they provide and manufacture and assemble those parts and ship them out. And it's a lot of office activities as opposed to physically making things. So the number of employees that they ultimately

[03:31:30] can fit in the building will, or let me rephrase that, the building will ultimately determine how many employees they can physically fit in the building based on its size. But I know that their hope and expectation is if they became a tenant in the building, that they would grow well beyond 300 employees uh in the building there the data center building itself you know you generate the construction jobs and typically there's on the order of 50 employees within the building at any

[03:32:01] one time that's pretty standard oh thank you the other question i have this is is this project close to schools or homes none other than the emerging town center across the parkway it's all industrial all the way around. Okay. So an industrial area. Okay. Thank you. All right.

[03:32:29] I don't have any other questions, I believe, for the applicants. So I'd like to call the county up to present. Good evening, Chair Jefferson, board members. My name is Alex Venegas from the planning office. And this is another case that I inherited between the planning commission and the board. So

[03:33:06] please bear with me as we go through the application. So this application consists of two concurrent requests. The first one is for rezoning, to rezone 40.02 acres from agricultural A1 to planned business district with an underlying district of M2 light industrial. This would allow a data center and non-data center use with the proffered limitations provided by the applicant.

[03:33:37] It also includes a few waivers and modifications. The special use permit is to address the data center being outside of the data center opportunity zone overlay district. Also to allow research and development hazmat uses on site and testing and experimental laboratories uses on site.

[03:33:59] The location for the property is right on the Prince William Parkway. It's across from the Innovation Town Center that was approved for residential development, and staff is recommending approval.

[03:34:17] So, as Mr. Looney suggested, the property is I-3, which does allow data centers in the comprehensive plan. The zoning district, though, is A-1, and as you can see, this is one of the last big A-1 parcels that we have in Innovation Park, And what the applicant is proposing is to change that designation to match with other similar types of uses on the other side of Hornbaker Road.

[03:34:54] Here we do have an application in, we have a substation here, application for a data center here at Wellington Glen Parcel K. And if you remember last year, we approved Wellington Glen, which is a data center over here, as well as Iron Mountain was approved as well.

[03:35:19] So this application went to the Planning Commission. So the commission, I just want to go over the quick history of what was said at the Planning Commission. So the Planning Commission acknowledged progress but emphasizes the need for more advanced building architecture due to its high visibility from the town center as well as from Prince William Parkway.

[03:35:49] The applicant has made adjustments to provide a much better product from the architectural standpoint. Another thing that was asked for stronger frontage, landscaping, and then the desire for a signature building to look more like a high-profile office or more distinctive modern data center design, not the traditional conventional look.

[03:36:16] Applicant did request a deferral to date certain October 29th, 2025, and then November 5th, 2025 to allow more time so that they could work through those design features. And then at the November 5th, 2025 Planning Commission meeting, they did recommend denial of the application.

[03:36:39] The concerns were suitability of the data center at that location. We had some issues with the setback and landscaping coordination of a also the coordination for a place making signage on the property. So the applicant did make several provisions.

[03:36:58] They did make provide a proper one in six to allow minor limits of disturbing adjustments to allow for extra parking to address that non data center portion of the application. They did include the Innovation Architectural Review Board to do the final design for all buildings.

[03:37:21] They did add sustainability language. They did move it from the SUP into the proffers, and that was what staff and the Planning Commission wanted. And then they did do some condition revisions post Planning Commission to include that language for the Innovation Architectural Board to approve the data center design.

[03:37:44] And then we moved the sustainability language from the conditions to the proffers. This is, we did a site visit, so I'm showing you what the site looks like. This is, the first one is looking westbound from the property.

[03:38:03] Um, the middle one is looking eastbound, uh, across the street, you can see the, uh, innovation, uh, town center development, the residential component. And this is like immediately across, uh, the street on the, the, uh, eastern end of the property where the, um, non-data center, um, product would go.

[03:38:28] Um, so this shows the overall, um, SUP plan. The applicant did work with staff in not only the design elements, but to assure that where the data center building is located, that it's right off of Hornbaker Road.

[03:38:49] What you have over here is the Pegasus substation, as well as the Wellington Glen data centers. They do have a site plan approval for that. Rather than putting the non-data center use up here, the applicant purposely put the proposed data center at this location, as well as realizing that there are transmission lines.

[03:39:16] So they did have to move their building down to accommodate that. So throughout this process, the applicant has been working with staff to make minor modifications to their design and layout.

[03:39:32] The one big concern that staff had was primarily for the setback as well as landscaping for the frontage to Prince William Parkway.

[03:39:49] Why that's a greater concern for staff is because that's where the greatest visibility is. Where you have industrial use next to industrial use, our concern of the visibility, although we do want a quality product, the landscaping buffering is not that much of a concern so first let me go over the non-data center area they do have they are proposing a 50 wide 50 foot wide setback with 41 I'm sorry buffering with 41 feet of landscapable area outside of the easement of that nine feet of

[03:40:28] it is on top of the slope and 32 feet of that is actual slope and you can see that on the second illustration here. There is a small easement here on this one, which means there shouldn't be plannings on that. So that's why staff had a little concern with that. They did provide this visibility showing how the proposed trees and existing trees would buffer the view of the non-data center building. As for the exhibit showing the easement on the parkway for the

[03:41:06] actual data center building they are providing a greater uh they're doing a 91 foot setback in landscaping area but there is this big easement that occurs like in the middle of it 67 feet of it is landscaping area outside of the easement 39 feet of that area is on top of the slope and 28 feet of it is on this slope so staff was concerned about this area you know not having complete big foliage in that particular area, but with the data center, they are providing much

[03:41:43] greater landscaping and are very close to the 100-foot setback, so I just wanted to share that there's a distinction between the non-data center, which, you know, is something that staff is advocating for. We've been working with economic development to, you know, have two different products on here because we do want that non data center use on this property but with the actual data center they are accommodating almost the 100 foot setback that we requested so i wanted to

[03:42:19] clarify that so they did provide building elevations and this is what some of the renderings would look like due to the fact that this is a very important area in the county on the parkway We wanted a nice product, and the applicant has made several revisions to include the design features that make it look more like an office building and less like a data center, especially due to the proximity of the Innovation Town Center, which is on the other side of Prince William Parkway.

[03:42:57] So staff is recommending approval for the rezoning for 2025-0014 Hornbaker Road, subject to the proffers dated.

[03:43:13] So I know new proffers came out after the report went out. So the new proffer date is February 27th. So staff got a glance at that, and we saw there were additional improvements.

[03:43:30] So staff is supportive of the new proffers as well as we're supporting the special use permit 2025-0016 Hornbaker Road subject to conditions dated February 27, 2026.

[03:43:46] It is consistent with the long-range land use. It is in compliance with the TIAAD sub-district, the strategic location and context, how the applicant worked with us to put the data center closer to where existing data centers and substation is located, as well as putting the non-data center product closer to other types of industrial use.

[03:44:13] we felt like that was important and then the existing utility infrastructure uh is in place it's um uh right right behind the on hornbaker road you have the substation at that location and with that we'll gladly answer any questions that the board may have thank you does anyone have any questions for staff on this supervisor bode thank you madam chair thank you alex for the presentation and as always your for your work on these projects especially the ones that you inherit along the way of the life cycle of the project so wanted to highlight that um just a

[03:44:50] couple questions one um you've talked about the consistency from a long-range land use perspective and you know this is an interesting place right because as you've noted everything that's on this site of this side of Prince William Parkway essentially all industrial and data centers and what have you but you have like people have said right across the street is this sort of the town center and and all that from your perspective and from the other reviewing agencies from the land use perspective is there enough of a separation between uh the mixed use and everything else going on over there and this from a compatibility standpoint so we looked at it

[03:45:25] in context to the comp plan as well as the view shed that they provided um that's why it was very important with that data center portion to get a hundred foot setback with appropriate buffering they did provide that other than the easement which was our concern that you know there may be a little gap in, you know, the, but they did provide a viewshed showing that, uh, there would be minimal visual impact to that. And based on where the town center is located, uh, which is right over here, uh, we feel like there's adequate setback between the two, uh, different uses.

[03:46:04] Appreciate that. Second question, Alex, I appreciate that. Um, in terms of the other impacts that we often talk about, you know, folks are going to talk about noise, some other things. Can you talk about the noise impacts, and based on what was referenced earlier with the adoption of the noise ordinance, can you talk a little bit about that and staff's feelings about that piece of it?

[03:46:23] The applicant did provide in the conditions to provide noise mitigation, so I think having the noise ordinance updated gives us a lot more opportunity to be enforceable with those types of noise issues if they ever arise.

[03:46:43] But the applicant did put in the conditions, and I can share with you the exact place. So under item 2 on the conditions, item C1, they do talk about noise levels and how they will manage that.

[03:47:07] And they also committed to, you know, maximum permissible sound of 55 decibels in the residential or mixed-use zoning district and 60 decibels where it relates to commercial. So where you go at the end of their property, the sound needs to be in compliance with that.

[03:47:28] They also have the emergency operations of any generators. And then they'll also conduct an acoustical analysis, which I think those are the most important things when you're dealing with an industry or any type of commercial use nearby residential.

[03:47:47] But remember, too, that there's a buffer between you have the parkway where you have a lot of vehicles going up and down, and that generates noise as well. So they did commit to those, and, you know, based on that, staff is comfortable with that consideration.

[03:48:05] And the last one, Madam Chair, you know, it's come up a little bit recently now when Mr. Looney talked about the commitment to the higher tier generators that cut down on a lot more of the exhausts and the air particulates, what have you. Can you talk a little bit about that, and as it pertains to how they've decided to orient the site, how they might be able to better handle that piece of it as well?

[03:48:28] So, Supervisor Brody, since I just, you know, I haven't had time to go through the change proffers where they added that language, I guess it was based on, you know, something that Supervisor Gordy wanted to see, that higher level, and from your office as well.

[03:48:46] But, you know, when we looked at it, we're supportive of that because we realized that generates less pollution and mitigates some of the noise as well that is traditionally from those generators. But, you know, I can't really fully speak to the exact details of that.

[03:49:06] Thank you. All right. I don't. I just want to look around in case people's microphones are not working. Anyone else have questions? All right. we thank you are good from the applicant side i'm just waiting thank you very much so i'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for agenda items 14b and 14c um so please when i call your name you can go to the microphone back there you have three minutes to speak um five minutes if

[03:49:41] you are hoa or approved um 501c3 non-profit please begin by stating your name and where you generally reside. I'm going to start with Dino Perales, Rachel Ellis, Catherine Saylor, and Jess

[03:50:06] Wagner. All right, sir, you may begin, and make sure you speak directly in the microphone so we can hear you. Can you hear me? I can hear just a little better. Can you hear me? Yes. All right.

[03:50:30] Good evening, members of the board. My name is Dinos Perales. I reside in Haymarket, Virginia. But my business is off Hornbaker Road, right behind the proposed site of the data center.

[03:50:46] I'm here with my brother Diamantes Piracos, as well as my partner. We are the owners and operators of Lacónico, located directly behind the proposed data center site.

[03:51:03] This proposal has already failed once, from what I understand, and for a good reason. Our business is not simply a storefront, it is a destination. We represent one of the most internationally awarded extra virgin olive oils in the world.

[03:51:20] Customers and clients travel to us from all around the U.S. to visit us and learn from us. We host tastings, we attract culinary tourism, we're a proud member of Prince William Chamber of Commerce, and actively use our space to support and grow other local businesses.

[03:51:41] We are also considered a destination so much that visit Prince William partners with us to curate culinary tourism experiences that bring visitors directly into our county. We are building something exponential, educational, and community-oriented.

[03:52:04] The parcel in question is zoned, from what I understand, I-3. Either way, that designation exists for a reason. hopefully a mixed use in the future, is intended to promote synergy, hopefully.

[03:52:26] Retail, residential, hospitality, small business developments that create foot traffic, vibrancy, and long-term economic growth. A data center does not do that. Data centers are heavy infrastructures, low engagement facilities.

[03:52:46] They generate no daily traffic, limited prominent jobs relative to their footprint, and they function as closed, secure industrial buildings. Placing a large-scale data center directly in front of an experiential destination business has measurable impacts.

[03:53:09] It blocks visibility. It shifts the perception of the area from commercial hospitality to industrial. It reduces future retail synergy. It diminishes the economic multiplier effect this frontage could otherwise generate.

[03:53:29] Mixed-use frontage is premium land. It should support people, not servers. If this parcel were developed... I'm sorry, you're out of time, but thank you, sir. That was it. That's it? It goes fast.

[03:53:45] It goes very fast, especially when other gentlemen that are for it we are trying to i'm sorry sir your time is up thank you next speaker good evening rachel ellis gainesville district i am asking you to vote no to this rezoning and special use permit vote no simply because it is outside the data center overlay vote no as it will impact the residents of innovation town center which is across the street vote no as this property was designated

[03:54:19] by county officials a few years ago for non-data center development vote no just as the planning Commission denied this rezoning in SUP. Vote no because with every data center approval, it triggers more power, low demand, and this means more transmission lines threatening Brentsville and surrounding areas. Vote no because more power means higher electricity bills for all residents.

[03:54:45] Vote no because it limits the cumulative impacts that residents are currently facing. Vote no to show that you understand that there are plenty of other upcoming data center applications within the overlay, which can and will be built with or without your input. I want to speak to the gentleman that was just here because earlier today, this board, this dais made a big deal about the data center overlay and about how we are losing other businesses because of data centers.

[03:55:16] He literally just sat here and said it will impact his business. This is not in the data center overlay. That is what it's kind of designed to do. And if you guys vote yes, your words are hollow. We're tired of hearing hollow words. And by the way, I'm fairly certain that the power in this corridor is already spoken for. Does Mr. Looney like have actual documentation that it does not need more transmission lines? Because I'm pretty sure the power, like there's no extra power anywhere. Do better. Do better. Thank you.

[03:55:52] Next speaker, please. Can you hear me with a mask on? Yes. I'm sorry. Can you hear me with a mask on? yes we can hear you okay uh my name is katherine sailor i am speaking as a resident of the coals district i apologize for the mask i actually probably have the flu right now but i wanted to come tonight anyway because i heard a talk of data centers and i've been wanting to talk about this for a while um thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak i'm here as a resident

[03:56:31] of the county because i'm freaked out about the massive corporations that are making the choice to pollute our air and take our water here in Prince William when they build their data centers, like this Hornbaker proposal. I want to know how the Prince William County Board of Supervisors is going to hold data center corporations accountable.

[03:56:54] I listened tonight to the Hornbaker proposal, and I appreciate the information that was given, but I want to know truly and honestly how the Board of County Supervisors is holding these data centers accountable.

[03:57:12] Data center corporations are telling us that they're trying to help, but they come up with a lot of excuses. This one is European, so they're going to use clean energy, or they'll work with Novec and Dominion to use clean energy.

[03:57:32] Data centers are built by massive corporations. They tell us that they can't invest as easily in clean energy as other businesses can, so they put our grid at risk. They drive up our electricity bills. They pollute our air with diesel generators. They tell us, oh, we're going to use Tier 4 generators this time.

[03:57:49] Those Tier 4 generators help, but they're still generators. They're still making my kids cough. They tell us solar won't work on their roofs because they need special cooling technology. They tell us wind won't produce enough power. They tell us they're going to work with Novec and Dominion on finding solutions.

[03:58:11] Let me tell you about a problem. My house is on a well. In the fall, our plumbing catastrophically failed. I miraculously was able to foot the bill for $4,000 worth of repairs thanks to all the work I had been doing in paying off my credit card.

[03:58:34] And as my husband went around repairing our toilets and showers himself, I told the kids Christmas is going to look a little different this year. The plumber told us that our water table had suddenly dropped despite all the rain we got this fall without any explanation was it data centers we don't know because no one is tracking their water use no one is tracking what they're doing to our communities please hold them accountable board of county supervisors thank you for your time thank you

[03:59:06] next speaker okay can you hear me hi good evening my name is jess wagner i'm from the bruntsville district i've lived in manassas nearly my entire life i have an undergrad and bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, and I studied at and passed the Navy's nuclear power school as an officer.

[03:59:30] I only say this to show that my following statements come from a STEM and local background. The request for rezoning Hornbaker Road should be denied because it will create a net negative result for our county residents. The intent for this land is to build a data center with a proposed intent of economic development. This will be temporary with work as they construct it, and then after that's done, probably within a year or two, the jobs of management technicians and security about, they've already said, 50 people who will make about max $19 an hour. That's going to be your economic development. Then once they're operating, the question of how much water and how much electricity will be used still has not been answered. I was here for both of the planning

[04:00:09] meetings, and nobody answered those questions about how much water and how much electricity is going to be used. The basis of project management and engineering development can give you a rough estimate of what that should be, and that has not been given. For example, if you have a pump rated at x gallons per hour and it operates at y power wattage an estimate can be made on how much is going to be used for an extended period of time the fact that this answer hasn't been given is lazy and it should be a concern to the board that that answer has not been given and the fact that it's a closed loop system is also not a good enough answer if anyone knows what a closed loop

[04:00:46] system is if water's flowing in a closed loop and it's getting heated something has to cool it down what is cooling it down where is this water coming from they said in the last meeting that they were going to have the water brought in from somewhere else but when i you read the proffer it says it's going to be prince william county public water so which is it it needs to be honest it's not clear additionally how much pollution is going to be put out in the air they said they're going to minimize it they can give you a calculation for that why has that not been provided this isn't like hearsay data centers they do put out heat and toxins as a byproduct why has this not been

[04:01:23] addressed. And lastly, who pays for the electricity? Data centers are not, they're not production plants. They're not making profit. How is this electricity bill being paid? Who is paying for it? This question has never been answered, and citizens constantly are asking who is paying for the electricity. But the residents of Prince William County know that the residents are going to be paying that bill. To conclude, I'm requesting that this and any future data center propositions be declined. There is no proven net positive long-term outcomes. And again, this is only a net negative result for Prince William County residents. And if you approve this, it's not only an incomplete

[04:02:01] proposition, but it's also, in my opinion, dishonest. Thank you for your time. All right, next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Diamantis Piarakos. I'm Dino's brother. I'd like to finish where he left off. If this parcel were developed with small retail storefronts, cafe or restaurant space as we plan professional offices mixed residential above retail it would increase daily food traffic

[04:02:36] support surrounding businesses generated greater local revenue increased property values create more sustained employment data centers create limited permanent positions that after construction and do not contribute to walkable commercial ecosystem our business draws visitors from outside of the area. We are building something that enhances the identity of the corridor. A visually industrial secure data center facility with cooling infrastructure generators and limited public engagement directly in front of a destination retail experience undermines that identity.

[04:03:15] Once built, that impact is permanent. Data centers require significant electrical load, cooling system, backup generators, large-scale construction. This type of infrastructure is far more compatible with light industrial zones than mixed-use frontends.

[04:03:34] The question is not whether data centers are viable, they are. The question is whether this is the right location for one. This parcel has the potential to become a small business corridor, a mixed-use residential and retail development, a hospitality anchor supporting culinary tourism, a professional office space that complements surrounding uses, These alternatives create community interactions and long-term economic resilience.

[04:04:05] In closing, I respectfully ask the board to consider the long-term economic trajectory of this corridor. Once FRONTES is converted to low engagement industrial use, it cannot easily be reverted. Mixed-use zoning should be protected for developments that bring people activity and sustained economic vitality.

[04:04:29] Thank you for your time and consideration. thank you so very much we are now going to go um to the remote speakers all right are we ready for remote uh good evening yes we are our first speaker is neil kelly all right go ahead neil good evening and thank you for the members of the board allowing me to speak remotely due to the inclement weather i decided it was safer to stay at home and try to avoid any accidents on the way all the way down from gainesville the western section of princeville county down to the

[04:05:05] County McCourt building. I'm asking you tonight to vote no on this proposition. I think we have enough data centers in this county, and until we start seeing some results as being a benefit to the county, let's just hit a moratorium and say no. The J-Lock report also pointed out where is this electric coming from. It's very nice that they want to place this across the street from the Pegasus substation, but where is the Pegasus substation going to be getting its power from?

[04:05:32] And again, as many other speakers have said, who's paying for that? Us, the ratepayers of the Commonwealth of Virginia, are going to be paying for this. So let's please take a look and say, where is the affordability in this? That's been a buzzword that we have heard a lot in the press and in the politics in the last couple of months.

[04:05:51] The affordability is our electric rates are going up. That's not affordable to me. So let's vote no, keep the data centers as they are. We already have enough of them. Thank you.

[04:06:03] Thank you. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Jessica Grove. All right. I think you said Justin. Jessica. Okay. All right. Go ahead, Jessica. Hi, my name is Jessica Grove. I live in the Gainesville district. I would like to have five minutes as I work with the coalition to protect Prince William County, please. Okay. So working with the coalition. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. You got it.

[04:06:36] Okay, I have to jump back and forth in my notes here because I have a couple questions about what Mr. Looney stated about no transmission lines. I'm very confused because, you know, I seem to remember back in Digital Gateway days, he also said that Digital Gateway would have plenty of power, and that's why they were putting next to the transmission lines.

[04:06:57] But we all know that that is not the case. Also, in January 2025, Dominion said that we were 23 gigawatts short of power, and in just one year, we have now gone to 70 gigawatts of power short in the area, and Hornbaker project was not included in that 70 gigawatts.

[04:07:19] So I'm not really sure how they're going to get power to this without transmission lines. Also, I believe Mr. Looney said that this is not next to houses, but Innovation Town Center is directly across from that. And I have a feeling that the people who just moved in a month ago do not know about this project and would be sorely disappointed that they just signed a 30-year mortgage just to be polluted with the diesel generators and noise across the street.

[04:07:52] in addition to the parkway. I also wanted to bring up, you know, I don't know if you guys are paying attention to the news, but in South Haven, Mississippi, Elon Musk has installed 27 temporary gas turbines near residents that say that sound like jet engines 24-7, 365. And they have now applied for 41 permanent turbines at the 114-acre site. This is a tragedy for the residents who live there as they are dealing with the impacts to their health and to their breathing. Also on

[04:08:29] Tuesday, President Trump called on tech companies to build their own power plants to meet their needs for data centers, which sounds okay until you realize that they're just going to be putting in gas turbines. So, you know, people are dealing with electric bills already from data centers that are not built. I personally know a senior citizen whose bill went from $250 to $620 to $680 this month. That is not sustainable. And we're just at the beginning of this. You talk about affordability and you hope that our taxes are going to go down. Meanwhile, our electric bills are doubling and

[04:09:04] they will triple very soon. Every data center that gets approved will affect people near and far. It'll affect our power bills and our air quality. In Memphis, Tennessee, the 41 gas turbines are projected to pump out nearly 20 tons of fine particle each year. The economic impact of that is estimated to between $30 and $44 million each year in health damages. It will also affect our water sources and the discharge. The Ohio EPA is looking at giving data centers an exemption for water being dumped back into local streams and rivers. The permit will allow for treated

[04:09:40] cooling water that means that arsenic plastic particles and corrosive anti corrosive agents will be in that water that are being directly dumped into our streams and waters also that is not cold water or room temperature water it is heated water which also contains will contribute to algae blooms that can kill a dog that takes a couple sips of the water so I hope you end up with clean water going into our streams because when a dog goes to play and there's an algae bloom, they're going to die in a couple days if they take a sip of that water. Virginians

[04:10:17] will be responsible for any remediation that will need to be done if our water gets polluted with microplastics, arsenic, and chemicals. And this is like an Aaron Brockovich moment. I would like to put a glass of water in front of you to drink if that's the water that's going into our streams and rivers. This project is outside the Davis Center Overlay District. This project has not by right, and it should be immediately denied. The project does not provide any significant benefit to the community you also spoke this today about eliminating the overlay zone and as a community member i would expect that you will deny this project tonight otherwise we know that you

[04:10:56] will weaponize the lack of an overlay zone against the residents for prince william county vote no on this project it is not good for anyone in prince william county or virginia thank you ma'am next speaker we have no more speakers thank you dc that's it all right all right thank you thank all right we don't have any more speakers online or who are signed up in person so i am going to go ahead and close the public hearings for 14b and 14c i'd like to invite the applicant

[04:11:32] back up to address any concerns that they have thank you madam chairman uh very briefly um one i want to start with the the olive oil uh business because that was a new one to us in terms of hearing from them. We conducted a community meeting last year, invited all of the industrial users around the site to participate, did not get the chance to talk with them, so I appreciate them

[04:12:03] coming out. I think it's important, if I could go back to the presentation, Alex, to keep in mind, that's fine, to keep in mind where this property is. Let me go back one slide. So the property or the area immediately to the west of this site is all planned and zoned and developed with industrial uses. I appreciate that they're seemingly running a retail-oriented business

[04:12:37] on their property, but that's not the character that exists in the rest of that industrial park. You have, among other things, HVAC companies that are parking their trucks and bringing their equipment to the site. You have auto body shops. You have a couple of different dumpster services that are operating out of that industrial park. There are multiple contracting services that are operating out of the industrial park. You have towing service companies that are operating out of that industrial park. So this is not within that park. It is not providing mixed-use

[04:13:14] retail-oriented walkable uses. This is where you have your dirty things. This is the things that you don't want to put next to residential. And so we're trying to fit within the character of what's around us, but upscaling it, if you will, to provide better looking buildings and better looking activities than those businesses that by necessity have to be a little dirtier than the one that we're talking about. There were two other comments about water and electricity. As I mentioned earlier, we have committed through the conditions to use closed loop cooling system. The

[04:13:53] way I like to describe closed loop is it's almost like geothermal. You fill it up once, you put a certain amount of water, a certain amount of coolant in there, you seal it off, and it cycles through a chilling system. It doesn't leave that chilling system. We're not drawing water out of public water sources. We're not drawing water out of underground water surfaces. We're not drawing water out of ponds or rivers or things. You fill it up once, you put the coolant in, and it runs.

[04:14:26] Periodically, there's a need to go in and top it off and do maintenance, no different than you would do if you were using geothermal in your home. It's really a very efficient way to providing the coolant. The only water use, daily water use that will occur is in the office component.

[04:14:43] So where the bathrooms are, where the kitchen is, where the cleaning supply closet is, that's where the water faucets will be, that's where the toilets will be, and that's where the water usage is going to occur. And I dare posit that the actual industrial building, the non-data center component of this is going to draw way more water than the data center will because it's going to have employees that are going to be flushing toilets and making coffee. Last thing on the electricity, I commented on how there were no new transmission lines required for this site. Let me tell you why

[04:15:20] that's the case. The Pegasus substation has 300 megawatts of power. The developer of the Wellington Glen project across the street contracted with Novec to utilize 200 of those 300 megawatts of power. That left 100 megawatts of power available at that substation. More than a year ago, the applicant began dialogue with Novec and said, we want access to that 100 megawatts of power because we'd like to put a data center building across the street from the site. And so

[04:15:57] we have been working with NOVAC for more than a year at this point on utilizing the 100 megawatts of power that is going to reside at that substation once it is completed and energized. The transmission lines that you see in pink on the screen are the transmission lines that the State Corporation Commission approved in the fall of 2025 to link the Pegasus substation to other substations in the area, as I talked about. Those transmission lines are going in whether you approve this application or not. They have approval from the State Corporation Commission.

[04:16:37] They are redundant lines. They're not necessarily bringing, well, let me rephrase that. They're bringing some of the power there, but they're also a redundant system to be able to network other substations together. So those transmission lines and that 300 megawatts of power is coming to this site, whether coming to this substation, whether you approve this application or not.

[04:16:58] What we would like to do is complete the agreement that we have with NOVAC to utilize the 100 megawatts of the 300 that otherwise would have to go to a different customer in a different location and result in the construction of other electric lines to take the power that's available at this substation and place it somewhere else.

[04:17:19] So with that, I'll stop and answer any other questions that the board has. All right. Does anyone else have any questions? Supervisor Gordy, did you? Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to go back to the challenges. This site has history, and I would like to invite our Economic Development Director up to help us understand why this parcel was not included in the overlay when it's surrounded by the overlay.

[04:17:52] Thank you, Chair Jefferson, members of the board, Christina Wynn, Economic Development and Tourism. So excellent question in terms of, because it was, this parcel was in the overlay originally.

[04:18:11] And when we were working on the town center across the street, which was, you know, that 2019, 2000 timeframe, and we were watching as more and more data centers were coming in Prince William County.

[04:18:27] We had actually, myself and Tom Flynn, our former deputy director, had made a recommendation to the planning office that we should take this parcel out of the overlay so that we would have a greater opportunity to influence what would actually happen there.

[04:18:48] We knew that it was a great location for a data center, but because of the town center across the street, we knew we wanted employment, we knew we wanted really good design, and we wanted this opportunity that it would complement the whole entire park.

[04:19:07] And so by making that recommendation, that's exactly what happened. And so when this applicant came to our office a couple of years ago and the original application was for two data centers, we said, no, we were not supportive of that.

[04:19:26] And so I explained to the applicant, Mortensen, how the vision of the Innovation District, the vision of the town center of creating this walkable community and that we really needed unemployment on the other side of the street because eventually down at the southern end, there's going to be actually hopefully a pedestrian bridge that will actually bring those employees over to the town center to shop and eat and do whatever.

[04:19:56] The applicant listened, and they came back, and they proposed, you know, this 200,000-square-foot non-industrial building. So that is the background. Thank you for that.

[04:20:12] I do want to go – thank you. That's all I have for you now. But, you know, when we're thinking about – you know, we've talked about the data center overlay today, And, you know, Alex, this might be a good question for you, or maybe even David.

[04:20:33] What is the purpose of the data center overlay? Why was it created? Thank you, David McGettigan from the planning office. So initially in 2016 when we created the data center overlay, It was to provide an area where there were industrial, long-range land use, and power transmission lines were coincided so that we wouldn't have transmission lines coming in from other places like it happened in Haymarket

[04:21:12] and that they would have direct access to transmission lines without going through residential neighborhoods. So that was the initial purpose of the 2016 overlay district. So it was a tool to encourage data centers into a certain area by giving them buy right in those areas that had the power infrastructure.

[04:21:32] Absolutely, yes. But it never said they couldn't go outside of the overlay. No. That was never part of county policy or any planning document that would have banned or prohibited data centers from outside of the overlay. No, in actuality, it actually permitted data centers outside of the overlay.

[04:21:50] We just required a special use permit so we could have control over the design and location of those data centers that weren't in an area that we weren't sure that they belonged. So, yes, they were permitted outside of the overlay with a special use permit.

[04:22:07] Okay, thank you for that. Thank you. That's all the questions I have for now. Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Christina, if you could come back. Thank you. We know you're getting your steps in today. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate you. To piggyback off of what Supervisor Gordy was going down, can you talk about, let's shift away from the data center for a second to the non-data center building.

[04:22:30] Can you talk about the offering there and the unique opportunity there is there that isn't really present in large amounts in the county currently? Absolutely. As you all know, we have a structural problem. Our land has gotten and our product has gotten too expensive for our small business community, not only to attract new projects, but also for existing business to expand.

[04:22:55] So what was really unique about this, and understand that this is an economics solution, and it is something that we have really tried to work a lot with the data center community to help them understand the problem that our community is facing to help support our small business community.

[04:23:20] Because small businesses can't afford to buy the land or to, you know, build a product in here, this project actually creates an opportunity for the data center side of the component to underwrite so that the non-data center building becomes now affordable.

[04:23:45] So MobileCentrics, the company that we introduced the applicant to, we've been working with them since 2023. So they are in the existing Comcast building in the town center. Their lease is going to expire. We have nowhere to put them.

[04:24:02] I'm very nervous they're going to end up having to go to Stafford or further out west. And so they will, if they are able to expand, they are anticipated to grow almost double their employees.

[04:24:21] They're adding automation and robotics. They have a research component. They are the largest global retailer of mobile device products. They're in over 130 countries.

[04:24:37] So this is a company we want to keep in Prince William County. And so that's what this unique opportunity creates. If this is a model for future projects that can be not only replicated in Prince William County, but nationally, where we are helping to support our small business community by having the data centers underwrite that, that is a solution to fix a structural problem.

[04:25:05] Appreciate that. And I have two more questions, Madam Chair. One for you, Christine, and then I'm going to shift over to the planning folks. And so then how does that align, especially given some of the other things that Mr. Looney said about the partnerships they're trying to set up with GMU and what have you? How does that align with your overall vision of innovation, especially this side of it, knowing this is sort of like the very industrial heavy side of it?

[04:25:25] Yeah, I mean, so you have this greater innovation district, which is the partnership between the city of Manassas, George Mason University, and Prince William County. Innovation Park is a component in that. Not only within the Innovation Small Area Plan and Innovation Park, we envisioned a live-work lifestyle.

[04:25:48] So I know some folks have talked about having residential right across the street from this product. No, that's exactly what we all intentionally did. We wanted to put residential in the middle of our industrial park so that people could have the quality of life to live close to where they work, right?

[04:26:12] And so this bigger vision in terms of the partnerships that they're creating with George Mason, one of the pillars is about data centers. And so creating this data center of excellence, it's an opportunity for George Mason to create partnerships with the data center community, as well as the other higher ed community, to be a leader in addressing a lot of the impacts that happen because of data centers.

[04:26:42] I'm sorry. Am I talking too long? I'm sorry. You're running out of time. I appreciate that. So the last thing I was going to do was then piggyback over to the planning folks to see if they had anything to add to that piece from a planning perspective and that vision.

[04:27:00] Yeah, I think when we were doing the innovation small area plan, it was intentional to keep I-3 and I-4 areas in the small area plan to provide that employment opportunity within the innovation park and that the mixed-use would provide for that.

[04:27:21] And there was separation of Prince William Parkways, a natural barrier, providing distance as well as the required 100-foot landscaping buffers on either side of the parkway to actually provide a very substantial distance and landscape area that would separate these uses.

[04:27:44] Supervisor Stewart. Christina. just so i'm clear so you're saying that land prices are elevating what what do you think is the main driver of that it's it is the um abundance of the data center development right okay so just so i'm clear because i had to write this down so the data centers now after having driven the

[04:28:18] price of land up get to now underwrite land affordability for the very land that they made expensive to begin with i i mean so um the the day the in terms of the demand for the data centers right the fact is is that the property owners the underlying property owners because they know that their land is valuable they're the ones that are driving the prices up because they're asking for

[04:28:56] the the prices or for the larger value no they're asking they are asking what the market is willing to bear correct and these data centers are willing to pay those prices happily so it's it's it takes two to tango but it so it but it is a structural problem it would happen with any any any time that you would have um over demand in residential or any one product and you can look at the life cycle of real estate that happens and so it drives demand and so this is right now we don't have a

[04:29:33] solution um to help our small business community and this was a unique way um that helped to address it got it so the data centers now want to help the small businesses that they are pricing out i i'm not going to speak for the but that's what you said but i'm not going to i'm not going to speak for the data centers.

[04:29:52] I'm saying that this is a unique model and a solution that is a strategy that helps to address an issue that's going on right now, right? That's going on. We have an existing, this is about a business retention expansion project that we have the ability to retain a company, economic diversification.

[04:30:16] And this is a way to solve that problem. With more data centers. Got it. Okay. Supervisor Bailey. More steps. More steps. So I want to just kind of extend, if you will, we've been talking about diversification all day long.

[04:30:37] We really have. But I want to go back to what you said earlier about this is solving two problems. And I'm going back to the presentation from our planning office where it says compliance with the T-E-O-D sub-districts.

[04:30:56] And I'm assuming that's what you are referring to, or is it not? No, that's a planning with the TEOD district. That would be a planning question. So let me just talk to the planning man.

[04:31:16] Thank you, Christina. So could you explain that to us, please? Because it says in here you're recommending it because it's in compliance with the TEOD sub-districts. And it says the proposal balances data center and non-data center uses.

[04:31:35] So could you expound on that a little bit for us? Because we do want to be in compliance. We do want to have solutions economically, but also from a planning perspective. And I just need you to just explain that a little bit more. Sure. So first, explain that the TIA, the Technology Overlay District, is an overlay district in the zoning ordinance.

[04:31:58] And it was designed to implement the innovation sector plan at the time. And it's divided into sub-districts. So there's different sub-districts throughout the innovation, this overlay district. And this particular zoning overlay sub-district allows for this use and is supportive of the use of that industrial building.

[04:32:27] So that's all that we're saying is consistent with the zoning overlay district that was put in place to implement the innovation sector plan at the time and is now the small area plan. Okay, and thank you.

[04:32:45] And I do have a question for Christina. Sorry. Thank you, David. The question that I have for you as you're approaching the podium is when you say that, And it could be any industry.

[04:33:01] But when you say we are not just putting words in your mouth, but killing two birds with one stone, sort of like with this project, which is why I asked about how many people are going to be employed here. Speak to the small business piece and what this does, because you were talking about how we don't want this company, this other company that hopefully will become a part of the data center campus.

[04:33:27] We don't want this company to leave Prince William County. Correct. Talk about your strategy in that. So, I mean, as we were just talking a few seconds ago, there is a challenge in Prince William County in the sense that we don't have a lot of available product, whether it's for lease or for purchase for our small and medium-sized companies.

[04:33:50] By this application, having a 200,000 square foot industrial building, which is not a small building by any size, it offers an opportunity, whether it's for this existing business that we've been talking about or for other projects, we actually have a product to market to attract more companies and more diversity, creating more of those jobs. So anywhere that if there's an opportunity to create these transitions from a data center with industrial uses almost as a

[04:34:30] buffer around the data center creates this nice transition, but it offers the opportunity for economic diversification. I mean, and actually a lot of, we're getting so much demand also, we talk about business sectors that have coattails. So meaning they are bringing other businesses with them, their suppliers, their vendors, et cetera. And so what we're also seeing is that there is a large segment of businesses that are associated with the data centers, your

[04:35:01] acoustical manufacturing components and so forth. And they're looking, because we now have a large data center market, they're looking to be close. So we are getting, while maybe the data center itself doesn't have um a lot of employees the associated industries um that are supporting them do have a lot of employees and so this all goes back towards that economic diversification and being in order to for us to support those those coattail businesses we have to have product and we don't have product right now and this application is creating an opportunity to have

[04:35:41] small business product okay thank you madam chair all right before we get back to don't go anywhere christina yes we'll just have a seat right next to alex between mark and i love your new place um so this business mobile centrics why are they moving so they are currently leasing space in the comcast building which is um right across on the other side of the town uh town center so um on the i'm terrible at east and west so on the south south of you okay see i'm terrible

[04:36:17] south of university they're in that building that product that product project building just went through a rezoning um and it that property is going to be redeveloped into i believe a larger data center and so mobile centric is going to have to move out so their time is limited so they were displaced by a data center correct and they're looking for a new space yes and we've been working as i said we've been working with them since 2023 trying to find something that was affordable for them all right my um other question thank you mr looney i just wanted to um how far is this

[04:36:53] like from the innovation town center do you happen to know how close it will be like the nearest house if you bear with me a second madam chair i think i can find the answer uh order of order of magnitude

[04:37:31] i'm gonna say it's probably about 400 feet give or take the right of way for the parkway i'm assuming is somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 to 150 feet across uh maybe a little bit maybe a little bit wider but um and then the buildings are set back the the townhouses on one side are set back give or take um 60 feet 80 feet and then on the other side the building is from the right of

[04:38:06] way another 100 feet on that side so 450 ish is my guess all right i can look in i that's i'm spitballing it based on the site sections that we have but it's roughly that that distance and so you're saying that this is not close to homes certainly not um the homes are under construction now um it as ms win indicated the the homes came in later there are no other houses to the north

[04:38:45] or to the west or south of this site those are the only houses it's divided by the parkway that has three lanes of traffic and running 24 7 so it's there are certainly houses across the parkway i acknowledge that how close people judge them to be you know is is not for me to decide now let's just make a comment about a statement you saying that this wasn't close to housing i think i well i think i clarified it at the time and said that other than what's being constructed

[04:39:19] in the town center there's no residential nearby all right thank you supervisor gordy thank you Chair. Mark, I've had a couple of other data center applications, people who are not applications, but data center companies that have purchased land in this vicinity and will be building data centers by right make claim to the power at Pegasus. To what guarantees do you have that

[04:39:54] you have access to, that the applicant has access to this power, and that it is sufficient for the needs of this site. Supervisor Gordy, as I mentioned earlier, we have been meeting with NOVAC for more than a year on this site.

[04:40:14] We have effectively agreements in place. We've submitted our work plan to them so that they are doing the detailed engineering work to understand exactly what would be required to bring the power underneath of Hornbaker Road to the site. We have provided a location on the plan for where the power would come back up above ground to be able to be fed into the building. We've designed all of that in coordination with

[04:40:46] NOVAC. I think we're so confident that we could essentially proffer, if we had to, that we could access that power from the Pegasus substation without the need to put in new transmission lines to serve it. There's no substation on this site. The only substation is the one directly across the street at Pegasus. Okay. In terms of this proffer that you're referring to um are you prepared to to make that proper available tonight uh i think if you give

[04:41:23] me a moment i think we could be yes sir okay and and so why do that i just and this is the part where i'm i'm struggling because there are other data centers again that are purchased by right but are much closer to other neighborhoods on the other side of of these uh of this industrial development. And so this only would allow additional data center access closer to existing neighborhoods, particularly Victory Lakes and those along Sudley Manor. And this is the part where I'm really struggling. This power is going to go somewhere. It's going to power a data center

[04:42:01] within this vicinity. And this is the hard part for me, knowing that it's either going to impact here in the industrial area that is designed to be industrial or it's going to go and sit up next to current existing residential on the back side of the industrial park because everything along industrial drive has already been purchased and and by at least two different data center developers and again it's all going by right and so and so therein lies part of the challenge

[04:42:35] um you know to to um you know what what's the right choice here uh as it relates to the power coming from this site but now uh mr looney um supervisor gordy in anticipation you might ask this question um i've got some language here that i could i could hand to you or i could hand to the the county attorney however you would like to handle this but i i can read it for you now if

[04:43:09] you'd like, but we could proffer that there's a preamble that goes into it that explains the situation, but that the applicant agrees that following completion by Dominion Energy and or Novec of both the Pegasus substation and the associated transmission lines to serve that substation, including those previously approved by the State Corporation Commission, the applicant shall not request, apply for, or otherwise cause Dominion and or NOVEC to construct, install,

[04:43:44] or extend any high-voltage electric power lines, transmission facilities, or bulk electric infrastructure greater than 115 kilovolts to directly serve the property, meaning the application property, whether through the Pegasus substation or through yet another substation as yet unapproved as of the date of this application.

[04:44:09] Madam Chair, I would like to have this reviewed, if we could, by planning staff and county attorney. So do we want to take a break? That's what I was going to ask the county attorney. Do you feel this is something you can review, or would you need, I assume you're going to need more time because this is the first time you're seeing it, correct?

[04:44:33] Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Looney provided this language to us. We worked with Mr. Gordy's office on it. I just need to compare it with what we provided to you. and so maybe five minutes please all right i'm going to be generous and give us 10 all right

[04:44:46] we're going to go into recess 10 minutes we could take our seats all right we are back from recess

[04:45:18] i was going to turn to supervisor gordy and the county attorney okay thank you madam chair um uh first of all you know i appreciate everybody's patience when we work through that and i also want to thank everyone uh who uh came and spoke tonight i know data centers are emotional issues um and and and no one knows it more than i do um the when this applicant came to me

[04:45:51] they came with a bigger project for data centers and i said no um i said this is an area that's going to be part of the innovation district as will be announced on april 21st we're working with george mason university and i advised them to try to find something that would better align to what we have going on in the area uh with george mason with the innovation park and and suggested they reach out to economic development. In the meantime, they came back with a

[04:46:22] compromised proposal, and that's what this is. And as I stated before we recess, the challenge that I'm struggling, your power is always a big issue, but in this area, they're going to be data centers. They're coming. They're coming by right. They're in the area, but they're also edging towards an area i really don't want them in and that is getting closer and closer to uh the the neighborhoods along suddenly manor um and so the more that we can keep them on this side in between

[04:47:00] the parkway and the current industrial is is the better option in my view if they're coming um and so with that madam chair um i move that we approve uh item 14b with the propers dated today Second.

[04:47:21] All right. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Supervisor Stewart, then Bodie. So this substation that supposedly, I just want to make this clear.

[04:47:41] This substation provides how much energy?

[04:47:52] Supervisor Stewart, it's a 300 megawatt substation. Got it. Wait, I'm sorry. So we, no, no, no. We have a motion and a second on the floor. We are supposed to have discussion. I got it.

[04:48:08] But my cue was, I was in the queue before the motion was even made. I asked if you wanted to remain there. And I did say yes. You did say yes, but this has already moved. So in order to remain in compliance with where we are, you know, I would ask that you have discussion.

[04:48:27] You got it. Okay. So bottom line is this. Here we are again. we're building another monument, another shrine, another tabernacle to the wishes against the citizens of Prince William County, especially in the West. Nobody wants data centers. Nobody wants this anymore, and that you're putting it across the street, that this is being placed across the

[04:48:55] street from houses. And I get it. And I have questions about the validity of where the power is coming from and how it's going to happen if you use more power than this substation's allowed to to give are you ready to shut that facility down there's so many questions but i mean at the bottom line is and also data centers are the solution to expensive land driven by data centers and that

[04:49:32] they're looking out for the small business that that doesn't track for me i don't it doesn't track for anybody this this is this is a solid solid solid terrible idea and a no for me supervisor brody yeah thank you madam chair um one wanted to appreciate the work that planning staff has done wanted to also appreciate the citizens that came out also wanted to appreciate um supervisor

[04:50:09] gordy and you working with the applicant on this um you are between a rock and a hard place with this application both geographically but also just what you illustrated earlier um to the point on data centers driving up land costs what have you there's there's a lot of elements there what and whatnot but it goes back to the overlay as well as was said before when the overlay was first established over 10 years ago that's what set some of these dominoes in in motion because suddenly you had all this land that was ripe for the taking for data centers and just like super as Agordi said a couple times not too long ago, we have data centers going by right next door,

[04:50:48] essentially, a couple doors down from this. This is a situation that we were given by this. A lot of the data centers that popped up in this area, yes, some of them were ones that were approved through the legislative process, but a lot of them were ones that went through by right because they're in the overlay. We've been talking as a board about pushing data center operators and developers to do better and to come up with innovative solutions to actually bring real employment centers along with them that's what they're doing in this situation they're bringing in an opportunity for us to not only preserve an existing employer but expand them you can say what you want about them being kicked out of the comcast facility they would not have

[04:51:27] been able to grow there they are going to be able to grow here so that's number one we talk about wanting to bring more jobs near homes that's also what this is doing with that non-data center building especially we're bringing more jobs this area so more of those folks that live across the street will have a place to work across the street from where they live transit oriented development smart growth the second thing i'll talk about with this one is we talked through it um we are constantly looking for ways to push these data center operators to be more energy efficient and

[04:52:02] to source more of their energy from clean energy sources we have in in the the applicant here yonder who has done that in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. As I said before, they have strong commitments to ESG. They have strong commitments in other places where they have sourced their energy from renewable energy sources.

[04:52:20] They've committed to looking into doing that here in this site. They've also committed to looking into district heating. I would really recommend the applicant reach out to not only George Mason to talk about that, but also NBRC. There's a lot of good work that's being done in NBRC around trying to get district heating done in this area specifically.

[04:52:40] That's an opportunity here that, again, we wouldn't get any other way. At the end of the day, I get it. As Supervisor Gordy said, as a lot of folks in the community said, this is one of the hottest button issues in the county right now, especially in this part of the county, data centers. At the same time, there are still a lot of impacts and a lot of these applications that we're still grappling to create a framework in order to make it so it's not always a dilemma between a rock and a hard place.

[04:53:09] I think we took a major step earlier today, and there's more steps to be taken. Because of all these myriad of issues, and I know there are concerns around this, but because of a lot of the good work that's been done, this will establish a major employment center in an area where it calls for in our comp plan, in a lot of our documents, and aligns with what the planning department and our economic development partner are calling for this area.

[04:53:33] I will be supporting this application. Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? So here's my concern. We keep talking about how the price of land is going up and up and up, and it is because of data centers, but we can also say no.

[04:53:56] We don't say no. People buy up land, they send out letters to people, creating assemblages, doing whatever. It's because this board rarely says no. This land could have been something else. They did come back and say, okay, one data center, and then the rest of the land will be something else.

[04:54:16] We still could have said no, but we're not saying no. Data centers are not eating at our restaurants. They're not buying from our stores. They're creating a lot of temporary jobs. They're raising the cost of land, and they're pricing out other businesses.

[04:54:34] And yet, we're not going to say no. Earlier, we talked about ending the overlay. I abstained from that because there are a lot of considerations. And there are a lot of people who previously didn't want to get rid of the overlay who are now ready to do so. We talked about sustainability, putting more money in the budget for sustainability.

[04:54:52] But the most sustainable thing that we can do is start to say no. We don't want to say no. So the price of land is going to continue to rise because we cannot say no. We're going to price out other businesses because we cannot say no. I do appreciate the work that has gone on into this, but we can't say no.

[04:55:13] So we are going to have more data centers, overlay or not, because we can't say no. We're going to continue to price out other businesses because we can't say no. Being on the Board of County Supervisors is a responsibility. I ran because I wanted to do things for the community, and I had a vision of who we can be and what we should be.

[04:55:36] But that vision is not driven by the board. It is not driven by us. It is driven by developers. There are some projects I agree to, some I do not. But I'm also tired of sitting up here and having these discussions when I know how the vote is going to go.

[04:55:57] We cannot say no. So we're going to say yes, this is going to pass. Let's not pretend it's not. I appreciate everyone coming out, but this is going to pass. We're going to have other projects that are going to come before this board, and they're going to pass. And then we're going to lament, we're going to talk about sustainability and other issues, and we're pricing businesses out, we need diversification, but we're not going to stop it.

[04:56:21] We are going to say yes to every project. We can say no. We lack the political will to do so. And it is very tiring. I get so many emails saying no to this, saying no to that. I'm a no, but it's not going to stop it.

[04:56:41] I'm not afraid to say no. The word no, you could say it in French, it's no. Spanish is no. We are too afraid to say no. We are too afraid to say that we have enough.

[04:57:00] And why is that? Why can we not look at other things? Why can't we entertain other ideas? Why do we always have to jump at the data center? Because someone is saying that this is the best use of the space.

[04:57:19] It's because we can't say no. It's too hard. It's abdicating our responsibility. So I'm just going to go ahead and call for the vote. Let's do what we, okay, go ahead, go ahead. If you have some, all right.

[04:57:35] My button's not working, so. I'm not going to say no. I'm going to say yes. Go ahead and say your turn before we vote for this. No, because I'm not, we're not going to end like this. Supervisor Gordy, you've been a king of no on data centers. Now, we talked a lot about power distribution, where it's coming from.

[04:57:52] I see what you did here, and I know that this will be it for you with the data center. You've moved power lines to make this happen by way of introducing another business tied to it. So I think what you did here was very brilliant. I think history will show that once this is all said and done.

[04:58:10] I know that going forward, you're not looking at data centers. You had a tough one here to make tonight. So I'm not going to sit here and leave you as being the guy left holding the bag. This is a good project. You work some miracle magic. I know the folks aren't happy about this.

[04:58:27] I believe what you've done with the power infrastructure, what data centers are going to do nationwide. We've got an issue with power that's going to run across the states to feed other states. It's what got us in this mess in the first place with power lines running through Prince William County.

[04:58:43] I want to thank you for the work you put in on this. It hasn't been easy. you've had a tough decision to make here. I do know that this is going to close the door. So I'm going to say this to the industry now. This is going to close the door on data centers. I don't think you're going to be seeing this board really have an appetite.

[04:59:01] Now, what's left in the pipeline, what we've got to finish up, we're going to be dealing with a lot of that. That's still a lot in the pipeline. But this right here is clear to me in our discussion that you, who have led since your time on the board and the planning commission, This whole data center piece, this was a brilliant move.

[04:59:19] This is a chess move. It's probably checkmate, so I want to thank you for that. So, Supervisor Angry, how many data centers have you said no to? And the reason I'm asking, and this is not simply about Tom Gordy, because I know Tom has had to take some tough votes, but you're saying that we're clearing the deck. We're not clearing the deck.

[04:59:35] We have more applications before us. Are there any that you will say, and I'm not asking you, this is rhetorical, are there any that you're going to say no to? And this is the thing. We go through this time and time again. I am frustrated because I'm sitting here.

[04:59:51] We had the overlay discussion earlier. Fait accompli. We keep talking and dancing around this issue. But the thing is, we're not going to stop saying no. We're just not. We did say no to one project.

[05:00:10] What else are we going to say no to? We can keep going round and round and round and round. But I know I'm going to know. Maybe a couple of other colleagues are a no. We can keep putting lipstick on the pig, but that's what we're going to keep doing.

[05:00:31] So as we have discussions, particularly as we get into budget, please know that when we try to dress this up and make it sound better than what it is, people see through us. People see through us.

[05:00:49] This is a tough, again, for you, Supervisor Gorey, I know this has been a tough one, but I just want to say people see through us. We're not hiding. We're not going to throw the rock and hide our hand, as I know some of you like to say.

[05:01:05] People see through us. Stop the word games. Stop the theatrics. People see through us. Let's go ahead and take the vote.

[05:01:28] Motion passes four to three. Supervisors Stewart, Vega, and Chair Jefferson voting nay. Madam Chair.

[05:01:47] Supervisor Gordy. I also move to approve item 14C with the amended proffer that's before you and the proffer is dated today's date. Second. any further discussion madam chair i i appreciate what you said um i i have voted no against data centers um stop data centers from even coming to a vote um we got rid of one today and there are

[05:02:18] more to come um and um and and i just say you know look i know again i know this is hard and i know it can be very emotional um and um but but i mean look i have voted no and i have said no data centers. I've had some that came to me and have never seen the light of day. Many of them in the Brentsville district on Bristow Road, at least three of them have come to me and we've said no and they've never seen the light of day. So sometimes we kill them before they even get

[05:02:55] started. Sometimes it takes some time to take them out, but sometimes we have to work through things. And so I appreciate what you said, but I do have to speak truth to at least my record but I have said no. Thank you.

[05:03:14] Does anyone else have anything? Supervisor Bailey. Yeah, I just, Tom, I just appreciate the work that you did with this project, and I appreciate the thorn in the side that we all have, and it's called data centers.

[05:03:37] It's the thorn in the side. And so we have to work together in this county, not only just to say no or yes, we have to work in this county with our citizens to help them understand what's going on.

[05:03:56] And that's what we haven't done very good in the past in doing. And so I, too, have voted no, however that looks to anybody. But we have to educate our citizens because it shows a level of commitment, no matter how we vote, when we do that.

[05:04:18] And so unfortunately, since the 90s, since we haven't educated our citizens as to why this industry came forth, unfortunately, it's in our laps right now. So for all the rest of my colleagues, you know, it is the thorn in our side, period.

[05:04:38] and so it is an emotional uh thing to carry that burden but we have to we have to so i you know appreciate everybody's concerns appreciate everybody's uh emotions i really do um tom you worked very hard on this and so i respect that thank you supervisor stewart i have always

[05:05:14] been a no i'm still a no will always be a no this is crazy this we we yet another egg in the wrong basket of diversification. This is going to blow up in our faces.

[05:05:33] As far as education is concerned, the residents of Prince William County have been trying tirelessly, relentlessly, over and over and over and over again to educate this board.

[05:05:50] And we have been the absolute problem children and don't want the education. Maybe we're listening to somebody else and their interest, not the interest of the people that go to the polls, not the interest of our neighbors, not the interest in doing the absolute right thing.

[05:06:20] This is wrong on so many different levels, but I only got five minutes. This is not good. This is not how you do government.

[05:06:35] This is not how you do democracy. This is not how you listen to people. It's wrong. i'll always say it every every fiber of my being i know i know it's wrong it's not even a matter of being better better is like just lipstick on a pig no matter how much you polish a piece of

[05:07:10] fecal matter it's still that so that that's all i've got to say anyone else before we call for the vote all right let's go ahead and take our votes motion passes four to three supervisors stewart vega and chair jefferson voting nay all right thank you everyone we are going to move on

[05:07:46] to agenda item number 15, and that is public comment time. Same drill as before. When I call your name, you're going to go to the microphone. State your name, where you generally reside. We only have a few people. We have Kevin Parker, Rachel Ellis, and Elaine Bonilla-Villatoro.

[05:08:11] Great handwriting, by the way. And we're going to let people clear out before we get started.

[05:08:33] All right, sir, you may begin. Good evening, supervisors. Kevin Parker in the Ibsco District.

[05:08:55] During this recent snowstorm, it was a disaster. It caused a complete breakdown of our multimodal transportation system. For more than a week, many pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users were forced into the roadway with cars of our major arterial roads alongside 45-mile-an-hour traffic or they were trapped at home.

[05:09:25] Our planning, transportation, and sustainability documents from the county, from NVTA, and including the famous Prince William Conservation Alliance 3R's vision, all treat multimodal transit as a reliable utility.

[05:09:45] But our response treats it as a fair weather amenity. If we are serious about the future we've envisioned with our plans, we must provide reliable transportation for those without cars regardless of weather. It's important to realize that being trapped by snow is a modern phenomenon.

[05:10:06] Historically, in northern climates today, snow meant increased mobility. We used to use rollers to compact the snow and sleighs to go to grandmother's house, like from the song Over the Hills and Through the Woods.

[05:10:25] Back then, snow was a surface to travel on, not an obstacle to be trapped by. Today, we have the opposite. We use big machines to clear asphalt for cars while manufacturing, with plows, massive icy barriers on the sidewalk and bus stops for people.

[05:10:42] We need both long-term structural solutions and short-term emergency preparation. I urge you to direct the Office of Emergency Management to treat this matter of resilience as it actually is.

[05:10:59] Just like a power outage or flood, a mobility blackout requires an after-action report. We need to document the extent of this system failure. Multimodal transportation is a critical utility, a multimodal after-action report for snowstorms, and hopefully starting planning for a 72-hour recovery standard for our transit corridors is needed.

[05:11:26] Let's make our infrastructure match our vision for dense, walkable, and transit-oriented places like innovation. That has been the focus of much of this evening's meetings. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[05:11:46] Rachel Ellis, Gainesville District. First off, I want to thank Chair Jefferson, and I want to thank Supervisor Stewart for your comments tonight, because that's exactly how residents are feeling.

[05:12:02] Let's be clear. The majority of the projects that have been approved were because this board voted yes to more. They were projects that weren't by right, and they were in the overlay. You guys have fed the beast every time with your yes votes.

[05:12:18] And quite frankly, your records speak for themselves. We know exactly who voted yes and on what projects and who voted no. I'd actually have more respect for you guys, or for some of you, if you were just honest and you just said, hey, let's get rid of the overlay because I'm not going to follow it anyways because, look, I don't.

[05:12:39] I don't really care about citizens that live around there because it's not my district. Or I like the tax money I get. Or I like the campaign donations that I'm getting. You know what stops land prices from going up?

[05:12:55] You stop feeding the beast. You say no. Prince William County says no. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Elaine Bonilla-Viatoro.

[05:13:11] I've lived in the Alcaquan District for about over 10 years. Excuse me. I'm here because 27 families at the Woodbridge Mobile Home Park recently received an eviction letter. We have till July 31st of this year to leave because of a change of use and demolition.

[05:13:32] Many of my neighbors have been here for 20 years, and some families have actually spent their life savings to purchase homes that now they will have to evacuate or be destroyed. The landlord is offering us $5,000 of relocation, but that is only if we are able to move our mobile homes.

[05:13:56] Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of land around here or lots for rent for us to move. And quite frankly, $5,000 will not cover the cost of moving a mobile home. And it won't be enough for us to survive for relocation or finding new housing in this county.

[05:14:15] So, Supervisor Bodie, we are your constituents, and we're here asking for your help. Please investigate this and help us find a way to keep our homes. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have anyone available, Supervisor Angry, online?

[05:14:33] Do we have anybody online? Nope. All right, thanks. All right, thank you so very much for everyone who's come out to speak today. So we're going to move on to agenda item number 60, and that's an adjournment. Move to adjournment. Second. It's been moved and multi-seconded.

[05:14:49] I will go ahead and give it to Bailey because I've heard her the loudest. So let's go ahead and take our votes. Yes, I'll vote. Stick around, yes, Lee.

[05:15:05] Vote unanimous. All right, thank you so very much. We will see everyone next week on Tuesday, March 10th. Thank you.

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