A data center developer is asking the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn a ruling blocking its plan to build the world’s largest strip of data centers near the Manassas battlefield — an 11th-hour appeal that revives a project many observers had declared dead.
QTS Data Centers, headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, filed an appeal late Thursday, arguing that lower courts erred in rejecting a legislative vote on its plans due to a technicality.
A three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving’s ruling that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors failed to give homeowners the legally required timely notice of a key rezoning vote. That led the board and fellow developer Compass Datacenters to withdraw from the project last month.
“The Prince William Board of County Supervisors previously approved this project, which would bring critical infrastructure and tens of billions of dollars in investment to the county,” QTS said in a statement. “We remain committed to the project and being a responsible partner to the Prince William County community.”
Known as the PW Digital Gateway, the project would place 37 data centers on 22 million square feet of land west of the battlefield, which commemorates the two Civil War battles of Bull Run. The gateway’s footprint would be roughly the size of 144 Walmart supercenters.
Northern Virginia has become ground zero in a growing conflict between public officials, developers and homeowners, as artificial intelligence drives national demand for data storage.
According to a Prince William County estimate that QTS included in its legal filing, data centers generated $293.7 million in tax revenue for the county in 2024. County officials estimated in 2022 that the gateway project would generate an additional $400 million in annual tax revenue.
In December 2023, the Democrat-led board, under then-Chair Ann Wheeler, narrowly approved rezoning the land for the gateway in a party-line vote. Homeowners and preservationists filed separate lawsuits a month later.
Judge Irving ordered supervisors to redo the 27-hour public hearing, but they appealed instead.
On March 31, the appeals court panel unanimously sided with the Oak Valley Homeowners’ Association and 11 residents. It also cleared the way for a separate lawsuit by the American Battlefield Trust and a coalition of homeowners challenging the project to proceed to trial.
QTS’ filing blames The Washington Post for publishing rezoning notices on dates that differed from the county clerk’s request and argues the county took extensive additional steps to notify residents.
“In addition to these advertisements, the Board mailed notices to nearby property owners and posted hundreds of signs at regular intervals on the main roads bordering the land,” the petition states.
Craig Blakeley, an attorney representing Oak Valley, predicted the high court will uphold the earlier rulings if it agrees to hear the case.
“The way it works is that the appellant will argue before a writ panel as to why the Virginia Supreme Court should take the case,” Mr. Blakeley said. “If the Virginia Supreme Court decides to take the case, then a briefing and argument schedule will be set.”
Chap Petersen, an attorney and former Democratic state lawmaker representing the American Battlefield Trust, said the simplest path forward for QTS is the one it has avoided.
“If the application is so meritorious, why not just bring it back to the Board of Supervisors? Nothing prevents them from having another public hearing with the required notice,” Mr. Petersen said.
Board Chair Deshundra Jefferson, who defeated Ms. Wheeler in a 2024 Democratic primary, has joined Republicans in opposing the project, making a rezoning redo vote unlikely to succeed. The county declined to comment on active litigation.
Meanwhile, Compass has cut its losses.
“Compass has reached the unfortunate conclusion that we cannot move forward with the Prince William Digital Gateway project,” AJ Byers, the company’s president, said in a statement. “While we still believe this project offered significant benefits for the region and our neighbors, recent legal actions and compounding regulatory hurdles have effectively closed a viable path forward.”
Opponents say the fight has sent a message beyond Prince William County.
“The entire data center industry is back on its heels because they thought they could bully communities and local governments into accepting the plundering of their energy grid, their water resources, and their overall quality of life,” said Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, which formed to oppose the project. “The digital gateway project is ground zero for igniting a backlash, and we have no intention of relenting.”
