A unanimous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia has upheld a lower court ruling that could kill a plan to build 37 data centers near Manassas National Battlefield Park.
The appellate court 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 on the data centers.
Judge Irving ordered the board in August to redo the December 2023 vote, but the county supervisors took their case to the Court of Appeals.
“To not enforce the advertising requirements as written would undo that legislative choice,” Judge Stuart Raphael wrote Tuesday in a 53-page opinion. “It would also invite other localities to be less vigilant in following the statutory requirements.”
Judges Randolph Beales and David Bernhard joined him in the decision, which rejected the county’s argument that many residents still learned about the meeting and attended it.
The panel also unanimously overturned a circuit court ruling that rejected a separate lawsuit brought by the American Battlefield Trust and a coalition of homeowners. They challenged the project’s impact on the grounds, which commemorate the two battles of Bull Run during the Civil War.
Tuesday’s ruling opens the way for that lawsuit to proceed to a circuit court trial.
“Our resolution of the issues presented here is not influenced by the vibrant public debate surrounding data-center development,” Judge Raphael wrote.
Noting the likelihood of an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia, the order blocks the supervisors and developers “from engaging in any land disturbance or actual construction of the facilities pending further appeal.”
Homeowners and preservationists filed both lawsuits in January 2024. They hailed Tuesday’s ruling as a victory in that effort.
“A great day for Virginia,” said Chap Petersen, an attorney and former Democratic state lawmaker representing the American Battlefield Trust. “A great day for America.”
Mac Haddow, president of the Oak Valley Homeowners’ Association, which filed the other lawsuit along with 11 individual residents, called on the supervisors to cease their appeal efforts.
“Every additional dollar spent on outside counsel is a dollar taken from taxpayers to defend a process the courts have already ruled unlawful,” Mr. Haddow said in a statement.
Known as the PW Digital Gateway, the project seeks to build 22 million square feet of data centers on 2,139 acres of private land west of the battlefield. That would make it the largest such corridor in the world.
Craig Blakeley, a Tysons attorney representing Oak Valley in court, expressed “every confidence” that the Virginia Supreme Court would uphold Tuesday’s ruling against the scheme.
“Naturally, we were very pleased,” Mr. Blakeley said in an email.
QTS Datacenters and Compass Datacenters, the two companies involved in the project, did not respond immediately to an email seeking comment.
The Washington Times reached out to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors for comment.
Colesville Supervisor Yesli Vega, a Republican who led opposition to the party-line rezoning votes, praised the ruling.
“It’s wonderful news,” Ms. Vega said.
Supervisor Victor S. Angry, a Neabsco Democrat and proponent of the data centers, did not respond to an email.
Northern Virginia has become Ground Zero in a growing conflict between revenue-hungry public officials and homeowners concerned about property values as artificial intelligence increases the need for data storage hubs.
Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, which formed to oppose the data centers, described the project as an effort to steamroll the desires of area residents.
“Residents of Prince William are demanding a future that will protect our community from this industrial onslaught,” said Ms. Schlossberg, a Haymarket resident.
