Prince William Digital Gateway project halted by Virginia Court of Appeals

A three-judge panel on Tuesday halted a plan to put the world’s largest data center complex on land near Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The decision from the Virginia Court of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling that Prince William County improperly fast-tracked the votes for the project without giving the public a fair chance to comment.

Prince William County residents and historic preservation organizations near the battlefield are hailing the decision as a victory.

“In a major victory for county residents and the region’s irreplaceable historic landscapes, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals sided with the American Battlefield Trust, the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, and local landowners who challenged the rezonings,” a press release from the American Battlefield Trust said.

The decision addressed two simultaneous lawsuits, both of which challenged a 2023 rezoning vote by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.

The rezoning plan, known as the Prince William Digital Gateway, would have built a 2,100-acre data center along Pageland Lane, adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The plan was met with heavy opposition from locals when it was first proposed in 2022. In January of that year, more than 100 people signed up to speak at a public meeting about the plan.

“It’s a total and complete change of the character,” opponent Kathy Kulick said in 2022. She said she was worried about a potential disruption to the local watershed and natural wildlife, quality of life concerns, and the loss of the park’s historic feel.

Other property owners in the region, ready to sell their land, were in favor of the plan, saying the tax benefits to the county were worth the changes to the landscape.

Then, in 2023, supervisors approved the rezoning in a 4-3 vote with one abstention.

But the residential and historical organizations behind the lawsuits argued that the approved rezoning plan did not get enough public advertisement before the vote, the American Battlefield Trust said in its release about the ruling.

The trust also said in its release that the plan’s advertisement in local newspapers did not follow state or county laws, which require such notices to appear six days apart for two consecutive weeks before a vote happens.

The Virginia Court of Appeals combined the two similar lawsuits into one hearing on Feb. 24.

The Tuesday decision against the county’s rezoning, stopping the development plan, was unanimous.

“The Court of Appeals agreed with the position we have taken for years: The County did not properly advertise this nightmarish proposal or make its text available to the public, despite the extraordinary public impact that the project would have,” American Battlefield Trust President David Duncan said in a release.

The trust expects the data center companies and developer to appeal the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court, though it’s not yet clear if that will happen.

“The county is in the process of reviewing the decision of the court,” a spokesperson for Prince William County said in an email to News4. “The County Attorney will then provide legal advice to the Board. Since the decision can be appealed within 30 days, and therefore not yet final, this is still active litigation. The county’s policy is that the county does not comment on active litigation.”

News4 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey contributed to this report.