The residents of Pageland Lane have been stuck between a rock and a hard place for the past 15 years.  Our once rural road has become a bypass for industrial truck traffic and commuters from I-66 to Loudoun County. We cannot get our mail without putting our lives in danger.    15 years ago, Loudoun changed their comp plan and developed everything on the Dulles side.  On top of that Dominion in 2008 upgraded their transmission lines down our front and back yards.  We have transmission lines that span 2-football fields wide and towers that are 115 feet tall.  This has caused irreparable harm to our lives, property values, and quality of life.  OTHER THAN US, NO ONE CARED.

And on December 10, 2019,(almost 4 years ago)  the final nail in our coffin was placed when Lawson & the then Republican board during a lame duck VOTED YES for the precedent-setting 3 million sq. ft. Data Center right next door to Manassas Battlefield, Conway Forest, on Pageland Lane and the then Rural Crescent AND this data center was outside of the Data Center Corridor that Lawson, Weir and Schlossberg created in 2016.  THE APPROVAL FROM START TO FINISH TOOK 55 MINUTES!

THERE WERE only 6 SPEAKERS.

Bob Weir was one of a handful of speakers. He did not oppose the project; instead, he just wanted to talk technical power BS.

So where were the residents from Heritage Hunt, Oak Valley, National Park Service, Civil War Trust, HOA Roundtable, etc.  Nowhere!  Not one person from any of these Special Interest Groups showed up or spoke against it.

The members of the HH board and Data Center working group were ALL RESIDENTS of HH AT THE TIME.  There was no outcry from them.  100% of the current Heritage Hunt leadership lived in their community when Gainesville Crossing was approved on Dec. 10, 2019.  Absolutely none of them spoke against it.  Why didn’t they? They didn’t care because they don’t turn left, and it doesn’t affect them on their protected island.  Just as the HH residents don’t know how life on Pageland Lane is today, they will not be affected by the Digital Gateway.

WHAT WAS LAWSON THINKING WHEN SHE APPROVED A 3 MILLION SQ FT DATA CENTER NEXT DOOR TO MANASSAS BATTLEFIELD PARK AND THE THEN RURAL CRESCENT? DID SHE NOT HAVE THE FORESIGHT OR VISION TO SEE WHAT WOULD FOLLOW?  SHE DID NOT CARE ABOUT THE PARKS OR THE RURAL CRESCENT THEN.

Talk is cheap:  LAWSON & BOB WEIR CLAIM TO “SAVE THE RURAL CRESENT” BUT NEITHER OF THEM PROTECTED IT.  IT’S NOW NOTHING MORE THAN A CHEAP AND DECEPTIVE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN TO GET VOTES.

The approval of Gainesville Crossing was the final straw for Pageland residents.  We realized we were the “junk room” for Lawson and Weir.  We had to come together as a community and protect our property values and families and so we did. We are exactly what counties dream about:  a community that agrees on a change and a solution.  Thanks to Lawson we were educated and learned Pageland Lane “is the Best Location for Data Centers in PWC”:  We had the transmission lines and the fiber.  Our property values, lives, and health were being destroyed by the massive transmission lines and Pageland Lane was no longer livable.  In 2019 we applied for a comp. plan change.  In 2022 County Staff, PC and BOCS designed and adopted a Comprehensive Plan for the entire Pageland Lane Corridor that is a new gold standard for data center development.  A design that harmonizes commercial economic development with the establishment of public and private open space to protect real environmental and cultural resources (not “looks like it used to” landscapes near one of the two civil war battlefields). 

There will be no data centers within 1 mile of a school.  There are no communities directly adjacent to data centers.  We are very fortunate to have quality data center users who have worked with the PWC staff to adhere to the CPA and create the new “gold standard “in Data Center Campus design.  This is a win, win, win.

The assault against us, the families of Pageland Lane, and our property rights is about jealousy and control. The special interest groups DO NOT LIVE or GET ACCESS TO THEIR HOMES FROM PAGELAND LANE.

Opposing Digital Gateway is a sport for them and giving them relevancy and as one bored opposition leader said it was “giving him a reason to live”.

None of these people have skin in the game, they don’t walk in the shoes of the residents of Pageland Lane, and we will not sit back and let them control our property rights and give the perception they live on Pageland Lane.  They do not! This small group of HH residents live in the densest residential development in Gainesville.

They are the elites and think they can rule over our property rights and overrule the elected officials’ authority to do what is in the best interest of ALL Prince William Residents. They are the Have’s, and we are the Have Not’s.

This is the greatest economic and public benefit of all time for Prince William County.  We cannot let it slip away while all of the surrounding jurisdictions are jockeying for data centers.

(Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of PW Perspective, LLC or its affiliated stakeholders.)