For years, Prince William County has been at a crossroads between technological progress and land conservation. What started as concerns over land use, environmental impacts and noise pollution has deteriorated into divisiveness, petitions, and even racial remarks on social media.

“We have seen horrible posts on social media with the ‘puppeteers ad,’ said Mary Ann Ghadban, Pageland Resident and support of the PW Digital Gateway, which is designed to bring data centers in the area known as the rural crescent. “I mean, who thinks like that?”

Here is the photo in question, with the appearance of some of the Board of County Supervisors being dangled at the behest of Chairwoman Ann Wheeler and the contractors who are overseeing the project.

What would she say to those who do not agree with the data center project being built within the area? “Nothing stays the same in Northern Virginia. There’s a four-mile stretch of road, over 40 years and several generations, that has had to deal with such bad traffic for so long. Prince William County is the last of the holdouts to be prosperous. Fairfax and Loudoun counties have experienced prosperity in the past several years because of expansion, and we are still lagging behind as a whole.”

Despite the concerns about the impact on the environment, despite thorough studies beforehand, she says that there are several controls to ensure that the environment will be protected. “The environmental regulations and state codes that will be on the 2000 acres as data centers that are much stricter than it was when I was a farmer,” she says. “This talk of the environment being endangered is just a ruse by wealthy organizations, with a mission to keep Prince William County rural because they don’t want any traffic spilling over to Fauquier. This rural crescent was developed over 24 years ago, but it was never meant to be permanent. It was originally a plan for sprawl development.”

“We’ve gone to the economic and housing segregation that McGuire Woods is putting on at George Mason University, and what we learned is that this plan was a way to divide the haves and have nots.”

Over those 24 years, it has created a divide within the county, as the eastern end has yet to develop as quickly as their western neighbors.

“This is why we have the eastern side of the county with the oldest schools that are overcrowded, and the roads are a mess. The eastern end gets all the apartments, and the western end doesn’t want the undesirables,” she said. Based on the tax rates, she said, the data center will lead to 57% of the money will be distributed countywide. “The money will go back to paying the teachers, and we can hire and maintain teachers in the county, as well as for our police and firefighters.”

“We don’t have funds, and we need the money to institute trades and digital tech students. Every institution gets upgraded, and we can’t have collective bargaining as a whole if we don’t have a financial increase, and that is what this will do.”

In addition to the increase in jobs, she says that it will make Prince William County more attractive to people looking for a place to live.

“We need affordable workforce housing. It costs money to a jurisdiction, and with the gateway, we will have $400 million dollars that will help with the financial windfall. The easiest comparison is Loudoun County, and they started this 15 years ago, and they have significant growth. More than 10,000 jobs have been created within the county as a result.”

As there has been a vocal minority of people who have openly opposed the PW Digital Gateway, most of the discussion was based around issues of changes to a longstanding portion of the community. Over the past few weeks, the vitriol has turned vicious, with one comment on Facebook being expressed in a particularly disturbing tone.

“We are going to protect the history of the county,” says Ghadban, “while still providing an opportunity for Prince William County to become a place where all families can come together, live and work.”

There will be a hearing next month to approve the Comprehensive plan next month to discuss the rules and conditions of the gateway.