Prince William County residents sue county over recently approved Bristow, Va. data center

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (7News) — A group of Prince William County residents upset over a recently approved massive data center campus has filed a lawsuit against the Board of County Supervisors hoping to stop its advancement, according to the lawsuit filing.

The residents, who have formed a non-profit called the "Devlin Defend Corporation" filed a 473-page suit on Dec. 28, 2023, to stop nine data centers from going up in Bristow, claiming that the plan was approved without considering community reactions and other factors by Virginia law and the County's Code of Ordinances.

ALSO READ | Prince William Co. leaders approve Devlin Technology Park data center despite opposition

They also claim that a company behind the data center, Stanley Martin Homes, was treated differently than previous applicants and that the county broke rules to push their request through.

"The passage of the Ordinance on November 29, 2023, culminated years of concerted efforts to pave over western Prince William County and erect brutal monoliths to the digital lifestyle," text from the lawsuit read. " The amounts of money spent on the Devlin Park application and the "proffers" was without any historic precedent."

Within the lawsuit, the Defend Devlin Corporation said that planners did not give appropriate consideration for the environment or the community around the site, and claimed that they failed to show certain required maps and land-use schematics in the two years between its first proposal and the county's approval.

The Devlin Technology Park data center campus would allow for nine data centers and three substations to be built on 269 acres, with centers expected to stand roughly 81 feet tall, which the Defend Devlin Corporation claims would tower over nearby homes based on the topography of the land.

For years, residents near the proposed Devlin Technology Park data center site complained about the potential noise and loss of green space, speaking out repeatedly at meetings that went on for hours. Residents also told county members that they would leave the county altogether.

"The surrounding communities in the Brentsville District overwhelming showed their disapproval for the project in the forms of writing letters to the BOCS, speaking during public comment and hearing time, forming townhalls, and writing news outlets, stating that data centers do not belong next to residential and schools and that their quality of life will be adversely affected by this decision," an official with the Defend Devlin Corporation wrote.

Regardless, the county voted 5-3 along political lines to advance the project - five Democratic, three Republican.

However Prince William County isn't the only county facing a contentious data center proposal, Fairfax County residents also spoke of frustrations with that project.