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Data center divide: DMV residents push back against plans to develop more centers across the region
Residents across the DMV are continuing to push back on data center development in the region. FOX 5's Katie Barlow and Shirin Rajaee have team coverage tonight as court battles and community debates are underway in Prince William County and Montgomery County tonight.
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. - A Virginia court is considering the future for farm owners and residents of Prince William County who want to keep data centers out of the rural crescent.
FOX 5's chief legal correspondent, Katie Barlow, was in the courtroom for arguments on Tuesday.
Local perspective:
Liam Burke owns a farm in Prince William County. He’s one of the named plaintiffs in one of the cases heard in court on Tuesday.
Digital Gateway North — one of the new major data center development proposals at the center of this legal fight — would go up right across from Burke’s farm.
He says that right now, his farm is doing well. He’s got four donkeys and a horse. But he says that could all change if they lose on appeal.
Big picture view:
Tuesday’s hearing was specifically about whether a lower court judge got it right when she said the county failed to provide residents with proper notice of the plans to build these data centers.
"You have to understand that these plaintiffs hold the future of western Virginia and Prince William in their hands. The pressure that we are all feeling is not just about Liam's farm. It's about everybody. Everybody fighting for justice, fighting for the rule of law, and fighting to have their voices heard," said Elena Schlossberg, director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County
The attorney representing Burke and other residents of Oak Valley, Craig Blakely, is cautiously optimistic.
"I'm very emotional about this because what we do is stand up for the little guy. We have a practice of representing people who can't stand up for themselves, who have faced developers, who can't stand up for themselves," Blakely said.
He added that you never know what a court is going to do, but the three-judge panel appeared sympathetic to the residents' cause, but they peppered Blakely and co-counsel Chap Petersen with difficult questions.
"A lot of the questions seem procedural, seem technical because that's what you need to do to win these cases. But between Chap and I, and the other people who have been supporting these cases, I think frankly we did a hell of a job today, and I'm cautiously optimistic. But as I said, you can never tell," Blakely said.
Dig deeper:
The question here is whether Prince William County failed to provide notice at the right time on the right day.
One judge asked why the general assembly made notice requirements — like a certain time and number of notices — so specific for governments, instead of requiring "reasonable notice."
Blakely told the court that developers are trying to reduce input from the public in these cases, and that by the time you even get to a notice requirement, the government already has a close relationship with the developer because they've been working on a proposal for a while.
FOX 5 asked the lawyers for the county and the developer for comment as they were leaving court, but they declined.
According to lawyers for the plaintiffs, we can expect a decision in about four to six weeks, but there is no guarantee on timing.