Several local environmental groups are raising concerns about a possible land sale in Fairfax County they suspect could result in data center construction in Chantilly, Virginia.
The proposal, which is still subject to board approval, calls for 41.7 acres to be sold to Starwood Capital Group for $166.8 million. The private developer would then own the land at 3721 Stonecroft Boulevard.
In a letter to the Northern Virginia county’s Board of Supervisors, the group asked whether local leaders have signed any agreements with the potential buyer, what other possible uses the land could have and what health impacts could be on low-income communities.
The area currently features part of Fairfax County’s police training grounds, with a firearms range and driver training area, according to the county’s website. A county webpage detailing the possible sale said there’s no “residential or mixed-use development proposed or anticipated for this location.”
The county is expecting the sale to create new tax revenue, and “proceeds of the sale will help fund modern police training facilities collocated with a new Criminal Justice Academy,” according to the sale proposal website.
Selling the land doesn’t approve use of it for a data center, the website said.
But the environmental groups suspect the sale would all but guarantee the land is used for that purpose, prompting questions about transparency and public safety.
“If this project would help us further our climate goals in Fairfax County, that would be great,” said Renee Grebe, the Northern Virginia conservation advocate for Nature Forward. “But we know that just even a single project can set us back on all the goals that we have.”
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said the county does “not have any proposal for a data center, so we do not have responses to the data center-related questions. Regarding the agreement, there is a robust FAQ.”
‘It’s a concern’
Ting Waymouth, Northern Virginia organizer at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said many groups learned about the potential sale through news reports.
If a data center project gains traction, Waymouth said the county “should be exploring the use of batteries. We should be limiting, whenever possible, the use of fossil fuels to be powering these.”
In response to a question about whether possible data centers on the land would run on non-carbon-emitting energy sources, Waymouth said the county explained, “‘Virginia does not require that.’ And I’m concerned that Fairfax County is answering that way, rather than choosing to be a leader in this space and answering that.”
The nearest homes are nearly 3,000 feet away from the site, the county said, and the closest school is 1.3 miles away. Fairfax County’s zoning ordinance requires data centers to be at least 200 feet from the lot line of a home or neighborhood.
The county was approached with an “unsolicited offer” for the land, according to the online FAQ, and then contacted other companies that may be interested. Competing offers were submitted, and a third party appraised the land to ensure the offer is within fair market value.
“There should really be a (Request for Proposal) process for the use of that land,” said Ann Bennett, land use chair of the Sierra Club Great Falls Group. “If the county believes it should be selling it, the public should be able to weigh in. This is, if not a sweetheart deal, definitely sweetheart access.”
Grebe, meanwhile, wondered whether the county considered other ways the land could be used.
“It’s appropriate for a data center, in terms of it’s really surrounded by other industrial use, except for that we do have a lot of communities that are also there, and so the cumulative impacts of this kind of industrial development and build-out so close to what is also industrial build-out from Loudoun County, it’s a concern,” Grebe said.
A public hearing on the possible land sale is scheduled for March 17.
Based on a potential county timeline, construction of new facilities wouldn’t start until summer 2028.
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