The way has been paved for a new 110-foot-tall data center in Fairfax County after the board of supervisors approved the rezoning of land on Lee Highway in Chantilly, Virginia. Many people who live nearby are not happy about it.
The board of supervisors voted 8 to 1 to approve the rezoning, which would raise the 75-foot height limit on a 12-acre parcel on Route 50 near Stonecroft Boulevard. The approval came after three hours of public backlash and supervisor discussion.
“Rezoning and rezoning and rezoning, so let’s make it more industrial and more industrial. And they are squeezing us out as homeowners,” Pleasant Valley resident Cynthia Shang told 7News. “We’re becoming an island surrounded by industrialization.”
She started the group “Save Pleasant Valley from Industrial Development” to halt the project that would bring the tallest data center in the county.
The new building would only be half a mile away from the neighborhood, and there are concerns about the height.
“The height of course drives everything because the height drives the noise. It drives the number of generators,” Shang said.
According to planning commission documents the residential area would hear noise of about 50 decibels “during periods of typical operation,” which is similar to a running dishwasher.
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