WASHINGTON — AT&T announced in a letter Tuesday that it is withdrawing its commission permit application for the controversial Short Hill facility in Loudoun County.
Scott Rushin, AT&T’s principal technical architect, wrote in a letter to Loudoun County’s director of planning and zoning, that the company has decided to suspend its plans to construct the proposed building that would have been a part of its telephone transmission utility substation on Short Hill Mountain.
“We do not come to this decision easily,” Rushin said in the letter.
The proposed site has caused controversy in the county. There was speculation that the site was or would become a data center. Western Loudoun residents expressed concerns at community and board meetings before the company’s withdrawal.
After the announcement, supervisors Geary Higgins and Tony Buffington notified residents that AT&T’s permit, which was approved by the Planning Commission in late April, “ultimately did not provide adequate protection of Short Hill or preservation of the rural character of the rural policy area.”
Also, they said the withdrawal “is in the best interests of the County.”
The Board of Supervisors were scheduled to vote next week on whether to grant AT&T the commission permit for the expansion. However, due to the withdrawal, Higgins and Buffington said the board will “entertain a motion to not affirm the action of the Planning Commission.”
Read the full letter below:
ATT Short Hill Commission Permit Withdrawl
