This afternoon, July 2nd, The American Battlefield Trust (ABT) announced that the Prince William Digital Gateway Project developer, QTS, dropped its appeal in support of the proposed data center development adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park.
QTS had appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court; dropping the appeal effectively brings the proposed project to an end.
“This is a banner day for the historic preservation community. Our decision to fight an enormous and inappropriate data center project threatening one of America’s most hallowed historic places has been completely vindicated,” said American Battlefield Trust President David Duncan.
ABT, the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, and local residents had filed a lawsuit against Prince William County, and the two data center developers, Compass and QTS, challenging the rushed and unlawful Board of Supervisors vote to make way for the largest data center complex in the world.
The Prince William Digital Gateway was a proposed 37 data center buildings would have required 14 on-site electrical substations for operations. They would have used over 9 gigawatts of power, enough to power 2 million homes.
Duncan also remarked: “Now that the Prince William Digital Gateway is no more, we look forward to working with the county, the preservation community, and local residents and landowners to find a conservation-friendly solution that will protect Manassas National Battlefield Park and other natural and cultural resources along the historic Pageland Lane corridor.”
To learn more about this and the work that the American Battlefield Trust does, visit their website.