Op-Ed: Advocates Question Proposal To Sell Land To Data Center Developer

The following letter was sent to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which is considering a proposal to sell county-owned land to a data center developer.

Dear Chairman McKay and Board Members,

We are writing to follow up on an announcement by Fairfax County and the Board of Supervisors that it is seriously considering a proposal to sell 41.7 acres of county-owned land that serves as a police training facility at 3721 Stonecroft Boulevard to the data center developer Starwood Capital Group Affiliate (SCG Global Holdings, LLC).

While the county sometimes sells land or swaps small parcels in certain land use applications, the sale of county public land at this scale seems unusual. Due to the size and nature of the proposed sale, and the limited amount of information that has been shared with Fairfax County residents so far, we ask that you elaborate on the specifics of the deal and the process that resulted in the current proposal.

Transparency

Has Fairfax County signed any agreements (such as a Memorandum of Understanding) with Starwood Capital Group or its affiliates? If yes, can you make those agreements available to the public? Has a non-disclosure agreement been signed with the developer?

Other than the sales price and the acreage, which has been shared with the public, what are the terms of the agreement(s)?

Please elaborate on how the consideration of this proposal originated. Did Fairfax County encourage the developer SCG to solicit an offer or was this offer unsolicited without any county or Board encouragement? Was there a publicly-advertised request for proposal? Please identify what county departments, board committees and supervisors were involved in the consideration of this proposed transaction?

Were other developers considered or explored to ensure the highest and best use, sale price, and public benefit of this transaction? Recently news reports suggest that the local sales prices for land could be much higher.

Tax/Revenue

What are the opportunity costs of selling county land to a private developer? Did the county consider alternative uses for this land sale? Were there other county projects considered as alternatives, such as utility scale solar, or other transaction types, including land swaps with areas more appropriate for housing?

Have there been discussions about utilizing the revenue from the sale of the 41.7 acres to fund other county priorities, such as renewable energy, affordable housing or recreational facilities? Staff reported last week at the Environment Committee meeting that there is an expected gap in onsite solar in future years for the county’s Operational Energy Strategy.

Can you share information on an expected date for the data center to be operational, and a projected tax schedule for contributing revenue to Fairfax County?

Equity

Has the County considered the potential health impacts such as air quality on low-income communities? For instance, the Meadows of Chantilly 500-unit mobile home community is located under three-quarters of a mile from this location.

Affordability

With the cost of land being a significant deterrent for the development of affordable housing options, this potential sale at $4 million per acre underscores the future challenges of identifying affordable properties for housing. Has the County studied how sales of County property to a data center developer might affect land values going forward? If so, can the information be made public?

Sustainability

Can you confirm that the land proposed for sale is zoned I-5 and I-3 as appears by County GIS Mapping? If yes, can you confirm if there will be a public hearing, such as Section 2232 public hearing, for the construction of the Starwood data center campus, if it does have the by-right zoning designation?

Can you share the expected square footage of the new data center(s) of the proposed data center campus? Can you share what new infrastructure such as distribution lines, transmission lines, substations, water pipelines and new fiber would be needed to service these data centers?

Can you share how much new energy is needed to service this new data center campus in each phase of development?

Can you share information on how the data center is expected to be powered? Is on-site generation being considered? Would the Board support on-site power generation if it was carbon emitting?

Has or will the county require the new data centers to procure new non-carbon emitting sources of energy for their use?

How will these data centers add to the total carbon emissions of the county? How will the addition of this data center impact CECAP goals?

Will the county require the use of backup battery storage as primary storage, or will it agree to utilize diesel generators?

Starwood also is affiliated with data center development in Europe. It is reported that the company is affiliated with more environmentally sound practices in its work abroad. If this is already part of their practices, what would it take to get Starwood to adopt a similarly forward-thinking approach on the energy and environmental impacts for this project in order to protect our residents' health and natural resources?

Our members look forward to understanding this possible transaction better well before it goes to public hearing March 17.

Sincerely,

• Sierra Club Great Falls Group, Douglas Stewart, Chair
• Nature Forward, Renee Grebe, Northern Virginia Conservation Advocate
• Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Chris Topoleski, Executive Director
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Ting Waymouth, Northern Virginia Organizer
• Friends of Holmes Run, Whitney Redding, Director