Virginia is home to the largest footprint of data centers in the world, and Warrenton’s town council could vote Tuesday night to allow Amazon to build another one. Drew Wilder reports.
Virginia is home to the largest footprint of data centers in the world, and Warrenton's town council voted Tuesday night to allow Amazon to build another one.
The Warrenton Town Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to approve Amazon's application to build a new data center.
Many residents, including Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, spoke against the move at the meeting, which lasted until about 3 a.m.
The meeting was moved to Fauquier High School in anticipation of a massive turnout after months of heated debate about the possibility of a new 220,000-square-foot data center on the edge of town. Some say the issue is damaging their community.
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"We're losing pride, we're losing value, we're losing the community," said Karla Miller, who uses her family business’ storefront as a billboard opposing the data center.
Yard after yard has signs reading "Stop Amazon, Stop The Towers," referring to the additional electricity the data center would require.
Residents worry about potential noise pollution. And the location is situated right at the entrance to town, near the intersections of routes 15, 29 and 17. Neighbors don't want a data center effectively becoming the new welcome center to town.
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"The site produces no revenue for the town today," said John Foote, a local attorney representing Amazon.
He told the town council that over four years the data center would generate about $1 million in new tax revenue for the town and about $2 million for the county.
“The last I heard, the children of Warrenton are educated in county schools,” Foote said. “That money will in fact be useful for the county as well as it will be for the town."
Data center opponent Ike Miller questions those projections.
“You can't unring the bell with noise; you can't unring the bell with how you change the look and character of the town and, unfortunately, this is tearing the town's fabric apart," he said.
Warrenton residents fought off a Disney theme park in the 1990s, but something feels different this time for former town council member Yakir Lubowski.
“Yeah, so the process is in some ways the crux of the problem here," he said.
He and others feel hours of opposition during public meetings is falling on the deaf ears of their elected leaders.
News4 reached out to Amazon for a comment but hasn't heard back.
