Note to readers: This is the second guest article by Jeff Eastland, reflecting his views on a local environmental topic. Jeff and I serve together on the Stafford County Wetlands, Chesapeake Bay, and Coastal Sand Dunes boards. Although today’s topic — a proposed data center and its impact on Potomac Creek — is a local one, it engages themes and decisions relevant to many places where rapid development threatens natural and historical resources. These are the types of decisions that will irrevocably shape the lives of future generations. And no development is transforming our county and region as suddenly as data centers. So I’m happy to share Jeff’s ideas here. I think I can safely say that we’re both committed to seeing a Stafford County that’s not just for corporations and commuters, but for farms and green spaces, too, where salamanders, herons, and crabs thrive.
As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and supporting No Lines in Nature.
Ranjit
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The New Battle for Potomac Creek
By Jeff Eastland
We have another local data center controversy: A 99-acre data center campus is proposed to be built in the Falmouth district of Stafford, where it would threaten Potomac Creek.
The matter came before the County Board of Supervisors on July 7th. The applicant is Metts LC of McClean, Virginia. Metts LC is requesting that the relevant property be rezoned from A-1 (Agricultural) to M-2 (Heavy Industrial). They want to construct three data center buildings and an electrical substation there.
Despite there being no dense housing nearby, I argue this application is deeply flawed for several reasons.
First, the applicant is requesting a Comprehensive Plan amendment to add the site to the Urban Services Area and the Central Stafford Targeted Development Area.
Significant changes to the Comprehensive Plan should not to be taken lightly — they will directly affect our futures. That’s because the Plan, as described by the County itself, is “arguably the single most important document in a locality besides the County Code.”
“A Comprehensive Plan establishes goals, objectives, and policies that shape the future direction of a community as it relates to the physical development of its land. Policies typically identify what the community’s vision is for anticipated growth. More specifically, policies may identify where growth is desirable and establish the type and intensity of development. A plan also should address the other interrelated aspects of growth, including: transportation, housing, public facilities, infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources. The Plan serves as a guide upon which development proposals are evaluated to ensure conformance with the desires of the community.”
So — want to know what Stafford County will look like 20 years from now? The Comprehensive Plan is your best guide.
Now, let’s look at what the developer wants to do.
In the document above, the current Urban Services Area and Targeted Development Areas are in brown. As you can see, the county has been trying to push much new development around the the Centreport Area. The proposed data center site is outlined as the “Application Area.” It lies directly on Potomac Creek, and almost entirely apart from the areas slated for development. Just downstream is the Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve, a 3,000 acre nature park fed by the creek and one of the state’s ecological crown jewels.
This is not what the Comprehensive Plan plans or intends for our county. Approving the developer’s request would be, in effect, moving the goalposts to favor a private interest.
This discordance was pointed out by a member of the Board itself at the July 7th meeting. And I made the same point in my three-minute presentation during the public hearing for the application.
Second, constructing an invasive industrial data center would severely degrade an ecologically sensitive area and the creek itself, causing downstream impacts that would affect the water quality of the county and the Chesapeake Bay.
The developer’s application complies with the minimum standards regarding setbacks from the creek. But these standards are only that: the bare minimum. The heavy activity needed to complete and run an industrial data center entails soil disruption, tree and vegetation removal, herbicide application, new roads, heavy equipment, and much more. Perhaps you’ve seen the immense swathes of bare earth that are now a common sight in that part of the county.
And it’s important to note that the proposed work — if approved — would be done adjacent to an officially-designated Resource Protection Area (RPA). RPAs are “regulated environmentally sensitive land that lie alongside or near the shorelines of streams, rivers and other waterways which eventually drain to the Chesapeake Bay.” We need these RPAs to be respected because (as the county website says) in their natural condition they “reduce runoff and filter pollutants, providing an essential function to restoring the health of the Bay.”
We also know that, in terms of water quality, Potomac Creek is already an impaired creek. It has received the EPA’s worst designation for water quality. Undoubtedly, building this large data center campus would further and severely degrade the RPA and the creek itself, harming water quality in the county and far downstream. It’s hard to imagine any reasonable person arguing otherwise.
Third, and of equal importance, the Seddon family cemetery sits in the middle of the parcel.
In the name of development, Stafford County has a habit of destroying the very things that make it a unique place to live. This data center plan would add to that ignoble record.
In remarks I made during the general public comments period, I focused on the recent past, and the unfortunate removal of Buzzard’s Roost, an iconic Civil War site.
Buzzard’s Roost was a 40-foot rocky outcropping that served as a lookout during the Civil War and contained inscriptions from Union soldiers in 1862 and 1863. The Roost represented a very significant historical resource in a county that prides itself on heritage. However, in 2022, this unusual feature was cut out and removed from its original context to permit the construction of an enormous warehouse, an act then decried by history buffs. My intent was to compare that historical and cultural atrocity with elements of this current application, as you will see.
The Seddon family cemetery is 200 years old. Another rare cultural resource, it contains the remains of the Seddon family, a noted White Stafford County family that held local, state, and federal positions throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But it also holds nearby at least 12 unmarked graves believed to be those of enslaved people — people enslaved by, and buried with, the Seddons. Such cemeteries are very unusual in the South.
The above document shows the original Generalized Development Plan, a county document, with the Seddon cemetery marked in red. It lies right in the middle of one of the proposed data center buildings.
Since Virginia law prohibits construction on top of cemeteries, one alternative would be to relocate the remains per state and county ordinances, which may involve a court decision. But relocation is not a desirable outcome, either. As stated by a board member at the July 7th meeting, who would want their descendants dug up and removed? And what justifies removal of enslaved remains by rich White men?
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So, the applicant has gotten into much more than they bargained for.
They appear not to have properly researched the parcel they own, and may now be stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is what happens when outside corporations come in with no interest in — or regard for — our county’s historical and cultural resources or environmental considerations (despite their claims to the contrary).
Just because certain minimum standards are met does not necessarily mean that we must allow a certain kind of development there. Not when human stories and history are to be told, and environmental protection taken into account.
Despite an initial motion for denial at the July 7th meeting, there was just enough opposition to hold off the developer for now. Some very good remarks were made, including by Anita Dodd, chair of the Historical Commission, members of the Cemetery Committee, and Kim Taylor-Wilson, who spoke eloquently about the dignity for the enslaved buried there. Alyson Azzara from the George Washington District spoke definitively about various problems with the application, including lack of a proper and sound study. The Board eventually voted 4-3 to defer the matter until the applicant could do a full investigation of the cemetery and surrounding grounds. It was a close vote!
In my opinion, what happened to Buzzard’s Roost a few years ago was wrong and so now is this data center proposal. For the integrity of Potomac Creek and our county’s wetlands, and for the preservation of our historical resources, I feel it imperative that this application be denied.
Many seem to agree. On July 15, 2026 a special meeting of the Stafford Historical Commission was called to discuss the Potomac Creek data center application and the results of the July 7th Board of Supervisors meeting.
It was the best attended Historical Commission meeting I have ever been to. Many attendees were angry, not only at the potential destruction of county historic and cultural resources, but also at the county’s lack of transparency in its decision to inform the county’s Cultural Resource Specialist not to attend the Board meeting of July 7th. The Historical Commission plans to address the upcoming archaeological evaluation that is to be performed and then brought back to the Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors.
This is an active proposal, with much at stake for our county both in principal and on the ground. The Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors are on hiatus until late August. The developer’s application has an extension until October 31st.
Stay tuned.
Thank you, Jeff, for sharing this situation and for your thoughtful laying out of the problems, incongruity, environmental and cultural cost of this proposal in the county I grew up in. In Hanover County many hundreds of concerned residents braved the ice from the massive winter storm of 2026 to make clear their opposition to a proposed data center. They prevailed and the board of supervisors voted against the proposal. A heartening moment when the public is heard.