The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to defer deciding on the Stafford Technology Campus comprehensive plan and rezoning application until its Sept. 17 meeting.
Stafford Technology LC wants to rezone 524 acres on the east side of Richmond Highway within the Falmouth District from agricultural to light industrial to develop a 5.5 million-square-foot data center campus.
The property, proposed to include 23 buildings and six power substations, is adjacent to the Rappahannock Regional Landfill.
Jonelle Cameron, a lawyer with Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh, distributed a last-minute updated proffer statement to the board during Tuesday’s meeting, which began at 5 p.m. under a new schedule implemented earlier this summer.
Energy use, road improvements, and water usage topped the list of concerns noted by the supervisors. The proposed plans include constructing a new road extending from Richmond Highway to Eskimo Hill Road.
Chairwoman Meg Bohmke, who represents the Falmouth District, noted that there were still issues to be worked out relating to potable water that she wanted to review with the county attorney and staff. She offered to extend the deadline for the applicants and re-advertise a public hearing. The board agreed that they weren’t ready to approve the project.
“I am generally supportive of this project,” said Supervisor Crystal Vanuch of the Rock Hill District. “I think we can get to a positive place with the water agreement… but if you force me to vote on it tonight, I’m going to have to vote no.”
“I’ll just say, given that this is in my district, anybody that puts a proffer statement on my desk right before the application…and you’re going to force a vote tonight, I am an absolute no,” Bohmke said.
Stafford Technology LC, which had pushed for a vote, ultimately decided to accept the extension and approach the board again in September.
Public hearings on Tuesday’s agenda included a vote on a conditional use permit for Elementary School No. 19 on the Brooke Point High School campus. The vote for a height exception was deferred from a June 18 board meeting so Supervisor Deuntay Diggs (George Washington District) could participate.
“I’d rather have a vote delayed and it gets passed versus it being voted down,” he said. “As you can see tonight, without my magical appearance, there’s a possibility that the CUP wouldn’t pass.”
After requesting that the school install additional tree buffers, the motion passed 6-1, with Supervisor Pamela Yeung voting against it.
“I’m a no vote,” she explained, adding that she still objected to the school being built at Brooke Point and not in Embrey Mill. “I will vote no on the height, no on the location…. we are not making sound decisions for the schools and for Stafford.”
In other action, the board unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for a ready-mix concrete batch plant in Heritage Commerce Industrial Park.
