NoVa developer won’t pull plans for Pittsylvania power plant, data centers

Despite vocal public opposition, developer Irfan Ali of Herndon-based company Balico says he’s still moving forward with seeking local government approval for a power plant and data center campus he wants to build on 2,233 acres in the Banister district of Pittsylvania County. 

County residents turned out in large numbers for two public meetings about the project this week to voice their opposition, according to news reports. Concerns expressed included property values, burial grounds on the land and altering the area’s rural beauty. 

Balico doesn’t have the necessary votes from members of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors to approve rezoning the land for the project, according to board Vice Chair Robert Tucker. 

Even so, Ali told Virginia Business Friday that the project isn’t dead: “I just want folks to know that I’m not going away.”

The Pittsylvania County Planning Commission is set to consider rezoning approvals for the land selected for the Balico project Nov. 7. After members of the commission decide whether to recommend the project, its fate will be decided by the county supervisors at a future meeting.

The fact that the political will for the project is not there, Tucker said to Virginia Business Friday, “should have been enough to have [Ali] to withdraw his permitting application.”

The current proposal calls for building up to 84 data center buildings and a natural gas power plant in a rural area along Chalk Level Road. The project would generate about 700 jobs, said Ali, adding that he selected the site to tap into the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile natural gas pipeline that runs to Chatham, to supply the project’s proposed 3,500-megawatt gas power plant.

While he has lived in Virginia for four decades, Ali is a native of Pakistan, which has been noted by some who oppose the project. “I understand these people are foreigners.  Come [on] people smarten up,” one person posted to Facebook.

Ali has spent much of his career working with other companies to develop independent power generation projects “both here and overseas … both on the finance side as well as on the permitting and entitlement side,” he explained.

His first attempted project with Balico was a natural gas power plant planned for Charles City, but that failed due to regulatory issues.

While Ali plans to move forward with Thursday’s hearing, he said he is willing to consider proposing a smaller data center and power plant. “I may adjust the project size and scope, but beyond that, my intent is to continue developing a project in Pennsylvania County,” he said.

A smaller project would also be a no-go for Tucker, however. “Based on everything that we’ve experienced with this particular investor and the community reaction, I don’t think that I’m going to support that,” he said. “I can’t speak for the other supervisors, but I don’t think the support is there.”

On Wednesday, Supervisor Vic Ingram posted on his Facebook page that he would not support the Balico project. Ingram said Friday that he understands the proper procedure is to wait for the planning commission members to make their recommendation, and “I sort of jumped out of line, and I’ve apologized to some people for that,” Ingram said. “But I just wanted to save … some time and energy and trouble, headache {for the] business there by saying, ‘I’m not going to support this, and … I’m not backing down.’”

On Thursday, Nathan Harker, a member of the planning commission wrote on his Facebook page that the “reason for the the planning commission’s hearing as well as the [board of supervisors] hearing is to allow for both petitioners and citizens to make their case.” He added,  “As a civilized society, we must hash these things out in the open, on the record.” Harker could not be reached for further comment Friday.

The proposed data center and power plant development could deliver a minimum of $120 million per year in tax revenue to Pittsylvania once it is built out, a process that could take between eight and nine years, according to Ali, who points out that Microsoft’s data center in Boydton has had a positive economic impact on Mecklenburg County.

“Economic development and progress happens,” he said. “You can’t just stop it entirely.”

In July. Pittsylvania County’s board of supervisors unanimously approved heavy industrial rezoning for Anchorstone Advisors SOVA ‘s plans to build a potential $1 billion-plus data center campus on a 946-acre tract in Ringgold.

The difference with that project, Ingram noted, is that it’s planned for a “more industrial” part of town near U.S. Route 58. “I support that,” he said “but putting one in the middle of a rural agricultural community, I’m just not in favor of that.”

Tucker said that the Anchorstone Advisors’ project is smaller, but that’s not the only difference. “The overall logistics,” he said, “are pretty much different.”