Developer downscales plans for Pittsylvania power plant/data center campus

The developer planning a natural gas power plant and data center campus on 2,233 acres in the Banister and Callands-Gretna districts of Pittsylvania County withdrew its rezoning application Monday, after facing vocal opposition from residents at public meetings held last week. 

Instead, Herndon-based Balico, the development company behind the project, intends to file a rezoning application with Pittsylvania County by Nov. 19 pitching a scaled-down version on about 600 acres in the same area, according to Balico founder and CEO Irfan Ali. 

Ali acknowledged the project has a “certain amount of a perception issue,” but insisted the controversies generated after the project’s first application wasn’t the main reason for Balico’s initial withdrawal. 

“The reason we scaled it down is because, really, what my engineers and lawyers concluded is that we don’t want to trigger a traffic impact analysis study with [the Virginia Department of Transportation],” Ali said Wednesday, “so we’re staying under the threshold in this filing.” 

However, Ali hopes the project will eventually be able to grow beyond 600 acres. “This is the first phase, and ultimately we will continue,” he says. 

The initial application for the project would have included up to 84 data center buildings and a 3,500-megawatt natural gas power plant in a rural area along Chalk Level Road. That development would have created 700 jobs and deliver a minimum of $120 million per year in tax revenue to Pittsylvania County once it was built out, Ali had said.

At last week’s public meetings, attendees sternly expressed concerns about the project, including worries about dropping property values, traffic and the impact on the area’s rural nature. 

Last week, Robert Tucker, vice chair of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, announced Balico didn’t have the votes to get the rezoning passed by the supervisors. When reached Friday, Tucker said he wouldn’t support a smaller proposal from Balico either. 

“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.”

A scaled-down project would create between 300 and 400 jobs, according to Ali, who noted he’s heard of Pittsylvania residents traveling two hours to go to work. “This will create jobs right in their own backyard,” he said. 

Balico has hired LINK Public Affairs, a Richmond communications firm, to rally local support for the project. “We’re building already quite a strong momentum among the business community,” said Ali. 

Data centers require water for cooling servers. Initially, Ali hopes to tap into a source of nonpotable water in Chatham. Long term, Ali said, he’s talking with officials in Hurt about building a pipeline to carry water about 19 miles from a town water source to the data center campus. Town Mayor Gary Hodnett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The pipeline, Ali said, would be able to deliver up to 18 million gallons of water a day. The data center campus will only require 2 million gallons a day, he noted, so the remaining water could be used by homes in that area that rely on individual wells.

Building the pipeline and a water treatment facility would cost about $17 million, Ali estimated. Before work begins on that, however, Ali said he will need to identify a user for the data center campus. “None of this can be financed if we don’t have a user at the back end,” he said. 

Matt Rowe, director of economic development for Pittsylvania , receives multiple calls a week from data center developers looking at the county.

Rowe pointed out that the region isn’t subject to “hurricane impacts” and has low seismic activity. The soil in Pittsylvania is good for load-bearing capacity, he added. 

“When you get closer along the coast there and certain places, [where] you’re dealing with more sand, and that just adds cost to construction,” Rowe said. 

Location also works in favor of Pittsylvania, he noted. 

“Almost all internet traffic is going through Ashburn, Virginia, or Marietta, Georgia, or the QTS facility in Sandston,” Rowe said. 

Pittsylvania officials will need to consider what role they want data centers to play in the region’s economic future, Rowe maintained. The county’s comprehensive plan was adopted in 2010.

“What’s even more important to the county and for long term is looking at probably doing a total rewrite of its comprehensive plan because that’s really what guides … future growth.” Rowe said.