Community urged to oppose huge power lines for a data center

Bren Mar Park community representatives are urging residents to come out in force to a Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) hearing this Thursday on Dominion Energy’s application for the Edsall substation and transmission lines.

The substation would power Starwood Capital’s planned data center at the Plaza 500 site on Edsall Road.

The hearing will be held 7-10 p.m. on Dec. 5 at North Springfield Elementary School, 7602 Heming Court in Springfield. Anyone wishing to speak at the hearing should arrive 15 minutes early and register to testify with the SCC’s bailiff. Speakers will be limited to five minutes.

Related story: Residents raise concerns on Dominion’s substation project

Dominion’s project would include up to nine transmission towers averaging 125 feet tall immediately behind the townhouses in Bren Pointe. The transmission lines would extend for nearly a mile between the Edsall substation and the Van Dorn substation. They would cross the tracks for Metro’s Blue line, the railroad corridor, and Backlick Run.

In reviewing proposals by utility companies, the SCC is required to consider whether “the project’s impacts on scenic assets, historic districts, and the environment have been reasonably minimized.”

“Our biggest concern is the proximity to residents,” said Tyler Ray, president of the Bren Pointe HOA. “This will completely change the view when we look out of our windows. Instead of the Alexandria skyline, residents will see transmission lines.”

People with children are also worried about the health impacts of living so close to power lines, he said.

Also, Ray said, residents are unhappy that Starwood has been allowed to dictate and control this process. During the many months that Fairfax County officials reviewed the company’s proposal for a data center, Starwood refused to meet with the community.

He hopes to get as many residents as possible to come to the hearing to “make sure community voices are heard.” Dominion’s proposal “is not in the best interests of the community and the environment. It’s only in the best interest of the developer.”

Related story: Supervisors pass zoning ordinance on data centers

The community would like to see the SCC reject the Dominion substation outright. If that isn’t possible, Ray said, the substation and transmission lines should be relocated away from residences. But that means the data center would have to be smaller and Starwood would have to redo the site plan.

There will be another hearing Jan. 21 at SCC’s headquarters in Richmond. The HOAs for Bren Pointe, Jefferson Green, Overlook, and the Ridges of Edsall and the Bren Mar Recreation Association hired an attorney to represent them at that hearing.

“As an interested party, we’ll have a seat at the table. We can submit separate testimony and request documents through discovery,” Ray said. After the hearing, the SCC will vote on a final decision. That process could take a few months.

The SCC is holding a technical conference Dec. 16 on how they regulate data centers. It’s possible the commission could delay the vote on the Dominion proposal until a new standard is in place.

The SCC has the option to hold a public hearing conducted by a hearing examiner for residents to discuss their concerns if requested by a local government. In this case, Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez urged the Board of Supervisors to request the hearing scheduled for Dec. 5.

People can submit comments online through Dec. 12.

Meanwhile, residents of the affected neighborhoods concerned about the prospect of declining property values might try to sell their homes before construction starts, which could depress sale prices even further.

The Bren Mar Park communities spent months lobbying Fairfax County to oppose Starwood Capital’s plan to build a by-right data center at Plaza 500.

In September, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved by an 8-2 vote a zoning ordinance that set new standards for data centers but allowed them to continue to be built by right – without public hearings – in certain industrial zones, such as the Plaza 500 site.