Environmental groups protest sale of county land for a data center

Representatives of five environmental groups are urging the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to provide more information before proceeding with the sale of county land to a data center developer.

The board is holding a hearing on March 17 on the sale of 41.7 acres at 3721 Stonecroft Blvd. in Chantilly to the Starwood Capital Group for $166.8 million.

Air pollution

While the property is next to Dulles Airport, the energy use and pollution impacts of data centers – as well as the massive tax breaks that data center developers get – affect all county residents.  

A recent study by Virginia Commonwealth University found that data centers in Northern Virginia and their diesel generators emit more air pollutants than natural gas power plants.

The 41 acres the county wants to sell are part of a 128-acre property owned by the county. It’s currently used as a training facility – with a firearms range, K9 center, and driver training course – for the police department.

The county plans to use the proceeds from the sale to build a new Criminal Justice Academy and consolidate the training activities on its remaining 86.2 acres.

The county entered into an agreement with Starwood Capital Group in June 2025, committing to sell a portion of the property for $4 million per acre and agreed to a confidentiality agreement that prohibited public disclosure of the deal.

Since the county has already locked in the terms of the deal, that effectively limits the impact of community feedback at the public hearing next Tuesday.

“While the county sometimes sells land or swaps small parcels in certain land use applications, the sale of county public land at this scale seems unusual,” states the letter from the environmental groups.

“Due to the size and nature of the proposed sale, and the limited amount of information that has been shared with Fairfax County residents so far,” the groups ask the board to “elaborate on the specifics of the deal and the process that resulted in the current proposal.”

The letter was submitted by Douglas Stewart, chair of the Sierra Club Great Falls Group; Renee Grebe of Nature Forward; Chris Topoleski, executive director of the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions; Ting Waymouth of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network; and Whitney Redding, director of the Friends of Holmes Run.

Unanswered questions

The environmental groups ask the Board of Supervisors to make any agreements signed with Starwood Capital Group or its affiliates available to the public and explain how the proposal originated.  

They submitted a list of questions to the board, including the following:

• Did Fairfax County encourage the developer to solicit an offer, or was this offer unsolicited without any county or board encouragement?

• Was there a publicly advertised request for proposals? Which county departments, board committees, and supervisors were involved in the consideration of this proposed transaction?

• Were other developers considered to ensure the highest and best use, sale price, and public benefit of this transaction?

• What are the opportunity costs of selling county land to a private developer? Did the county consider alternative uses for this land sale? Were other county projects considered as alternatives, such as utility-scale solar or other transaction types, including land swaps with areas more appropriate for housing?

• Have there been discussions about using the revenue from the sale of the 41 acres to fund other county priorities, such as renewable energy, affordable housing, or recreational facilities?

• When is the data center expected to be operational?

• Is there a projected tax schedule for contributing revenue to Fairfax County?

• Has the county considered the potential health impacts, such as air quality on low-income communities? For instance, the Meadows of Chantilly, a 500-unit mobile home community, is located less than three-quarters of a mile from this location.

• With the cost of land being a significant deterrent for the development of affordable housing options, this potential sale at $4 million per acre underscores the future challenges of identifying affordable properties for housing. Has the county studied how sales of county property to a data center developer might affect land values going forward?

• What is the expected square footage of the proposed data center? Can you share what new infrastructure, such as distribution lines, transmission lines, substations, water pipelines, and new fiber would be needed?

• How will the data center be powered? Is on-site generation being considered?

• How will the data center add to the total carbon emissions of the county? How will it impact the county’s Community-Wide Energy and Climate Action Plan goals?

• Will the county require the use of backup battery storage as primary storage, or will it let the data center use diesel generators?

Land swap rejected

Last month, a group of HOA leaders from Bren Mar Park proposed swapping the land in Chantilly with the 34-acre property owned by Starwood Capital Group at Plaza 500 on Edsall Road, where the company plans to build a data center.

As a result, they say, the county could use the Plaza 500 site to develop affordable housing, which the Board of Supervisors identified as a key priority.

In response to the letter from the HOA leaders, Board Chair Jeffrey McKay wrote, “The development of Plaza 500 is a separate and unrelated matter that will be reviewed independently on its own merits. As such, while we appreciate your suggestion, it is not something that we can pursue.”

“The transaction regarding the sale of 3721 Stonecroft Boulevard is not a traditional cash sale. It is contingent upon relocating and rebuilding the existing police training facilities on the parcel.” McKay said.

“Under the proposed approach, the facilities would be reconfigured on-site, allowing some land to be redeveloped,” he said. “All proceeds from the sale will be used to replace decades-old public safety facilities with modern, more efficient training facilities, including updated driver and firearms training areas.”

Related story: HOA leaders propose data center land swap