Last spring, the Board of Supervisors approved the largest re-zoning in Orange County history – making it possible for developers to build more than 5,000 homes, businesses and industries on 2,500 acres. There was considerable opposition from the public, worries about traffic, damage to nature and history. Don McCown keeps tabs on development for the Piedmont Environmental Council.
“Water for this development will be coming from the Rapidan River, which doesn’t have enough to support anything of anywhere near that size," he says. "It’s the site of some historic abandoned gold mines that are contaminated with mercury and the Wilderness Battlefield, so it impacts historical resources.”
But Orange County wouldn’t tell him who was planning what in this area known as Wilderness Crossing.
“In some of the documents that they had turned over, they referenced non –disclosure agreements,” he recalls.
When he asked to see those, the county said no, so the council sued. Officials then provided the NDAs -- showing Amazon was a prospective buyer – likely hoping to build a data center that would require extra power and water to keep computers cool.
McCown was not surprised.
“It’s something that we’ve noticed around the state – this trend of local governments making land use decisions behind non-disclosure agreements. Right now, there’s just a huge surge of these projects that’s leading to kind of a massive build out of energy infrastructure. They require a massive amount of energy, often times along with a need for new transmission lines.”
McCown says the public is entitled to know all of these things before zoning is changed and permits are granted.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
