Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Amazon Web Services plans to invest $35 billion by 2040 and build data center campuses in the state — an announcement that comes about a year and a half after AWS sought to build data centers in Frederick County.
AWS, a cloud-computing platform and subsidiary of Amazon, proposed building about 15 data centers across three areas in the southern part of Frederick County and investing $30 billion over 15 years. But, the proposal fell through in 2021, in part because AWS and the county government couldn’t reach an agreement on the project’s timeline.
Now, “numerous localities” in Virginia are being considered for AWS data center campuses; the locations will be decided later, a press release from Youngkin’s office states.
“Virginia will continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses across multiple regions of the Commonwealth,” Youngkin, R, said in a statement.
AWS’s investment in Virginia is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs.
The company, one of Virginia’s largest private-sector employers, has invested more than $35 billion in the state since establishing its first data centers and operations facilities there in 2006, Roger Wehner, director of economic development for AWS, said in a statement through Youngkin’s office.
In 2018, AWS announced that its second national headquarters (HQ2) would be constructed in Arlington.
“Virginia is a world leader in innovation and cloud computing, thanks to its investment in a robust, highly-skilled workforce and emphasis on long-term public and private partnerships,” Wehner said.
In Frederick County, AWS sought to establish three clusters, each with about five data centers, high-security warehouses that organizations and companies use to store and process massive amounts of data.
By the time the proposal fell through in 2021, local real estate agents, on behalf of AWS, had spoken to landowners about selling their property.
The data center campuses would have been north of Brunswick; in Adamstown near the Quantum Loophole data center campus — formerly home to the aluminum smelting plant Alcoa Eastalco Works, which closed in 2010; and in the Urbana area, on both sides of Interstate 270, said former Frederick County Councilman Kai Hagen, D.
But, multiple county officials said the timeline that AWS proposed was unreasonable.
“I wasn’t going to commit to what I thought would be a sham public process,” said County Councilman Steve McKay, R.
The 2022 midterm elections restricted the time available for the county to complete the necessary permitting, planning and rezoning to move forward with the project.
If the county and AWS had reached an agreement after convening in closed session in August 2021, the county would’ve had nine months — from September to June — to complete the legislative processes necessary to create a new zoning category in the county’s code, change the Livable Frederick Master Plan, approve rezonings for numerous properties in three regions of the county, and update water and sewer plans, according to a draft timeline.
The tight timeline would have sidelined most other proposed council bills, Hagen said, adding that the public process would have been “cosmetic at best.”
The county’s code prohibits zoning changes within six months of the end of a term, so there would have been no flexibility to deviate from the proposed timeline.
It wouldn’t have mattered what the public said about the proposal because there wouldn’t have been enough time to change the process or hold additional meetings or hearings, Hagen said.
McKay said there was no way to carry out the process without “abusing” the public’s trust in the county government.
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(12) comments
Good. I'm grateful the County Council didn't compromise established rules. That Amazon chose elsewhere is telling that they were looking for more servile local leaders. More powerful than many nation states, Amazon would have run roughshod over the county.
Frederick County is very lucky to have Steve McKay as a steward of the county and Kai Hagen did excellent work here, as well. Youngkin thinks he's the next President of the USA, he'll bend over backwards to gain that job. A hedge fund capitalist who never has considered quality of life in any of his financial or political calculus. Well Done, Steve and Kai. Thank you both.
You're welcome.
Believe me when I tell you there is more to the story about what they wanted, and how fast it had to happen, including the fact that they wanted all that and more to happen without the public knowing any of those changes were related to Amazon...until such time as they would have to reveal that by making an application (after all the zoning and other changes were made). That was a big no.
You get what you vote for.
So what’s the point of the article? To rub noses of the fact Frederick County was not prepared to rush this process for approval through its bureaucracy for approval without the public’s input? If approved it would have been another example of putting the cart before the horse absent of the infrastructure which always come later. Years later at taxpayers expense. Remember Bechtel, asking for additional tax benefits after years of residency? They moved to over the Potomac to Virginia when they didn’t get their tax benefit extension. Think the buildings largely remain vacant. Amazon would have likely done the same, down the road.
It is great to see this article right along side of the news about Frederick county road construction needs, School Enrollment up and School Board asking for additional $5M. Along with desire for new Library in West Frederick and already higher school budget submitted. But lets talk about what a great job our council did in killing a big tax revenue stream. Now that land can be properly used to build more dense housing which will only increase our need for Roads, Schools, teacher salaries, and libraries.
"a big tax revenue stream" ... Nope.
Data centers get a huge long tax break per state law.
And local jobs? Nope. Just a few janitors and guards. Literally single digit employees in a 300,000 sqr ft gigantic concrete box.
Amazon is selling smoke to the county ... lucky we have some elected officials who saw through the con.
There would be more jobs associated with the data centers than that, including some good paying jobs. But it was not going to be a large employer.
The county council didn't kill anything. There was interest in working with Amazon. They were only interested in one way of doing things, that came with unrealistic demands and timetables...and secrecy.
Another way to look at it, there will be fewer cars, so the roads will last longer.
Kudos to Kai and Steve for not kissing Amazon’s almighty ring. Let them build in NOVA. I never want to see us become an extension of their data farms. Eastalco is enough for us.
‘Public process’ is not a throw away term. What Hagen and McKay say in this article should scare every one.
How do we ensure that this doesn’t happen again? What say you Madam County Executive?
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