Board of County Supervisors - Regular Meeting

All right. Thank you everyone. It is two o'clock on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026. Let us begin with a moment of silence. All right. Thank you. Please rise if you're able for the pledge of allegiance.

to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, thank you so very much. We are going to move on now to agenda item number three, and that's approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from May 19th? So moved.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. Any discussions? All right, let's go ahead and take our votes.

Thank you.

Vote unanimous. Supervisor Vega absent from meeting.

All right. Thank you very much. We are now going to move on to agenda item number four, and that's accommodations and proclamations. Supervisor LaCroix, I am emailing some or texting something to you so that you will be prepared when you join me down at the podium. But I would like to get a motion to move 4A through 4D forward. So move, Madam Chair.

Second.

All right, we'll probably move to second it. Any discussion? All right, let's go ahead and take our votes.

Are you a yes, ma'am? I'm a yes. Thank you. Vote unanimous.

All right, thank you very much. So we are going to go down to the podium. So Supervisor Bailey, if you can join me on 4A. Supervisor LaCroix, if you can join me on 4B. Thank you. And if those associated with Bates Down History Day would join us at the podium.

Madam Chair, my colleagues, and to the August audience today, it gives me great pleasure to proclaim June 23rd, 2026 as Batestown History Day. Batestown was founded in the 1820s, and after the Civil War, it grew in a population as former slaves moved there. During the remainder of the 1800s, the Batestown population grew large enough to support a church and a school, and this portion of the county became part of the historic black community and culture of Prince William County. On Saturday, June 20th, an exhibit at Williams Ordinary exploring the history of Badestown and the contributions of its residents open to the public. Therefore, the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, pardon me, hereby proclaims June 23rd, Badestown History Day. Congratulations.

On behalf of the citizens of Baytown past and present, I want to thank them. It's barely for her undying effort to help that community. She has been a big supporter for that town and, um, thank everybody else for all the help that they've ever done for us.

I want to echo my cousin Charlie Reed in thanking Supervisor Bailey and the entire board for recognizing historic Baystown. And as many of you know, Baystown residents are free landowners and business people prior to the Civil War. So we thank the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Bailey, and Chair Jefferson for recognizing Baystown. And I'm also a member of the Historical Commission, so it's helpful too. Thank you.

There we go.

All right, we're gonna switch supervisors.

Good fathering and co-parenting during infancy, childhood, and adolescence contributes to emotional security and has overwhelmingly positive psychological and economic benefits for children, families, communities, and other sectors. Children are less likely to face poverty, infant mortality, abuse, and neglect when there is an involved father in their lives. All fathers must invest in providing emotional and financial support for their children at every juncture of their lives, supporting involved nurturing and responsible fatherhood. Throughout our state, we aim to promote positive fathering and co-parenting to showcase providers of fatherhood resources and services. and to increase public awareness of the crucial role of fathers. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims June 2026 as a reasonable fatherhood month.

Chair Jefferson and members of the board, On behalf of Citizens Defending Freedom and the families of Prince William County, we thank you. My name is Jacqueline Andrews and I am the Director, the Regional Director for Citizens Defending Freedom in Virginia. What you're doing today is meaningful far beyond this chamber. Management thinker Tom Peters once said, celebrate what you want to see more of. That is exactly what this proclamation does. You're telling every father in Prince William County, every man who wakes up early, works hard, shows up and stays, that his community sees him, honors him, and wants more of what he brings to his family. Prince William County is one of the most diverse counties in America, home to families from over 140 nations, representing nearly every language, culture, and background on earth. A unifying reality is this. Every child in every one of those families needs a present, engaged father. This proclamation speaks to all of them. And that is why it matters. The need for this proclamation is urgent. Across America, one in four children will go to sleep tonight without a father in the home. The United States has the highest rate of single parent households in the world, more than three times the global average. Approximately 40% of all US births now occur outside of marriage. The consequences reach every dimension of a child's life, and children without present fathers are significantly more likely to drop out of school. live in poverty, be incarcerated, and struggle with anxiety and depression. The economic toll runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually in public assistance, education remediation, and the criminal justice system. This is not a political issue. It's simply a human one. And it is one of the most consequential crises facing our communities today. Virginia is not immune. A landmark 2025 study by scholars of the University of Virginia and Hampton University uncovers the crisis in our Commonwealth with findings that should stop us all in our tracks. About one in four children in Virginia live without their biological father in their home. Virginia children in father absent homes are only half as likely to earn good grades, nearly three times more likely to have schools contact their parents for behavioral or learning problems, and twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to children in intact father-present families. More than a quarter of Virginia children in single mother homes live below the poverty line compared to just 6% of those in intact father-present families. And here's a finding that speaks directly to a county as beautifully diverse as Prince William. When fathers are present and engaged, the racial achievement gap in Virginia virtually disappears. More than 85% of both black and white children from intact Virginia families earn mostly As and Bs. Father presence is the great equalizer, and that is the most hopeful finding in the entire study. No new program required, no new budget line, just a present engaged father and the whole trajectory of a child's life changes. For a county of 140 nations, that is a message of profound hope. So what does this board have to do with all of it? Everything. Local government shapes the culture of a community. When the Prince William County Board of Supervisors officially recognizes June as Responsible Fatherhood Month, you are not just signing a document. You are naming what matters. You're telling every father in this county across every language and every background that his presence in his children's lives is seen and celebrated by his community. You are setting a standard. Schools, faith communities, businesses, and nonprofits across Prince William. To wrap up? All right. I'll finish by saying you're not just setting a standard, but you're protecting children and leading. I'll finish with this comment. Frederick Douglass said, it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Today, Prince William County is choosing to build strong children, and we're celebrating fathers who show up, calling others to do the same, and declaring that this community will continue to stand by them. as they build strong families. On behalf of Citizens Defending Freedom and the families across this Commonwealth, thank you. We are honored and grateful to stand with you.

Hello, my name is Philip Harding and I just want to extend thank you to the board. Thank you to Jeannie LaCroix. Thank you to Jackie Andrews and for recognizing the most important job. I would say the number one most important job is being a mother. Second is being a father. And thank you so much for setting aside and making this proclamation at this very important time. And I'm grateful to be here with my children, three children and my wife of 21 years to celebrate this month. And this is my most important job. I'm currently a candidate for the seventh district, the congressional race here for the House of Representatives. But my most I've been an entrepreneur. I've been at Harvard. I've a first generation college graduate. But my most important job by far is being a father. So thank you so much to everyone here today.

All right, next we are gonna call up Dr. Vanessa Gannis for 4C. All right, this is truly an honor. Dr. Vanessa M. Gaddis, a retired U.S. Army Colonel with almost 31 years of military service, has continued to find ways to serve our community, and today we honor her as the founder, president, and CEO of the Prince William County Community Foundation. The Prince William County Community Foundation operates the chow wagon to help combat food insecurity, provides scholarship to high-achieving students, and sponsors an annual backpack drive, among other things. Until recently, Dr. Gattis was also the foundation's executive director. She has stepped back from that role to lean in more into her roles as president and CEO so that she can focus more on expanding the organization's reach. I'm not sure how many hours are actually in her day. Perhaps it's more than the rest of us, but she also serves on the Virginia Board of Veterans Services and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby commence Dr. Vanessa M. Gaddis for her work in the community and the incredible impact she has and thanks her for her continued service. Dr. Gaddis, would you like to share a few remarks?

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much to Board of Supervisor, Chair Jefferson, and definitely to our board. We have our board chair, our executive director, and one of our board members. It's an honor to serve Prince William County since I've been here retiring from the military in 2018 to serve our residents. To date, we have distributed almost 11 million meals to residents and students, seniors, veterans, all across Prince William County. We look to continue to expand that. And one of our newest initiatives that we have is that we've built school food pantries in 14 Prince William County schools. And we're expanding it this summer, and it will be 20. food pantries across Prince William County schools because we realized that Prince William County has one of the highest food insecurity rates in the state of Virginia. So we want to make sure that we help to eradicate hunger in our schools and in our community. It's an honor to be honored today. So thank you so much. Thank you to my board because I definitely would not be able to do it without our board and our staff. to help us to do the work that we're doing here in the county. So thank you so much and we appreciate the recognition.

All right, and our next one, 4D, if everyone from the Prince William chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women can come forward. The National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc. is a tax-exempt organization whose mission is to advocate on behalf of black women and girls who promote leadership development and gender equity in the areas of health, education, and economic empowerment. Their vision is that black women and girls live in a world where socioeconomic inequality does not exist. The Prince William County chapter has worked hard to fulfill that vision through its high school mentoring program, academic scholarships, financial empowerment workshops, and other initiatives designed to strengthen the community. NCBW, PWCC, continues to do important community work and recently received a $5,000 grant from Amazon Prince William County Community Foundation Fund to support programs that advance health, education, and economic empowerment for women and families. Today, therefore, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors hereby commence the Prince William County Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women for dedicating their unsurpassed strengths, abilities, and spirit to advancement on families, social economic and political, I'm sorry, social economic fronts as they direct themselves towards both the intermediate challenges and those of every tomorrow in the 21st century. President Stone, would you like to offer a few remarks?

So good afternoon. On behalf of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Prince William County, to Chair Jefferson and the board, we say thank you for recognizing our efforts. We are grateful to have an opportunity to serve in the county in which we live. To date, we've given over $100,000 in scholarships to graduating high school young ladies, as well as through our oral health grant. We've served over It's over 200 individuals who are underinsured or unserved with dental care. And so we continue to provide services in our community so that we can close the gap on behalf of all of those. And so we thank you for recognizing our efforts.

All right, thank you. And let's move on to agenda item number five. That's the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone would like to pull off?

Madam Chair. Yes. I'd like to pull item 5H, please.

5H. Anything else? Going once, going twice. All right, if that's it, can I get a motion from 5A through 5G, 5I to 5Z? So moved.

Second.

Is it properly moved and seconded? Any discussion on those items? All right, let's go ahead and take our votes.

Vote unanimous.

All right, thank you very much. Supervisor Gordy, what's up with 5i?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to meet with Mr. Kistler on this item, and I do have a few questions to figure out. You know, we've been working on trying... This site is designated when it was passed in 2021 to provide student housing for George Mason University, and that is the priority for this site. And so I just, you know... Our economic development team has been working with Mr. Kistler. I just have a few questions that I would like to ask to make sure that we're actually moving in the direction that was intended by the board in 2021. So in terms of this, my understanding is that this is intended to be sold for student housing.

Thank you for that question. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'm Christina Nguyen. Director of Economic Development and Tourism. And to answer your question, yes, the intention is for a 500-bed student housing development that would be at least four stories high and include structured parking.

Okay. And do we know, George Mason, whether or not that there's an agreement that this is actually going to be sold to George Mason is actually what they've

I would say that staff is not aware. The applicant is here, and I can ask them. But I know that they're having conversations, and I think it is part of a negotiation.

Okay. Mr. Kistler, could you come? give the board kind of background on the conversations with George Mason? Thank you for the opportunity.

Yes, we're in negotiations with the university. Right now what we're doing is, you know, we had designed and permitted a building with a specific unit mix, how many four bedrooms, two bedrooms, that sort of thing. President Washington wants his unit mix to be defined. They are working on that. They have the plans. We're in negotiations on exactly what unit mix, then we price it, then they negotiate the rent.

Okay. And so do you have basically a timing on when you think that agreement will be reached? I would expect within the next two months. In the next two months. Okay. Thank you. And are you also intending at some point, you and I were talking about your desire to remove some of the commercial. Are you maintaining the commercial here in order that would support the quality of life? for the student community?

Absolutely. Okay. And in the first building, with the current proffers, we have a retail requirement, and we've got somebody for that.

Okay. In the event that Georgia Mason, the building gets built, Georgia Mason does not come to an agreement with you on this, what is your backup plan? For this particular building, we won't start until we've got an agreement with Mason. Okay. Thank you. That's what I need to know. Sure.

All right. Supervisor Gordy? Any other? I don't have any. Okay, here we go. Wait, Bodie?

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Wynn, sorry. Just if you could, just for the public, because I know that we've had a lot of discussions, a lot of amended agreements, what have you. Can you just go for the public record, explore the history with us, the various amended agreements on this?

Sure, I love history lessons. Okay, so back in about 2018, the county issued an RFP for a town center development. Innovation Development LLC was a response, responded to that RFP. There was a lot of kind of back and forth for a couple years, but by 2020, we entered into a contract purchase agreement for Innovation Development LLC to purchase 23.7 acres of the entire town center, which consists of 130 acres. And in 2021, they got their rezoning approved, which included almost 1,500 student housing units, 1.6 million square feet of commercial, and 150 market rate units. And then they closed on the property officially, so they now are the owners of this 24 acres. in 2022 and since then they have been focused on in in uh installing all the road infrastructure the utilities getting the right away and the easements and so forth overall i believe there's six land bays and so the subject of this particular item is for one of the land-based parcel c appreciate that mr kistler my next question is for you sir

So this is just for the 3.8 acres, that one land bay that Ms. Nguyen spoke about. And Sue has already went through with you what your plans are for this parcel. But in the context of the broader scope of everything else that's under your control, what's the game plan?

Supervisor Bodie, this land sale is to create a separate tax entity so that we can finance the building and build it. It needs to be on its own tax parcel. So essentially we're selling it to ourselves so that then we can build it. Right, right, I get it. So we have... a master plan with between six and nine other buildings. What Supervisor Gordy has negotiated for and which we have agreed to is that the three buildings that we contemplate along the Mason property line will be dedicated to a Mason use, whether it be student housing or other uses. And we continue to talk to President Washington and his staff about that. The balance of it would be either market rate housing office buildings, or some other type of use. Hotel, as an example. We do have hotel interest. It's those type of uses. Right now, we could do a lot of student housing. Whether or not the university grows and keeps the demand there for us, that'll be a back and forth for them.

So this one isn't sort of a linchpin that is a catalyst for the rest of it, or is there a synergy between these two that this one needs to go first? Can you talk about that a little bit?

I mean, we had this building designed and permitted in finance pre-COVID. Despite what Supervisor Angry says, it was not my fault that COVID stopped the project. It was a joke.

Joe, come on.

Anyway, so we've had it ready to go. We're finally now ready to go and start it, and then the rest will follow. It is the type of thing, I mean, despite what Stanley Martin is really helping by putting all these townhouses up, it certainly is eye-opening when you take people out there and you see all that they have accomplished. We've got all of our improvements in the ground. Every bit of the paving, drainage, water, and sewer is in the ground, so we're ready to go. And this is just the first one.

Okay.

Thank you. Certainly.

Are there any other questions or anything? All right.

Madam Chair, thank you to Ms. Wynn and to Mr. Kistler for answering our questions. Based upon those answers, I will move to approve Item 5H.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any additional discussion?

Madam Chair, just a few comments. You know, the... We are working closely with George Mason University. They really want to make significant investment into this campus. They want to see it grow. The limiting factor right now is student housing. And we're kind of caught in this catch-22. We can't get more students to the camps because we don't have the housing, but we can't get the housing until we get more students. So until we get this building in place, get this going, we're kind of in this sort of spinning our wheels. But I believe once this building gets built and George Mason takes it, this campus is going to take off. And I believe George Mason, and based on my conversations with President Washington, they are poised to make further investments into the campus to further expand what they're doing there. But it hinges on this one piece, this student housing piece. And so this is incredibly important. And so I continue to look forward to work with Mr. Kistler, with George Mason University, on making sure that we're meeting the needs and helping us achieve what this county has always desired for this location and the growth of George Mason University. Thank you.

Supervisor Bailey.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I echo my colleague's comments. I, Mr. Kistler, thank you so much for explaining and finally saying we won't move forward until we have an agreement with George Mason University. President Washington is very dedicated, as you know, to this institution. And he loves having partners in the community that can honor his students and honor the legacy here in Prince William County. And so to Christina Wynn and her team and to your partnership with them, we appreciate the way ahead so that we can finally see an emphasis there to support our community and bring back the students that grew up here to live, work, and play here. So we appreciate this partnership, and I'll be supporting it.

All right. Seeing no one else, let's go ahead and take our votes.

Motion passes, vote unanimous.

All right, thank you very much. We are moving on to agenda item number six and that is public comment time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with public comment time, I'm going to call people up in groups of five. We don't have very many people, but when you get to the back, please state your name clearly. The Magisterial District where you reside. Up at the screen is the timer. You have three minutes, up to three minutes. Once we are done with in-person, we are going to move on to virtual public comment time. So I'm going to start with Roger Gackle and Lisa Polgar.

Hi, I'm Roger Yackel from Gainesville. Most of you know that for over five years I've been learning about data centers and the issues that they bring. During this time I've given about 45 windshield tours, sharing facts as Supervisor Bailey said that I do. Yes, I've taken people to Village Tech Park. and the impact that it will bring to the children of the two schools that are very close and to the residents of Village Place town homes. A US News and World Report photographer got some great drone shots of Chris Young Elementary, the playground, and the massive Microsoft data center that's being just built behind right the school. Big mistakes citing these data centers there. Earlier this year, someone asked me, so what is the biggest issue with data centers? One issue I shared with Mr. Shorter back in 2023 during our tour is that technology risk of data centers becoming obsolete, how this risk would impact Prince William County. When technology changes, and it will, Data centers will no longer be needed. This makes too much sense. No more tax revenue and we are left with these eyesores. So what do we do with all the existing data centers? Who pays for the dismantlement? How do we restore the land? Decades ago, my company was about to make some investments, and we procured financial bonds to cover this dismantlement cost whenever they would occur. The solution should be part of any data center approval. Data centers should take on the financial risk for dismantlement. Will this correct all the destruction caused by data centers to the land, to the watershed, the drinking water, habitat, air quality? Of course not. Data centers are industrial facilities and they do not belong next to homes, schools, playgrounds, sports field, historical sites, et cetera. We have too many and Prince William County should not take on the cost of dismantling these big, ugly buildings. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Lisa Polgar with the Potomac District. In my hand, I have a map of the new application that was submitted for Atlantic funding for data centers behind Four Seasons, where the diesel generators will be 100 feet from people's property lines. I'm not here to talk about this application, but I am here to say that data centers do not belong behind homes. schools and parks, period. For the past seven years, the county has made bad decisions on where to allow them and the impact to our water and electric bills. The county doesn't even have enough energy to power all the data centers approved. The short-sightedness of their decisions also applies to what will happen to these industrial mammoth buildings once they become obsolete. I strongly support a decommissioning directive by our chair to make sure that after data centers have made their billions, they will be responsible to restore the land to its original status. Do we want Prince William County to be another Gary, Indiana, which left behind major portions of empty industrial property after the loss of US Steel? I don't think so. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. I do not have anyone else. So I'm going to move on to Supervisor Angry for remote.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see we have a few. Do we have anyone online?

Good afternoon, Vice Chair and the Board. Yes, we do. Our first speaker is Rachel Ellis.

All right. Hello, Ms. Ellis. Go ahead.

Hello. Good afternoon. I just want to jump on here real quick. I echo Roger Yackel's comments about Prince William County is approving all this data center development, and I think everybody in the room is smart enough to know that technology changes, and it changes frequently. And what is going to happen when we have these huge monstrosities and the technology is now obsolete? I am asking you to support Chair Jefferson's initiative for a decommissioning framework for data centers. it's time for Prince William to look forward and look towards what a future looks like, not just for me, but for my kids, for everybody. So thank you. That's it.

All right. Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker.

Next speaker is Elena Schlossberg.

Hi, Ms. Schlossberg. Go ahead.

Hello. Thank you, Supervisor Angry. So I want to share first, that I just got back from my first vacation in probably six years and I was in Europe and it was fantastic. And Talking about infrastructure and as it evolves, I didn't make it all the way to the top because it was too many steps, but the infrastructure of the eighth and ninth century was towers, and now those beautiful examples of architecture can evolve into the surrounding community. But obviously, that is not going to be possible with data centers or their associated infrastructure, which I think nobody is thinking about. So I wanted to share. I've been dying to do this for some time, um, which is my father-in-law, um, used to work at IBM and he has this old memory desk. So this desk is probably about 40 years old and, um, time moves very quickly. I mean, my kid is now 25, almost 25. I can't believe it. So anyway, this desk is okay. Can you, I just want to make sure, can everybody, Everybody see it? This is a memory disk, and it is 2.5 megabytes. See? I mean, this is like weight lifting. In less than 20 years, because simply we don't have the energy infrastructure to support all of it, the data center industry is going to have to evolve. And when that happens, this infrastructure is going to be way out of date. So I think Roger Yackel and Rachel Ellis said it very eloquently. You all need to start looking forward. And what should be happening, I'm not even sure the financial infrastructure, but some kind of a bond to decommission. Data center buildings are unique in that it's not like you can just repurpose them because their stories are different. Like one story in a data center is actually 37 feet and so on and so forth. So everything about them is unique in that you can't just say, oh, we'll make an office building or we'll make housing, which obviously housing would be terrible, or we're going to do hydroponic gardening because maybe we won't have any green space left. It's very different. So I think this is a really important and forward-thinking policy initiative that the chair is going to be presenting. And I think it's important that we start looking forward to what comes next. Also, of course, this will play into the discussion about the substation vote later on this evening, which is we can decommission these data centers, but what are we going to do with all this energy infrastructure? So anyway, I want to say I'll see you later this evening. And thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon. She was our last speaker. Thank you.

Excuse me. All right. Okay. Thank you, Chris.

All right. Thank you so very much. We are done with agenda item number six, public comment time. We are moving on to agenda item number seven, that is public hearings. Does anyone have anything that they would like to pull off? I'm going to go ahead and pull off 7J for consideration a little later. Does anyone have anything?

Madam Chair. Yes.

Yes.

I believe Christina Wynn wants to provide a few remarks for item 7D.

All right, then I'll pull that aside. 7D, okay. Anything else? Anyone else? All right, for 7A through 7C, 7E through 7I, I would like to get a motion for those items.

So moved. Second.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Public hearing. I'm sorry. I'm not thinking. All right. Sorry guys. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for agenda item number seven. Do we have anyone? We have one person on. Gotcha. Sorry. I'm moving this along. Um, if I can have Mr. Matthew Casino, if you can go. NEVER, I'M SORRY. PLEASE, NO SIDE CONVERSATIONS. ANDREA MADDEN, WE HAVE ONE PERSON SIGNED UP. HE HAS SIGNED UP, AND IT LOOKS LIKE THE SHEET IS SEVEN. IT IS FURTHER CONSOLIDATED. AND SO, ALL RIGHT. WE ARE HAVING A PUBLIC HEARING. IF HE CAN, WHO IS THIS PERSON, MATTHEW? AND YOU ARE HERE TO SPEAK ON WHAT? If you're here to speak on 7D, okay, I'm sorry. This is for people in the general public. This is an item that we are pulling, 7D. So if he is with you, Christina, so then for next time when we have someone with you, if you would please let me know so that I can properly pull it to the side. But yeah, this is, I'm sorry, this is not the sheet for that. So with that in mind, do we have anyone who has signed up other than right here? All right, so we don't have anyone in person. Do we have anyone online?

Chris, we have anyone online?

We do not have anyone online.

All right, thanks, sir.

All right, we do not have anyone in person or online, so I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. So 7D, as in David, and 7J have been pulled off. So I'm going to go ahead and ask again for a motion for 7A through 7C, 7E through 7I.

So moved. Second.

I'll give it to George. I think he did it the first time. All right, is there any discussion? All right, Supervisor Gordy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On items 7C and 7D, today on this consolidated public hearings, as well as what we had- We're not doing 7D, just remember. Okay. I get it, but I'm just making general statements. But even back on our consent agenda, There's quite a bit of economic development activity that's taking place in the Brentsville District as in Innovation Park. And I just want to commend our economic development team for their continued work. We've heard people today comment on data centers. Well, none of these are data centers. This is economic development. These were not hit-the-easy-button type of developments. These were going out, beating down the bushes, working with companies to attract them. We were in competition with other localities, and so this is a huge win for our economic development team, for Prince William County as a whole, and Prince William District in particular. But it's something that I know that we're all going to benefit from. And again, the hard work behind all this goes back to our economic development team and really appreciate the good work that they're doing.

Supervisor Bailey.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just, Tom, you always click something in my brain. It's Brentsville, but it is Brentsville County. And so I, too, have on item 7H just very appreciative for the process that we went through with this project, the Dumfries flagship car wash, which is we had a citizen that showed up and was not in favor of it, and we gave that citizen another opportunity to come and express their thoughts and how they felt about it. And so for that citizen, thank you for, I know the person didn't show up again, but we appreciate your views and we value your views. And so I just wanted to say that. And it's a great project. It promotes economic development again and again. And it brings jobs to our county. And so be it big or small, not data centers, but big or small, it still promotes economic development in our county. And so we're grateful. And I will be supporting it, of course, because it's in the Potomac District.

All right, Supervisor LaCroix.

I just wanted to say that most of these applications on here are the Brentsville district. And I'm not sure if anybody from Brentsville is here, but Tom Gordy works his butt off for his district, just like the rest of us. But he goes out there and he has so much work that he does. And I just thought it was appropriate to give him a shout out today.

All right. Thank you very much. So let's go ahead and move forward with that group of votes.

Motion passes vote unanimous.

All right. Thank you very much. Now we will go to seven D um, and hold on before we do anything with this sheet or anything else. Supervisor Gordy, did you have any questions?

Madam chair, I don't have any questions, but again, um, uh, we had the CEO of Sandberg here today who will be sharing some comments with us that it's rare that we actually have the CEO of a company come and share their appreciation, their thoughts with us. Um, but again, this has been a long drawn out process. I will always say that, you know, Sweden is now a NATO ally of ours and, and Sandberg is from Sweden. And so the opportunity for this defense company to now be in Prince William County is not just something that I believe will benefit our U.S. military. It's also going to benefit the military of our allies as well as our police and others who use their equipment. And it's going to be made right here. And so it is very exciting for me personally to see this opportunity for us. And so I look forward to hearing about more about this today. And again, thank economic development for all their work in this. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Gordy. Sorry for messing up the protocol. It's my first one. It's an honor to speak before the county supervisors and citizens of Prince William County on behalf of Sandburg Development. My name is Matthew Cassiano, president of Sandberg Development Inc. I'm joined today by Frederick Sandberg, a member of our ownership group, and Keisha Burns, our corporate counsel. Sandberg Development is a family-owned investment group based in Malmo, Sweden. We focus on long-term growth innovation, and supporting entrepreneurs in building world-class companies. We are disciplined investors, but we remain guided by a strong company culture that prioritizes our people, long-term investing, and we value intuition over spreadsheets. I have been with Sandberg since 2012, when we had a small group of six individuals in Chantilly, Virginia. One of my early assignments was tasked with finding a new US headquarters for our small team. Very quickly, it became clear that Prince William County was the right choice. We moved our offices in 2016 here because of the strength of the local talent market, access to Dulles International Airport, and proximity to key federal customers and agencies. Since 2016, with the support of Economic Development, we have grown to 55 US employees, with 31 of which based here in Manassas. Economic Development's support and partnership with permitting assistance and advocacy has been instrumental in our growth. Today, our four U.S. operating companies share a 34,000 square foot facility off Balls Ford Road in Manassas. These businesses serve critical sectors including defense, firefighter safety, water purification, and advanced virtual reality training technology. But we have now outgrown our current space. As we look ahead, our opportunity extends well beyond the four companies I just mentioned. The Sandberg Group has 25 total portfolio companies globally, mainly in Europe, and my core responsibility is to help them expand into the U.S. A clear example of our commitment to the U.S. and part of this facility is one of our owners, Frederick Sandberg, is about to start an expat assignment in August to lead corporate development in the U.S. and look for partners for our expanding group. In parallel to our portfolio expansion, we are making a strategic shift towards US manufacturing, as Supervisor Gordy just mentioned. Historically, our products have been manufactured in Sweden and imported into Manassas. Supply chain challenges, evolving trade conditions, and our continued US growth have led us to the decision that it's time to invest in production in Prince William County. We are proud to partner with the strong team of U.S.-based service providers and professionals helping us design the building. We appreciate the support from the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Gordy, and Christina's team at Economic Development, and we're excited to bring a world-class headquarters for Sandburg's U.S. business here to Prince William County. Thank you.

Would you like to offer some remarks as well?

I think you summarized it very well.

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Mr. Gordy? Supervisor Gordy?

Madam Chair, I move to approve item 7D. Second.

It isn't properly moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All right. Supervisor Bodie, then Bailey.

Sure. Very quickly, thank you for coming before us, and thank you, Christina, for all the work you've done. I know that we've gone back and forth on this one a little bit. Supervisor Gordy, again, kudos. I echo a lot of what Supervisor LaCroix said earlier. It takes work to bring folks to Prince William County or to any locality, but especially ones such as us. We're farther out from the Metro Corps. We take a little bit more effort, a little more sweat equity, and Christina does that in spades. So I wanted to say thank you to her. Thank you to the team. Thank you for deciding to headquarter in Prince William County. I hope this is the beginning of a very prosperous partnership, and we look forward to you expanding more in the future. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Supervisor Bailey. Thank you very much. My comment has totally nothing to do with what we're talking about except for I had the honor of giving a proclamation to a Swedish gospel choir two weeks ago at my church. I know, who would have thought, right? So that may be the entree to saying welcome home to Prince William County.

All right, thank you. I want to say this. I really do appreciate that we are having additional companies relocate to us, that we're bringing additional opportunities. And it's wonderful to have an international company here. So thank you very much. Thank you for considering Prince William County. There is a lot of development. I think that we're an exciting place to be. We are a growing county, and we are a very diverse county. So take that. I'm not going to name those jurisdictions. Take that to some of our neighbors of the north. But it is an honor to have you here. Thank you so very much for joining us today. And, you know, again, welcome to our community. So with that, let's go ahead and take our votes. Technology does not always work for us.

A little seasoning.

Yep. All right.

Thank you so very much. And so I pulled seven J I know that there was other concerns about it. Um, I don't know if someone wants to go ahead and move this one forward.

Seven J madam chair. I moved to approve seven J second.

All right, it's been probably moved, seconded by Stewart. Any discussion on the item? All right, let's go ahead and take our votes.

Motion passes. Supervisor, excuse me, Chair Jefferson abstaining from vote.

All right, thank you so very much. Now we are moving on to county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours.

All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. A few items that I wanted to provide updates on. First, there were four new directives issued during our last meeting. One, there was a directive to explore the process for evaluating and establishing a zoning district as a base or overlay zoning district in the areas designated as the Occoquan Reservoir Protection Area in the comprehensive plan. This directive was assigned to our planning office, Department of Public Works, and our Office of Sustainability. Two staff was also directed to research, review, and evaluate the provisions of House Bill 1234 and Senate Bill 26, which allows localities the ability to establish solar parking canopy provisions for non-residential developments by ordinance. This directive was assigned to our planning office and the Office of Sustainability. Three, staff was also directed to review the available Woodbridge District proffers to determine if proffer funds were available and appropriate to fund the addition of lights and a security camera on the pickleball and basketball courts at the Veterans Memorial Park. This directive was assigned to the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Development Services. And the board passed a resolution for staff to bring to the board a resolution to consider initiating an amendment to the zoning map. This directive was also assigned to our planning office. There was one directive closed during our last meeting Last week, you may recall that I sent a response to the directive related to House Bill 2630, which authorizes localities to establish a tree canopy fund by ordinance. This response summarized staff analysis and provided the board with options to consider. As a reminder, I sent the board the county's FY26 investment performance for the quarter ended on March 31st, 2026, quarter three. which was prepared by our finance department, treasury management division for your information and review. The investment performance report was reviewed and accepted by the investment oversight committee on May 21st, 2026 in compliance with the principles of sound financial management and investment policy. All right, I want to give a few kudos, one to our team that supported the Juneteenth and Me Festival on Friday. And so maybe this is my first time saying this, but 7,500 residents. and visitors came out to the festival is our latest estimate on Friday. This is a big deal. A lot of, and like I said on Friday, this was staff-born and staff-managed. And so we want to give a big thank you and shout out to all the staff involved in the overnights, the weekends, and work in making the festival happen, making that festival possible. Yes, indeed. I particularly want to thank our huge employee resource group. Of course, the Department of Parks and Recreation and our Office of Equity and Inclusion all played a very big role in making the festival possible. And also want to give a big shout out to our Deputy County Executive, Elijah Johnson, who stepped in. Yes, he's like, no, no, no. I'm like, yes, yes, yes, for just playing such a big, big part in making the event possible as well. So thank you, Elijah. Thank you, team. Last but certainly not least, we have some visitors in the chamber with us today. So we have two different groups of interns with the county. I want to start with the FFM TEAMS INTERNSHIP PROGRAM. I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO MEET THESE PHENOMENAL STUDENTS YESTERDAY. WE HAVE SEVEN HIGH SCHOOLERS AND FIVE WHO JUST RECENTLY GRADUATED AND ARE HEADED OFF IN THE FALL. SO WOULD WANT TO HAVE THEM STAND UP, BUT I WILL SAY THESE INTERNS ARE WITH US FOR TWO WEEKS. They will have an opportunity to really explore the county. They will hear from leaders around the county. And this is an opportunity really to make sure that they understand what their local government does. We know that they are at an age where they are making some big decisions about their career and their career path. And this is a great opportunity for the county to say yes. We do phenomenal work for this community, and you can too. Or you could just certainly be enlightened about what we do. So I want to ask if I can, Madam Chair, for the group of FFM interns, if you would stand up. I want to just acknowledge all of you. Thank you all for being here. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We also have with us 29 summer interns working through our entire county program. This is managed by our HR department. They represent 23 different universities in the country. I had an opportunity to meet them, I guess, two weeks ago and hear about their background and all of the work that they're going to do. Now, you may recall, Madam Chair and members of the board, that Our interns work on significant projects for our county. We take full advantage of having the students here with us for the next few weeks. And so look forward to seeing their product, hearing about their experience in the county, and look forward certainly to the feedback I get from staff. So we want to have them stand up, if you will, and welcome them to Prince William County. Yes, indeed. All right. Thank you all very much. And so, again, I will tell you, Madam Chair, members of the Board, this is thanks to you and the investment that you've made in our agencies and that they take advantage, full advantage of the resources provided to host the summer internship programs. For the HR program, we had almost 500 applications. So the students sitting before you competed in a significant way for these internship spots. They are very talented students and leaders, and we are, again, looking forward to their contribution to Prince William County, and I will say to the country. So with that, Madam Chair, thank you very much. That is all for me.

All right, thank you very much. I know a few people are jumping in queue. I'm just going to say something to the interns. Thank you so very much, everyone, for joining us today. I had a chance to talk to at least some of the interns today, and I had a lot of really good questions, and I appreciate it. A lot of thoughtful discussion. You know, as you begin your professional career, there's so many paths that you can take. Please know that there is not one path. Please remain curious and open-minded because you never know where your journey will take you. So thank you so very much. I think you guys also might want to sit because other people might want to sit. Matt, can we keep them here for five more minutes? All right, guys, just go back and sit. Supervisor, get your flowers while you can. Supervisor Bodie.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We just wanted to echo what you just said, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for signing up and working through everything. And also the other set of interns, thank you for competing to be part of this family, at least for a short while. I'm sure you're a wonderful reflection of the communities you come from and the verses you come from and the schools you're going to be going to and the workforce you'll be going through. As the Chair said, you're at a pivotal moment in your lives right now. There's a lot of options. I'm sure you're getting pressure from your parents and other loved ones that go in one direction. your friends, your family, other folks may be giving you a different direction. I hope that your experience that you continue to have and you've already had with the county government opens up more possibilities for you because there's no closer way to serve than in local government. And we have a lot off here in Prince William County. So just wanted to say that. Off to a little bit more business, but wanted to thank them first. County exec, could you give a little bit more color to the tree canopy report back and what our options might be in terms of that?

I don't recall the date that the memo was sent, but ultimately, I believe, let me take a look at the memo, and before we, when we get back to Supervisor's time, I'll provide an update. Thank you. That's okay. Appreciate it.

All right, Bailey, then Angry.

Thank you very much. To our visitors and your home now, so you've got to come back and work here, okay? Yes. But you make us proud. So thank you so much for being a part of the program. Congratulations to county executive staff for getting such an august group of young folks. Y'all rock. That's all I got to say. And then I just want to give a comment on the wonderful, our community events just keep getting gooder and gooder. And 7,500 people is nothing to sneeze at. I remember we were, talking about community events across the board here, and Madam Chair said we need to have more community events. And I'm telling you, we showed out on Friday. Everybody came. It didn't matter who you were, you came. Young, old, whatever, wherever you came from, you came. And it was absolutely an example of our diverse community, and so I want to congratulate you as, I mean, with the students, it was a much smaller group, maybe three rows, and now it's not. both sides of the audience. And then this weekend, people came with their children to embrace our diversity and what it means to work, live, work, and play here in this community and have fun. So congratulations.

All right, Supervisor Ingram.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So welcome to all the interns. Mrs. Shorter, do they know the alma mater? Can they stand and sing the Okay, that's a joke. That's another joke. They're looking like, oh, Lord. Hey, seriously, so my office, I'm the App School District Supervisor at the end of Freedom High School, Nova College, National Common. If you're in the area, I'd love for you to stop by, just have a chat with you. So if you're, I don't know where you live, but I'd love to kind of meet each of you. We don't have time to talk right now today, but welcome, and I just look forward to spending some time with you. So welcome.

All right, Supervisor Stewart.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So welcome interns. Thank you for choosing Prince William County. You chose the single best county in the United States. So thank you for being here. And that you chose Prince William County tells me already how wise you are. So a lot of people say that young people are our future, but you're here now. You are here now. And even the decisions that we make here on this dais will affect you now and into the future and your grandchildren's future. Let that sink in. I would ask you, as you walk through this thing that we call life, to think about the choices that you make prayerfully and through an eye of wisdom. And remember that it's a game of chess, not checkers. Think long term. You have the rest of your lives ahead of you. Look out for each other as we enter into this new age of our species. And once again, thank you for being here. To our CXO, thank you for the leadership around the Juneteenth event. Thank you especially at the end for doing a drone show versus fireworks. As a United States military combat veteran myself, I know that I have contemporaries who are disturbed by fireworks, the flashes, the bangs, the booms. There's a lot of, especially here in Prince William County, there's a large veterans population and a lot of us still deal with PTSD. And so I appreciate the wisdom and the foresight of having that visual presentation at the end be presented in the fashion that it was. And just wanted to thank you for that.

All right, Supervisor LaCroix. Well, I'm so proud of you all, and especially the ones who had to compete, oh my gosh. But everyone who chose to come to Prince William County, one of the things I say to all the young people that I run into, and my kids and their friends, is if they're not sure where they want to go or what they want to do, I say, pick the person that you think has the coolest job. And when you go back to your high school reunion, you've got to say, I'm going to be a fill in the blank. And that's how my kids pick their professions. But you all have the rare opportunity now to see the government of Prince William County from the inside out. rather than from the outside in. And being a supervisor, I've had the rare opportunity to go into each department and feel like how the people are. And when the people are happy, it means the leadership is happy. And it means that our leader's doing something right. And I have to stop and tell you that we have pretty much the best leader on the planet in Chris Shorter. And because happiness starts at the top and then it trickles down into the government. And I see all the different departments and people are so happy here. So when you get a chance and you're deciding on your future and what you're good at and what you think would be a really cool job for you to come back to and say, I'm a fill in the blank. take a minute and look through our website and see all the different departments some you saw and some you maybe didn't see and think oh I want to investigate that because I know that even individually if you go to those people they're going to say sure let me talk to you about it and everybody in the county is open arms and ready to support young people And I just think you have, the world is your oyster here. And for you to have the opportunity to be with Prince William County, even for a short amount of time, you're very lucky. And we would be really lucky to have you back. Thank you.

All right. And Supervisor Gordy.

I want to echo all of my colleagues in welcoming all of our interns. You know, I wish I would have had something like this available to me when I was this age. But for the FFM interns, have they let you drive the equipment yet? Tomorrow, okay, all right. What time and where?

We're gonna join that program.

That's actually a fun day. So you guys don't get to do that, they get to do that. And at least, maybe it's something scheduled. No, but the wonderful thing about local government is that you pretty much have the whole universe encapsulated in a very small space. I mean, you think about within local government, we have healthcare, we have legal. We have public management. We have facilities, contracting, businesses, construction, all the way from small engine repair and all the way up to fixing some of the most complicated IT systems. So no matter what your desires are in your future, whatever you desire to do, there's a great opportunity here to learn more about that and And the fact that you were able to be a part of this and be here in Prince William County, that's exciting for me. But I also want to thank each and every one of our county leaders who are taking the time to invest in this program. Because you are the ones that are making the difference in their lives and helping them see what the opportunities are going forward. You know, I don't want to sound like a wet blanket, but... But, you know, there's a lot of young people out there who there was an article just came out just two days ago. The number of young people still living with their parents finding jobs is hard. Having an internship gives you the leg up. And so this is it demonstrates that that you've got work experience, that you that you can work well and work and play well with others. And so make the most of this opportunity and definitely use it to help build your resume. And and we look forward to seeing the great things coming from you in your future. And but I'll never forget where you got started right here. And again, welcome. And we look forward to hopefully spend a little bit more one on one time or definitely smaller time here in the next over the next few weeks. Thank you.

All right, thank you so very much. I hope all of you feel a warm welcome from the county and greatly appreciate it. All right, Mr. Verreal, you can take your team. And we are gonna move on. So now we're gonna go on to agenda item number nine, and that is county attorney time. Madam county attorney.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. This afternoon in closed session, there will be a personnel discussion relating to the performance of members of the Board of County Supervisors, and this is appropriate pursuant to 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia.

So moved. Second. All right, let's go ahead and take our vote.

Motion passes the unanimous. Thank you again, Madam chair members of the board with regards to item nine B, the code of Virginia requires for public bodies to annually adopt their policy for remote participation. The Virginia code did not change with regards to this section during the past session, but you need to annually adopt adopt it. So I recommend that you pass item set nine B. So move second.

All right. Any discussion? Let's go ahead and take our vote.

Motion passes vote unanimous. And finally, item nine C during this past 2026 session of the general assembly, they passed Senate bill 6 99, which amended the code of Virginia with regards to the freedom of information act and meetings and requires final actions on items to be posted on the meeting agenda for public bodies. This required changes to your rules of procedure. And so I recommend that you pass the resolution with the, uh, changes to the rules, which would go into effect on July one.

Move for approval manager.

Second.

All right. Any discussion? Let's go ahead and take our vote.

Motion passes vote unanimous.

All right, thank you so very much. We are now going to move on to Supervisor's time. That's agenda item number 10. And I normally do the appointments different, you know, I separate that from amending our calendar. So I'm just going to go ask for a motion for 10A through 10C.

So moved.

Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right, let's go ahead and take our vote.

Motion passes vote unanimous.

All right. We're going to go on to 10 D. Um, and so this is, we didn't have any land use cases and already on Tuesday, July 7th, we are probably going to have a long afternoon session because of CPA. So I'd like to go ahead and get a motion to move this forward.

So moved.

Second.

It's been probably moved to second it. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Motion passes. Vote unanimous.

All right. Thank you so much. We are going to go on around the horn. I'm actually going to start it out because I have two things. Well, one, maybe I can wait up, but I have a really long directive. So let me go. As part of our ongoing discussions regarding data centers, one of the issues that has been raised is the decommissioning of data centers. The board previously touched on this issue with the adoption of resolution number 21-327, which initiated amendments to the zoning ordinance and design and construction standards manual, including direction of staff to address the decommissioning of data centers as part of the potential amendments. In addition, with the board's adoption of resolution number 23-111, the board initiated amendments to the zoning ordinance and DCSM to address the potential impacts of data center uses. And as part of this effort, county staff has assigned a task to the vendor to develop a checklist for the data center decommissioning process. While I know the staff is still working on these other aspects, I would like to provide more specific direction to staff on the development of a potential data center decommissioning policy. Therefore, without objection, I would like to direct the county executive to work with staff to develop a data center buildings and campuses decommissioning policy framework. The framework should address planning, environmental protection, infrastructure removal, and recycling or disposal security workforce impact and site redevelopment. This work should include but not be limited to guidelines for developing decommissioning plans, environmental assessments, hazardous materials management plans, waste and recycling plans, site restoration plans, community notification plans, health and safety plans, and a final disclosure report. ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE BOARD CONSIDERATION SHOULD DRAW UPON OTHER POLICIES AND DOCUMENTS ALREADY ADOPTED BY THE BOARD INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHAPTER OF THE 2040 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, THE 2025 TO 2028 STRATEGIC PLAN, AND THE COMMUNITY ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY MASTER PLAN. Such research and recommendations should, where applicable, include proposed timelines, potential fiscal impacts, and other pertinent information for board consideration. The county attorney's office is directed to review the information and recommendations for any legal issues. When the research and work is complete, the county executive should report back to the board with the research and recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as appropriate.

Madam Chair.

Supervisor Bodie.

Yeah, so not a objection, just a couple questions, if you don't mind. I appreciate how you reference previous board actions that have been taken, including the one that I authored a number of years ago that have a whole framework that talk about a whole host of other issues. Where do you see this sitting in terms of that body of work, knowing that there's other data center impacts, DCSM guideline, updated standards? How do you see this fitting in in terms of priorities alongside that work?

So I know that we're going to have this discussion about other directives specifically for planning. You know, I am not saying that this should be expedited or prioritized because I know this is going to take a great bill of work. But data centers are really the hot topic. When I spoke with the interns earlier, not a lot of them noted that. There is deep concern from the community that these buildings may not be needed in 10, 20 years. And for my part on this board, my legacy is not having a building named after me or being the first black anything or being first anything. It really is, am I leaving previous boards with more opportunities or more challenges? So that's how I look at this. I'm not asking for expedited consideration, but this is something that I would like to put in the hopper along with everything else.

I APPRECIATE THAT. MY SECOND QUESTION, IF YOU DON'T MIND. AS STAFF BEGINS TO ROLL OUT THIS WORK, SHOULD THE BOARD SORT OF AGREE TO IT, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT POTENTIALLY, AT LEAST IN THE LATTER PORTS OF THE WORK, REGIONALIZING IT, TALKING WITH NBRC AND THE REGIONAL COMMISSION. AT NBRC, WE'VE HAD REGIONAL CONVERSATIONS AROUND HOW CAN WE ESTABLISH SORT OF A REGIONAL APPROACH TO ALL SORTS OF MANNER OF DATA CENTER ISSUES. AND THE COMMISSION, TO YOUR POINT, IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT I KNOW IS ON PEOPLE'S MINDS. And to the point, as one of the constituents said, what does the future look like if these buildings at some point have to be dismantled? And to me, since we have the biggest accumulation of us between us and Loudoun County, it would make sense for that to be an original effort.

I have no opposition to that, but we have to have our own standards, I think, probably first before we participate in anything regionally. And maybe this is kicking it off for the region. I don't know if Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, or anyone else has any similar policies on the book. Maybe with us doing this, we are going to be the first, and we can kick things off and start that conversation. Because ultimately, somebody's going to have to step up first.

Sure. As long as we all know where this sits in the flow, I appreciate your comments on this not being put to the top, but there's a lot of other impacts that are more immediate. I think we're on the same page. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think the real question really isn't, you know, we have a lot of directives and things, and some of them are geared towards planning and data centers. But the real power lies with the board and whether we vote yes or no on things. And if we have the power to say no, personally, I think we should use it more often. Is there anyone else? If not, I'm going to go to Supervisor Bailey. I'm done. My comments are done, so I'm going to go to you for Supervisor's time.

I was curious to say, Madam Chair, my light is not lit up. Okay. For Supervisor's time? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. So I have a few directives, two directives, but just give me a moment to give my highlights of my activities. First of all, to our dads on the board, thank you for the recognition today. To the dads on the board, all of you rock. You are great fathers, and I just want to acknowledge that. for the dais. June 10th through the 11th, I had the opportunity of participating in the Covington, Harper, and Ashland elementary school graduations. It was superb. On the 11th, I had the opportunity of dedicating and spending time with end of the year with my appointees. Thank you so much for your service to our community. And we broke bread together and talked about the future of the Potomac District. On the 13th, I had the opportunity of participating with community action, a community action event with Grace Church for National Unity Day. And it was indeed a blessing, not just to individuals, but to the community. It was well attended. And then on the 15th, I attended the George Hampton Golf Tournament, named after one of our community civic leaders, Dr. George M. Hampton, who was a devout and devoted leader here in this community and established initially the Juneteenth holiday in Prince William County. On the 15th also, I had the opportunity and the governorship on the transition team for the governor to be honored to stand in in the swearing ceremony for one of my appointees, Ms. Nyreen Wright, to the Women of Council Board for the state of Virginia. On the 18th, I participated in the 311 training with Mr. Brian Coy, so thank you so much, Brian, for enlightening me and my team about how we can serve the community better with 311. On the 19th, I want to thank the county exec and his team again for a beautiful festival. It was absolutely great. Dunfrey's Juneteenth Freedom Culture Community event was great as well. To my mayor, Derek Wood, and the council, thank you so much for supporting that event and our community in Dumfries. On the 20th, I attended the Potomac Shores Juneteenth event. And thank you to Sharon Duncan for inviting me to be one of the guest speakers along with Delegate Franklin and participating in that event. And then later went to, on the 20th, the Batestown exhibit ribbon cutting that acknowledges our community in Batestown, which really, that's where Prince William County started and moved west. So I always look for the opportunity to say that. So thank you to Elijah, Seth and Rob and his team for making that a successful event. And then that evening I attended the Alpha Phi Alpha Xi Lambda chapter, county execs chapter. for their scholarship gala where they give students scholarships on a yearly basis at their Black and Gold event. So just thank you, it was just a wonderful weekend. I have two directives that I had shared with the board previously. One is a directive on planning status and planned zoning on the zoning ordinance. And so, um, um, so that the board of county supervisors has insight into where staff are currently. So manager without objections, I'd like to direct the county exec to work with staff, to present a status update to planning, uh, from planning on all ZTAs countywide CPAs and the zoning ordinance updates and the draft batching schedule for the zoning ordinance updates and estimated timelines of presentations for the board of county supervisors. planning commission and other boards commission. Additionally, I'd like to further instruct staff as they go through this process of batching through the various boards and committees, including the board board and committee members feedback as appendices to ensure their feedback is captured, but not to start from scratch based on the feedback of the, of our boards and committees rather take the information. Um, from plant from the planning department created by the board of County supervisors and the boards of committees, feedback attached, noting whether planning staff recommended the items contained in the appendices. Uh, so that's my first directive. County Executive Director to schedule this information to Board of County Supervisors agenda for work session July 14th.

So I'm gonna object to the last part. And also, I'm sorry, you're not gonna have time for your second one. And that's one thing I wanna notice with people. I know that everyone wants to give their updates, but we gotta make sure we contain things in our five minutes, which is why I only read my directive. So I've already told your staff that I'm working on that meeting with that work session. And so I do feel it's a little out of bounds for it to give a directive about when to bring this out and exactly when to schedule, because that's a conversation that I as chair have.

Well, Madam Chair, I wasn't aware that you were talking to my staff about this. I sent it back an email. You did not come directly to me, and they probably forgot to tell me that you were talking to them. So if I may, please. If I may please, what I'd like for you to consider, or we can take a vote, would like for you to consider, I've passed it through the board and I've passed it through the county attorney and the county exec, and would look forward to working with you on this in terms of the zoning ordinance. Uh, and you can also share with me what you've shared with, with my staff.

I will go ahead and send, share that with you as well. Cause since your staff shares it, I sent it back. I don't know the proper protocol for your office, but I would hope that things are shared with you or passed on to you.

But I mean, we already have consistent with everyone and that we talked to the supervisors together rather than directly to the staff. And so I, you know, honoring the fact that you are the chair and you did call. It probably was something that they just forgot to tell me. So if you would consider to just have the vote, I'd appreciate it.

All right, we will go ahead, but we will have further discussions. Absolutely. All right, I'm going to go on to the next person. And again, I know we have five minutes. It goes fast.

Can we take a vote on this, Madam Chair?

Oh, I said I'm going to let it go through. Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it. But I will share what I saw. Thank you. Supervisor Stewart.

Pass. Pass.

Supervisor Bodie.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Keeping cognizant of time, I appreciate that. Really wanted to first sort of commend, like others have already, the county exec, the Hughes team, Parks and Rec, everyone that put a lot of effort into the Juneteenth event on Friday. It continues to grow every year. I remember last year was just confining shotgun on Plaza. It rained, but still thousands of people came out. This year could probably not have been a better day in terms of weather. Thousands upon thousands more people came out. I was just telling my colleague, I appreciate his comments on the light show with the drones. I had mentioned a couple of years ago to Seth Handler-Voss, knowing that we have veteran population, other folks that have PTSD, really great way to still have something that's very exciting at the end with being sensitive to folks that have those sensory issues. It continues to be, and I think I mentioned it to you, a county exec, a testament to your leadership because we've had these employer resource groups that have really flourished. And I think the biggest testament to that right now in this moment is the Hughes group. So it just showcases the diversity that's not only just in our county, but in our county staff. and how that vibrancy really helps us improve, reflecting the diversity of our community. So I wanted to say that. Also wanted to commend Communities for Youth, which is a youth group started by one of my constituents, Owen Meyer. They had their inaugural events back last week. It was a youth concert in the park at Chen Park. A couple hundred young people came out to that. Older high school, younger college. You have to have done something pretty well to get that age group to come out in a couple hundred on a hot, rainy day during the summertime. So we really wanted to commend them on that and was so proud to support and sponsor that particular event. And I do have a directive I will give right here in a second. I just need to bring it up. All right. My computer died, so give me a second. Yeah. I got it. All right, so... Madam Chair, without objection, I would like to direct the county executive work with staff to review the county's electric utility consumer tax under county code section 26-111, pursuant to the county Virginia's code section 58.1-3814, including but not limited to how the non-residential consumer minimum billing charge per kilowatt hour rate and or the maximum charge can be increased and how they can be increased specifically on non-residential consumers with high energy use. The county executive is directed to bring back any appropriate recommendations to the board's consideration. Such recommendations should, where applicable, include a timeline, fiscal impacts, and other pertinent impacts for board consideration. Staff should provide revenue projections for this year, five years from now, and ten years from now at cap levels of $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $1 million per meter for industrial and commercial properties, along with any consumptions necessary to generate these estimates. Other scenarios should also be provided as staff deems appropriate. The proposal should also include an assessment of impacts for different commercial industrial uses, such as data centers, high-end manufacturing, restaurants, and distribution centers, with attention to how effects scale by load size. Staff should also outline potential approaches using new revenue generated by these changes to eliminate the residential consumer utility tax, provide direct energy bill relief to households. The county attorney's office is directed to review the information and recommendation to ensure legal compliance. When the research is complete and work is complete, the county exec should report back to the board with his analysis and recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as he deems appropriate. I'd like to direct the county execs to work with staff to provide in this analysis any recommendations in time for the next finance and budget committee meeting in the fall.

Thank you.

All right, then Supervisor Ingram.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a pretty busy weekend. So June 14th, happy birthday, Army. Also, happy Flag Day. So a little history on Flag Day. 1777, the day the Second Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States, it was first proclaimed a national observance by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. And in 1949, President Truman signed it into law. Every star and every stripe tells the story of who we are, and it's a day to reflect on the unity and freedom that flag represents. June 15, Monday, we had a graduation class for our volunteer firefighters. I was at the wrong location. It's okay. But congratulations to our graduates, our new volunteer firefighters in the county. And then on to Juneteenth, a great celebration. You know, 2,500 more than we did the year prior. This is our second annual event. Thank you to all of the staff, especially Parks and Rec. I personally shout out Princess and Tamika Joy. Those are the two that kind of spearheaded, along with our diversity, equity, and inclusion, Maria Burgos and the team there. A lot of work put into that. Just really another fantastic day. To our drone show, I got an email sometime last year from Skydance Drone and They were saying how they can do drones in place of fireworks. And to the point of our veterans and PTSD and our animals, specifically dogs, with those fireworks and the smoke. And anyone who's ever seen any of that, whether it was in basic training or any of this feeling, 250 years in this country is going to be a lot for July 4th. I know that for our citizens. Every year we go through this, it's like Groundhog Day. I was very impressed with the drone because it really eliminated all of that. I don't get any calls. No one got calls on that because it was a beautiful light show that told a story of Juneteenth. I wish we could do that all the time. I know we're not going to be able to do that, but I do want to thank Gary for putting that program together. If you read that display in the air, it told a great history. So he put a lot of work in that. So this is just a shout-out also to the company for doing that. And really a great big shout-out to our sponsor who sponsored that, JK Land Holdings. He did that two years in a row. This is his second year. So I really want to give his company a big shout-out for doing that again this year. And to all the fathers on Father's Day, I wish you all a happy Father's Day. I hope you had a great day. I know I did. Now, just upcoming. Fourth of July parade is coming up. This year I'm honored to be the Grand Marshal. Again, another remarkable year, I'll just say for me, of being in a lot of key positions. So I'm really honored by the parade committee, Ms. Ernestine Jenkins, for selecting me to be this year's 250th anniversary Fourth of July parade Grand Marshal. That event takes place. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's a Dale City event. So it's basically Kirkland Drive or Kirkdale Drive to Gemini Way. It ends at the VDOT commuter lot there where we do our farmer's market on the Sunday. So it's an open community event at that point. Every year we get the helicopter to fly in. So it's a really cool event for those who haven't been there and for those who have to return. And so I'm sure this year is going to be even greater than the previous one. So I look forward to seeing everyone out there. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Supervisor LaCroix. I'm going to be really quick because at the end I'd like Andrea to finish with her directive, her second.

We do not do that. We can't share our time? No, we do not share our time. So you have your time. Okay. They'll come next time.

That's fine. Veterans Park, I had the opportunity to go to Veterans Park and to see the pickleball area where I'm going to be putting in lights and also the basketball court where I am also going to be putting in lights and a security camera so everybody can enjoy it and feel safe. I've been working with the park rangers, so that's another thing if you all want to explore that because the park rangers are pretty cool. And they are very happy, so you know that that's a cool job. They get to run around parks and be nice to everybody, and they're the greatest group ever. The second thing I did, we had a field trip to an apartment complex called Aspire, and it is one of the places that has apartments, and they're beautiful, and they're affordable living. And they also take vouchers. So anybody who's going to be a real estate agent or a realtor and they're worried about trying to put somebody in an affordable housing, this has a really good organization with a brand new management company. And they really are trying their hardest to make it affordable for everyone. So I can't wait to bring clients there. I also went to Juneteenth. It was my first time, and it was the most exciting day. It was beautiful. Everybody had a happy heart, and I thought I probably had the best table because I gave away fans, and everybody loved my fans. They're fans of Jeannie's fans. The other thing is the attain. I am going on a field trip coming up there. I'm walking it because a lot of our constituents are concerned about that. So I'm going to be walking that property with not just the builders and the owners of the property, but also the constituents that have concerns. I know that if we have reasonable minds, it's going to be a great development for everyone. The other thing that I get is on Monday morning, I am going to be doing a field trip with Seth, and Seth is the one who runs the parks and recs. And apparently in the Woodbridge District, there's so many parks, and they're so cool, and I don't know half of them, to be honest with you. Because you know when you live in an area and you just don't go there? Well, I don't know half of them, so they're going to bring me on a park trip, and hopefully we're going to have a picnic. I'm going to suggest it every time I can. I think that parks and recs really need to offer picnics. Anyways, I'm excited about that. So the Woodbridge District is going to have some really cool things coming up, and I will let everybody know in my newsletter. And, yeah, stay tuned.

All right. Then we're going to have Mr. Gordy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just also want to wish all of our fathers a happy Father's Day. Appreciate what you do for your families and for our community. Also wanted to wish our Army, all of our soldiers, a happy 251st birthday. And then I want to wish everyone a happy 250th. on the fourth happy independence days coming up. We won't have another board meeting until after that. So, uh, hope everyone is able to get out and celebrate our freedom and, uh, and our nation and, and the role that it plays in the world, uh, to ensure democracy and freedom, uh, around the world. Um, and on the last note, uh, there's a headline that just came across a little bit ago that long time, um, Commonwealth attorney Paul Ebert has passed away. Um, And so I want to offer condolences to his family. And, again, he served for five decades providing, you know, helping support the safety and security of our community. And so we, again, just want to offer condolences to his family. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, everyone. We're going to take five minutes, and we are in recess.

Madam Chair. If I may, my light was on. I just wanted to say to Jeannie, thank you. Okay.

All right. Let's go.

Madam Chair, I was just going to follow up on Supervisor Brody's question. I committed to following up. I'm sorry.

I'm dying to go to the ladies' room, but let's go on.

I could wait until after closed session.

Sure. That would be great. Thank you. All right, we are back from closed session. I'm sorry, I'd like to get a motion to certify the closed meeting. So moved.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. Let's go ahead and take our votes.

Motion passes, vote unanimous.

All right, everyone. We are recessed. I'm sorry, who? Sorry, what? Who said something?

Did you still want to get that update?

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Okay, go ahead. Get that update.

All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. So to Supervisor Bodie's question, we did send a memo out to the board. This is in relation to the change in House Bill 2630 related to allowing localities to establish local funds associated with tree canopy. So I wanted to have Public Works come down and talk a bit about that. The memo that was sent out. Don't want to go into too much detail, but we have it here and ultimately would be open to any questions that you might have. Ben? Or, I'm sorry, Luke, you're going to introduce Ben, yep.

CHAIR JEFFERSON, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. MY NAME IS LUKE HEISMANN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS. I JUST WANT TO INTRODUCE BEN EIB. HE'S OUR SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM MANAGER. SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM MANAGER. AND, YEAH, I'M GOING TO LET HIM TALK ABOUT IT. THANK YOU.

CHAIR JEFFERSON, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. LIKE LUKE SAID, I'M BEN EIB. I'M A SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER WITH PUBLIC WORKS. helped prepare the memo. And yeah, I think, I don't, oh yeah, perfect. That table kind of summarized the three statutes. So yeah, we responded to the memo. HB, what is it, 2630 amended an existing statute that's 96.3. So it was actually an amendment to an existing statute. So I'm happy to answer any questions if you had specific questions or I can give you a rundown.

If I could, Madam Chair. Yeah, thank you for that, Ben and Luke. So, yeah, I just wanted to add more color for the board and for the public because you did send the memo. I appreciate it. But now the board has options on sort of what we want to do based on my initial request. And so I wanted that to be public because I know that there were concerns around going under one of the other lines of code because it would basically allow a situation where developers could basically just – That's not a preservation-first mindset. It's a, hey, you can cut down trees and give us money in return for cutting down those trees, versus my mindset and my intention was for us to look at a way that, hey, they should be preserving first, but if they can't preserve, then there should be a fund they pay into, which it sounds like the new legislation gives us access to. Is that right?

Right, yeah, the fund, yeah. And it's odd because they amended... 96.3 to add the fund option, but they didn't amend 96.1, which is the ordinance or the statute that we adopted our ordinance under. So they didn't amend that one.

And the 96.3, is that the one where it's still preservation first, but then there's a fund associated with it? The 96.1.

961.1. Okay.

Then just my last question is, if the board wanted to proceed under 96.1 or consider either one, what would be the next step for the county execs?

A directive for us to come back with, I assume, initially a change to ordinance, right?

Initiating resolution. Right. So we would... Oh, I can't. I had it on my screen. Oh, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'll look at the bottom, I think. Next slide.

Right. Okay. Yeah. To be of directive to come. I'll just put it that way. Thank you.

Super supervisor Gordy.

Thank you, madam chair. You know, it's interesting when we think about tree canopy and we often talk a lot about, you know, uh, ozone and pollution, but we don't talk about what's underneath those trees and, and what's underneath those trees is our groundwater. and that those tree canopies serve as the greatest recharge of groundwater. Now we're under a drought. Um, and it's a lot of us cause what we're talking about in terms of rainfall, what's in the Potomac, what's in the creeks, what's in the aqua Kwan. But we, we also need to understand that our groundwater right now is also very low and we have a lot of homes in Prince William County that's on groundwater. They have wells. And so when we think about the preservation of tree canopy, it's also about preserving what's underneath that tree canopy as the best source of groundwater regeneration. in this county and we do have parts of the county that's pulling up water for the public water system. So I think this is something that's very, very important for us as we think about the future we're running. There's been a lot of articles about the challenges related to water supply in Northern Virginia, the challenges related to the Potomac. And I've literally been thinking about maybe this is potentially something we need to have a conversation, maybe need to receive a briefing on is what are those potential impacts on, because again, there doesn't seem to be a week that goes by where somebody's not writing an article and highlighting the challenges related to our water supply. And so I think as we tie these two things together, the tree canopy as well as the soil that's underneath them, that actually helps us preserve the groundwater at the same time. And so, um, I just ask us to make that also part of our consideration as we think about, uh, any future steps. And then as it relates to how we're going to ensure water supply for our county, as it continues to grow going forward.

Thank you, madam chair, Supervisor LaCroix.

I think it's really funny. When I met with you all for the first time the other day when we were out at wherever it was and we were looking and your group said, I said, well, what would you all approve? And you said, well, we don't want to approve anything. We want to keep it how it is. And I think it's like that nice check and balance to have you guys out there really trying to say, look, what you're doing now is not so good, and you need to slow down and calm it down. So ordinances like these are really good for us, and I'm glad you keep us in check.

All right, do we have anyone else? All right, thank you guys so very much for sticking around. Thank you. All right, if all hearts and minds are clear, let's go ahead. I'm just looking around. Anyone, anyone, anyone? Okay, we're in recess. We voted on, we certified. Now it's recess. Fun stuff that we're gonna be discussing tonight. Yeah, it's fun, right? Yeah, we're having fun. YES, I LIKE THE ENERGY, WHOEVER SAID THAT. SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IS WE HAVE A SPECIAL USE PERMIT OR SEP. THAT IS WHAT'S GOING TO GO FIRST. WE ARE GOING TO HEAR FROM COUNTY STAFF. I DON'T KNOW DOMINION, I'M SORRY, I FORGOT TO ASK YOU. IS DOMINION PRESENTING? YES. SO WE'RE GOING TO HEAR FROM DOMINION, THEN WE'RE GOING TO HEAR FROM COUNTY STAFF ABOUT THE VINHILL SUBSTATION. Members of the Board of County Supervisors will ask questions of the applicant, and we're also going to ask questions of county staff. After that time, I am going to open the public hearings. And people can speak on that. And I will give these instructions again about the public hearing. But you're going to go to that back microphone. You're going to state your name, DeShondra Jefferson. I live in the Potomac District. And you're going to look up there, and that's going to tell you how much time you have. I am going to respectfully request, passions are high. I know a lot of people have concerns. There's a lot of fear. I'm going to ask that we respect one another, respect the speakers. Let them speak. You may not like them. They may, you know, say green is a bad color, red is it, you know, whatever. RESPECT WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY. WE CANNOT HAVE OUTBURSTS, BECAUSE OUTBURSTS DELAY THE MEETINGS. OUTBURSTS MEANS THAT THERE IS NO CONTROL IN THE BOARD CHAMBERS. AND SO I'M ASKING EVERYONE TO, YOU KNOW, RESPECTFULLY LISTENING. NO CLAPPING, NO SHOUTING. WE CAN'T DO THE WAVE, OKAY? WE CAN'T DO THE WAVE. WE CAN'T DO ANY OF THOSE THINGS. So you can do the jazz hands, OK? I see you back there. Personally, I think it's a little creepy, but do you, OK? Do you. So those are the rules. And also, everyone must have a seat. Everyone must have a seat. It's not a me rule. It's the fire marshal. There's a little sign over there. That's the one thing I think I really listen to all the time is everyone must have a seat. We have sign-up sheets. JUST TO BE CLEAR, WE HAVE SIGN-UP SHEETS FOR THE HEARINGS, OKAY? IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK ON ITEM 12A, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THE PUBLIC HEARING. YOU CAN ALSO SIGN UP. PUBLIC COMMENT TIME IS GOING TO COME AFTER THAT, OKAY? AND I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG WE'RE GOING TO BE THERE, BUT PUBLIC COMMENT TIME, YOU CAN SPEAK TO ANYTHING ON OR OFF THE AGENDA. IF YOU WANT TO SING THE LYRICS TO WALCING MATILDA, YOU CAN DO THAT. HOW MANY PEOPLE ACTUALLY KNOW THAT SONG? I DON'T KNOW. All right, we're showing our age now, but that's okay. I love that song, Learned in Elementary School. But if you want to speak to other things, you can sign up for public comment time. So what I'm going to do is I am now going to ask Dominion to come forward, representative from Dominion to come forward to talk about this. I'm going to look at Tanya. Should they go first or do you want to go first? Okay, they go first. All right, so we are going to have a representative from Dominion come forward first.

Thank you very much. Good evening, and appreciate you having us here this evening. I'm Scott Adams. I'm a land use partner at McGuire Woods, and here on behalf of Dominion Virginia Power on the Vent Hill switching stations. I'm joined tonight by members of the Dominion team that are working on this project, and they're available to answer questions that you might have, as well as myself and my colleague Sherry Aiken from McGuire Woods. As many of you know, this project represents a critical piece of electric transmission infrastructure that's necessary to support the economic goals and growth of Prince William County. The upgrade provides capacity to serve EXISTING AND PROJECTED LOADS IN THE COUNTY AND THAT LOAD GROWTH IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY AND SPECIFICALLY THE GAINESVILLE AND MANASSAS LOAD AREA HAS CAUSED DOMINION TO PROJECT VIOLATIONS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ELECTRIC RELIABILITY CORPORATION OR NERC RELIABILITY STANDARDS BEGINNING NEXT YEAR. AND THIS PROJECT WILL PROVIDE A LONG-TERM RELIEF FOR THOSE NERC RELIABILITY VIOLATIONS TO HELP MAINTAIN GRID RELIABILITY FOR PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY. THE SITE IS LOCATED ON EXISTING DOMINION PROPERTY. IT REPLACES AN EXISTING SWITCHING STATION THAT HAS BEEN THERE SINCE 2018. AND IT'S WITHIN AN EXISTING TRANSMISSION CORRIDOR THAT'S EXISTED SINCE THE 1960S. IT'S ALSO CO-LOCATED WITH OTHER PUBLIC FACILITIES, INCLUDING A NOVEC SUBSTATION THAT'S RIGHT NEXT DOOR AND RECENTLY, WELL, NOT RECENTLY, A FEW YEARS AGO APPROVED BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE FACILITY THAT'S DIRECTLY ADJACENT to the property. From that standpoint, it's fully in conformance with the comprehensive plan's guidance on how these electric infrastructure facilities should be located. Additionally, from a zoning standpoint, it meets all requirements of the zoning ordinance. It successfully addresses all matters that are to be considered as part of the SUP process in Prince William County, and it does not require any modifications from the zoning ordinance. There we go. Sorry about that. So I think everybody knows where this site is, but just to get you oriented, Vinhill Switching Station property is outlined in yellow on the screen. To the northeast across Vinhill Road is the southern boundary of Braemar. The site is about a little over 23 acres in size and is zoned A1 Agricultural. There's an existing NOVEC substation right here adjacent to the property. In addition to that, the surrounding area is developed with agricultural land and a mix of low density residential. And then to the south is the Reed Energy Center, which was approved in 2024 for battery energy storage. So why is this switching station necessary? So the redevelopment of the Vent Hill Switching Station As I mentioned, is a key reliability improvement for the region, and it's needed to meet the county's growing energy demands for all area customers. Dominion is required by law to evaluate its system on a routine basis to ensure compliance with federal standards. And as part of those routine checks, we anticipate future power needs to keep the transmission grid running for all customers. in a reliable manner, even during contingency situations such as storm events or equipment failure. Dominion must adhere to the standards that I mentioned at the top from NERC for reliability, as well as PJM regional transmission standards. PJM is the regional transmission group that oversees the grid in the eastern part of the country. The Vinhill proposal upgrades, they're needed to address several near-term NERC violations that are expected to occur as early as 2027. Specifically, Prince William County's unprecedented load growth is driven by an increase in both data centers but other new development in this immediate area that's expected to continue growing past 2027. When PJM's load forecast was updated, The system showed a need for reinforcements of Prince William County's 500 kilovolt and 230 kV infrastructure. Part of that is at the Brister substation, which is located in Fauquier County. And it's one of the few primary points that serves Prince William County at the 500 kV transmission level. The continued increase in new NOVEC and Dominion delivery points requests in Prince William County is requiring a significant amount of power to flow from Bristol into Prince William County. And without the introduction of a new 500 kV pathway, the transformers at the Bristol station will be exceeded. And so the remodel of the Vent Hill substation will add equipment that will be able to take that power off the 500 kV lines, bring it into the new station and convert it or switch it to the 230 kV level and put it back out into Prince William County. It's 230 kV lines for customers in the region. So why this location? So this location was selected for a number of reasons. And most of those relate to the county's guidance on how we should be locating electric utility infrastructure within the county. So this is a site that has had Transmission facilities on it since the 1960s. It has an existing switching station it is Located again sort of co-located with the Novak substation the future Reed Energy Center It's a location that where we can provide this new infrastructure upgrade without having to find other facilities or build new infrastructure from a transmission standpoint that could be more impactful for the community for the county and so you know from our perspective This was a site that met the county's standards for that location, but also it was a site that would mitigate the need for new transmission facilities outside of an existing utility corridor. So the project itself is the new 500 KV Switching Station. It's a station that's proposed to utilize gas insulated switch gear or GIS technology and associated new equipment with that GIS facilities in terms of transformers, gas insulated bus, control enclosures, and backbones that will surround the GIS enclosures. replaces the existing switching station itself. And so just to maybe provide a little bit of clarification on what this is and what it is not, this is not a substation where you're providing distribution to specific users or specific projects. This is a transmission infrastructure project for high voltage lines that provide for the overall grid reliability. So it's not sort of a data center specific project, this really is to provide reliability for Prince William County more generally. In addition to the switching station itself, I think there's a lot of focus on making sure that along Vint Hill Road, we're providing appropriate screening and buffering, and so we did spend a lot of time on that as well. And we'll talk about that in a little more detail. So just to sort of walk you through the project itself, it'll happen in phases in terms of the construction. So this is the existing condition where you've got the active substation, the existing transmission line corridor. And then as the new switching station is constructed, Existing switching station will stay online because that's needed to again provide a service for Prince William County and so the new switching station will be constructed well that remaining switching station is in place. And then at the end of the project the existing switching station will be taken offline and we request replaced with a stormwater management pond. So just to give you a feel for the distance from the surrounding community, but also from Vint Hill Road across Braemar, you've got essentially two houses that are really impacted from a distance standpoint. And the closest one is 340 feet from the nearest infrastructure that's going in. And then the other one is 417 feet. And then on the other side of the property, you really don't have an impact to any of the residential properties. So just to maybe go into a little bit more on what GIS equipment is, I know there have been a lot of discussions or questions raised about what is GIS and sort of why are we using it. And I guess from our perspective, The GIS is a technology that we've used for a long time for Dominion. It used to be primarily used in more urban areas because it allows for a smaller footprint where you're enclosing a lot of that equipment that otherwise would be required to have much more separation if it was open air insulated. What we found as we've gotten into more suburban rural areas is land has become a little more scarce or on sites where you need to have that smaller footprint, the GIS allows you to have the smaller footprint, which makes it more compact, but also because you've got all that equipment within an enclosure, it also provides additional reliability for the facilities. The insulation itself is what's called SF6, sulfur hexafluoride. I know there have been a lot of questions about SF6, and so I guess just to talk about that quickly. So the SF6 gas itself, sorry, let me find, got lost in my notes. So the SF6, it's used in the GIS equipment, but it's also used in, most other equipment for electrical insulation. So it's not just something that is used in GIS. It's been used for decades by Dominion successfully and is sort of the industry standard for most other electrical insulation. And part of that is because it's a really great insulator. It has no degradation, meaning it can maintain those insulation properties for decades. It is a greenhouse gas, but it's also non-toxic and non-flammable. And so, as we've looked at this site, the fact that we have a track record of successfully using SF6 in GIS facilities, we feel very confident with the reliability of continuing to use SF6 for this project, which is, again, a very high voltage project where we want to make sure that we are using industry standard facilities that we've used for decades successfully. Just a little bit about how it's used. Dubendian maintains and builds their GIS systems to the highest industry standard to prevent and mitigate the release of any of that gas. It's used in sealed metal equipment in the GIS station. It's compartmentalized to limit the risk of leaks, and it's virtually impossible for all of that gas to leak at one time. If it ever did have a leak, Within the GIS enclosure, the SF6 is very heavy, so rather than dissipating into the broader atmosphere, it actually sinks and remains very low to the ground, which again mitigates the risk of any impacts from a leak. Also for Dominion, they have 24-7 monitoring of all of their GIS facilities. and sort of it's a double alarm system that they have in place. So they have very low tolerances where if they see that there is a potential leak or if the SF6 levels have dropped even a very limited amount, they will send, they get a remote alarm for that and they send technicians out to the site to inspect that and make sure that that leak is fixed, that if there is a leak, in fact, they can take the gas out safely without having any broader leakage into the community. And I will just say, again, Dominion's been using this successfully since 1983 with an excellent track record and successfully using it without incident. Just getting back to the screening and buffering, along the frontage of Vint Hill Road, very focused on making sure that We're mitigating views from Vint Hill Road. So we have a new continuous six-foot berm along that frontage in addition to a 30-foot landscape buffer. We've supplemented the landscape buffers on the other sides of the site as well. And so we're planting 381 new trees, 1,451 additional shrubs. And in addition along Vint Hill Road, proposing a security wall that also functions from an aesthetic standpoint of blocking some of the views into the site. So just on the Vent Hill corridor itself, we are aware of the recent projects that have been approved along Vent Hill Road and trying to create a more standardized streetscape there. I think within the limitations that we have on this site, We have tried to meet that standard as best we can and to the maximum extent that we can with the plantings that we're showing. Some of the limitations we have is just we're not able to plant certain trees within the transmission corridor itself. And so with the berming and other plant selection, we've tried to replicate that vent hill buffer or streetscape as much as we can so that you're creating that consistent frontage. along Vint Hill Road. Just talking quickly about the security wall. This is just an example of what we're talking about. So this is a wall that's meant to provide security for the facility itself. But unlike sort of the standard fencing that Dominion uses, This provides some aesthetic benefits as well that we think will provide a much better view from Vent Hill Road. And just some viewpoints. So along Vent Hill Road, you've got the existing conditions on the top and the new condition on the bottom. I think from our perspective, with the new condition, we think with some of the streetscape standards that we're trying to adhere to here, it creates a neater, better aesthetic along Bent Hill Road. Again, this is the existing condition just from a bird's eye view. And then on the completion of construction, what the site will look like. And then looking from the east from one of the new developments. Let me go back. So this is the existing condition and all of that screening will be retained. And then you've got some additional new screening that's put in there, but really no visibility from the east. And then across Vint Hill Road, just another view of the existing condition and then the new condition with some of the new screening and the security wall. And then we did want to just highlight some of the views from Braemar. just to show what it will look like from some of the houses that are closest to the facility and sort of the minimal impact because of the distance and the existing screening and buffering that's there. And then just quickly on the comprehensive plan, I know I spoke to it before, but this is a proposal that is fully in conformance with the comprehensive plan. The Planning Commission reviewed a concurrent public facilities review and approved that in September, indicating the appropriateness of this location from a public facilities perspective. But just looking at the comprehensive plan's guidance on where we should be locating electric utility infrastructure, this is a site that checks every box. It's within one of the existing transmission corridors, which is shown on the map here. It is co-located with existing and proposed public facilities. So you've got the existing switching station that is there. You've got the Novex substation right next door, and you've got the battery energy storage facility there. So I think from our perspective, from a locational standpoint, this is a site that's going to have the most minimal impact for a facility that has to go somewhere to make sure that we're staying within the NERC reliability standards. And then from a zoning standpoint, the site is zoned A1. And we've designed it to meet all of the A1 regulations from a setback standpoint. And from a screening and buffering standpoint, um, again, we've addressed all of the matters that are to be considered by the County and evaluating, um, SUPs. Um, it is in character and co-located with other public facilities. It's in conformance with the comprehensive plan. It meets parking loading needs and it mitigates impacts through design screening and buffering. And finally, um, just to reiterate, it's a site that does not require any zoning modifications. So just to summarize quickly, switching station that we're proposing is a critical piece of infrastructure to make sure that we are providing reliable power to Prince William County and specifically this part of Prince William County. It's an upgraded facility that's located within an existing transmission corridor. It's co-located with other existing infrastructure. We're providing appropriate mitigation to limit view impacts through new and improved plantings in Birmingham along Bent Hill Road. It meets zoning ordinance requirements and comprehensive plan requirements. We have a recommendation of approval from county staff. We have a concurrent PFR that has already been approved by the Planning Commission. And so I think for tonight, we respectfully ask for your approval of the project. And we are happy to answer any questions.

All right. I'm actually gonna go out of order. I'm gonna go with Gordy first, because this is within his district, then I may jump in, then go to Stewart.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation. And I just want to start off by recognizing some of the steps that Dominion has taken, particularly as it relates to the buffering to align with the vent hill plan that we've established for the residential area to keep things consistent through there. I also appreciate Dominion moving from a cyclone fence to a wall a concrete wall that will help improve the view shed while also helping to mitigate some any potential noise that may be coming from the site. Just a few questions. From a community perspective, one of the confusing pieces of this is trying to, when we look at the grid, as we're talking about here, the idea that this is somehow going to support data centers, There are no data centers in this area. Um, there are no data centers planned for this area. Um, but yet there was a message that was conveyed to the community that this is for data centers. Can you clarify, um, for us what the purpose of this is in layman's terms?

I can start and then I'm happy to bring up some of our subject matter experts to provide an answer as well. But this is driven by load growth and whether that is data centers, other users on the grid, Dominion doesn't really make that distinction. They look at the load growth and in their projections identifying what does that load growth look like? And then within their plans for PJM, they identify measures that need to be taken to mitigate any risk of violations of NERC standards. And so this project was part of the 2022 PJM approved plan to make sure that the projected loads that were coming in in this area in particular with bristers and some of the other infrastructure that this was put in to mitigate, you know, those loads prevent the violation, which you know, if we have a violation, you know, the result of that is, you know, we've got to figure out ways to shift load. And, you know, part of that is, you know, looking at other, you know, other alternatives. Although, you know, for us, there's not really another good alternative for, you know, providing the reliability or fixing the reliability issue, you know, in this area. So I don't know if there's anyone on our team who wants to...

Well, let me just take it in this direction. So currently we have two substations at this. We have a Novak and a dominion. What do they currently support?

What are the substations support? Yeah.

I mean the lines are going out from this site into where, and what is the main, uh, base of power demand for those substations?

So I can't speak to Novak's, sorry, Tracy McDonald, the siting and permitting at Dominion Energy. I can't speak on behalf of Novak, but I can tell you their substation is to deliver, meaning they have lines coming out that would go to homes, commercial, businesses, et cetera. Whereas Dominion's Vent Hill Station, this project, is really to provide another injection point, meaning bringing more 500 kV load because it needs to get to this area, maybe not your district specifically, but it does need to get to Prince William and, of course, Loudoun, other areas. So it's bringing in a new injection point that delivery can stem off of.

Okay. So this is being driven by the Morrisville to Wishing Star upgrade to 500 KB. So the new line is going to be 500 KB.

Yes, but actually Morrisville to Wishing Star is not going to tie into the Vent Hill substation. That new 500 line will actually go around the station. It's not going to tie in, so it's not driven by that project or any project specifically. It's just driven by the grid needing more 500 kV sources into the area.

Okay, so are the lines there currently 500 kV?

There are two 500 kVs and two 230 kVs currently.

Okay. But are you pulling power from those lines currently? So the need for this essentially to go from 500 kV to 230 and then into distribution, is this being – what is the change that's requiring this specific – requirement for such a, you know, for the 500 KV switching station, which, and if you could also explain an air insulated substation requires what distance between the infrastructure and the size of that compared to the gas insulated, you know, just in a size comparison.

Let me start with the first question driving. So again, it would be to alleviate the projected violation at Brewster's that is expected to occur next year. And to be fair, those are projections. We can't absolutely read the future, but the experts are very good at analyzing the data and projecting what's to come. So we have to find a solution to avoid that projected violation. And this was determined to be the best solution. As far as air insulated versus gas, I'm going to bring up another one.

Good evening. My name is Stefan Haas, project manager for Dominion Energy. So high-level GIS station takes up approximately one-third of the area that an air insulated station would take up. On this site specifically, we're fighting for feet when we're laying out this area, so there's definitely no room we could fit an AIS station here. I think you asked about essentially clearances. I believe for 500 kV wire-to-wire clearances from the range of about, say, 15 or so feet, that's a safe approach distance. Utilizing gas-insulated bus, it could be within like 18 or so inches. So it significantly shrinks down the overall footprint and allows us to squeeze all this infrastructure into our existing parcel.

Okay. So am I out of my five minutes already?

Do you want your next five?

I'll come back.

All right, thank you. Don't go anywhere. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this. Because siting is the big issue, I feel. And I realize there's a lot of competition for space, for acceptable space. But were there any other locations or sites that you looked at? And why were those deemed, you know, not appropriate?

So I say high level. This site was high level, not really. And mainly because this site checked all the boxes. And that's for a couple reasons. is the co-location with existing infrastructure. So we mentioned that we have 500 kV and 230 kV lines that run through here. We also have 230 kV lines coming in from the west. And actually, at the Vent Hill switching station, the 230 kV lines sort of break. SO ANY DIFFERENT LOCATION WILL REQUIRE US TO EXTEND NEW TRANSMISSION LINES TO IT TO MEET THE SAME NEED OR TO DELIVER THE SAME GOALS. ADDITIONALLY, SINCE THIS IS ALREADY DOMINION-OWNED PROPERTY, WE ALWAYS TRY TO UTILIZE WHAT WE HAVE VERSUS GOING OUT AND ACQUIRING MORE EITHER PARCELS OR EASEMENTS. SO WITH THIS LOCATION, CHECKING ALL OF THE BOXES FOR IT, and also delivering upon the very real need for 500 kV injection into this area, I'd say this was the primary location that we went forward with.

I do want to ask a little bit more about the SF6. And, you know, quite frankly, I did speak with our emergency management personnel. And they talked about how they would combat that and, you know, what would happen if there was a leak. And they were saying that the gas was easy to dissipate. But my concern is that other jurisdictions and other states are phasing out that use. And for us to use something that we know is going to soon be phased out. So I wanted to give you the opportunity to speak to that.

So I will say I know states are looking to phase things out. I think California and New York are obviously on the forefront of that. I will say there are still exceptions for high voltage transmission infrastructure. So when you hear that phase out, it doesn't necessarily mean across the board that applications like this would immediately be nixed. I'd also state that for Dominion's perspective, first and foremost, our goal is to provide reliable electric service to our customers. GIS equipment utilizing SF6 gas is tried and true. We know it's going to work. I'm sure down the line there are going to be advancements that allow us to maybe pivot from that. But at this point in time, this is the best alternative to meet our needs.

Could I just add quickly? We did talk with the internal Dominion team that handles all of the gas insulated equipment that they have. And they did look at alternatives to SF6 for this site and did not feel comfortable from a safety or a cost standpoint in trying to make that change to that new technology without having gone through a full vetting process to make sure that for a piece of infrastructure like this at 500 kV and just the critical nature of this facility, we're not comfortable with the alternatives that were out there right now.

All right, thank you so very much. I'm going to go to the next speaker in queue, and that's Supervisor Stewart.

Thank you. Mr. Hoff, so in looking at SF6, while it You said it would go down to the floor. What's the next step in handling what's now on the floor? What's the next step?

Essentially, there's going to be no way to recoup any leaked gas. So it's five times heavier than the air. It's going to go, as you mentioned, sink down to the ground, and eventually it's going to dissipate and keep running along low-lying areas.

Got it. So what's the next step then?

There is no next step.

So you just let it stay inside the building?

Well, eventually it's going to seep its way outside the building and just dissipate into the atmosphere.

So you just let it go outside?

There's no better alternative.

All right, so I got, no, no, no, stop, please stop. So I'm gonna just ask just for that we just talk to each other like human beings and just kind of like straightly answer the question, okay? So you just open the door and let it go outside. Now, while SF6 may not be quote unquote toxic to humans, it can asphyxiate and eventually lead to death. It also remains in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas for over 3,000 years. So from that perspective, it's dangerous. So have you ever heard of green gas for grid manufactured by 3M or GE?

I can't say I'm familiar with that.

Okay, so that's an alternative that's already being used in the United States and New York and California. What about Air Plus manufactured by Hitachi that's already being used throughout Asia? Okay. No, you don't know that. Okay, got it, all right, got it. So let's continue, let's continue. And this question might be for somebody else. So talking about where this power is going to go, was the digital gateway considered for power delivery for this location?

This project is needed regardless of whether digital gateway is constructed or not.

All right, so what projects in the Gainesville district were looked at to consider this particular construct.

Again, I don't know if we can point to a specific project or a specific data center. This is not feeding a specific campus. It's just for overall growth seen in the region.

Overall growth? Correct. By which campuses that don't already exist?

I don't know if you have an answer for that, but I'll bring up my transmission plans and dive into that a bit more.

Good evening. I'm Steve Schweiger, Panini Energy. Hi, Steve. Can you hear me okay? Yep, I can hear you. So the way we plan for load and the way we see load is, so yearly we receive the amount in megawatts, how much the distribution customers are going to see on their distribution transformers. So when we get that, so basically we feed from the 230 kV system We send two feeds over, and then distribution customer steps down, and then they feed whatever it may be, commercial, residential, data center. So in this case, that's exactly how we look at it. So we can't necessarily categorize it. We basically see, whether it be Novec or Dominion Distribution, if there's a certain substation, existing right now, they would say, okay, there's four distribution transformers, one distribution transformer is seeing 50 megawatts, the next one is seeing five, and we look at it collectively in that way.

Gotcha, gotcha. All right, thank you very much, Steve. Back to Mr. Hoff. So, I'm sorry. Hoth. Hoth, sorry, I thought it was Hoth, like David Hasselhoff. Okay, Hoth, okay. So... So you understand this terminology of global warming potential.

Yes.

Right? And these two chemicals that I mentioned, you realize lower against the chemical that you want to use, that you would, if there's an accident, God forbid, that you would just put out into the atmosphere very close to these only two homes that are impacted. I would say that a global warming issue impacts every house on the planet, but then again, you know,

I understand the drive and the want for alternatives. Again, I would still just reiterate Dominion's emphasis on providing safe, reliable service to our customers. I know there might be other utilities that are utilizing this equipment. Dominion does not currently utilize that equipment, especially not on 500 or 230 KV infrastructure. So I'm not saying it will never happen, but at this point in time, you know,

this is the best solution for... No, it's a solution, but it's clearly not the best. I'm going to swing back around to my other five minutes later. Thank you.

All right. So then I'm going to go to Bodhi, then LaCroix after that.

Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation. I wanted to echo some of what my colleagues have already asked and said, and also wanted to echo what Supervisor Gordy said around the work that's been done so far. A couple questions. So... Representative from McGuire Woods mentioned that the SF6 is bioretardant and non-toxic, but what happens when SF6 decomposes due to exposure to arcs, electrical arcs?

So that's the great thing about SF6 is it's, I guess, resistance to break down after repeated arcs. So in theory, we can use this for decades and decades and it still maintains its electrical resistivity properties.

Well, when it does decompose and break down, what does it become?

I'm not sure I can answer that.

Okay. Based on what the research I've done, it decomposes into toxic chemicals when it does break down, but just wanted to leave that there. Going back to the comp plan for a second, it was mentioned that it conforms to several portions of the utilities chapter, the comp plan, which it does, but there's one portion of the comp plan, the electrical utilities chapter, that says locate new facilities required in areas commercial or industrial land uses? The question was asked more generally before, but I'm going to ask more specifically, while you were evaluating the low demand for this area, were there commercial or industrial areas that were evaluated alongside this site?

No, because if that was the case, then we'd have to extend new transmission lines to those locations. Again, the whole point of this site is that there is existing transmission infrastructure that runs through it.

So there were no other sites that were evaluated. Okay. And also going to go off of a beat that Supervisor Gordy asked earlier, which currently there are a number of lines that feed into the current switching station, which will also obviously be transferred to the new switching station. Are there any other new lines contemplated to the new station?

No. I mean, we'll be cutting in the existing 500 KV lines. I already run that corridor. But with this project, only the existing infrastructure within that general location will be cut into the new Penn Hill switching station.

But there's no guarantee, it sounds like, that there won't be any new lines cut to this station?

I'm not positive what the demand growth is going to look like in this area over the next 5, 10, 15 years, so I can't say for certain.

Okay. Next question. My colleague already talked about the SF6 and the alternative, so I won't beat that horse again. protections around noise testing, EMF protection, landscaping, screening. Can you guys talk a little bit more about the mitigations that have been put into place to screen against those? Yeah, I'm going to kick it over to Scott.

Yeah, so I guess maybe starting with noise. So we have done noise analysis to make sure that the proposed switching station conforms with the Prince William County noise ordinance. And so The initial noise study was done before the new ordinance was put into place We subsequently updated it Under the the new ordinance to make sure that we were in conformance with the noise the new noise ordinance You know the initial study that came back did show that there was a potential for you know some noise to go across Vinhill Road, and so we actually part of the the Birmingham It's not just for sort of the aesthetics and the streetscape, but it's also a noise mitigation measure that we implemented. Okay.

And then at terms of EMF protection, can you talk about that a little bit? Electromagnetic field of people don't use EMF.

Yes. Yeah.

Familiar with EMF.

For the general public also, yeah. Yeah.

What I can tell you about EMF is it is designed to be safe for the distances to everything around it. So I guess in terms of mitigation, the mitigation is the space and NERC does oversee those standards as well as Dominion standards. I can't really speak to beyond that though.

Because my concern there just before you walk away is that this substation is significantly closer than the previous one. And so my thought is you move it closer to the road, closer to the houses, is there a risk there?

There's still no risk. And we do have some slides a little further in that can kind of speak to general EMF. OK. All right.

I figure this might be a good. All right. So EMF. I'll go ahead and take this. So I guess high level. EMF is present whenever there's electrical current. Obviously, higher electrical currents might lead to greater EMF. I guess the big thing about EMF is just how quickly it falls off as you step away from the source. So with this table, we want to show here and just essentially present EMF levels for standard household items, items that people are using right now that generate EMF. So I think the biggest I see is, you know, personal computer laptops that we all have in front of us for hours upon a day. All these figures here are showing in milligrams. So you can see, you know, at 6 inches, 14 milligrams, 2 feet, it, you know, drops down to 2 milligrams, 4 feet, essentially negligible, which is going to be standard. Obviously, the argument here is, like, oh, these aren't 500 kV, you know, voltages. So you look at some of the voltages or some of the EMF levels measured at these 115, 230, 500 kV, which are going to be Dominion transmission voltages. Again, you can see the closer you are, you're standing under a structure, say for a 500 KV line, 86.7 mil gauss. You go essentially outside of our right of way, which is in this area, I think it's 240 feet, you're at 3.2 mil gauss. And I would say there's no reason for the general public to be consistently within these distances of our transmission lines or our substations. So I'd say high level, I mean, if everyone's okay with sitting in front of a laptop, using blow dryers, watching TV, I don't think this presents any additional risk to the general public. Additionally, you know, there's been quite a few studies on this since the 70s. Nothing essentially has made any type of connection or correlation that EMF causes any type of health issues.

I'll come back for my second five minutes later. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Supervisor Coy.

I'm conflicted and I'll tell you why. Because I know Dominion does a really good job and you serve the community and we're grateful for that. However, I was elected to represent the people and that's why I'm here. And I was not approached by Dominion to show me anything. I did talk to Yolanda because I called her after I got the information from the planning commission to call her and her phone number. Having said that, for you've obviously heard that the citizens have been very upset about this. Did you, and you said that you really didn't look at any other sites cause two people said, and I think your quote is, this is our best alternative to meet our needs. Did you even look at any other sites to see if maybe that they would house it and calm everyone and be a win win for everyone?

So I'll say any other sites that were evaluated would require new transmission lines. I know the folks in attendance aren't the biggest fans of new transmission lines.

Right.

So that's the reason we essentially went forward with this location.

And it would be too expensive to do so, and you already have it set up.

I wouldn't even say it's too expensive. It's just the best solution. Again, for all these... For all the items we already listed, you know, Dominion owns the property. We have transmission lines there. We do not have to acquire new land, new right of way, extend transmission lines, which are a hot topic in all areas. We have existing, you know, existing Novec DP where the 230 KV lines actually come into the station. So I know we're trying to hammer home on, you know, what alternatives were located or evaluated. You know, this is, this checks all the boxes.

Okay, and now people are switching over to the different kinds of gases. What do you suggest? That we actually put in something that people are switching away from?

At this point, I think that's the best alternative, yes. Again, I know folks are looking to phase that out, but it's not. For 500 kV and 230 kV voltages, that is still the best alternative. Okay, thank you. That is tried and true and reliable.

Thank you.

All right, before I call the next speaker, I just want to say, everyone, I did have to step out. I'm listening. We have a bunch of students who want to talk during public comment time. And because this is probably going to go late, I'm working with them, hopefully, to try to find a different date. But I just want to give that public service announcement. I'm still here. I'm listening. Supervisor Gordy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So a lot of my colleagues have asked a lot of my questions that I was planning to ask. I will go back to the gas portion of the discussion because as I've been looking at this from a standpoint of, you know, what are the alternatives and is there a workable solution? We know that G-cubed, which is a General Electric product, is being utilized up to 430 kV in Europe and said it could go higher. So we know that there are alternative solutions. I find it difficult for Dominion that in an era where when we're trying to look to the future of what the future should, that we would be looking at new technologies to help us find better solutions to the challenges that we face rather than relying on old technologies that present old problems and continual problems for us going forward. Incidentally, looking at some information related to Nextera, they already are partnering with Hitachi on their alternative solutions to this. And so I will be coming back to you later in the meeting to look at further discussion and further evaluation of these alternatives before I'm willing to truly make a decision on this. But the one challenge that I think that I do want to try to get some further clarification on is, and I get everything that you just said about All the boxes are checked here. But as we move up further up the line towards the Wellington corridor where we have significant industrial development, a lot of industrial land, we have a high, you already have large corridors in that area. Does it have to be here or can it be somewhere else? Does it have to be at this site?

I'll let Stephen go ahead and maybe dive into that in more detail.

Hi, I'm Steve Schweiger, Area Planning for Dominion Energy. So it comes down to from where the existing 500 kV is sourced from. So I guess just to circle back first, starting from distribution, where everything is powered from, right, stepping then up to 230, which is what Dominion Energy, our kV level to where we serve the delivery point requests, customers, those distribution stations. What serves the 230 is then the 500. And in this case, for Prince William, we have the main two 500 kV stations existing, which is Bristers, I guess if we want to say towards the south of Prince William, and then Loudoun towards the top of Prince William, both switching stations. In this case, they both have two 500-230 kV transformers that are at their maximum capabilities. In terms of upgrades, they are fully upgraded. They are at the highest capacity possible. And what we see with our loading projections that become more and more accurate as we reach 2027 and beyond is that power flow across those transformers to feed the 230 kV system is exhausting those transformers. So if those transformers are exhausted at if we want to say location A in the north and location B in the south, the location where we must basically help to relieve this exhaustion would be within that main 500 kV corridor. And with Vint Hill being at the location that it is, Having that, it's very unique in how it also, the existing 230 KV network that runs through Vinhill, existing today as well as what is directly adjacent to it. So in that case, Whether or not there's load growth happening to the east or south, because of where the existing 500 is and how the system gets its power, that is what we have to focus on, is being able to relieve and make sure that those existing points have that support along the 500 system to ultimately step down to the 230, which then feeds all the wood.

Okay. So, so again, to the, to the question, if I'm assuming the answer to that is yes, you, as long as you're putting this on within that corridor and if it's in that Wellington along in that area in our industrial area along Wellington road, as long as it's along that same line, that, that it, it could meet the, the reliability requirements, uh, put down by PGM.

It needs to be within that 500 KV corridor, but also because of Vint Hills networking of the 230 KV, so it would need that as well. So if we were to think of a separate solution, we would basically have to have this Vinhill do the same thing, which would mean extending the same transmission lines that are right next to Vinhill to wherever the site may be. It would basically, it would need to duplicate the site because of how unique Vinhill is and how it is already networking that 230k system.

Okay, my time is up, thank you.

All right, Supervisor Bailey.

THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. I JUST HAVE ONE QUESTION, SOMETHING THAT SUPERVISOR LACROIX MENTIONED ABOUT THE PEOPLE. YOU HAD TO DO A PUBLIC HEARING FOR THIS. WHAT WERE THE RESPONSES? WHAT OVERALL? WHAT WAS THE OUTPUT?

I'D SAY OVERALL. I MEAN, OBVIOUSLY, PUSHBACK ON THIS.

I CAN'T HEAR YOU.

I'D SAY OVERALL. I MEAN, FROM THE COMMUNITY, THERE'S RELATIVE PUSHBACK ON THIS PROJECT.

OKAY. Okay. Thank you. And just know you are able to adjust the podium. If you need to, you can go up or down. You're a little, no, there's a button on there. Someone. Yeah, there's a button. I was in the seat for a while before I realized that supervisor voting.

Thank you, madam chair. Um, a lot of what I was going to ask in the second round has been sort of discussed already. Um, Yeah, actually I'll just pass because Supervisor Gordy and Stewart sort of spoke to the fact that there are real world already deployed examples of other alternatives to the SF6 that are at some cases at 550 KV in deployment already done. And so to Supervisor Gordy's point, and not really a question, it's a last comment, is that especially knowing the pending transaction with Nextera, as Supervisor Gordy mentioned. I really wish there was some more sharpening of pencils on this. I get it, legacy technology, tried and true, what have you, but this is a residential area with more residential coming. And so, as we continue to pursue being as least impactful communities and the adoption of our comprehensive plan amendment, to incorporate the CSMP into that, thinking forwardly, greenhouse gas emissions, what have you, it should be top of mind as we continue to discuss this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Supervisor Stewart.

So, Mr. Haas, just a couple of fundamental questions, because I need it for me to make sense. How do you get around? Like, do you drive a car? I do. Okay, awesome. So, you know, like horse and buggy and chariots, which were around for thousands of years, those are tried and true, but you do different because when you know better, you do better, I would assume, right? We're asking these questions and I'm hearing back a lot of I don't know about this, I don't know about that, I don't know about this, right? But we do know scientifically that these other chemicals are safer, not just for the fact that you have homes that are that close. to this site, but they're overall safer by a factor of thousands, tens of thousands times safer, just for the global environment. Is Dominion at least prepared to go back and take a look, A, and C, if maybe using these alternative measures would be better. That's number one. And number two, if we said no today, what's your backup plan?

That's no comments, I'm sorry.

So I guess on the SF6, so I did want to point out that This is not a situation where Dominion is simply not looking at alternatives. I think the alternatives that they're looking at right now, they have not been able to vet those to a point where they feel comfortable with the reliability of that new technology. And the new technology, yes.

So, excuse me, I don't mean to cut you off. It's not that. I was told specifically I don't know about those things. When I asked the first time in my first five minutes, it wasn't a comparison of the two. I was told, I don't know.

Yeah. And I apologize. I tried to step into to answer there. And I know you wanted to have the conversation with Mr. Haas at that time. So just in fairness to Mr. Haas, he is not the Dominion expert on SF6 and gas-insulated substations. Those folks were not able to be here this evening. But I guess just maybe sort of taking a step back on a lot of the questions, I think there are a lot of hypotheticals that are being put out about what happens in the case of a leak. Dominion has been using this technology since 1983 and has never had a major leak or a major impact with any of these facilities. And they have gas insulated substations throughout the Commonwealth, including in areas that are within heavy population centers. And in fact, that's where a lot of them are because of the smaller footprint that you're able to achieve. And they have operated successfully for years and decades.

So I would just warn about hubris. Just because there hasn't been an accident doesn't mean that there won't be. Anything that's made by the hand of man is subjected to failure.

And that's why Dominion has significant standards and procedures in place in conformance with the federal law and DEQ and state law that regulates the use of SF6. And so that's why they're following those rules and procedures. But they also have their own rules and procedures to make sure that they are using you know, the SF6 and that their GIS facilities are, you know, top of the line industry standard.

Got it. And my time is getting tight. So, what's the backup plan? Because I didn't get an answer to that.

Yeah. So, I don't know that there is a good backup plan. Because when we've looked at, you know, sort of the solving of the you know, problem that we're trying to solve in terms of the upcoming NERC violations. You know, this this site was proposed back in 2022 within the PJM plan as the long term mitigation for, you know, those violations. And so if this was to get turned down, you know, there's sort of short term implications, long term implications for not having this facility go forward, you know, sort of short term. you have to find a workaround for the violation that we know is coming. Some of that is just managing the load and trying to redirect it within the grid, but also it could result in load shedding, which is sort of the fancy way of saying brownouts or blackouts and sort of taking in a structured way non-essential facilities offline during peak periods where you've got those violations. And so that's, you know, for the short term, that's the implication of not having this move forward. I think long term, there's significant implications because within the sort of mitigation and the load planning for PJM, you've got this as a solution that's been in place since 2022. And behind that, you have a number of other solutions that rely on this solution to the upcoming NERC violations. And so you sort of have a cascading effect of implications to grid reliability coming out of that. And so I think bottom line, we would probably have to find another location within this general area where this facility would have to go in. And the result of that would probably be having to acquire a new site that is not within the Dominion portfolio right now. And you probably are looking at new transmission lines to connect that site, as you heard, to create essentially the conditions that you have at Vint Hill.

So more transmission lines or brownouts.

That's what you're... Unfortunately, I think that's the implication.

So we're going to move on. So I wanted to, because I know some people, I had to step out, so I'm not sure who spoke twice. I have someone who wants to speak three times. I do want to ask if people would like to continue to debate and would like to suspend the rules. Hold on. I'm going to let Mr. Gordy answer because this is his district and he's on. How do you feel, Tom?

So you just opened up a whole new can of worms.

So that means that's a yes. Hold on. We're going to do the thing at hand. You are not the next in queue. So please turn. So I'm assuming, I'm going to ask, do people want to suspend the rules so that we can?

Yes, yes, yes. Victor?

Yeah. Jeannie, yeah. Tom. All right. So we have Supervisor LaCroix, Bailey, and then Gordy. Sorry, Tom.

Really quickly. So we were just asking you about the more upgraded systems. And I think you just said that they're not available tonight. They weren't able to come tonight.

The experts.

The experts weren't able to come tonight. And so my question is simple. Why not? This is pretty important.

It is, but we're dealing with people who have other preexisting disabilities ITEMS THAT THEY'RE TRYING TO WORK THROUGH AND DEAL WITH. IT'S NOT MEANT AS AN INSULT TO THE BOARD. I THINK WE'VE GOT A NUMBER OF FOLKS WHO CAN SPEAK TO THE APPLICATION. AND AGAIN, I UNDERSTAND THE QUESTIONS ABOUT SF6. SURE. THAT'S ALSO SOMETHING THAT IS REGULATED AT THE STATE AND FEDERAL LEVEL.

RIGHT. I UNDERSTAND. Did you think that we might be asking about the upgraded systems?

We didn't, and we're prepared to talk about that.

Okay, thank you. I want to go, Bailey, Gordy, you're going to get back in after that. You can just put your, and then Stuart again.

So, you did open up a can of worms. I want to ask, what's the impact? When you talk about brownouts, what's the impact on the citizens?

So when it comes to brownouts or blackouts, we really can't predict what the impact is because it really depends. on what's happening at the time that it's needed. So to Supervisor Stewart's original point, what is the backup plan? The backup plan would be we have to find a new site for a substation and we would go to emergency protocols. First, trying to shift load. If that's not possible, Because as a reminder, I'm probably aging myself here, but back in 2003, some of you may remember the eastern seaboard blackout. That was the result of trying to move loads, and every time they tried to move it, there was an overload. So there was a cascading event that caused a huge blackout. Now, of course, the industry learned a lot from that, and a lot of upgrades that have happened since then were in an effort to avoid that type of situation. which was kicked off by one single tree falling, didn't even actually hit the line. But to the point, so it really depends, if it came to a blackout, it depends on how much load is being utilized, what the weather is that day, to answer how long it would last and how many people it would affect. And I'm sorry, that's not the answer you're looking for. But it's impossible to answer until the moment is here.

But does any of that, and pardon my ignorance, but I'm asking because I am ignorant on this piece. Does that impact the pockets of the citizens when something like that happens if we don't approve this tonight?

Does it impact pockets of the citizens? Yes. Eventually comes. Well, I mean, rate payers do eventually pay for everything. Yes. Now, certainly that's decided by the state corporation commission of how that's divvied out. But for sure, yes, costs do generally speaking and with rate payers. Yes.

And comparatively speaking, what's the impact on you as it relates to NERC?

If it's not approved, if it's not approved, the impact is that we have to find another solution. And I would say the only other permanent solution is going to be a lot more permanent impacts to land, to citizens, et cetera, because of the items that were already mentioned. It would require new transmission lines, new substations. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Sure.

All right. Gordy, did you come on? Let's go.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. You just said this will have a cascading effect on other projects. how many are we talking about? Are they underground? Are they above ground? Are they transmission? What are we talking about here? And let me say this, I have asked to get an understanding of everything that's next from you guys and I've yet to receive it because I know there's more coming and we need to plan and I cannot piecemeal this stuff. and I've gone to dominion headquarters, I've had these conversations that by piecemealing these projects through this county with transmission, with substations, It is not the right approach. We can be more strategic about this if we know what the overarching requirements are, where the power needs to go, where the power needs to come from, and how we can best get it there from those two points, and whether it's underground overhead. And so we are... Dominion has to take a different approach than what we've done in the past because the load levels that we're dealing with today require, we are in a very dynamic situation. And again, you go into that innovation corridor, the Prince William Parkway corridor, there are literally over 20-something substations within a quarter, within a half mile. And transmission lines going every which way. And now, again, when we talk about the data center overlay, now we've got to bring the power all the way out from Oaksville to meet what's inside the overlay. And that's why we've got to get rid of the overlay, because we're lying to ourselves if we think that that infrastructure is still there. So I'm sorry I'm getting bent out of shape here. because I've asked for this answer, and I'm just now being told there's more to come. And I've got a meeting set up here in the next few weeks with you guys. I'm going to be asking to defer this case tonight. We don't have the information that we need to make a decision here. And so... And I'm going to ask for a 90-day deferral until September. In the meantime, I want better answers from Dominion on what the full scope of the impact on the Vent Hill substation is going to be, all the projects that are in line, that are planned for this, so that we can know as a community what's going on here. And that's my expectation going forward. I'll let you respond. Thank you.

I do understand your frustration. It is frustrating to be piecemealed. Unfortunately, our country, our culture is set up that things are piecemealed and PJM does have to approve things on a project by project basis. They're dealing with a lot of constraints, too. I'm not pointing the finger at them, but those get handed off to us. I would also add the need changes literally minute to minute because everywhere in the world, something new is getting approved, getting built, et cetera, not just in Prince William County, but because PJM operates the grid across 13 states, it's fully interconnected. So things being approved here affect the folks in Ohio and vice versa, right? But I do understand your frustration that what's coming. And we can only tell you what we know right now. And the unfortunate part is sometimes what we know right now in five minutes it's different because everything is happening exponentially faster than it used to.

Well, I appreciate that answer, and I can understand that from that perspective. But again. Sure. We're because of the sheer amount of infrastructure that's required to meet the demand for power in this area in northern Virginia. We've got to get better. And we've got to become more collaborative and we've got to figure that, look, we know that you're going to have to deliver power. You're mandated by the state to deliver power. You're going to have to find a way forward to do this. But it's better if we can figure this out together and look at this from a more strategic approach. And I will tell you, Dominion has taken steps. I mean, they work with our planning team. This is one thing I pointed out a long time ago. You know, you were bringing in plans that literally went right over projects that we already had approved. And so now you're working with our planning staff to make sure you don't bring those kind of plans to us because you're now staying up to date. You're not just looking at a map that was taken two years ago, but you're looking at what's in our planning process. We are in a very dynamic county. And so we need to take a more dynamic approach to all of this. And I need answers before I can feel comfortable with any of this going forward to understand the full scope of this. Because, again, there's 2,300 homes coming to this area. And it's not just affecting the current residents. It's affecting the residents who are coming. And so I need to have better answers on that. And I need to know what your plan is and what other projects that are planned here so that I can better represent the community of Brentsville.

And I will add, when we say other projects are stacked on it, those are projects that are already in the public under PJMs, you know, everything since 2022. I certainly don't know exactly which ones are hinged on it, but we'll certainly get back to you.

Again, I've asked for updates on that going back at least eight months ago, and I still don't have an answer. So I need that.

All right, I'm going to slip in real quick, because I have only spoken once. And I appreciate and I understand the frustration, because I'm fidgeting in my seat. Because I have so many questions and so many things. And I don't know if people take my vote for granted, because you probably already know how I feel about this project. But no one's come to me. No one's talked to me about this. I did go to go see a GIS, or I'm sorry, a site up in Loudoun. But we're having a lot of transmission lines come through. And I have lots of questions. And I do think that we have had a piecemeal approach. And so I do have the question, rhetorical at least for now, is to what end? Because there is going to be a lot of housing coming to this area. There's going to be a lot of development coming. And that's what also makes me nervous. We don't know what we don't know. You're saying that you can't plan. We can't really adequately plan because we don't know where transmission lines are going to be coming through. I have people in these communities who are coming to us who have a lot of fear and a lot of questions. And that's why I asked earlier about siting, about were there any other locations? Is there anywhere else? And I understand that there are constraints. And I do want to say to everyone, both Dominion and Novick are mandated to provide power to anyone who requests it. So I do understand that that is a constraint. But I feel like we can do better. And so at least following up what Supervisor Gordy said, you're saying things change moment by moment. What's true now may not be five minutes from now. If you're having problems planning, we're having problems planning. I mean, what are we supposed to do? What are the residents supposed to do? Are we just supposed to say, okay, well, we just need this? I mean, it doesn't seem like there's any accountability. It doesn't seem like there's much forethought. And so that's what I'm trying to get at. I'm not trying to make anyone the bad guy, but I'm just really trying to understand this because we have a room full of people and more people, there are people out there too, who are really concerned. And I also want to make sure that I understand this process. So please, let's walk through the process so that we can all understand together Why is this so hard to plan for?

I think it's so hard to plan for because our culture has, I'm sorry.

I'm gonna ask for decorum.

Hi, Steve Schwager, Area Planning from Japan Energy again.

So I will say, in this case and in many other cases, when we receive new load, We don't necessarily know. Anyone can put load where they want. If it goes through the right approvals, it doesn't necessarily have to be right next to the transmission lines. So in that case, if tomorrow a new any type of load, residential, industrial, data center, if it shows up wherever it shows up and we're obligated to serve it, that's exactly what we have to do. So while back in 2022, we received projections for 2027 and each year since 2022, we received updated projections. So from Novak, from demand distribution, we continuously look at them, make sure that the solutions are still valid while that's going on. The PJM process is also continuing and solutions are stacking on top of the Vinhill solution and others. So they all work together in a consistently growing puzzle, if you will. But that piece, the why is it so hard to plan for the load, is because aside from existing or the stations that are to be energized near term, we don't have control over where where the load should be. We have to serve it wherever it may be.

I appreciate that. I'm running out of time. So we have a couple more people in queue. I mean, there are more questions. I'm going to remind the board, we do have the county to present. We can ask questions of them. We have the public hearings and we will follow up. So I know that there are still a lot of questions. I'm going to go, if you want to jump in queue, jump in queue now, because after this last batch, I want to go ahead and move to the county. So we have Stewart and then Bodie.

So I want to address this thing about culture, right? There seems to be a corporate culture at Dominion of, I don't know. I don't know about that. We're just going to put the lines overhead until we blot out the sun. we're gonna, you know, well, maybe there's gonna be brownouts or just more wires, right? Everything is, there's a corporate culture of can't at Dominion that disturbs me, right? And a corporate culture of I don't know that is further disturbing. And why I don't know is further disturbing is because you guys handle electricity, right? I don't want the person with the voltage going, I don't know, I don't know, I got these two wires, I don't know, right? So I think what we're lacking here, and if you guys don't have it, that's where we come in. What's lacking here is any vision or imagination. Almost 60 years ago, we sent human beings to the moon and brought everybody back safely. There was no I don't know. There were backup plans to the backup plans. We know how to do this as a species. We know how to do this. I ask people this question all the time. Imagine if planes worked as well as your cell phone. Nobody would do it, but that industry also, cell phones lack imagination and creativity. That's why everybody has dropped calls and frozen phones, cracked screens. But that bleeds over into seemingly what Dominion is delivering or lack thereof. which is can't and I don't know. The fact that these folks that are talking about gas, now you guys had to know that those questions were coming up. Where else on the planet, unless your family's expecting triplets tonight, where else on the planet is there to be except in this room? That's disrespectful to everybody here, to the half million people plus that live in Prince William County, to... Every district represented on this dais, it's disrespectful to say I don't know about this gas or any alternative that is not going to, that's going to linger in our atmosphere for 3,000 years and you didn't research that. A six year old with a cell phone can find that out in three minutes. I don't, what do you do? And I get that you have to deliver power. I get that it's a fast changing environment now because we're building data centers faster than you can say whatever. And it's hard to keep up. But you can keep up if you have the imagination and the desire to do so. But when you're the only game in town, I can see why maybe that doesn't happen. Let me ask you a question about this. Air versus gas, right? Air is, what, 300 gigawatts or something, or milliwatts, 300. What's needed for gas, very quickly?

Not sure I understand the question.

Right, so the threshold for gas versus air.

I'm not sure if I follow the question. I will say a typical substation that has distribution equipment is 300 megawatts. Maybe that's what you're referring to.

Yep. Well, if it's less than 300, can you use air versus gas? Yeah.

I'M NOT SURE HOW TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION, BUT ESSENTIALLY, THERE CAN BE GAS INSULATED SWITCH GEAR SUBSTATIONS AND AIR INSULATED SWITCH GEAR SUBSTATIONS THAT HAVE DISTRIBUTION EQUIPMENT THAT CAN BOTH BE 300 MEGAWATTS. THERE'S NO... SO THERE'S NO CUTOFF. THE TECHNOLOGY FOR HOW WE INSULATE PROPERTIES DOESN'T, I GUESS, CHANGE WITH THE... WITH THE VOLTAGE. OR, YEAH, WITH THE USILITATION OF A SUBSTATION, SO... ALL RIGHT, SO...

Kilovolts, that's the term that I'm thinking of. But to speak to Supervisor Gordy's, when you guys come back, and I'm sure you will, as we say sometimes while guys are just sitting around chopping it up, you gotta come correct. You gotta come back the right way. You're not prepared today. And if it's up to me today, it's no. Go figure it out. Go do some engineering. But not today. You guys came woefully unprepared. But I'm eager to hear from staff also because I want to find out. Find out.

If I could just address that quickly. I don't think anybody is up here saying I don't know. I think we're dealing with complex systems that require a lot of long-term projections that are regularly changing um you know this was a facility that was projected to be needed was added to the the pjm program in you know 2022 and then every year you know has been updated to show the need for um you know this facility in this location um you know that's That's the reason that we are here today. I understand the frustration of the SF6 answers. I don't think anybody is up here saying we don't understand SF6 or we're not prepared to talk about SF6. I think we've given you the explanation for why we're not able to do SF6 on this site. But also, again, SF6 is a state and federally regulated. I think what we're here is focusing on the land use aspects of the project and looking at the compatibility and the appropriateness of the site of the switching station in this location. And I think from our perspective, this is a inappropriate location that's in conformance with the county zoning standards.

Madam Chair, if you don't indulge me, I just need 10 more seconds because we have to look beyond the land use. We also have to look for the safety of the residents. And SF6 is proven not safe, which is why it's being phased out. And if you can't come back with something better, then it should just be a no today.

I'm going to go to Bodie, then Angry.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the conversation so far, and I'm just going to sort of name it. The frustrating thing about all this is, to the point that was made earlier in a slightly different way, so much of this is regulated above our heads. I'll just put it that way. the SCC, you mentioned SCC earlier, PJM, all these other entities sort of run through the process and regulate this and we are this small piece, much larger conversation. And so I understand that. I wanted to obviously give you all that grace because, again, we're looking at the local context. The one thing that we have authority over are these substations, whether they be a switching station or a full-on substation. That said, we at least have to do the due diligence of asking what we're asking right now. And I get that. At this point in time, to the point you made earlier, we now have folks who are asking for gigawatts of loads at a time. Sometimes 300, 400, 600, likely in multiples of 300 at a time, all in some clustered place that have no power at all. Other places they have some, but they have 150 capacity versus 300 versus a gigawatt, what have you. So it's all very dynamic. At the same time though, we also understand that folks have to go through a process to even request the load. Conceptual load studies, detailed load studies, having those load letters then given to them and then saying, hey, yes, we're ready to move forward with it. Large deposit checks need to be put down before these things can go. So I know there's probably a lot of folks who are being very speculative, conceptual load studies here and there, but those detailed load studies where people are actually putting down sometimes quarter of a million dollars, what have you, to go through this, those are a lot more concrete than a lot of these dynamic things that you're talking about. And so I think that's where we're trying to get, that knowing that when folks reserve power, they get put in a queue somewhere. and we're trying to get more clarity. Again, not understanding that we can't necessarily regulate that piece, but it at least gives us an idea of how to plan better as we talk about these situations, how we look at, consider these approvals. Also knowing that, I hate to say it, but this is the other concern, Every time we approve an upgrade, are we then inadvertently inviting more transmission to these new substations, new switching stations? Again, we can't regulate that, but it should at least be on the periphery of what we're thinking about in terms of community impacts when we make these decisions. So I just say that's what's on our minds as we have these conversations because unfortunately we're at a disadvantage because there's so much above us that we have no authority to regulate. And this one piece allows us to at least have some insight on behalf of the residents into what might be coming should we approve this, regardless if we have authority over it or not. So my question, and obviously I don't expect you to all have the answers to this right now, is is there a better way for us to know, at least locally, what types of things are in the queue? I know it was mentioned earlier that some of this is public knowledge through PGM's interconnection and what have you, but we know every September a whole group of projects come before them and some folks are planning two, three, four cycles in advance on these things. And as new substation, new switching stations come online, things get distributed differently and what have you. So my hope and my thought as we continue to talk about this is if we can have more transparency into those things, we consider this because the last thing we want to do is, again, approve a substation knowing that we only have this small bit of authority, not understanding the full picture of what it's going to do to the other parts of the network. that will be impacted by this, especially residents knowing this area is literally going to be surrounded in almost four sides where residential was existing and more to come.

Supervisor angry. Yeah, I think it was a comment.

Yeah. Thank you, madam chair. Okay. Um, so you haven't heard from me all, all night. Um, so I followed this. I understand all of this. Um, I've, gone out and toured the facility in Loudon. I've worked with some of you and asked many questions. I've met with constituents. You can see me, a few of them, and we've discussed the issues. I've met with Supervisor Gordy. We had discussions on this. And I put this back to something that Supervisor Gordy literally said earlier. In all of this, first of all, mind you, we haven't even gotten to our planning. department to hear your presentation. I'm just really curious where that will take us because listening to Supervisor Gordy, he's mentioned a deferral for 90 days and wanting more information. I'm even wondering if that's going to be your position in the end of all this, should we not take up that position now? Well, I think the public would actually like that in the interest of what we're discussing because that's going to take us. Now my question is I don't know if 90 days is enough to even get to what Supervisor Gordy is trying to find out and what's next or what's in the pipeline. I'm curious if that's a discussion point so that's why I want to bring that up.

I'm going to have to look over to the county attorney about this because we actually do have public hearings today and I don't know if we can skip it and just go straight to a deferral.

Public hearing has been advertised, but you can defer this matter if you would like, and then it would need to be re advertised because it hasn't been opened and closed.

All right, thank you so very much. What I'm going to do, in the interest of time, is I'm going to call the county up to do the presentation, and I'm going to allow supervisors to ask questions. Or I'm actually gonna call the county up. Supervisor Gordy, if you have a second. I just wanted to chat with you. So I'm gonna call the county up for their presentation.

Do I wait for the chair? Can I start? Okay. Uh, good evening board members. My name is Alex Venegas from the planning office and I will be presenting the special use permit this evening. Uh, with me I have Vanessa Watson who's the case manager for this application and I have staff members from the different review agencies to help us, um, field any questions that you may have with this application. So this is a request for a special use permit to allow development of an electrical substation switching station to replace the existing substation on site. So to go through the general area, we have Braymire over here across the street from Vent Hill. So north we have Braymire as well as a recent application that was approved Greenhaven. To the east, we have Hawthorne at Kettle Run, which was approved by the board recently as well. On the other side of the substation that's part of this SUP application, we have a Novec substation right here. And Dominion also owns a portion of the land next to it as well. And then we have the Reed Energy Facility to the south of that. When the question came up about the general location, seeing as you have so many electrical resources in this location, the co-location made sense from that perspective. The land use application that we're looking at, staff evaluates it on the comprehensive plan. the zoning ordinance, as well as the DCSM, and that's how we define whether a land use application is consistent with these things, and that's how we make our recommendation. Staff is recommending approval for this application. In the comprehensive plan, the property is CRES 1B. The zoning is currently A1. Substations... Switching stations are allowed in any zoning district provided that it's done through a SUP. This application also went through a public facility review where it was found to be substantially in accordance with the comprehensive plan based on its location. This is the layout of the new switching station that will go on this location if it's approved. The applicant did work with us. We did, planning staff did do a tour with the Planning Commission of Record and several review agencies. We went to one of the similar switching stations that they had up in Loudoun County. We looked through it. We saw things that we felt like we needed. Originally, they were going to do a chain-linked fence and We felt like, hey, Loudoun County has a wall. Why can't you provide that? And the applicant did work with us to provide a security wall that's a little more aesthetic pleasing. The applicant did work with us as well on the... The buffering on Vent Hill Road, we wanted it similar to the other applications that were recently approved along the Vent Hill corridor. So that way we had a more linear streetscape that created a sense of place for that area. So they did provide a 30 foot buffer as well as a berm. So it's consistent with the other applications. In this application, they're showing ingress and egress right at this location, and then emergency ingress, egress over here on this side of the property. Several of the buildings will be eventually decommissioned once the switching station goes up. The orange buildings indicate the switching station location of the new buildings, and as it was mentioned, it'll be less of a footprint than if the application were to build a full facility on site. Staff is recommending approval for this application. The Planning Commission heard this application on a public hearing on September 10th, and no action was taken. There was a motion to deny it, and... The motion failed and no subsequent motion was made. The applicant brought the application back on October 29th and no action was taken at that time. But staff does recommend approval for this subject to the conditions dated April 23rd and the SUP plan also dated April 23rd. The SUP aligns with the county's objectives to encourage profit-generating business expansion, new business development, redevelopment that enhances and complements targeted industries. The project will have limited impact on the county services. in terms of traffic, road infrastructure, schools, parks, and minimal impact to police and fire. And the substation will be designed to accommodate the immediate need to maintain and improve the electrical services to customers in the county. So again, staff has recommended approval for this application.

All right, so what we're going to do, these are questions. I know that we have a lot of comments and such, but these are for questions. Supervisor Bodie?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Alex, and to the planning staff for this and wanted to thank, again, planning staff and Dominion for working together on making improvements to this project. Alex, can you talk a little bit about the fact that this is in conservation residential, if that has any bearing over what staff felt about this project?

So the long-range land use provides us guidance. And, you know, from our perspective is we look at that as one of the indicators of, you know, how we consider regarding the comprehensive plan. But we also looked at there's existing facilities there that we had a PFR, which said it was, you know, that it was aligns with the general location needed in the comprehensive plan. So from that perspective, you know, we had to put it on a scale and we weighed it. And based on the fact that there's existing co-location of electrical substation and one next door for Novak, it made sense that this is something that, from a comprehensive perspective and the PFR that we would support it.

Appreciate that. My second question is something that I asked earlier of the applicant is one of the provisions of the electric utilities chapter is did they look at other commercial or industrial uses or uses areas before they decide to locate it here. Can you talk a little about, did staff evaluate that provision of the electric utilities chapter? How did that sort of weigh on your decisions?

That's a great question, Supervisor Bodie. With the electrical utilities comprehensive plan, utilities plan, what we looked at is the parameters in there that talk about screening, buffering, Since it is an existing site, we had to weigh that as part of the equation. And we don't look, it's not staff's job to look at other locations for an applicant. That's the applicant's responsibility. You know, are there other locations? Maybe, I don't know. And if we were to move it to another location, we would still be going through this process because we look at each individual application based on the merits of its own, you know, things that it brings to the county. The areas that are more industrial, there's limited space, you know, as we move closer to the, Innovation Park area so that's you know also a concern that we had in the back of our mind

I appreciate that. My next question, you just sort of segued well into it, Alex, so thank you for that. Screening and buffering and other things. The existing facility is a lot further back from the roadway, a lot further back from Braemar. Because of the size and scale of it, the existing site actually is a lot more tucked away, which I think is one of the other reasons why this seems very jarring to the folks that live there. Based on your analysis, you talked about the wall earlier. Can you talk a little bit more about that part of it, the fact that this is much going to be a bigger site, closer to the road, closer to the residences? I know that Planning Commission, I think, talked about massing, and that's why some of the commissioners had concerns. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yes. What we wanted to do with this application, knowing that it's moving closer to the Vint Hill Road, is make sure that the buffering being proposed is much greater than what's there now, but it's consistent with the other recently approved residential applications to create that corridor that has more of a sense of place where it matches on both sides of the street. And the applicant is giving some right away with this application. I don't know if that was mentioned. But that's one of the things that we looked with. The berming also was very helpful. And then putting the wall around the facilities, while it doesn't screen everything, it does, you know, from the road level, eye level, from most of the homes, it does minimize that visual impact. And that's what staff wanted. why staff requested that wall just like they have in Loudon near the residential communities up there.

Appreciate that. And I guess my last question with the last 27 seconds I have is, earlier today we had a discussion about environmental justice in the comp plan. How there's some elements to the point that Director Washington made that there's some elements already in there. We're going to be adding more when we do the sustainability CPA. Can you talk about how that may have been considered or not, especially as we look at this as a gas insulated facility that does have greenhouse gases within the facility as it's designed?

With this application, if we don't have something adopted by the board as guidance, like the comprehensive plan, we don't look at those items. There is always a concern because we do have public health, safety, and welfare as one of the things that we do look at because that is in the zoning ordinance. But with respect to the type of gas they use, We're not subject matter experts on that, and that's something that I hope the applicant looks at looking at potential alternatives, because I agree that if there's new technology that works better and that's safer, that would make sense, especially since you have so much residential around that location. Thank you.

Supervisor LaCroix.

Thank you so much, Alex. And thank you, Vanessa, behind Alex. We love you.

I, too.

I actually love her. Alex, did you ask them, or Vanessa, did you ask them why they were doing something that was going obsolete in other jurisdictions?

So from my standpoint, no, we did not. Because they gave us examples of other facilities that are using it successfully where they didn't have any problems with it. So from our perspective, whether you They use Coca-Cola or Pepsi. That's not necessarily a land use issue, but we feel like that's something that they can consider if they can demonstrate that something's safer. Maybe that's something that they can propose, but that's not something as staff that we would condition because we look at it clearly from just the land use perspective. It's a land use application.

Okay, thank you.

All right. We don't have any other further questions for the county, but I'm going to kick it over to Supervisor Gordy.

Good. Dominion Representative Comfort, I got a couple of questions I need to ask you. So I came into this meeting with one major concern, and that was the gas that's being used. And my intent was to seek a deferral to give you time to give us an explanation on, to ask you to go back, look at alternative gases that would be safer for the environment, safer for our community. Is Dominion willing, to evaluate and consider other alternatives to SF6 and present that as a new alternative gas for this site if I were to give you a 90-day deferral?

I think we are happy to have that conversation with our gas team. I don't know what the outcome of those internal conversations would be because I think we would have to have the discussion with them on the – the reliability of those alternatives and whether they satisfied Dominion's own internal standards for safety and reliability. And I don't know that evaluating a new technology within 90 days is something that the timeline would work, but I think we are happy to have that conversation.

Okay. So if 90 days doesn't work, would dominion be willing to take a, they asked for a deferral in order to evaluate this and bring us back, uh, an alternative potential alternative plan in the meantime, helping us understand, um, the other elements that are at play within this area from this site, we can have that conversation.

I don't know that we, I don't know that we, necessarily want to have a deferral beyond 90 days. I think that just starts to have further implications if it's an undefined deferral in terms of project planning. And I think as we've said, this is a critical piece of infrastructure and there's a clock ticking on trying to make sure that we have a solution. I think outside of this project, we'd certainly be willing to continue the conversation about alternatives to the SF6. I don't know that for this one, a deferral beyond 90 days necessarily gets us there, but I'll...

I just wanted to add to that a little bit. What I can tell you is that Dominion is always and constantly assessing and evaluating alternatives. And what we know about the alternatives that are being used in Europe, I think one of you had referenced that, is that their grid is a bit different from ours.

It's 430.

What I'm being told is it's not fully vetted on our type of grid as of now. I can't imagine they would be able to fully vet it in a way redesign this project in 90 days.

I kind of agree with that.

But we will take it back and see.

Okay. But Hitachi also has some. And, again, that's in the U.S. And so it's not just one alternative. There are multiple alternatives here. And, again, based upon some things I've read as it relates from Hitachi itself and its partnership with Nextera, there is an established relationship. I know. And by the way, they're a Virginia company. They produce equipment here in the Commonwealth. So this could be a good news story from an economic development standpoint as well from within the Commonwealth of Virginia. And so it's just something I think there's a lot of wins here for Dominion if it's able to do something to demonstrate that it is can look at newer technologies that are better for us going forward. Um, I'm just kind of, uh, trying to figure out the calendar for, um, the rest of our, it would be September 22nd.

That is exactly given a day or, you know, another day that's three months.

Okay. Um, Well, Madam Chair, I move to defer this case to date certain of September 22nd for Dominion to evaluate and come back to the board and bring with them their experts on GIS to look at those alternative sources of gas insulated systems. And in the meantime, also bring provide a briefing on, to me particularly, on the full scope of this site and other projects that are affected by it that have been mentioned this evening.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. Do you have any additional comments before I speak or call on anyone else?

shared my frustration. Um, I won't beat the dead horse. Um, but you know, again, you know, this is about, uh, you know, I want dominion to be good community partners. I want them, we know that we've got a lot of power infrastructure that needs to be, uh, uh, built in order to support the growth on the grid within Northern Virginia. Um, but again, we've, we've got to take a better approach. I think, um, looking at newer technologies and better collaborative approaches is something that's necessary for us to be successful going forward. And these are the conversations that I look forward to having with Dominion, particularly as it relates to the Brentsville district.

All right, Supervisor Bodie.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Just real talk. I'm going to mostly give my comments. I know we sort of talked technically to the board, but I'm actually going to give most of my comments to the community. I know a lot of you are frustrated by this. This is deferred without really a hearing or anything at all back in January, if I recall correctly. The Planning Commission hung on this when they consider it. They did approve a PFR. And it's come to us, and now it appears that we'll be deferring. So I hear, and I can already hear a lot of you, sort of that internal monologue of we're in limbo again. And I want to name that. I also, though, want to name the fact that as we sort of talked through this tonight, that there are a lot of outstanding issues and questions that have not been answered. Not going to belabor it too much, but the fact that apparently the gas expert who was supposed to be here could not be here. I understand that that expert may have been at the Planning Commission, may be not, but the fact of the matter is we are the Board of Supervisors. We should be able to have those questions answered before we make a decision one way or another. The second part is that as we consider this, we know that, as was said before, Dominion has a state mandate to deliver power. They have to. We also know that if we just straight up deny this without further considerations, further discussion on it, there may be unintended consequences, as was said, that they may have to put a substation or switching station somewhere else that may then have to run transmission lines through people's neighborhoods, what have you. We don't take that lightly. I understand that you all have already been under threat by a lot of these same threats. At the same time, we don't want to inadvertently, at least in this, put another community somewhere else through the same exact thing. That isn't to say that we will say yes when it comes back. We will start to have that conversation, have the public hearing, hear from you all of course, and ultimately make a decision. It is my hope that we find some other solution to this that doesn't subject your community to any further industrialization. It's my hope that we can work something out between now and 90 days that at least answers and alleviates some of the concerns that have been shared with us over the past few months, especially The folks that came to my office, thank you, Mindy and Lisa, for doing that. Again, it's not lost, at least on my 1A, that this puts us in another limbo stage. I feel for you all, but I feel like, if nothing else, the fact that we don't have the gas folks here tonight to answer those questions means that we don't have the full picture to make an informed decision on this case, and that's why I support the deferral. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Supervisor Stewart.

I get every point that Supervisor Bodhi just made and I just as soon say no to the whole thing because Dominion came here in an unprepared manner for this board and for Prince William County. And when I say Prince William County, I'm talking about the residents. They didn't think enough to have all hands on deck for this if it's supposed to be important. And I have no assurances that in 90 days they're gonna come back correctly. nobody in this room does, right? Right, answers could have been given tonight of, you know, somebody could have been bold, somebody could have stepped up, somebody could have stepped in and said, you know what, we're gonna look at these gases and we're gonna make some changes and then we're gonna go visit all the supervisor's offices. Because I'll be honest with you, nobody came to see me. I went up to the switching station in Loudoun and that was the end of the conversation. But you didn't even try. And this is not the first experience that I've had with Dominion where you guys didn't even try. And I don't, I'm not gonna support the deferral because I don't wanna just do more of the same. I don't expect to come back in good faith. I don't expect them to try. I don't expect them to use their imagination. I don't expect any sort of movement on, I'm going to use this word, culture. The corporate culture that is Dominion Energy leaves me very wanting. And you guys can do better. And it's not a question of can't. It's a woeful won't. that you didn't show up with the gas expert tonight. I'm verklempt, honestly. SAT word number 73. Yeah, so, you know, I... I get it and because I don't want there to be another substation and then they gotta run lines because they're gonna do it in an unimaginative way, they're not gonna bury them, right? The question what do you do and I don't think that Dominion Energy cares about the community that it serves is just running through my head and I just gotta call it the way I see it. I can't in good conscience support the deferral, thanks.

Supervisor LaCroix.

Subjectively, I think for sure the applicant here has not put forth their best effort, no offense, to plan this infrastructure in a way that minimizes harm to residents. And they didn't even come with the people that were necessary to let us know why this is the best plan for them. And like I said, I was the one who was asking planning about what was going on and they gave me Yolanda's number and she was kind enough to talk to me on the way to another meeting for something else. But you all really didn't put forth any effort. I will tell you who has put forth an effort, who showed up, who had a news conference, who's here tonight by the hundreds, who sent me more than enough letters. And let me tell you, you've sent me more than enough. And I'm trying to read them truly. But you didn't put forth the effort that's necessary. And don't tell me that they just weren't here because they were busy tonight. Because I needed to know why it was better tonight, why it was better tonight for that plan to go forward. And yes, it may be worse for you guys, absolutely and positively. But I am here in charge with looking out for you. And it may be not in your best interest. They may do something worse. But I got to tell you, there is absolutely no way that I am going to say that a deferral is okay tonight. especially when our people are here. The people we represent are here. It may be worse for them, but they're here tonight, and they were here before, and it got transferred to tonight. Tonight was the show. It was the show you were going to tell us about, why this is in everybody's best interest, and I am still as clear as mud. So I am not gonna support the deferral, although he's the smartest one on this board in my eyes. But I can't support it.

Supervisor Ingrid.

Thank you Madam Chair. I just have one. During this next 90 day phase of questions, I would really like, you've had a lot of experts here that I've never met. So I'd like to hopefully get you all in my office just to answer some more questions. So thanks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Gordy, did you have anything else you want to say? I do.

I want to speak to the community. I really appreciate everyone that's come here. I appreciate all the opportunities to meet with the leaders of the Braemar community, have conversations. Again, I get to the point that there's a lot going on in this area. And managing how this infrastructure works is intended to come from vent Hill from Oaksville from other areas in the Brentsville district. Um, you know, right now there are four power projects that are part of the Brentsville district. There are four right now and I know those are not the last. And so Incidentally, a year ago, not one of the people in the green shirts here had any clue or any care about much of what was happening on this board until it hit their backyard. And this is the point that I want to make is that when we think and I've said this, that when we think something's happening way over there. particularly as it relates to these data centers, it doesn't just affect people that are right there. It affects people way out over here now. Now, when the data centers that are being supported were passed, those were not part of the conversations. You know, a lot of the infrastructure that we're talking about now for data centers that were passed in the late 20-teens. And how many more data centers have been passed since then? So we're going to have a lot more of these conversations. We're going to have a lot more of these types of hearings. My job as a supervisor is to make sure that we're looking out for our citizens. And when the citizens give me very specific requests, I work with the applicants to try to get answers to those very specific requests. And again, tonight, I don't feel like we've gotten the answers that we need. In fact, I'm walking away with more questions. And that's why I need to defer. Because if at the end of the day this gets denied, Dominion does have alternate ways of going about addressing their issues through the State Corporation Commission. But if the denial that comes from this board, it has to be based on something specific. It needs to be based on health, welfare. It's got to be based on certain things. And I need to justify those decisions. So that's why I need to defer. I appreciate everyone who came out tonight and for your commitment to your community, to the Brentsville district, to Braymore, to Linton Hall, to not just look out for your backyard, but now you're looking out for all of Brentsville. And that's the communication that I'm getting from you. And so the... But I hope that you understand tonight that we have a set of rules and guidelines and laws that we have to follow as it relates to these planning cases and that we cannot just arbitrarily deny things. There has to be certain things. And so tonight, I'm giving Dominion to come back with better answers. And if they can't come back with better answers, the answer is going to be no. I need better answers. You deserve better answers. You deserve answers. Not just better ones, but you deserve answers. We deserve answers. And so giving Dominion 90 days to help us get those answers and to make the decision based on the merit of the case and based upon their ability to address the health and the welfare concerns of our community. And so, Madam Chair, I'll turn it over to you for the vote.

Hold on. I have one person who got in, Supervisor Bailey.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to get in. I appreciate it. One of the things that I do respect about my colleague, Mr. Gordy, is that I know this is not your job now, Tom, but he was on the Planning Commission. And so that armed him to help us on the board a lot more. And I agree with Supervisor LaCroix. He's pretty darn smart. I don't know if you're the smartest one up here, but he's pretty smart. But I do respect his opinion as well because I think, and his judgment, and I do because he, all of us look out for our citizens, but I appreciate this foremost of all. We need to get answers. We need to legally follow rules and regulations as we govern up here. And I know that you don't like that a lot. I'm sorry in advance and in advance, but we have to make good decisions that way. I also respect the fact that it's not just folks from Braemar here. People from my district are here. And so what that is, is unity and purpose. And so I really respect that. You may not think so, but I do. And so that helps us become better informed when we're making decisions on your behalf, but listening to your feedback as well, which is the reason why I asked the question about what did the citizens say. But the other thing that I want to say to Dominion is the fact that Outside of what you do on your day job, day to day, we want to be able, as we collectively serve our citizens, to be partners. And so I want to encourage you not to miss an opportunity to explain more in depth. And don't talk over people's heads. Not that that's your intention. When the citizens want answers, they want answers. And so I respect the fact that Supervisor Gordy is asking for that. And I also respect the passion that my other colleagues are saying about no. But in the 20 teens, as he had mentioned, we didn't start where we are today because we were not, and I wasn't, you weren't, maybe you were, I don't know, I'm not a scientist, educated. And educated is not a bad word. It's just not. But we want to make good decisions together. So I just wanted to say that. And thank you, Tom, for your recommendation. I will be supporting it because I think it's absolutely necessary that Dominion comes back with a breath and a seasoned response and accountability to us.

All right, do anyone else want to speak before I go? Because I'm going to close it out. And then we're going to take a vote on this. This is a hard one because I had a great speech about saying no. I had a great speech. Really good speech. I'll save it for later. It is very hard to sit in this seat because I have my thoughts, my opinions, and my passions. And I don't like this project. It should come as a surprise to no one, especially to Dominion over there. I don't like this. I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of concerns. But I also have a lot of respect for my colleague Tom, who earlier today I had to give him his credit because while him and I may not always agree on everything, I do think that he is very thoughtful and deliberate, even when I don't always agree with him. I know that this is a tough vote. This is going to be a very tough vote for a lot of us. I am going to respect Supervisor Gordy in this instance. But I also want to be clear that there's not going to be a secret deal or a closed meeting or anything to decide this. I've heard some of those comments. WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IS I'M GOING TO WORK WITH THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE AND DOMINION'S GOING TO COME BACK WITH THE ANSWERS, WITH THEIR EXPERTS, WHATEVER THEY NEED ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND. THAT'S THREE DAYS, I'M SORRY, THREE MONTHS AND ONE DAY. AND I EXPECT TO HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS AND ALL THE EXPERTS AND EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED TO MAKE A DECISION AND NOT TROT PEOPLE OUT HERE AGAIN. We have a lot of people here on a random Tuesday because they have concerns, they have questions, and they feel stonewalled. And I've always said that my concern lies with the residents. It lies with the communities. But I'm also not going to be a hypocrite because Dominion was talking about they don't determine where the load is needed. So I'm going to direct my wonderful passionate speech to myself and my colleagues. We have to also learn to say no. We also must learn to say no. While this may not be necessarily driven solely or only by data centers, they are the elephant in the room. It's not, and I'm trying not to solely blame Dominion too, because again, you do have, I recognize you have a mandate to provide power, and it's hard to be in conversations like this. Because you must fulfill your duty. But from our end, we must also fulfill ours. So I am going to vote for the deferral so that hopefully in three months we will come back, we will have a discussion, we'll see if there's alternatives. We will run everything down before we take a vote. But I am going to apologize to the people who came out here today because I understand, I feel the anxiety. I feel it. Believe it or not, I do read all the emails. I don't always have time to respond to everything, but I read them. I have met with people in the community. I have gone out to Braemar. I have friends who live there. I understand the anxiety, the fear, the living in limbo. There are a lot of questions and I haven't been able to meet with the community and address a lot of things I've heard and I apologize for that because I do feel that the community deserves better. I really do. We are between a rock and a hard place with this case. There are legal limitations and things we really must consider. And yes, at a certain level, some of the decisions made way over our heads impact what we can or cannot do. So I do apologize to the community. We will come back with this. I will work with the CXO. We will come back. Dominion will have who they need. We hopefully will have had time to meet and talk to the community.

And then we will make a decision.

So again, I'm sorry for everyone who's come out. I hate to have you guys come back. Maybe there'll be more people coming back, I don't know. But we have to, as a board, do our due diligence before we deny this because Supervisor Gordy is right. If we don't have all our ducks in a row, Dominion can go over us. And that is what I don't want to happen. So I apologize. I will see you all back if this passes in September. So I'm gonna go ahead and call for the vote.

Motion passes five to two. Supervisors Stewart and LaCroix voting no.

All right, thank you very much. So what we are going to move on to, and I wish I had the youth sports team stay back because we, you know, we're getting this a little sooner than I thought. We have public comment time. So if you can go ahead and bring the sheets.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, I know we have more people signing up to speak. Seems like we have a little bit of a line. What I'm going to do is I'm going to allow people time to sign up and to get settled. So I'm going to give the board, we can take a five-minute recess.

Five minutes.

We got plenty of seats. You're good? Okay. All right, we are back from recess. We are going to begin with public comment time. What we're going to do is I'm going to call people up in groups of five. There are some people who are probably left, so if I do not see people who are going to the podium, I will start calling more names. You have three minutes. Please start by saying your name, the magisterial district where you reside. You don't need your street. I don't need all this. Just, I'm Deshauna Jefferson. I live in the Potomac District. It's that easy. You're going to look up there, and you will have a timer for three minutes. And again, I want to make sure that we get through everybody. You know, after we do in person, we go to remote. And please, again, no outbursts. I'm asking everyone to maintain decorum. So the first person I have is Heidi Cruz-Hunter. I have Daryl Randolph. I have Marcus Atkinson. I have Jordan Hunter. I have Lisa Siu. Jelaine Siu. Amanata Cobb. Anthony Williams. Nalia Brinkley. Lori Sims. Tracy McClure. Tremaine Williams. Vida Carroll. Stella Tomasi. Amy Crosby. Amy! No, I'm sorry, I had to say that. She's just so excitable. Elena Schlossberg. Patrick Harters. Mindy Diepenbrock.

You may begin. Okay. Vita Carol Brentsville. So pro tip, I always sign up for public comment in case the vote doesn't go the way I expect, which today it certainly didn't go the way I expect. Frankly, I'm extremely disappointed because this is hearkening back to this week last year for me, which was Bob Weir's last meeting in Chambers when we were supposed to hear the Bristow Campus data center complex. And Bristow Campus, that came and requested a deferral, which they had done prior, two meetings prior, because they knew they didn't have the votes firm in hand. And so they asked for a deferral, and this board allowed the deferral. And by the time Stack came back to a vote, the Gainesville seat was empty because Supervisor Weir had unfortunately passed. And luckily, the outcome was a positive one for the community. And so I'm hoping that tonight... you know, in 90 days when we hear this again, the outcome is going to be a positive one for the community. But frankly, I'm not so sure. Because you have had six months and Dominion has had six months since this project was initially presented to the board or it was scheduled for presentation to the board and deferred. And I'm hearing that basically y'all have wasted and Dominion has wasted, which is, of course, I mean, the onus is on Dominion. But it's also on y'all. They shouldn't be coming and hearing these. It's mutual, right? The community has put in the work over the last six months. We've worked hard on this. It's frustrating to us when it sounds like we have the votes in hand. If this is how you feel tonight, I mean, Dominion sat there and told us there is nothing they can do to mitigate the gas. There is nothing they can do to change this project. They need this project as is. They have no alternatives. They have no other plans. It is frustrating to me when I have headlines saved from October 2025. Falkier Planning Commission rejects Dominion Energy substation. June 2026, Culpeper County asked PJM to scrap Dominion Energy substation. April 2026, another proposed substation meets opposition from Loudoun County Board. May 2026, more substation deferrals in Loudoun as Dominion is unsure it can keep up with energy demands. When is Prince William County going to be in a headline for standing up to dominion in the capacity, the legal capacity you have, which is to say no to this SUP. It's not even a PFR. It is a special use permit in a rural residential place. And I am insulted that this has been deferred till September. Shame on you all.

Next speaker, please. My name is Amy Crosby. I am in Brentsville District. I'm not just going to speak on the SUP. I actually was listening to this morning's meeting, and I studied this morning's agenda. And a couple of things that kind of tie into everything, because you're right, everything touches. Just because it's happening on this side of the county or in this district doesn't mean that it won't affect this side of the county and that district. So to that, I would say I live on Sudley Manor. Sudley Manor, or off of Sudley Manor, which is right off of Vent Hill where this is all going to go. I am in support of the houses. I know a lot of the surrounding homes aren't necessarily in support of the houses coming over there. I am. I think we do need homes. I love what Chair Jefferson said back in December when we talked about this with Strathmore. And you said that we don't get to decide who our child's best friend is going to be. And we needed houses for that. And you just spoke to my soul for that. So thank you. The same way that Supervisor Stewart spoke to my small this morning when you were talking about being so conscientious of having veterans in our community and wanting to make sure and that they're considered during the fireworks or during the celebrations from last weekend. So I listened to what you all say. I think that it's amazing. I want the transparency to be more than just a voice that's on a board. I want it to be something that we feel and see enacted. What the previous lady was saying is very important. Y'all do have a voice to say no. You do have a right to stand up, at least draw some conclusions for them to have regulation. A special use permit is no easy thing. Again, I'm going to go back to Sudley Manor. There are no roundabouts at Sudley Manor. I like that. Rollins Ford is going to be the only connection site for people to get to and from the homes that are about to be built. Y'all are putting in roundabouts on Rollins Ford, and I don't understand that when that's going to make people have to use Sudley Manor, and that's going to affect us. So that was an earlier agenda item from this morning, was the Rollins Ford roundabouts. So I wanted to make sure that I spoke to that. As far as the special use permit, Nokesville substation, These lines that he was saying at Brister substation and the Loudoun County substation, Noakesville substation holds the same exact lines. There's no lines that they're talking about needing to support that couldn't go there. There's no residential homes around there. I want to say there's maybe two. And if you look at them, one of the residents that owns that land does not live on that land. I've done all of the research for the Prince William County site. Why can't they go to Noakesville substation and why aren't you guys suggesting that? Why didn't our planning staff suggest that? He made it clear that the gentleman named Alex that it's not their job to suggest those things, then what is their job? If they're not working with whoever the proposal makers are, what is their job? Those were two of the things. I really do support you guys. I think what you do is great and you are going to get a lot of kickback and so it takes thick skin. So thank you for doing what you do because none of us out here could are in your position to do it. So we do appreciate that. Thank you.

Next speaker please.

Hello, my name's Elaine Schlossberg. I'm in the Gainesville district. This is how I started my conversation this evening with the community who was all lined up for a press conference, which I hope some of you had a chance to watch. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men and women, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That's each one of you. And I can tell you right now, we don't feel like we are being listened to. We are not consenting to the industrialization of where we live. Let me tell you what happened tonight. What happened tonight is Dominion treated you all the way they treat the community when we go to these stakeholder meetings. You asked why is your expert not here who understands gas insulated substations? That was my first question. Back in July of 2025, they put up a map of gas insulated substation. And you know what my first question was? What's that? And do you know what the guy they had in charge said to me? Well, I don't know. I'm like, well, why don't you know? Why is that person not here? And then they had a gas-insulated substation meeting at Patriot. That same guy was there, and I had the same question. And I said, well, I'm confused. Why are you here if you can't answer questions? Let me give everyone here a reality check. Whether this substation goes in or not We are at risk of a blackout. Dominion told you they don't have a plan. And what is frustrating for me is the coalition spends a lot of time drafting our emails and putting together, encapsulating what is happening here in Prince William in Virginia. Are you reading them? Do you guys really understand the sense of urgency of what is happening to our communities? We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg with these infrastructure projects. And I'm going to tell you something really quick. This vote that you all still have, saying no to substations, the coalition fought for each and every one of you before any of you sat on this board. They tried to take that away from you. And Bob, we are, God bless him, and may his memory be a blessing, he found that little nugget. And we protected it for you all to say no. Exercise it. Exercise the power that we made sure you all have. Dominion is threatening you how? The SEC cannot approve a substation without your permission.

Next speaker, please.

I'm Mindy Diepenbrock. I'm from Brentsville, and I have no idea what I'm going to say right now. We have worked so hard to reach out to every single one of you and poured hours and hours and hours of research and outreach into this meeting tonight. And it was insulting that Dominion showed up completely unprepared. They knew what they were doing. That was intentional. They wanted to buy themselves even more time to counter all the community concerns. And we fell for it. We gave it to them. I don't even know what to say. I spent two days writing these remarks and I really do want you to hear them because The Save Braemar Coalition rose up. In three months' time, we had over 800 residents joining this group. It's nonpartisan. This is neighbors working together because we care about what happens to our community, to our children, to their schools. I know you have a hard job, but we expect you to represent us, not Dominion. Where do we fit into this puzzle, and why don't you care? I really do thank all the supervisors that took the time to meet with us and read our very thick book of research that we put together for you because we know how hard your job is. We heard over and over about the gas and the site, but what nobody talked about is why Braemar is being targeted by three different Dominion projects. And when we brought that to Dominion's attention at the meeting, they refused to allow us to talk about that. Nope, we can only talk about one of them. And then at that meeting, they came. They planned to bring one person to the meeting. They heard the community was showing up. They brought 18 and took up half the occupancy in the room. So most of the people were outside on the patio and couldn't hear and couldn't participate. So tell me they're not trying to silence us. They are. It's very obvious. After that meeting, when they wouldn't answer any questions about their project... We called Dominion multiple times over and over. And we spoke to the project manager, Bobby McMahon. He told me he couldn't answer any questions because this is a matter of national security. And then another representative called and told me that there are two 500 KV lines attaching to Vint Hill. And then you just heard Ms. McDonald say something completely different. This is outrageous. They think we're stupid. And we're not. We are here, we have our facts, and you have them too. You have the power to shut this down and we're asking you to deny this. No more time for dominion, do better.

Thank you.

Next speaker please.

Patrick Harters, Gainesville District, Chair Jefferson, Board of Supervisors. A lot of these problems happened years ago. Most of you didn't vote for these data centers that had come in. And in fact, a number of you were on this side fighting with us against them. But this is what we warned would happen. This night tonight was the warning. We were laughed at when we talked about rolling brownouts, when we looked at the light pollution that would come in, the noise that was going to come in, the infrastructure and the build-out like we're seeing in the substation being put near residential homes and the environmental impact that was going to happen. These were the warnings in 2021, 2022, 2023 that we went over and over and over and again and again we discussed it. You have inherited a mess and you're on this board and it's something that's not unusual in Prince William County. I'd say for the last 10 to 15 years, each board has kicked the can down the curb and they have left the board with the decision to try and polish a terrible project and make it as palatable as possible. And that's the position you're in. You have to provide power to these data centers. or they have to provide the power. And these substations go in and the damage it does to the community. And I would say, you would think we would learn our lesson. You would think after hearing what Dominion said tonight, that was an threat. That was an all out threat when they said, if you don't pass it, there will be brownouts to the citizens. The people will suffer because of the data centers and the decisions that were made years ago. Why on earth would we ever entertain bringing another one into our community? Why in two weeks are we looking at the largest data center that's really ever been proposed? Dallas South Innovation, 40 plus million square feet of data centers. After hearing of these smaller data centers going in, we're going to consider building another one? Four seasons. Why would we ever consider that when the opposition or when Dominion will say, if you don't allow this substation to go in, the people will lose the power. They won't have energy. This is something that's so long overdue. If somebody is going to be a developer, whether it's an assemblage trying to sneak in here or a data center or any business, Prince William County must take a stand. Chair Jefferson was correct when she said we have to say no. We need to learn to say no in order to get good development. We need to set the standard. They must come up with developments that meets our standards, not us bending to their standards.

Before I get to the next speaker, I'm gonna call up my next group of five. I have Rena Stapp, Fiona Stapp, Tom Diepenbrock, Janice Daly, and Greg Reeder. May I move my proceed to the microphone?

Hello, my name is Kalaya Wen. I'm from Braemar. And before then, I was from West Virginia. And I was really lucky to move to this area. My dad got a much better job. And because of that, I got into much better schools. I went to Cedar Point Elementary School. I went to Marsteller Middle School. And I finished at Patriot High School. I recently graduated from William and Mary with a degree in physics. And I'll be beginning my PhD working with quantum computers at the University of Maryland. Now, I'm not in any way calling myself a scientist. I'm a scientist in training at best. But I can say that I have worked with real scientists and experts. And for the last four years, I've been devoted to trying to be an expert, trying to study things, trying to read things, trying to be able to understand subjects that are even outside of my field, which is quantum computing. Now, I can tell you my humble opinion that I understand why this was delayed. But the expert will not offer any new information. Just as a scientist, I think all the questions were answered. And I think the choice to delay this is questionable morally. So I'm asking for the future kids like me who are so lucky to be in this area, so lucky to have these wonderful schools and these wonderful opportunities, the kids that were my friends who lived in Tardin Hills, close to these substations. I'm asking that you try and make this a good place for them just like it was for me. Because I am proud that I got to live in Brentsville. And I got to get the education I had. And I will try my best to be a scientist, you know? But I can tell that Dominion Energy has no interest in bringing scientists or having scientific discussion about what is happening. It is obvious that they have already shown you all the answers. And 90 days from now, I won't be here. But I'm somewhat confident that you'll be faced with the same decision again. So I just ask you in 90 days, please think about the kids like me, whose parents are here and whose statements I all agree with, who want to come from a wonderful place and get wonderful opportunities and live in a safe environment and not be scared of the dangers that these proposals bring. Thank you.

all right next speaker and again please start name magistral district hi i'm rena stapp and i live in the brentsville district i am a resident of braemar i had other comments from the earlier discussion but i'm just going to have to wing it tonight first off This is ASL for applause. So we're not doing jazz hands. We're clapping silently. So that's why we're going to keep doing it. I am here because the data centers are popping up everywhere in Brentsville, in Gainesville, all the parts that abut up to Loudoun and West Virginia. Yes, they need power. That's obvious. But we live... what, 200, 300 feet from the edge of where this substation is supposed to be. They didn't address anything about noise pollution. They didn't talk about what low hum we're going to hear. Yes, it is going to be attenuated by the wall. Yes, there are trees, but they're going to put in saplings. They're not going to put in those big trees. Those shrubs, are you kidding me? Have you seen anything grow like that around here and make it look beautiful against our 20-foot cement wall? No. They have these pictures, but they're not real. When they had proposed the blue line, they came in pictures. Oh, look, our trees are going to block everything. We put up a balloon and said, no, we're going to see it from everywhere. Their pictures are not realistic. We asked questions when they came to our HOA meeting. We sat and we asked them about the EMF. They said, oh, it's like a hairdryer. Well, is your hairdryer running 24-7? No. I understand electromagnetic force. I have a bachelor's in electrical engineering. None of the science in this is out there and crazy and wackadoodle. I understand what they're coming with. but they're not listening to the people that are actually going to be affected by it. And yes, I was not here 15 years ago, but you know more, you know better, you do better. I have learned a lot in the past. two years about all this, once the previous board was voting on the digital overlay, I suddenly learned a whole lot about data centers and a whole lot about my community. I moved in here in 2008. I have had my home in Braemar. I knew it was going to be expanding into the rural area around us. I expected homes. I expected businesses where I could go to the movies and get dinner out, which is what happened in Gainesville. I did not want big blocks of data centers that just increased my electrical bill, ruin the environment, be put next to schools, which is ludicrous. And yes, I understand there are transmission lines in other parts of the county that go right next to schools. If I had known about this when that was being proposed, I would have been here talking about it then. Yes, this is my backyard, but I want to be here for your backyard and your backyard and your backyard and yours and yours and yours and yours. I care about this county, not just about me. Care about us. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is, can I adjust this?

You can adjust the mic.

Hello, my name is Fiona Stapp. I live in Brunsville, Bremer District, and it feels like the last couple of meetings I've been here and been informed about these data centers, substations, like all these things. It's really depressing to think about that there's going to be things like ruining the environment and everywhere around us that I've just been recently informed and it's depressing, anxiety-inducing, and there's going to be humming at night. I don't want to be kept awake 24-7 by this low hum all the time by this little station. And it feels like no matter how much we try to protest and say, you know, there's always a new project going to be coming that isn't exactly taken care of, And people weren't even here to discuss the gases or anything. That's really, that's really important in the big picture. I feel like there's also like, there's so many more things that impact. Well, really our life. And they didn't answer a lot of those questions properly in the previous meetings. And, It's just frustrating, and I don't understand why that can't be really taken care of in a better, more efficient way. It's just, that's all. I didn't really have much to say.

Thank you so very much. Next speaker.

I have visual aid I wanted to put on here. How does that work?

Yeah, give us a moment.

Can you guys see that? Okay.

Now we can.

Perfect. Okay. A lot of different things I was going to say today, so I altered this a little bit. The first thing I wanted to start with is if you look at this map, all the triangles on here are data centers. There are 242. This is, by the way, your data, not my data. This comes from Prince William County's own geospatial information systems. 242 active, pending, planned, or under construction data centers out of those 205 are outside of the digital gateway. The reason we are having this conversation with Dominion is because of that. I mean, we called it out before, but we have to look at that. There are 200 data centers. Only 55 of those are actually up and running right now. The point of all of this that I want to talk to the supervisors, you guys need to do a better job planning the industrialization of this county, which nobody wants. By the way, nobody who lives here actually wants that, but that's what's happening. You need to do a better job. Maybe you guys didn't approve this, but this is what's happening. The problem that we're having, so if you look at this map, you can see the Vent Hill substation. It's down here kind of on the bottom. The data centers are up in the north and the northeast. You can see the big red line there. That is the Wishing Star wreck and rebuild that Dominion is trying to do. The blue line on there is the Route 5. Dominion's Noakesville to Bristow planned Route 5 line. That little circle in the middle that says Braemar, that's a one-mile radius. Within a one-mile radius of Braemar, we are looking at the Vint Hill substation, we are looking at the wrecking and rebuild of the Morrisville Wishing Star Line, and we are looking at the Blue Line. This area is being targeted by these by these projects and the problem is we cannot look at them in isolation. So tonight we latched onto the gas piece and now we're deferring the substation piece. Then Dominion is going to come in with the blue line and we're going to look at that. Then they'll say, oh, here's the wishing store line. You can't look at those in isolation. The cumulative impact of all of these projects on the area, and it's not just Braemar, the cumulative impact is too much. To give you an idea, within a one-mile, two-mile radius there, you have the communities of Braemar. That's 10,000 people by itself. Dunbarton, Merrimont Trace, Saybrook, Victory Lakes, Crossman Creek, Rivenberg, Foxborough, Avondale, the Benedictine Sisters are there too. You also have the new communities, Hawthorne at Kettle Run, Greenhaven at Broad Run, and Strathmore. This is not about not in my backyard. It is not in all of these backyards. So tonight, I feel like you guys missed the point. You completely missed the point. We're talking about, oh, we need to look for a better gas. Oh, we're going to defer this thing. We don't want our neighborhoods industrialized. That is the point. Dominion Energy made $3 billion in profit last year. They can spend the money to figure out where to put this. Next speaker, please. Thank you.

My name is Janice Daly and I live in the Brentsville district. These are my comments, but quite frankly, they were very personal. They were about raising a family and a community, and I'm so gutted that they just seem ridiculous at this point. I was tempted to spend the next two minutes and 47 seconds just saying, please, an industrial location until someone came up here and slapped me. Because as Tom just said, making it easy for me, that's really the point here. There was a lot of discussion about gas. There was a lot of discussion about... them not being able to answer questions. And I'm thrilled that some of you called them out for the insulting way that they addressed you and they addressed this community, as if a major corporation has no business plan and has no idea where their power is going, where it's coming from, or what's happening in the future. It was insulting. So I'm not going to waste any more of anyone's time because I know we're all exhausted. I just want to once again urge you not to fall for the nonsense. not to continue to allow them to drag this out or to threaten us or to intimidate us. We are a community. And the only reason I stayed to speak is that I've raised my children in this community. There was nothing happening in Bristow when we came here 25 years ago. I thought that maybe we could retire here. Maybe one of my adult children would love to come back to this community. But I'm not sure what you're thinking you're going to put on the posters at some point, how you're going to AI image out all of the power lines and all of the substations and advertise this community for families because we're losing it quickly. So I hope like everyone else urged that you can find the strength, find the legality, find whatever it is you have to find to stand up like all the other states and communities around us looking at what's happening here are doing. They're standing up and they're saying no and it's about time that we did this as a community. Thank you very much for your time.

All right. Before I get to you, Greg, I want to call up Rachel Ellis, Jessica Grove. I apologize. I don't know if it's Mary Ann McCone. All right. Yep. Thank you. Lisa Cullen. Okay. And then Virginia Rose. All right. You may go.

All right. Thank you very much. First, thank you, Supervisor Stewart. As a fellow 06, I appreciate the way you delivered the questions and threw them off their game. So thank you very much for that. But I will say that I was amazed. And I was amazed in the way that if you've ever seen the birds in the zoo that can't build a nest because all the sticks fall apart, that's what I felt like Dominion came in prepared tonight. And I bring that up because I represent Braemar and the thousands of families that are there. That's what I came to talk about tonight. But as I listen to them speak, it's exactly the same song and dance they brought their B team to talk to us about at our community. We asked them the exact same questions. We gave them proof of all the switches of which they denied they'd never heard of. And we asked for answers to which they went silent. What I came here to originally talk about is that you have to be strategic, and you know that. But what we've experienced, we have legal counsel. We've reached out to their legal counsel. We've tried to take a lot of steps, and they're playing a game. This is not them interested in anything other than winning their game, which is why they don't have an alternative route. They don't have an alternative site. The other thing I would say, too, though, is that you worry about them going directly to the SEC and overcoming this in court. Your own planning commission is playing into their hands. And that's what I originally came to talk about. Your own SUP tonight and the staff recommendations say no weaknesses. There are multiple weaknesses across 10 different areas. There's weaknesses with the buffer because Dominion asked you to deny what you already told them with the 50 foot. They asked you for 30 foot. You gave it to them. The planning commission didn't even ask them about alternative sources. The report that you have that the staff gave you said that there's no implication for schools or churches or anything else. There absolutely is. There's six schools within that same area. So when they come back in 90 days, you have to be on your game. If your planning commission recommends approval and you deny it, you have now opened yourself to legal matters with Dominion winning. And I will say that it also opens up to legal matters from us as a community. Because if this goes forward, we'll be forced to also play the legal hand because this does damage the community. It damages multiple things that we might have to consider in the future. And it opens up to multiple state code violations, community violations, ordinance violations that this very SUP actually violates. So what I left behind was a handout for each one of you that covers some of these details. Some of them may not be directly on point. but they give you an insight into how there's just four initial flaws, if you look at your very own SUP, that Dominion can use against you. So when you go back in 90 days, please have the planning commission get better on their game, take another look at this, look at all the changes that have been done, and play a lot more scrutiny with the rules that they should be playing by to make sure that Dominion doesn't have the upper hand when they bring back their B team and no scientists to tell you nothing. But otherwise, thank you very much for your time.

All right, next speaker please.

Rachel Ellis, Gainesville District. We're beginning to see everything that we've been warning you about from all these yes votes. Everything that we as a community have said is coming to these neighborhoods is now coming to these neighborhoods. In this industry, the data center industry continues to threaten this county because you guys do not say no to them. And I think some of you guys are starting to get that, but you have to get it. You have to get it and you have to start changing the course of this county. At some point, you guys have to decide who you represent. Is it the data center industry and their relentless need for power? Or is it the residents who are being impacted daily by all of these decisions, all of these votes, all of these land use changes? This county as a whole is watching. It's no longer the Western Inn that is watching what is happening in this chamber. The Eastern Inn is waking up. It is knocking on their door. And they know that if you guys are voting yes to us, you guys are going to vote yes to them. And they're aware of that. Maybe you should be on notice, because we're all watching. And next year is going to be an election year, and I think you guys need to be aware of that. And I don't have to be impacted by this to know what the impact is going to be. And at some point, you guys don't have to be impacted by this to know what the impact is going to be. And I wish you guys would vote and consider, like, if this was your backyard, how would you vote? How would you handle this? It's disappointing to hear Dominion basically kind of say like, hey, we're open book and we can talk to you about this stuff, but we're not gonna change this plan. That's pretty much what I heard. And yet here we are giving time for them to come up with answers, which they've had since what, January when it was deferred back then. So I feel like you guys are the line to protect us and you guys have failed. But there is time to change it, and if you have a vote to protect us, we are asking you to protect us. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Chair Jefferson and Board of County Supervisors. My name is Jessica Grove, and I live in the Gainesville District. I don't know if you guys remember the show intervention. It ran from 2005 to 2024 and that is because they had a lot of addictions that they needed to stop. Um, and I'd like you to consider this another intervention. Dear Board of Supervisors, your addiction to approving data centers has affected me in the following ways. The overwhelming amount of data centers in our community has caused the need for more substations and high voltage transmission lines. Approval of a GIS station substation invites the opportunity for more data centers in the area. It uses the most potent greenhouse gas and is an unsightly metal jungle gym in Vint Hill, which does not fit in with the small area plan for Vint Hill. Chair Jefferson was right. You need to start saying no. You have to start saying no. Like Rachel said, it's not just the western end. This isn't even really going to affect me so much, although I'm sure it's gonna make my electric bill go up, it's gonna make your electric bill go up, it's gonna make the electric bill of 13 different states go up. We've been telling you, I've been telling you for years that every yes decision that you make here affects all the states around us. Every single one. And you can't look at this like, oh, this is, it's just one more. It's just one more. It's just one more because there's a, uh, I think his name is Matt Randolph, Mr. Global, and he's an energy expert. You should follow him. He has been saying for years that because of the data center sprawl that we have, we can expect in the United States for our electric bill to be more than our mortgage. You can look it up. It's not me saying it. He said it over and over. He says, I get electric bills from people all the time. $1,200, $600. And just because you haven't seen that yet, it's coming. Every single yes is more money out of my pocket, out of my kid's future, and out of my retirement. Learn to say no. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Mary Anne McCone. I'm in the Brentsville District. I'm in Woodlawn Farms. Suburb, it's like 30 houses and we're in the middle of farms or used to be farms. I moved there in 1995 and I'll have to tell you It has gotten more and more industrialized just like everyone else has said and it's sad because it used to be, Brentsville used to be one of the most beautiful parts of Prince William County and now it is so disgusting. and agree with everyone here, all you have to do is just say no. And this substation is going to cost us environmentally, economically, aesthetically, and we, the citizens of Prince William County, who you are supposed to be representing and taking care of, are going to bear the brunt of the cost. And I'm very disappointed And all of you, because I don't think you're listening to the citizens of this county asking you to stop, because you haven't stopped. You just keep adding another data center here, another data center there, and it's disgusting. It's environmentally, we used to have beautiful animals and birds and an environment, and it's gone. thanks to you and to the supervisors before, especially Ann Wheeler. I am just so angry with all of you and all of the past supervisors, and I wish you guys would just stop and think about us as citizens. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. And before you go, I just want to have, I think, I call it, you're Virginia Rose, right? So Lisa Polgar, you want to go to the back as well? You may proceed.

Okay. Good evening. My name is Lisa Cullen and I live in the Brentsville district.

If you can adjust the mic. Oh, sorry.

Higher. Is that better? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Like everyone else in the room, we came here looking for a no vote. I think Dominion has had plenty of time. to answer questions that we've had. I just want to simply point out that at the Marsteller meeting last July, which many of us had no idea about, they were asked for alternative energy solutions and they did not present them. So one year later, you all are asking basic questions that we all have had the opportunity to talk to you about, and it's just very disappointing. I also think it's hard. I was going to get up here and talk about, much like Greg Reeder did, some of the issues that were missing from the SUP, like the codes that they were violating in regards to Virginia State. Under Code 15.2, you as our Board of Supervisors are legally required to guarantee healthy residential surroundings, protect neighborhoods from overcrowding of land and the obstruction of light and air, and to preserve community character and to not tank home values for convenience. So that's what you're supposed to do for us. And this seems to fly in the face of all of that, given the fact that they took a substation that was 80 feet back from the road that had trees in front of it, mature trees, and they're going to destroy that, build something very close to the road, put up a wall that looks like a jail, and then put these monstrous shrubs, which we'd all like to know where they would find them, because they're amazingly green hide, but they're going to save the trees for the residents who are not here yet. So it's like they're thinking ahead to the residents that haven't even broken the ground on their property, and they're not thinking about the residents of Braemar, a lot of which are original owners and have been here for more than 20 years, who are 200 feet across the road. So that's disappointing. And then in regards to SF6, which I know we also have talked a lot about in the meetings that Mindy and I had with you all, and obviously there are solutions that they can adhere to. I mean, I was going to say Dominion, Hitachi is waiting for your phone call because we know they have it and they have the footprint that would fit this. I think the only issue is while the footprint would fit and it would be great if they could consider SF6 gas, this still is an industrial building in a residential area that does not fit. And then lastly, I would say none of what they're doing with the SF6 gas matches the county's climate goals. We're about to join RGDI on July 1st, which is next week. And it has a lot to do with getting rid of SF6 equipment. It also has to do with slapping fines on dirty energy emissions, which SF6 gas is. So why, if this special use permit is not compliant and has this energy in it, why should you approve it? You should ask them not to do it. It's just this is one of 12 that they're bringing into this area, and it seems ridiculous.

Next speaker, please. And wait, there's one more person, too, who can. Lisa Virginia is next, so you can let her go. And also, Norm Richardson, if you're here. Norman? Nora? Okay, go on.

Thank you so much to the supervisors for the opportunity to speak. I really appreciated all of your thoughtful questions, things that I hadn't considered. I know that there's a lot smarter people in this room that have already presented those ideas and have already considered those things, and I really appreciate that I felt like you came here and advocated for our community, and that was very appreciated by me. I'm sorry, I didn't start appropriately. My name is Virginia Rose. I'm from the Brentsville District. My house is one of the closest to the proposed substations. It's in that cul-de-sac that is directly adjacent to it. So I would really appreciate if you Any of you have time in the next 90 days if you drive by that proposed substation site, if you haven't yet, and just to look at the houses and the cul-de-sacs that are right there because they're extremely, extremely close, and they want to build it even closer to the street, and it's just so disheartening. Having Dominion talk to us the way they did at our community meeting was very upsetting, and they treated you all with the same amount of disrespect I felt. They sent lawyers to talk to you instead of experts. That's exactly what they did to us. And I think that having them come back in 90 days, they're not going to have any other type of accountability. I just don't think they have the credibility at this point. If they're sending in lawyers to talk to you, and treat you the way they treated you, which I felt like they talked down to you personally. I felt that's how they treated us as well. When we had questions for them, these are very thoughtful questions you're asking about for the planning. They can't answer. It's day by day. It's five minutes. It's going to change. I just think they lose a lot of credibility. I'm concerned that when they come back, they might have more answers. But like my community has spoken about, this is just an industrial facility, and it doesn't belong in the area where it's planned for. My kids go to T. Claywood Elementary School. They're going to go to Patriot. We have Burnside Farms right near our house where it's the biggest tulip farm, I think, on the East Coast. I can't even imagine seeing that big substation from Burnside Farms. Not just Burntside Farms, but there's a lot of farms in the surrounding community. A lot of residential homes planned like you all mentioned, and I am concerned about the environmental impact, but I'm also concerned about the construction. Mr. Haas, he was so kind to speak to me after the last Braemar meeting because I had a lot of questions about how it's directly going to impact me since my home is in the adjacent cul-de-sac. I asked him how long the construction would be. He said it would be over two years. So all of these concerns, I don't feel like they've addressed. They said that the noises, they really wouldn't go into detail about the exact noise. And they have to know, they have these studies. I just feel like we're left in the dark. They said it's going to be in compliance with the code, but I just don't think they have the credibility at this point. So I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Next speaker, please. And the final person, again, it's Norman, Norma Richardson, someone from Stafford. Did someone from Stafford sign up? Maybe they left. Okay, thank you. You may go, Lisa.

Hi, I'm Lisa Polgar in the Potomac District, and we have two applications for six data centers to be built 100 to 300 feet from 200 homes with a substation probably maybe 200 feet from property lines. I'm on the east side, so why do I care? This Vent Hill substation is on the west side. It's all the same load. Why am I interested? Dominion mentions that they have to support the increased load. Where is this load coming from? Everyone knows where the load comes from. You're asking Dominion, why aren't you planning ahead? Why isn't the board planning ahead? When you approve these data centers, aren't you thinking about where's the power coming from? How are we gonna service these? As Chair Jefferson continues to say, why can't y'all just say no? There are dozens in the pipeline that have not come online yet, and there are many more that have They have applications that will be coming before you. How are you going to power these? How many brownouts are we going to have before we realize there is not enough energy? Communities all around the South, Louisa County, Caroline County, they're saying no to these substations. Why can't we say the same thing? The county has over 200 data centers either built or on the way to be built or haven't even started to be built. Quite a few of you have voted for these. There's enough money. The county has enough money with these 200 data centers. What is it you're trying to accomplish? You wanna just support the data center industry? Is that what this whole thing is about? It's not about bringing money into the county because there is enough money. When all these data centers are built, there will be enough money. So please, start saying no. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'm gonna go on to Supervisor Angry for remote public comment time.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Do we have some speakers?

Good evening, Vice Chair and the Board. We have one speaker, Mr. Chris Grove.

Mr. Groves, go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Board, for allowing me to speak. Just got a couple things I want to go over. Really, why are we here? My name is Chris Grove, Gainesville District. Pertune County has an addiction, and the current fix for our addiction isn't enough. We need more just to keep going. So please take Chair Jefferson's advice and start saying no. You may not have been here to approve the data centers currently in operation, but you have the power to stop green lighting them and enabling our addiction. So the Commonwealth just handed us a unique tool and disincentive for data center overgrowth with the newly approved budget. So in theory, charging an electricity consumption tax should put some brakes on our data center explosion across the Commonwealth, but it creates another potential risk that Princeton County and you all as a board are really going to need to focus on. BYOG, bring your own generation. This tax, the current tax that they just levied, the consumption tax, incentivizes data center developers to put generation behind the meter to avoid or minimize the tax burden. Think about that. They're going to be wanting to put more on-site generation, gas turbines, diesel generators, to help minimize that tax burden from pulling it off of the grid. So not over there either. That's our new acronym. We're not just NIMBY, we're NOTE. Not over there either. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Okay, so we're figuring out we don't have enough energy. Why are we setting ourselves up for the same thing for our water? Where are the water studies? I'm not sure if everyone on the dais is aware, but we may be able to burn dinosaurs to create more electricity, but we cannot create water. Unless you have a novel idea for importing hydrogen, oxygen, or pipelines planned, we cannot do the equivalent for what PJM and Dominion are trying to do for electricity for our water. There is no BYOW. Bring your own water. Last but not least, you're about to hear a really big proposal for another 1,900 acres of data center complex in the Gainesville District with a density that will double the ill-fated Prince William Digital Gateway. So, BOCS, this is your time to shine. It's time for you to follow the recommendations and start saying no. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Back to you. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Chris. I was going to say we have no speakers, but have a good night. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, everyone. So this wraps our meeting for today. I would like to go ahead and move to, I would like to ask someone for a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. Let's go ahead and take our votes.

Thank you.

Vote unanimous.

All right. Thank you, everyone. We're adjourned.