Sanders Lane Assemblage I LLC · Prince William County data center, Prince William County, Virginia

Prince William County's Board of County Supervisors voted 8-0 on July 7, 2026 to deny the comprehensive plan amendment for the Dulles South Innovation Center, a nearly 2,000-acre data center campus that Sanders Lane Assemblage I LLC put forward along Sanders Lane in the Gainesville District of Prince William County, Virginia. The data center project, also called Dulles Cloud South, would have allowed 43 million square feet of data centers near the Loudoun County border, and a unanimous denial is a rarity for data center proposals.

The amendment would have changed the long-range land use of about 252 parcels on roughly 1,940 acres from agriculture and forestry to industrial and mixed-use, followed by a rezoning from agricultural to a planned business district. More than 60 landowners had joined their properties into the assemblage.

Many told the board their once-rural neighborhoods had become riddled with traffic and that selling to data centers could help both them and the county. "Voting no today does not restore those protections; it simply prevents the county from studying one coordinated alternative," said Brian Dunbar, a property owner within the site, referring to the rural protections a previous board removed in 2022.

County staff recommended denial, noting the land lies outside the county's Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, and a staff report cited "substantial concerns regarding infrastructure adequacy, environmental and rural character impacts, and land use compatibility." About 100 people rallied outside the county government center in Woodbridge before the vote, joined by U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who urged the board to "just say no," and state Sen. Danica Roem and Del. Josh Thomas.

Elena Schlossberg of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County said the industry should pay for its own infrastructure, including the roughly 6,000 diesel generators the campus would have needed. "Forests, farms and empty space are not open land to fill with data centers," said Ashley Studholme of the Prince William Conservation Alliance.

Gainesville District Supervisor George Stewart led the opposition on the board, first by objecting to the applicant's last-minute request for a deferral, which the board then turned down 7-1. "Prince William County is not a Formula 1 vehicle, and this board is not a pit crew," Stewart said. "We cannot pave over the headwaters for the Occoquan – 8 million people depend on that."

Brentsville Supervisor Tom Gordy pointed to the strained grid: "Right now, we have data centers that are not operating because we cannot get power." Supervisor Kenny Boddye said the area deserves time to plan "without another mega proposal looming over their heads."

The vote came less than a week after the nearby PW Digital Gateway data center complex ended when developers dropped their legal fight over it. Prince William is home to more than 40 data centers with dozens more on the way, and Roem said the two decisions "will have statewide ramifications."

The denial ends this application: the board was deciding only whether to begin the comprehensive plan amendment, the first step before any rezoning or data center applications. Any new attempt to bring data centers to the Sanders Lane area would have to come back to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, which has said it wants to plan the area's future through the county's 2040 Comprehensive Plan.