Town Council to take on data centers in 2025

Five incoming members of Warrenton Town Council – all elected in the past two years after promising to oppose data centers – issued a joint statement pledging to get to the bottom of the controversial 2023 decision that cleared the way for Amazon to build one within the town limits.

“It is our intent to disclose the complete record related to the Amazon data center issue, documenting its inception to the current day,” the statement, released by council member Eric Gagnon, says in part. “The outcomes of this assessment will have broad applicability, not only to data centers but also to any development or project that could impact the well-being of our community.”

What will that mean in practice? The council members aren’t saying.

"It speaks for itself, is my comment,” council member Bill Semple told the Fauquier Times.

Gagnon added that “nothing” in the statement should “come as a surprise.”

One key unanswered question: does this mean the town will stop fighting a lawsuit intended to reveal internal town emails about the Amazon decision?

In 2022, Citizens for Fauquier County sued after the town refused to share more than 3,000 emails and other correspondence among town staff, elected officials and the company’s representatives following a public records request.

In July, a state appeals court sided with the citizens’ group, ruling that the town must choose to release correspondence from either the city manager or the mayor, sending the case back to Fauquier County with instructions to rehear the lawsuit. But the town council voted 4-3 to appeal that decision to the Virginia Supreme Court.

Warrenton Town Council member Bill Semple of Ward 2. Photo by Robin Earl.

In January, the newly reconstituted council could consider dropping the appeal and decide to release correspondence and other documents related to the Amazon decision.

Last April, the council approved a site plan for the 220,000-square foot data center project on Blackwell Road, allowing Amazon to begin construction.

The battle over the Amazon data center began in April 2021, when then-town manager Brandie Schaeffer proposed a zoning change allowing data centers to be built in industrial areas. About 400 residents turned out for a Feb. 14, 2023, meeting with most voicing opposition to a special use permit for the project. The then-council voted 4-3 in favor. All four who voted to approve the plan will be gone from the council in 2025.

The statement from current council members Gagnon and Semple and members-elect Roy Francis, Larry Kovalik and Michele O'Halloran states that the group plans to push for “openness and responsiveness, controlled and appropriate growth, fiscal responsibility and on an overall mission to restore public trust in our municipal government.”

The group stated that it wants “to preserve Warrenton’s small-town character through controlled growth and development.”

“We are considering ways to contain radical, transformative changes caused by out-of-scale development and increased density that threaten the sanctity of our existing neighborhoods,” the council members wrote.

Warrenton residents elected three new town council members in 2024. From left: Roy Francis for Ward 1, Larry Kovalik for Ward 3 and Michele O'Halloran for Ward 4. Submitted.

The council members also stated their strong opposition to allowing data centers to locate in the town.

“We conclude that no data center has any place in a small town like Warrenton and will pursue whatever course of action is available to us to effectuate this conclusion, now and in the future,” they wrote.

Read the full statement here.