Balico, the company that wants to bring a 3,500-megawatt power plant and data center campus to Pittsylvania County, is withdrawing its existing rezoning application.
But the company still plans to pursue the project, according to a Nov. 4 statement from Irfan Ali, founder and managing member of Balico.
“To be clear, we are not abandoning the project,” Ali says in the statement.
Instead, Herndon-based Balico is adjusting its project proposal after holding two community meetings with residents during the last week of October.
“Based on those discussions, we have identified assorted changes to our plan that we believe will address many questions posed and, at the same time, improve our proposal,” the statement says.
Residents railed against the project and the county board of supervisors at these meetings, voicing concerns about traffic, water usage, noise and light pollution, and aesthetics and questioning whether Balico’s promises about high-paying jobs would be kept.
The rezoning application involved 47 parcels, totaling about 2,233 acres, from agricultural and residential suburban districts to heavy industrial districts to allow for a natural gas power plant and 84 data center buildings.
Board of Supervisors member Robert Tucker, who represents the Banister district where the project was proposed, said last week that he would vote against the rezoning application.
County staff also recommended denial of the rezoning application that was slated to go before the planning commission Nov. 7.
Balico’s statement said that local business leaders have been supportive of the data center project, however.
“They recognize the transformative economic impact that this project, which includes a dedicated power source, could have on the region,” the statement says. “Especially its potential to generate millions [of dollars] for education, recreation, and public safety while also keeping property taxes low for residents across the county.”
The project would also create as many as 700 high-wage, high-skill jobs “that will remain in the community long after construction has finished,” it says.
At the Oct. 28 community meeting in Chatham, Ali said that average pay for a data center worker is between $150,000 and $200,000 per year — a figure residents scrutinized.
These are IT jobs, he said, and workers need training to repair and maintain servers, but no specific college degree.
There is no timeline for an updated project proposal mentioned in the statement.
“In order to allow us to finalize these changes and continue the conversation with neighbors, we have informed the county of our request to withdraw the application in its current form,” it says. “We look forward in the coming weeks and months to sharing the tremendous benefits that [the project] offers to all of Pittsylvania County.”
